Copper and Bronze ages ,
Castelleone Civic Archaeological Museum. Copper begins to be mined from the middle of the
4th millennium BC in
Liguria with the Libiola and Monte Loreto mines dated to
3700 BC. These are the oldest copper mines in the western Mediterranean basin. It was during this period of the Copper Age in Italy that we find throughout Liguria a large number of anthropomorphic stelae in addition to rock engravings. There are some commonalities with the previous
Bell Beaker Culture including the usage of the
bow and a certain mastery in metallurgy. Apart from that, the Polada culture does not correspond to the Beaker culture nor to the previous
Remedello culture. The
Bronze tools and weapons show similarities with those of the
Unetice Culture and other groups in north of
Alps. According to
Bernard Sergent, the origin of the
Ligurian linguistic family (in his opinion distantly related to the Celtic and Italic ones) would have to be found in the Polada culture and
Rhone culture, both southern branches of the
Unetice culture. It is said that the Ligurians inhabited the Po valley around the 2,000 B.C., they not only appear in the legends of the Po valley, but would have left traces (linguistic and craft) found in the archaeological also in the area near the northern Adriatic coast. The Ligurians are credited with forming the first villages in the Po Valley of the
facies of the pile dwellings and of the dammed settlements, a society that followed the
Polada culture, and is well suited in middle and late
Bronze Age. The ancient name of the Po river (Padus in Latin) derived from the
Ligurian name of the river:
Bod-encus or
Bod-incus. This word appears in the placename
Bodincomagus, a Ligurian town on the right bank of the Po downstream near today's Turin. According to a legend, Brescia and Barra (
Bergamo) were founded by Cydno, forefather of the Ligurians. This myth seems to have a grain of truth, because recent archaeological excavations have unearthed remains of a settlement dating back to 1200 BC that scholars presume to have been built and inhabited by Ligures. Others scholars attribute the founding of Bergamo and Brescia to the
Etruscans.
Canegrate and Golasecca cultures The
Canegrate culture (13th century BC) may represent the first migratory wave of the proto-Celtic population from the northwest part of the Alps that, through the
Alpine passes, penetrated and settled in the western
Po valley between
Lake Maggiore and
Lake Como (
Scamozzina culture). They brought a new
funerary practice—
cremation—which supplanted
inhumation. It has also been proposed that a more ancient proto-Celtic presence can be traced back to the beginning of the Middle
Bronze Age (16th-15th century BC), when north-western Italy appears closely linked regarding the production of bronze artifacts, including ornaments, to the western groups of the
Tumulus culture (
Central Europe, 1600 BC - 1200 BC). The bearers of the Canegrate culture maintained its homogeneity for only a century, after which it melded with the Ligurian populations and with this union gave rise to a new phase called the
Golasecca culture, which is nowadays identified with the
Lepontii and other Celto-Ligurian tribes. Within the Golasecca culture territory roughly corresponds with the territories occupied by those tribal groups whose names are reported by Latin and Greek historians and geographers: According to excavations carried out in the city between 1898 and 1910, the Ligurian population that lived in Genoa maintained trade relations with the
Etruscans and the Greeks, since several objects from these populations were found. In the 5th century BC the first town, or
oppidum, was founded at the top of the hill today called Castello (Castle), which is now inside the medieval old town.
Thucydides (5th century BC) speaks of the Ligures having expelled the
Sicanians, an
Iberian tribe, from the banks of the river
Sicanus, in Iberia.
First contacts with Romans ,
National Museum of Villa Guinigi,
Lucca Ligurian sepulchres of the Italian Riviera and of Provence, holding cremations, exhibit Etruscan and Celtic influences. In the third century BC, the Romans were in direct contact with the Ligurians. However, Roman expansionism was directed towards the rich territories of
Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula (then under
Carthaginian control), and the territory of the Ligurians was on the road (they controlled the Ligurian coasts and the south-western Alps). Despite Roman efforts, only a few Ligurian tribes made alliance agreements with the Romans, notably the Genuates. The rest soon proved hostile. The hostilities were opened in 238 BC by a coalition of Ligurians and
Boii Gauls, but the two peoples soon found themselves in disagreement and the military campaign came to a halt with the dissolution of the alliance. Meanwhile, a Roman fleet commanded by Quintus Fabius Maximus routed Ligurian ships on the coast (234-233 BC), allowing the Romans to control the coastal route to and from Gaul and to counter the Carthaginian expansion in
Iberia, given that the
Pisa-
Luni-
Genoa sea route was now safe. In 222 BC the
Insubres, during a war with Romans occupied the
oppidum of Clastidium, that at that time, it was an important locality of the Anamari (or
Marici), a Ligurian tribe that, probably for fear of the nearby warlike Insubres, had already accepted the alliance with Rome the year before. For the first time, the Roman army marched beyond the Po, expanding into Gallia Transpadana. In 222 BC, the
battle of Clastidium was fought and allowed Rome to take the capital of the Insubres,
Mediolanum (modern-day
Milan). To consolidate its dominion, Rome created the colonies of Placentia in the territory of the Boii and
Cremona in that of the Insubres.
Second Punic War With the outbreak of the second Punic war (218 BC) the Ligurian tribes had different attitudes. Some, like the tribes of the
west Riviera and the
Apuani, allied with the Carthaginians, providing soldiers to Hannibal's troops when he arrived in Northern Italy, hoping that the Carthaginian general would free them from the neighbouring Romans. Others, like the
Taurini, took sides in support of the Romans. The pro-Carthaginian Ligurians took part in the
Battle of the Trebia, which the Carthaginians won. Other Ligurians enlisted in the army of
Hasdrubal Barca, when he arrived in Cisalpine Gaul (207 BC), in an attempt to rejoin the troops of his brother Hannibal. In the port of Savo (modern-day
Savona), then capital of the Ligures Sabazi,
triremes of the Carthaginian fleet of
Mago Barca, brother of Hannibal, which were intended to cut the Roman trade routes in the Tyrrhenian Sea, found shelter. In the early stages of the war, the pro-Roman Ligurians suffered. The Taurini were on the path of
Hannibal's march into Italy, and in 218 BC, they were attacked by him, as he had allied with their long-standing enemies, the
Insubres. The Taurini chief town of Taurasia (modern-day
Turin) was captured by Hannibal's forces after a three-day siege. In 205 BC, Genua (modern-day
Genoa) was attacked and razed to the ground by Mago. Near the end of the Second Punic War, Mago was among the
Ingauni, trying to block the Roman advance. At the
Battle of Insubria, he suffered a defeat, and later, died of wounds sustained in the battle. Genua was rebuilt in the same year. Ligurian troops were present at the
Battle of Zama in 202 BC, which marked the final end of Carthage as a great power.
Roman conquest of Ligurians ,
Lucca In 200 BC, the Ligures and
Boii sacked and destroyed the Roman colony of
Placentia, effectively controlling the most important ford of the Po Valley. During the same period, the Romans were at war with the Apuani. Serious Roman efforts began in 182 BC, when both consular armies and a proconsular army were sent against the Ligurians. The wars continued into the 150s BC, when victorious generals celebrated two triumphs over the Ligurians. Here too, the Romans drove many natives off their land and settled colonies in their stead (
e.g., Luna and Luca in the 170s BC). During the same period, the Romans were at war with the Ligurian tribes of the northern Apennines. By the end of the Second Punic War, however, hostilities were not over yet. Ligurian tribes and Carthaginian holdouts operating from the mountain territories continued to fight with guerrilla tactics. Thus, the Romans were forced into continuous military operations in northern Italy. In 201 BC, the Ingauni signed a peace treaty with Rome. It was only in 197 BC that the Romans, under the leadership of Minucius Rufus, succeeded in regaining control of the Placentia area by subduing the Celelates, Cerdicates,
Ilvati and the Boii Gauls and occupying the
oppidum of Clastidium. Genua was rebuilt by the proconsul
Spurius Lucretius in the same year. Having defeated Carthage, Rome sought to expand northwards, and used Genua as a support base for raids, between 191 and 154 BC, against the Ligurian tribes of the hinterland, allied for decades with Carthage. In 185 BC, the Ingauni and the
Intimilii also rebelled and managed to resist the Roman legions for the next five years, before capitulating in 180 BC. The Apuani, and those of hinterland side still resisted. However, the Romans wanted to permanently pacify Liguria to facilitate further conquests in Gaul. To that end, they prepared a large army of almost 36,000 soldiers, under the command of
proconsuls
Publius Cornelius Cethegus and
Marcus Baebius Tamphilus, with the aim of putting an end to Ligurian independence. In 180 BC, the Romans inflicted a serious defeat on the Apuani Ligures, and deported 40,000 of them to the regions of
Samnium. This deportation was followed by another one of 7,000 Ligurians in the following year. These were one of the few cases in which the Romans
deported defeated populations in such a high number. In 177 BC other groups of Apuani Ligures surrendered to the Roman forces, and were eventually assimilated into Roman culture during the 2nd century BC, while the military campaign continued further north. The Frinatiates surrendered in 175 BC, followed by the
Statielli (172 BC) and the Velleiates (158 BC). The last Apuani resistance was subdued in 155 BC by consul
Marcus Claudius Marcellus. The subjugation of the coastal Ligures and the annexation of the Alpes Maritimae took place in 14 BC, closely following the occupation of the central Alps in 15 BC. The last Ligurian tribes (e.g.
Vocontii and
Salluvii) still autonomous, who occupied Provence, were subdued in 124 BC.
Under Roman rule Cisalpine Gaul was the part of modern Italy inhabited by
Celts during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Conquered and reconquered by the
Roman Republic in the 220s and 190s BC, it was a
Roman province from c. 81 BC until 42 BC, when it was merged into
Roman Italy as indicated in Caesar's will (
Acta Caesaris). In 49 BC all inhabitants of northern Italy received Roman citizenship. Around 7 BC,
Augustus divided Italy into eleven
regiones, as reported by
Pliny the Elder in his
Naturalis Historia. One of these was
Regio IX: Liguria. Genoa became the centre of this region and the Ligurian populations moved towards the definitive Romanization. The official historical name did not have the Liguria apposition, due to the contemporary academic use of naming the Augustan regions according to the populations they understood. Regio IX included only the Ligurian territory. This territory extended from the Maritime and Cottian Alps and the Var river (to the west) to the Trebbia and the Magra bordering Regio VIII Aemilia and Regio VII Etruria (to the east), and the Po to the north. Pliny describes the region thus: "patet ora Liguriae inter amnes Varum et Macram XXXI Milia passuum. Haec regio ex descriptione Augusti nona est". , Liguria. People with Ligurian names were living south of
Placentia, in Italy, as late as 102 AD. In 126 AD the Liguria region was the birthplace of
Pertinax, Roman soldier and politician who became
Roman Emperor. == Theories on the origin of the Ligurians ==