Roman–Gallic wars

Last updated
Invasion of Gauls in the 4th to 3rd centuries BC Gallia Cisalpina-en.svg
Invasion of Gauls in the 4th to 3rd centuries BC
Peoples at the time of the Picentine war 269-267 BC Italia antica.png
Peoples at the time of the Picentine war 269-267 BC

Over the course of nearly four centuries, the Roman Republic fought a series of wars against various Celtic tribes, whom they collectively described as Galli, or Gauls. Among the principal Gallic peoples described as antagonists by Greek and Roman writers were the Senones, Insubres, Boii, and Gaesatae.

Contents

The Romans first came into conflict with Gauls who entered Italy from the north. Some of these settled in the lands immediately south of the Alps, which became known as Cisalpine Gaul: "Gaul this side of the Alps". Gaulish armies, some perhaps fighting as mercenaries in the service of the cities of Magna Graecia, plundered territory in Etruria and Latium during the fourth century, famously sacking Rome circa 390 BC. [1]

Following the Samnite Wars and the Punic Wars, in which Gallic forces sometimes made common cause with Rome's enemies, the Romans found themselves in near-total control of Italy, including Cisalpine Gaul. As they consolidated their gains, they came into conflict with Gallic tribes on the borders of their growing empire, and subsequent conflicts occurred in and beyond the Alps. In the first century BC, Caesar's campaigns in Gaul brought most of the Gallic territory in western Europe under Roman control. [2]

Cisalpine conflicts

Major conflicts on the Italian side of the Alps include:

390 [lower-roman 1] BC: Brennus leads the Senones to Clusium in Etruria. Rome sends an army to drive the Senones away, which the Senones defeat at the Battle of the Allia. Brennus leads his men on to Rome, entering the city without further opposition, and plundering it. They depart laden with booty, which according to varying traditions was recovered when the Gauls were defeated by a Caeretan army, or by Camillus. [4] [5] [6] [7] [1] [8] [9]

367 BC: A Gallic expedition is said to have been routed by Camillus, but the historicity of this episode is doubtful. [10] [11] [12] [13]

361–358 BC: Gauls allied with Tibur attack Roman territory during that city's war with Rome. Titus Manlius Imperiosus wins the surname Torquatus after defeating a Gaulish champion in single combat, and taking his torque as a trophy. [14] [15] [13]

350–349 BC: The Gauls ravage Latium, and the Latin League refuses direct aid to Rome. Despite various hardships, the Romans defeat their attackers, and a young Marcus Valerius Corvus wins everlasting fame by slaying a giant Gaul in single combat, aided by a raven, from which he takes his surname. [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

331 BC: The Romans conclude a peace with the Gauls, which holds for nearly thirty years. [21] [22]

302 BC: Gauls cross the Alps into Cisalpine Gaul, where previously-settled Gallic tribes allow them to pass southward. Some of the latter join the march, as do some Etruscans. They pillage Roman territory and retire with the loot, but then fall to fighting among themselves. [23]

295 BC: During the Third Samnite War, an alliance of Samnites, Gauls, Etruscans and Umbrians fights Rome. After an initial defeat, the Romans win a major victory at the Battle of Sentinum under the consuls Quintus Fabius Maximus Rullianus and Publius Decius Mus, who devotes himself and perishes in the battle. [23] [24] [25]

284 BC: [26] The Gauls besiege Arretium. The Romans march to relieve the city, and the Gauls defeat them. Rome then sends a punitive expedition north which defeats the Senones and drives them out of their territory, which Rome occupies. [23] Then in 283 BC the Boii, with Etruscan allies, march on Rome. [27] Rome is victorious at the Battle of Lake Vadimo. [28] [29] [30] [9]

225 BC: The Insubres and Boii hire Alpine Gauls, the Gaesatae, to join them and march on Rome. The Gauls defeated the Romans at Faesulae, but later the Romans defeated the Gauls at Telamon. [31] [32] [33]

223–193 BC: After this came a concerted Roman policy aimed at conquering Gallic territories south of the Alps. Rome invaded the territory of the Insubres in 223 BC, and took Clastidium, Acerrae and Mediolanum in 222 BC. [34] [35] [36] Rome fought Carthage in the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), and the Gauls typically sided with Carthage. [36] After the war, Rome took Bononia (196 BC), [37] [38] Placentia (194 BC), [39] [40] [36] and Mutina (193 BC). [41] [42] According to Strabo, many of the surviving Boii retreated north across the Alps to the land subsequently known as Boihaemum, [43] but in all probability the region was already inhabited by Boii prior to their subjugation in Italy. [44]

Transalpine conflicts

125–121 BC: Romans crossed the Alps and fought first the Salluvii and Vocontii, [45] [46] [47] [48] and then Allobroges and Arveni. The Gauls were decisively defeated at the Battle of Vindalium and Battle of the Isère River in 121 BC. [49] [50] [51] The Allobrogian territory was subsequently annexed and incorporated the Roman province known as Gallia Transalpina, later Gallia Narbonensis. [52] [53]

109 BC: During the Cimbrian War, the Cimbri defeat the consul Marcus Junius Silanus. [54] [55] in 107 BC, the Cimbri and Ambrones, together with their allies Helvetii, defeat a Roman army near Agendicum in the Battle of Burdigala, in which the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus is killed. [56] [54] [57] [58] [59]

58–50 BC: Caesar leads a series of campaigns through Gaul, which he chronicles in detail. The result is the near-complete subjugation of the country between the Atlantic and the Rhine. After discovering that some of the Gauls are receiving aid from Britain, Caesar mounts the first Roman military expedition to that island. [60] [61] [2]

40–37 BC: Prompted by unrest in Gaul, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa marches against the Aquitani, whom he defeats. [62] [63]

28–27 BC: Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus suppresses a revolt in Aquitania, for which he celebrates a triumph. [64] [65]

Notes

  1. ↑ 390 is the traditional date according to the Varronian chronology. Polybius places the event approximately three to four years later. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boii</span> Celtic tribe

The Boii were a Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul, Pannonia, present-day Bavaria, in and around present-day Bohemia, parts of present-day Slovakia and Poland, and Gallia Narbonensis.

The gens Sulpicia was one of the most ancient patrician families at ancient Rome, and produced a succession of distinguished men, from the foundation of the Republic to the imperial period. The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was Servius Sulpicius Camerinus Cornutus, in 500 BC, only nine years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, and the last of the name who appears on the consular list was Sextus Sulpicius Tertullus in AD 158. Although originally patrician, the family also possessed plebeian members, some of whom may have been descended from freedmen of the gens.

The gens Baebia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first member of the gens who obtained the consulship was Gnaeus Baebius Tamphilus, in 182 BC. During the later Republic, the Baebii were frequently connected with the patrician family of the Aemilii.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cisalpine Gaul</span> Roman province

Cisalpine Gaul was the name given, especially during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, to a region of land inhabited by Celts (Gauls), corresponding to what is now most of northern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of the Allia</span> Battle between Gauls and Roman Republic, c. 387 BC

The Battle of the Allia was a battle fought c. 387 BC between the Senones – a Gallic tribe led by Brennus, who had invaded Northern Italy – and the Roman Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senones</span> Ancient Gallic tribe

The Senones or Senonii were an ancient Gallic tribe dwelling in the Seine basin, around present-day Sens, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.

The Battle of Arretium, which was probably fought in 284 BC, is a poorly documented event in the history of the Roman Republic because it occurred in a period for which some of the books of the History of Rome by Livy, the most thorough ancient historian for early Rome, have been lost. The battle is only explicitly referred to in a text by Polybius, the ancient Greek historian, which does not give much detail and puts it in the context of other events. A text by Appian talks about these events, but does not make any explicit reference to the Battle of Arretium. It was fought between the Romans and the Gauls of northern Italy, who may have been from the Senone tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Lake Vadimo (283 BC)</span>

The second Battle of Lake Vadimo was fought in 283 BC between Rome and the combined forces of the Etruscans and the Gallic tribes of the Boii and the Senones. The Roman army was led by consul Publius Cornelius Dolabella. The result of the battle was a Roman victory.

