Conquest of Raetia and the Alps | |||||||||
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Part of Augustus's Wars | |||||||||
![]() Statue of Augustus. | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Roman Empire | Raetians and Vindelicians | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Silius Nerva, Tiberius, and Drusus | – |
The Roman conquest of Rhetia and the Alpine arc from 16 to 7 BC was the prelude to the great invasion of Germania from 12 to 9 BC. The aim was to extend the Empire's northern frontiers to the Elbe and Danube rivers.
Despite the importance given to the theme of peace in Augustus' imperial propaganda, his principate was marked by a greater war effort than during the reign of most of his successors. Only the emperors Trajan and Marcus Aurelius had to fight simultaneously on several fronts, as Augustus did.
His reign saw the extension of almost all the Empire's frontiers, from the North Sea to the Black Sea, from the Cantabrian mountains to the Ethiopian desert, with the strategic aim of completing the establishment of Roman domination over the whole of the Mediterranean basin and Europe, shifting the frontiers to the north towards the Danube and to the east towards the Elbe (instead of the Rhine). [1] [2] [3]
Augustus' campaigns were conducted to consolidate the disorganized acquisitions of the Republican era, which involved the annexation of numerous territories. While the situation in the East could be maintained as Pompey and Mark Antony had left it, in the West, a territorial reorganization between the Rhine and the Black Sea appeared necessary to guarantee internal stability and, at the same time, more defensible frontiers.
With Agrippa's help, Augustus prioritized completing, once and for all, the subjugation of the “internal zones” of the Empire that had not yet been fully conquered. First and foremost, he proceeded with the definitive subjugation of the north-western Iberian peninsula, which had been a problem for decades. These territories were only finally brought under Roman domination after a series of difficult and bloody expeditions, the Cantabrian Wars, which lasted 10 years (from 29 to 19 BC) and involved numerous legions (up to 7) and an equally large number of auxiliary troops, to the extent that Octavian's presence in the theater of operations was necessary (between 26 and 25 BC).
This campaign was followed by another in the Alps, aimed at securing the border and roads between Italy and Gaul:
These two years of campaigning were devoted to subduing the populations settled around the Great St Bernard Pass, under the joint action of generals Aulus Terentius Varro Murena, who operated from the south against the Salassi people, and Marcus Vinicius, [4] in the north, as legate of chevelue Gaul, who subdued the population of Vallis Poenina (today's Valais). [4] At the end of the military operations, the 44,000 surviving Salassi were sold as slaves on the market of Eporedia (Ivrea), while the colony of Augusta Praetoria (Aosta) was founded on the site of their stronghold. [5]
The city of Tridentium (Trento) is fortified, helping to make it a military stronghold for the future campaigns of General Drusus, a few years later (see below in 15 BC).
During two decades of warfare between northern Italy and Gaul, Augustus was able to deploy an army made up of numerous legions and auxiliary units. At one time or another, the following legions were involved:
Tiberius, just appointed praetor, accompanies Augustus to Gaul, where he spends the next three years, until 13 BC, assisting him in the organization and administration of the Gallic provinces. [8] [9] The princeps also took his son on a punitive campaign across the Rhine against the tribe of Sicambres and their allies Tencteres and Usipetes, who in the winter of 17-16 BC defeated proconsul Marcus Lollius Paulinus, resulting in the partial destruction of legio V Alaudae and the loss of its insignia. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Publius Silius Nerva, governor of Illyria, completes the conquest of the eastern Alps with the subjugation of the valleys from Como to Lake Garda (including the Camunni of Val Camonica), as well as the Venostes of Val Venosta (in Alto Adige). Taking advantage of the absence of the Legate of Augustus, the Pannonians, and Norics invaded Istria. The Roman general's reaction was swift, with the occupation of southern Noricum and the institution of a kind of vassal status for the kingdom of northern Noricum (Taurisci people). [15]
Tiberius and his brother Drusus carry out operations against the Rhaetian, settled between Noricum and Gaul, [16] and the Vindelici. [17] [18] Drusus had previously cut the Rhaetians off from Italian territory, where they had carried out numerous raids, but Augustus decided to send Tiberius to stabilize the situation once and for all. [19] The two commanders, in an attempt to encircle the enemy by attacking him on two fronts without giving him the chance to flee, planned a “pincer” attack, which their lieutenants put into effect: [20] Tiberius attacked from Helvetia, while his younger brother divided his army, which had left Aquileia for Trento, into two parts. The first column crossed the valleys of the Adige and Isarco rivers (at the confluence of which they built the Pons Drusi (Drusus Bridge) near present-day Bolzano), to reach the Inn; the second followed what was to become the Via Claudia Augusta under Emperor Claudius (built by his father Drusus), crossing the Val Venosta and the Reschen pass, also to reach the Inn. Tiberius, advancing from the west, defeated the Vindelici in the vicinity of Basel and Lake Constance; it was here that the armies came together and prepared to invade Vindelicia. Drusus had meanwhile subdued the Breunes and Genauni peoples. [15] This joint action brought the two brothers to the headwaters of the Danube, where they achieved a final and definitive victory over the Vindelici. [21] These successes enabled Augustus to subdue all the populations of the Alpine arc as far as the Danube and earned him the right to be acclaimed Imperator once again, while Drusus, Augustus's favorite son, would later win a triumph for this and other victories. In the mountains of the southern Alps, near present-day La Turbie, the emperor erected the Alpine Trophy to commemorate these conquests.
