Ligurians

“ And these Ligurians seem to have been part of a race which was spread through Italy and Sicily before the Aryan settlements, and to have been akin to the non-Aryan inhabitants of Spain and southern Gaul, of whom the Basques on each side of the Pyrenees remain as a remnant. ♦Etruscans.♦ And in historical times a large part of Italy was held, and in earlier times a still larger part seems to have been held, by the Etruscans. These are a people about whose origin and language there have been many theories, but nothing can as yet be said to be certainly known. ”

“ Now, if we are right in supposing the Ligurians to have been Kelts, the earliest historical occupants of Lombardy, Etruscans, and the Liburnians and Venetians members of a distinct stock, we have to go far towards the south before we find the population with which the ideas suggested by the term Italian are connected; before we find a language allied to the Latin, or before we find a civilization and polity akin to that of the Romans. ”

“ What the Spaniards, the Gauls, the Macedonians, the Carthaginians did not dare to do, this the Ligurian is doing today; he comes up to the Roman rampart and actually surrounds and attacks our camp. And yet, formerly, it was hard to discover him after a close search as he lurked in his trackless hiding-places!" His words were met by a unanimous shout of approval from the soldiers. It was no fault of theirs, they said; no one had given the signal for a sortie; let him give the signal now, he would soon learn that the Romans and the Ligurians were the same that they had always been. ”

“ Liguria and the Ligurian language. Sergi, 4; Ripley, chap. X. The modern Liguria comprises virtually the coast lands of Italy around the Gulf of Genoa as far south as Pisa. For ancient Liguria, which once extended into Gaul, see Déchellette, Manuel d’archéologie, t. II, pp. 6–25. D’Arbois de Jubainville treats of the Ligurians at length in several of his works mentioned, but Déchellette shows his wrong reasoning, rather convincingly it seems to the author. The opinions of Jullian, as given in his Histoire de la Gaule, are also discussed by Déchellette. ”

“ Moved by these considerations the senate determined that M. Popilius should restore the Ligurians to liberty and return the purchase-money, and see that as much of their property as could be recovered should be given back to them; their arms also were to be restored. All this was to be done as soon as possible; the consul was not to leave his province till he had replaced the surrendered Ligurians in their homes. He was reminded that the glory of victory was won by overcoming the enemy in fair fight, not by cruelty to those who cannot defend themselves. ”

“ The Romans were desirous of maintaining good relations with the Greek colonies, and when the native Ligurians menaced Nice and Antibes, they sent an army to their aid, and having defeated the barbarians, gave up the conquered territory to the Greeks.
In B.C. 125, Lucius Sextius Calvinus attacked the native tribes in their fastness, defeated them, and founded the town of Aquæ Sextiæ, about the hot springs that rise there—now Aix. The Ligurians were driven to the mountains and not suffered to approach the sea coast, which was handed over entirely to the Greeks of Marseilles. ”

“ Dertona was the only colony, and Alba Pompeia, Augusta Bagiennorum, Pollentia, Hasta, Aquae Statiellae, and Genua may also be mentioned; but the Ligurians dwelt entirely in villages, and were organized as tribes. ”

“ LIGURES BAEBIANI, in ancient geography, a settlement of Ligurians in Samnium, Italy. The towns of Taurasia and Cisauna in Samnium had been captured in 298 B.C. by the consul L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, and the territory of the former remained Roman state domain. In 180 B.C. 47,000 Ligurians from the neighbourhood of Luna (Ligures Apuani) , with women and children, were transferred to this district, and two settlements were formed taking their names from the consuls of 181 B.C., the Ligures Baebiani and the Ligures Corneliani. ”

“ The first peoples of whom we have actual knowledge are the Iberians and Ligurians. The Basques who now inhabit both sides of the Pyrenean range are probably the last representatives of the Iberians, who came from Spain to settle between the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay. The Ligurians, who exhibited the hard cunning characteristic of the Genoese Riviera, must have been descendants of that Indo-European vanguard who occupied all northern Italy and the centre and south-east Iberians and Ligurians. ”

“ Before the consul L. Quinctius reached his province Q. Minucius fought a pitched battle with the Ligurians near Pisae. He killed 9000 of the enemy and drove the rest in flight to their camp, which was attacked and defended with furious fighting until nightfall. During the night the Ligurians stole away in silence, and at daybreak the Romans entered the deserted camp. They found less plunder than might have been expected, as the Ligurians made a practice of sending what they seized in the fields to their homes. ”

“ Müllenhoff thinks [1870, pp. 86 f.] that this mention of the expulsion of the Ligurians by the Celts is necessarily a late addition by a man from the district of Massalia where the Ligurians lived; but it seems more probable that the name is here used as a common designation for the pre-Celtic people who dwelt in these north-western regions; and if it is the north side of Brittany which is here spoken of, the Ligurians of southern Gaul will not be so far away after all. It is clear that in ancient times the people of west and north-west Europe were called “Ligyans.” ”

“ For while no facts can be brought forward in direct contradiction of the assumption that the Iberians were a short dark dolichocephalic population occupying the Iberian peninsula in the Stone Age, and speaking a non-Indo-European language, no such generalisations with regard to race, physical type, culture, geographical distribution or language are accepted for the Ligurians. Some, with Sergi [1051] , consider the Ligurians merely as another branch of the Mediterranean race. ”

“ The ancient Ligurian race of which one hears so much, occupied the country from the Pyrenees to the Arno in the seventh or eighth century b.c., and were not subdued till the reign of Augustus, who raised the well-known monument at La Turbie, near Monaco, to celebrate his victory. As one of their great tribes, the Salyans, had for their cities Marseilles, Tarascon, Arles, Glanum (St. Remy) , it is not improbable that the natives of this district, now growing so familiar, were the descendants of the Ligurians or Ligyens, "ce peuple harmonieux," as they have been called. ”

“ After the Iberians, there are Ligurians and Iberians mixed together until the River Rhodanos. [5] The voyage past Ligurian from Emporion to the Rhodanos river is two days and one night's sail.
4. Ligurians. After the Rhodanos river, there are Ligurians until Antion. [6] In this land there is a Greek city, Massalia, [4] and a harbour * * *. [7] These are colonies of Massalia. The voyage from the Rhodanos river to Antion is 4 days and four nights' voyage. From the pillars of Herakles to Antion, all the land is well-equipped with harbours. ”

“ VI. Aemilius, when elected consul, marched against the sub-Alpine Ligurians, called by some Ligustines, a brave and spirited nation, and from their nearness to Rome, skilled in the arts of war. Mixed with the Gauls, and the Iberians of the sea coast, they inhabit the extremity of Italy where it dies away into the Alps, and also that part of the Alps which is washed by the Tuscan Sea, opposite the Libyan coast. ”

“ The individuality of the modern Ligurians culminates in one of the most puzzling ethnic patches in Italy, viz., the people of the district about Lucca, in the northwest corner of Tuscany. Consideration of our maps will show the strong relief with which these people stand forth from their neighbors. These peasants of Garfagnana and Lucchese seem to set all ethnic probabilities at naught. They are as tall as the Venetians or any of the northern populations of Italy, yet in head form they are closely allied to the people of the extreme south. ”

“ They requested that he would ask of the Gauls such aids as they could afford in a covert manner. The purposes of the Ligurians, they said, were unrestrained, because the Roman troops were at a distance from their lands and cities; that it was fair that they should arm their youth and take upon themselves a portion of the war. The Ligurians did not dissent; they only requested the space of two months to make their levies. Having dismissed the Gauls, Mago in the mean time secretly hired soldiers through their country. ”

“ You would find the city beautifully situated. The Ligurians, of old a notable race and to this day a very powerful people, occupy the greater part of northern Italy, and the city lies in the midst of their territory. ”

“ The Ligurians made frequent appeals through their envoys, begging that they might not be compelled to abandon their household gods, the homes in which they had been born and the burial-places of their forefathers, and promising to surrender their arms and give hostages. When they found all their appeals fruitless, and knew that they were not strong enough for war, they obeyed the consuls' edict. As many as 40,000 freemen with their wives and children were transported at the expense of the government ”