The gens Popillia, sometimes written Popilia, was a plebeian family in Rome. The first of the Popillii to obtain the consulship was Marcus Popillius Laenas in 359 BC, only eight years after the lex Licinia Sextia opened that magistracy to the plebeians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insubres</span> Gallic tribe

The Insubres or Insubri were an ancient Celtic population settled in Insubria, in what is now the Italian region of Lombardy. They were the founders of Mediolanum (Milan). Though completely Gaulish at the time of Roman conquest, they were the result of the fusion of pre-existing Ligurian and Celtic population with Gaulish tribes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brennus (leader of the Senones)</span> 4th-century BC Gaulish chieftain of the Senones

Brennus or Brennos was a chieftain of the Senones. He defeated the Romans at the Battle of the Allia. Later that year, he led an army of Cisalpine Gauls in their attack on Rome and captured most of the city, holding it for several months. Brennus's sack of Rome was the only time in 800 years the city was occupied by a non-Roman army before the fall of the city to the Visigoths in 410 AD.

Publius Cornelius Dolabella was a consul of the Roman Republic in 283 BC. He is best noted for having defeated a combined force of the Etruscans, and the Boii and the Senones, two of the Gallic tribes of northern Italy, at the Battle of Lake Vadimon of 283 BC. Appian named him the leader of the expedition which devastated the Ager Gallicus and expelled the Senones from their land. This episode was also recorded by Polybius. In Polybius' text this happened before the battle of Lake Vadimon. In Appian's text it is unclear and might have happened afterwards.

The gens Terentia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Dionysius mentions a Gaius Terentius Arsa, tribune of the plebs in 462 BC, but Livy calls him Terentilius, and from inscriptions this would seem to be a separate gens. No other Terentii appear in history until the time of the Second Punic War. Gaius Terentius Varro, one of the Roman commanders at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC, was the first to hold the consulship. Members of this family are found as late as the third century AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cenomani (Cisalpine Gaul)</span> Gallic tribe

The Cenomani, was an ancient tribe of the Cisalpine Gauls, who occupied the tract north of the Padus, between the Insubres on the west and the Veneti on the east. Their territory appears to have extended from the river Addua to the Athesis.

<i>Ager Gallicus</i>

The Ager Gallicus was the territory in northern Picenum that had been occupied by the Senone Gauls and was conquered by Rome in 284 BC or 283 BC, either after the Battle of Arretium or the Battle of Lake Vadimon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minucia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Minucia was an ancient Roman family, which flourished from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times. The gens was apparently of patrician origin, but was better known by its plebeian branches. The first of the Minucii to hold the consulship was Marcus Minucius Augurinus, elected consul in 497 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caedicia gens</span> Ancient Roman family

The gens Caedicia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens first came to prominence in the early decades of the Republic, but none obtained the consulship until Quintus Caedicius Noctua in 289 BC. The family faded from public life during the later Republic, but one of the Caedicii was known to Juvenal, toward the end of the first century AD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Republican governors of Gaul</span>

Roman Republican governors of Gaul were assigned to the province of Cisalpine Gaul or to Transalpine Gaul, the Mediterranean region of present-day France also called the Narbonensis, though the latter term is sometimes reserved for a more strictly defined area administered from Narbonne. Latin Gallia can also refer in this period to greater Gaul independent of Roman control, covering the remainder of France, Belgium, and parts of the Netherlands and Switzerland, often distinguished as Gallia Comata and including regions also known as Celtica, Aquitania, Belgica, and Armorica (Brittany). To the Romans, Gallia was a vast and vague geographical entity distinguished by predominately Celtic inhabitants, with "Celticity" a matter of culture as much as speaking gallice.

Marcus Junius Silanus was one of the most successful Roman commanders in the Spanish theatre of the Second Punic War. He is best remembered for his defeat of Hanno and Mago in Celtiberia in 207 BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Silva Litana</span> Battle of the Second Punic War

The Battle of Silva Litana was an ambush that took place in a forest 75 miles northwest of the Roman city of Ariminum during the Second Punic War in 216 BC. The Gallic Boii surprised and destroyed a Roman army of 25,000 men under the consul-elect Lucius Postumius Albinus and destroyed the Roman army, with only ten men surviving the ambush, a few prisoners were taken by the Gauls and Postumius was killed, his corpse was decapitated and his skull was covered with gold and used as a ceremonial cup by the Boii. News of this military disaster, reaching Rome probably after the election of consuls for 215 BC in spring 215 BC or after the defeat at Cannae in the fall of 216 BC, triggered a renewed panic in Rome and forced the Romans to postpone military operations against the Gauls until the conclusion of the Second Punic War. Rome decided to focus on defeating Hannibal and sent only two legions to guard against any possible Gallic attack. However, the Boii and Insubres did not attack the Romans to exploit their victory. Cisalpine Gaul remained in relative peace until 207 BC, when Hasdrubal Barca arrived there with his army from Spain.