The Ligurian Comati of the Maritime Alps are partly subjected to the praefecti civitatum, the other part being annexed to the kingdom of Cottius, son of a local potentate officially appointed prefect by Augustus. [22] At the end of the operations, it seems that two legions were left to guard the conquered territories of Vindelicia, one at Dangstetten, and one at Augusta Vindelicorum . [22] The province of Rhetia was created later, under Claudius. [23]
These successes are commemorated by the so-called “Augustan Trophy of the Alps”, erected near the present-day town of La Turbie in France to commemorate the pacification of the Alps from east to west, and to recall the names of all the subjugated tribes. This monument, erected in the years 7-6 B.C. C. in honor of Emperor Augustus, contains the names of 45 Alpine peoples from Italy, Narbonne Gaul and Rhetia: Triumpilins, Camunni , Vennonetes, Venostes , Isarcians, Breunes, Génaunes , Focunates , the four tribes of the Vindéliciens (Consuanètes, Rucinates , Licates and Caténates ), Ambisuntes , Rugusces, Suanètes, Calucons , Brixentes , Lépontiens , Vibères, Nantuates , Sédunes , Véragres, Salasses , Acitavons , Médulles, Ucènes, Caturiges , Brigians , Sogiontiens, Brodiontiens, Némalones, Édénates , Ésubiens, Veamini, Gallitae , Triulattes, Ectini, Vergunni , Éguitures, Némentures, Oratelles, Néruses, Vélaunes et Suetrii . [24]
The definitive conquest of the strategic Rhetia-Vindelicia region was fundamental to the construction and consolidation of the Rhine-Danube Limes. In the years that followed, Roman armies were able to successfully subdue and occupy the territories of Illyria and Germania, although the latter was finally lost in year 9 after the battle of Teutoburg. The final objective of Augustus' campaigns in the West was achieved, but only for a few years. The limits of the Roman Empire were pushed north and east, from the Rhine and the Alps to the Elbe and the Danube, in the hope of reducing the length of continental frontiers to be defended. [24]
Germanicus Julius Caesar was an ancient Roman general and politician most famously known for his campaigns against Arminius in Germania. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus and Antonia the Younger, Germanicus was born into an influential branch of the patrician gens Claudia. The agnomen Germanicus was added to his full name in 9 BC when it was posthumously awarded to his father in honor of his victories in Germania. In AD 4 he was adopted by his paternal uncle Tiberius, himself the stepson and heir of Germanicus' great-uncle Augustus; ten years later, Tiberius succeeded Augustus as Roman emperor. As a result of his adoption, Germanicus became an official member of the gens Julia, another prominent family, to which he was related on his mother's side. His connection to the Julii Caesares was further consolidated through a marriage between him and Agrippina the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus. He was also the father of Caligula, the maternal grandfather of Nero, and the older brother of Claudius.
Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Claudius Nero and his wife, Livia Drusilla. In 38 BC, Tiberius's mother divorced his father and married Augustus. Following the untimely deaths of Augustus's two grandsons and adopted heirs, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, Tiberius was designated Augustus's successor. Prior to this, Tiberius had proved himself an able diplomat and one of the most successful Roman generals: his conquests of Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and (temporarily) parts of Germania laid the foundations for the empire's northern frontier.
This article concerns the period 19 BC – 10 BC.
Year 15 BC was either a common year starting on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the Proleptic Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Drusus and Piso. The denomination 15 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus, commonly known in English as Drusus the Elder, was a Roman politician and military commander. He was a patrician Claudian but his mother was from a plebeian family. He was the son of Livia Drusilla and the stepson of her second husband, the Emperor Augustus. He was also brother of the Emperor Tiberius; the father of the Emperor Claudius and general Germanicus; paternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero.
Raetia or Rhaetia was a province of the Roman Empire named after the Rhaetian people. It bordered on the west with the country of the Helvetii, on the east with Noricum, on the north with Vindelicia, on the south-west with Transalpine Gaul and on the south with Venetia et Histria, a region of Roman Italy.
