geographic location described by the Romans.
Pausanias in his work
Periegesis speculated that the Balares were the descendants of the Iberian and African mercenaries of
Carthage, adding that in the language of the Corsi, "Balares" translates to
fugitives. In the
Historiae,
Sallust mentions a possible origin from the city of Palla,
Corsica. Archaeologist Giovanni Ugas proposed that they derived from the first wave of the
Beaker people who settled in the island in the late
Copper Age from the Franco-Iberian area and that they were related with the ancient peoples of the
Balearic Islands; their name has been connected with that of Balarus, a chief of the
Vettones. According to Ugas, during the
Nuragic period the Balares lived in the whole north-western part of the island (
Nurra,
Anglona, Sassarese); their territory bordered with the Ilienses in the south (
Tirso) and with the
Corsi in the north-east (
Mount Limbara). After the
Punic and
Roman occupation of Sardinia, part of the Balares, along with the Ilienses and the Corsi, retreated in the mountainous region called
Barbagia to resist the invaders. In 177 BC, the Balares and Ilienses revolted against the Romans but they were defeated by the legions of
Tiberius Gracchus.
Strabo in the
Geographica mention them among the "nations of mountaineers" that raided the Italian coast. ==Balares tribes (Balari)==