References

  1. 1 2 Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, pp. 313–318.
  2. 1 2 Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Edition, pp. 455, 456 ("Gallic Wars").
  3. ↑ Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, p. 314.
  4. ↑ Livy, v. 35–49.
  5. ↑ Dionysius, xiii. 6 s. 7–12 s. 18.
  6. ↑ Polybius, Histories, ii. 18.
  7. ↑ Plutarch, "The Life of Camillus", 14–30.
  8. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 94–96.
  9. 1 2 Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Edition, p. 977 ("Senones").
  10. ↑ Livy, vi. 42.
  11. ↑ Plutarch, "The Life of Camillus", 40–42.
  12. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, p. 113.
  13. 1 2 Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, p. 324.
  14. ↑ Livy, vii. 9–12, 15.
  15. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 119–121.
  16. ↑ Livy, vii. 23–26.
  17. ↑ Dionysius, xv. 1.
  18. ↑ Appian, Bella Celtica, 2, 10.
  19. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 127–129.
  20. ↑ Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, pp. 324, 325.
  21. ↑ Polybius, Histories, ii. 18.
  22. ↑ Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, p. 325.
  23. 1 2 3 Polybius, Histories, ii. 19.
  24. ↑ Livy, x. 21, 26–30.
  25. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 177–179.
  26. ↑ Gallic War (283 BC) http://www.keytoumbria.com/Umbria/Wars_with_Gauls_and_Etruscans_%28285_-_280_BC%29.html
  27. ↑ Polybius, Histories, ii. 20.
  28. ↑ Dionysius, xix. 12 s. 13.
  29. ↑ Appian, Bella Celtica, 11.
  30. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 188, 189.
  31. ↑ Polybius, Histories, ii. 23, 25–31.
  32. ↑ Appian, Bella Celtica, 2.
  33. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 230, 231.
  34. ↑ Polybius, Histories, ii. 34, 35.
  35. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 231, 232.
  36. 1 2 3 Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Edition, p. 548 ("Insubres").
  37. ↑ Livy, xxxiii. 36, 37.
  38. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, p. 335.
  39. ↑ Livy, xxxiv. 43.
  40. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 342, 343.
  41. ↑ Livy, xxxiv. 55, 56.
  42. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, p. 346.
  43. ↑ Strabo, Geographica, v. 6, 10.
  44. ↑ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Edition, p. 171 ("Boii").
  45. ↑ Livy, Epitome, lx, lxi.
  46. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile, i. 34; Bella Celtica, 12.
  47. ↑ Diodorus, xxxiv. 23.
  48. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 510–512, 514–516.
  49. ↑ Cicero, Pro Fonteio, 36.
  50. ↑ Caesar, De Bello Gallico, i. 45.
  51. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, pp. 520–522.
  52. ↑ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, vol. I, p. 954 ("Gallia Transalpina".
  53. ↑ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Edition, p. 47 ("Allobroges").
  54. 1 2 Livy, Epitome, 65.
  55. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, p, 545.
  56. ↑ Caesar, De Bello Gallico, i. 7, xii. 5–7, xiii. 2, xiv. 3.
  57. ↑ Appian, Bella Celtica, i. 3.
  58. ↑ Tacitus, Germania, 37.
  59. ↑ Broughton, vol. I, p. 550.
  60. ↑ Caesar, De Bello Gallico, passim.
  61. ↑ Plutarch, "The Life of Caesar", 15, 16, 18, 20, 22–27.
  62. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile, v. 75, 92.
  63. ↑ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Edition, pp. 30 ("Agrippa"), 90 ("Aquitania").
  64. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile, iv. 38.
  65. ↑ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 2nd Edition, pp. 90 ("Aquitania"), 674 ("Messalla Corvinus").

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.