The Praetorian Guard was the imperial guard of the Imperial Roman army that served various roles for the Roman emperor including being a bodyguard unit, counterintelligence, crowd control and gathering military intelligence.
Legio I Germanica,, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army, possibly founded in 48 BC by Julius Caesar to fight for him in the civil war against Pompey. The title germanic is a reference to its service in the Germanic Wars, rather than the place of origin of its soldiers. After the Revolt of the Batavi, the remaining men of the Germanica were added to Galba's seventh legion, which became VII Gemina. The emblem of Legio I is unknown, but it was probably Taurus, like all the other legions levied by Caesar.
Drusus Julius Caesar, also called Drusus the Younger, was the son of Emperor Tiberius, and heir to the Roman Empire following the death of his adoptive brother Germanicus in AD 19.
This is a chronology of warfare between the Romans and various Germanic peoples. The nature of these wars varied through time between Roman conquest, Germanic uprisings, later Germanic invasions of the Western Roman Empire that started in the late second century BC, and more. The series of conflicts was one factor which led to the ultimate downfall of the Western Roman Empire in particular and ancient Rome in general in 476.
Illyricum was a Roman province that existed from 27 BC to sometime during the reign of Vespasian. The province comprised Illyria/Dalmatia in the south and Pannonia in the north. Illyria included the area along the east coast of the Adriatic Sea and its inland mountains, eventually being named Dalmatia. Pannonia included the northern plains that now are a part of Serbia, Croatia and Hungary. The area roughly corresponded to part or all of the territories of today's Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia.
The Camuni or Camunni were an ancient population located in Val Camonica during the Iron Age ; the Latin name Camunni was attributed to them by the authors of the 1st century. They are also called ancient Camuni, to distinguish them from the current inhabitants of the valley. The Camunni were among the greatest producers of rock art in Europe; their name is linked to the famous rock engravings of Valcamonica.
The Alpine regiments of the Roman army were those auxiliary units of the army that were originally raised in the Alpine provinces of the Roman Empire: Tres Alpes, Raetia and Noricum. All these regions were inhabited by predominantly Rhaetian peoples and Celtic-speaking tribes. They were annexed, or at least occupied, by the emperor Augustus' forces during the period 25–14 BC. The term "Alpine" is used geographically in this context and does not necessarily imply that the regiments in question were specialised in mountain warfare. However, in the Julio-Claudian period, when the regiments were still largely composed of Alpine recruits, it is likely that they were especially adept at mountain operations.
The territory of modern Switzerland was a part of the Roman Republic and Empire for a period of about six centuries, beginning with the step-by-step conquest of the area by Roman armies from the 2nd century BC and ending with the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.
Marcus Livius Drusus Libo was an ancient Roman consul of the early Roman Empire. He was the son of Lucius Scribonius Libo and adopted brother of the empress Livia. His natural paternal aunt was Scribonia, the second wife of Augustus, as a consequence of which he was a maternal first cousin of Julia the Elder.
The wars of Augustus are the military campaigns undertaken by the Roman government during the sole rule of the founder-emperor Augustus. This was a period of 45 years when almost every year saw major campaigning, in some cases on a scale comparable to the Second Punic War, when Roman manpower resources were stretched to the limit. This period also saw expansion through diplomacy and annexation, without the direct use of military force. The result was a major expansion of the empire that Augustus inherited from the Roman Republic, although the attempted conquest of Germania ended in defeat despite the enormous deployment of resources involved. As a result of these campaigns, the Roman Empire assumed the borders it would hold, with a few modifications, for its entire history.
The Raeti were a confederation of Alpine tribes, whose language and culture were related to those of the Etruscans. Before the Roman conquest, they inhabited present-day Tyrol in Austria, eastern Switzerland and the Alpine regions of northeastern Italy. After the Roman conquest, the province of Raetia was formed, which included parts of present-day Germany south of the Danube.
The Battle of Lake Constance was a small naval battle between Roman forces and Celtic tribes ob Lake Constance in the spring of 15 BC.
The Roman campaigns in Germania were a series of conflicts between the Germanic tribes and the Roman Empire. Tensions between the Germanic tribes and the Romans began as early as 17/16 BC with the Clades Lolliana, where the 5th Legion under Marcus Lollius was defeated by the tribes Sicambri, Usipetes, and Tencteri. Roman Emperor Augustus responded by rapidly developing military infrastructure across Gaul. His general, Nero Claudius Drusus, began building forts along the Rhine in 13 BC and launched a retaliatory campaign across the Rhine in 12 BC.
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In the same year 181 BC the colony of Aquileia was deducted in the territory of the Gauls. 3 000 infantrymen received 50 iugera each, the centurions 100, the horsemen 140. The triumvirs who founded the colony were Publius Scipio Nasica, Gaius Flaminius, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus.