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Liguaria 124

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11 views

Liguaria 124

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makiva7469
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Ligures or Ligurians were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of

present-day north-western Italy, is named.[1]

In pre-Roman times, the Ligurians occupied the present-day Italian


region of Liguria, Piedmont, northern Tuscany, western Lombardy, western Emilia-
Romagna and northern Sardinia, reaching also Elba and Sicily.[2][3] They inhabited also
the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Corsica.[4][5][6][7] However, it is
generally believed that around 2000 BC, the Ligurians occupied a much larger area,
extending as far as what is today Catalonia (in the north-eastern corner of the Iberian
Peninsula).[8][9][10]

The origins of the ancient Ligurians are unclear, and an autochthonous origin is
increasingly probable. Little is known about the ancient Ligurian language, which is
based on placenames and inscriptions on steles representing warriors.[11][12] The lack of
evidence does not allow a certain linguistic classification; it may be Pre-Indo-
European[13] or an Indo-European language.[14]

Because of the strong Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were also
known in antiquity as Celto-Ligurians.[15]

Name[edit]
The Ligures are referred to as Ligyes (Λιγυες) by the Greeks
and Ligures (earlier Liguses) by the Romans. According to Plutarch, the Ligurians called
themselves Ambrones, which could indicate a relationship with the Ambrones of
northern Europe.[16]

Geographical area of ancient Liguria[edit]


Main article: Liguria

Map of ancient Liguria, between the


rivers Po, Varus and Magra
The geography of Strabo, from book 2, chapter 5, section 28 :

The Alps are inhabited by numerous nations, but all Keltic with the exception of the
Ligurians, and these, though of a different race, closely resemble them in their manner
of life. They inhabit that portion of the Alps which is next the Apennines, and also a part
of the Apennines themselves.[17]
— Strabo (1st century BC).
This zone corresponds to the current region of Liguria in Italy as well as to the
former county of Nice which could be compared today to the Alpes Maritimes.

The writer, naturalist and Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder writes in his book "The
Natural History" book III chapter 7 on the Ligurians and Liguria:

The more celebrated of the Ligurian tribes beyond the Alps are the Salluvii,
the Deciates, and the Oxubii (...) The coast of Liguria extends 211 miles, between the
rivers Varus and Macra.[18]

— Pliny the Elder (1st century).


Just like Strabo, Pliny the Elder situates Liguria between the rivers Varus and Magra.
He also quotes the Ligurian peoples living on the other side of the banks of the Var and
the Alps. He writes in his book "The Natural History" book III chapter 6 :

Gaul is divided from Italy by the river Varus, and by the range of the Alps (...) Forum
Julii Octavanorum, a colony, which is also called Pacensis and Classica, the
river Argenteus, which flows through it, the district of the Oxubii and that of the Ligauni
above whom are the Suetri, the Quariates and the Adunicates. On the coast we have
Antipolis, a town with Latian rights, the district of the Deciates, and the river Varus,
which proceeds from Mount Cema, one of the Alps.[19]

— Pliny the Elder (1st century).


Transalpine Ligures are said to have inhabited the South Eastern portion of modern
France, between the Alps and the Rhone river, from where they constantly battled
against the Greek colony of Massalia.[4]

The consul, Quintus Opimius, defeats the Transalpine Ligurians, who had plundered
Antipolis and Nicaea, two towns belonging to the Massilians.[6]

— Livy (1st century BC).


But though the early writers of the Greeks call the Sallyes "Ligures", and the country
which the Massiliotes hold, "Ligustica," later writers name them "Celtoligures," and
attach to their territory all the level country as far as Luerio and the Rhodanus,[5]

— Strabo (1st century BC).

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