“ Before the Roman conquest, the country which is now called Lombardy, was not considered as a part of Italy. It had been occupied by a powerful colony of Gauls, who, settling themselves along the banks of the Po, from Piedmont to Romagna, carried their arms and diffused their name from the Alps to the Apennine.
The Ligurians dwelt on the rocky coast which now forms the republic of Genoa. Venice was yet unborn; but the territories of that state, which lie to the east of the Adige, were inhabited by the Venetians. ”

“ A good many broke through the enemy's centre and got behind the fighting line. This created a panic amongst the Ligurians; they broke and fled in all directions, very few reached the town, the cavalry mostly intercepting them. The obstinacy of the fighting proved costly to the Ligurians; 10,000 men are said to have been killed and more than 700 prisoners taken; 82 standards were carried off the field. The victory was not a bloodless one for the Romans: they lost more than 3000 men ”

“ People thought to be of the same race as the Ligurians dwelt in Sardinia and in Corsica, and in a part of Sicily. On the east of Gallia were the Venetians, whose lineage is not ascertained. The Apennines branch off from the Alps in a southeasterly direction until they near the Adriatic, when they turn to the south, and descend to the extreme point of the peninsula, thus forming the backbone of Italy. On the west, in the central portion of the peninsula, is the hilly district called by the ancients, Etruria (now Tuscany) , and the plains of Latium and Campania. ”

“ The Vocontii extend as far as the Allobriges, and occupy vast valleys in the depths of the mountains, not inferior to those inhabited by the Allobriges. Both the Allobriges and Ligurians are subject to the pretors sent into the Narbonnaise, but the Vocontii are governed by their own laws, as we have said of the Volcæ of Nemausus.1519 Of the Ligurians between the Var and Genoa, those along the sea are considered Italians; while the mountaineers are governed by a prefect of the equestrian order, as is the case in regard to other nations wholly barbarous. ”

“ The lustrum was closed by the censors. Two hundred and fifty-seven thousand two hundred and thirty-one citizens were rated. It includes besides, the successes gained over the Corsicans and Ligurians.
1 When Lucius Postumius Albinus and Marcus Popilius Lænas brought before the senate first of all the distribution of the provinces, Liguria was assigned the joint province of both, with directions that they should enlist new legions, by which they would hold that province (two were decreed to each) ; and also ten thousand foot and six hundred horse of the Latin confederates ”

“ This illustrates the early importance of Genoa as a trading port, and the penetration of Greek customs, inhumation being the usual practice of the Ligurians. Genoa is believed to derive its name from the fact that the shape of this portion of the coast resembles that of a knee (genu) . ”

“ As the daylight grows, or as our knowledge grows, the forms of men come into view, wild creatures armed with clubs and stones. They will be named Ligurians, just as the earlier folk of Britain were named Britons. Later on less uncouth men, furnished with weapons of bronze or iron, can be seen to land from boats or to be plodding along the shore as if they had journeyed far. They will be called Phœnicians, Carthaginians or Phocæans according to the leaning of the writer who deals with them. There may be bartering on the beach, there may be fighting or pantomimic love-making ”

“ Here four thousand soldiers fell, and three standards of the second legion, with eleven ensigns of the Latin allies, were taken; abundance of arms were likewise lost, which were thrown away by the men in every direction, because they impeded their flight through the woody paths. The Ligurians ceased to pursue, sooner than the Romans to fly. As soon as the consul had effected his escape out of the enemy’s territories, he disbanded the troops, in the country of their friends, in order that the greatness of the loss sustained might not appear. ”

“ Here and there men of the former age may have survived and copied the arts of the newcomers, but throughout the whole peninsula the racial unity of the population is shown by the uniformity of their burial customs. The inhabitants of Sicily and Sardinia in this age had a civilization of the same type as that on the mainland.
The Ligurians probably a Neolithic people. It is highly probable that one of the historic peoples of Italy was a direct survival from the Neolithic period. ”