FOE Preview Five The Keltoi
Contents
Introduction
Seasons greetings to one and all, and welcome to the fifth FOE Preview, which examines the "barbaric" Keltoi. These doughty fighters will be available to you via the Aedui faction; as AoR troops; and as mercenaries, so will be available in many instances to add colour to you armies. Once again my thanks to our lead historian, HamilcarBarca, who continues to produce amazing historical background material for these previews, which not only inform but also set the scene and get you in the mood for fielding FOE's armies. My thanks also to the rest of the team, in particular Solaris, PatricianS, Quinctius Cincinnatus and Kepper, for their help and contributions in preparing this seasonal edition.
So, without further ado, let's explore the turbulent Celtic world of the Third century BC!
La Tene Celts
From c. 450 BC the political geography of Celtic (Greek: 'Keltoi') Europe changed dramatically. The older "West Halstatt" culture was superseded by a new Celtic warrior aristocracy centered in a broad zone stretching from Marne to Bohemia, labelled by historians the "La Tene" culture.
The La Tene Keltoi differed to the earlier Halstatt chiefdoms; rich elite burials now included fighting weapons and two-wheeled chariots; distinctive art and metalworking; and new centers of aristocratic power arose, replacing the older Halstatt hillforts.
Overview of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. The core Hallstatt territory (800 BC) is shown in solid yellow, the area of influence by 500 BC (HaD) in light yellow. The core territory of the La Tène culture (450 BC) is shown in solid green, the eventual area of La Tène influence by 50 BC in light green. The territories of some major Celtic tribes are labelled.
Overview of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures
The core Hallstatt territory (800 BC) is shown in solid yellow
The core territory of the La Tène culture (450 BC) is shown in solid green
The warrior dominated social system of the La Tene Keltoi became the dominant culture by 300 BC across a broad swathe of Europe, from the Atlantic coast of France to the Carpathian Mountains, and its influence was felt in Cisalpine Gaul and the Iberian Peninsula. In the 1st century BC La Tene influence spread to the British Isles.
In around 400 BC a wave of migrations originating from the early La Tene centres carried La Tene Keltoi culture across central Europe and into Italy. Keltoi society was competitive, and migrations was an effective way to relieve land shortage and population pressure.
The warlike La Tene Keltoi overran the Etruscans in the Po Valley in c. 400 BC, and large Keltoi tribes like the Insubres, Boii, Senones and Cenomani settled in northern Italy. In 390 BC the Senones famously sacked Rome. Other tribes migrated east, settling the middle Danube in c. 360, and penetrating into the Balkans. In 280 BC a major migration advanced south, to threaten Thrace, Macedonia and Greece.
Most Keltoi lived not in hillforts or the major oppida, but in dispersed farms and small villages. In the period 300-100 BC the Keltoi adopted many innovations from their Mediterranean neighbours, and masonry fortifications, planned urban spaces and Greek and Latin alphabets appear. The Keltoi traded extensively, with long-distance trade connections linking the British Isles with continental Gaul, the Greeks of Massalia, and Italy. The Keltoi adopted coinage as a means of exchange.
Keltoi society was strongly hierarchical, with tribes ruled by chieftains and kings, the status of which depended upon the number of clients and dependents they could command. A broad pattern of ever changing allegiances was the norm in the Keltoi world. The druids were a unique caste that encompassed the role of sages, magicians, teachers, advisers, and story-tellers. Women occupied a more significant position in Keltoi society than they did in the Graeco-Roman world. In Gaul, women had legal rights in marriage.
Parisii gold coin, 1st Century BC
Keltoi state formation evolved during the Hellenistic Period, stimulated by incraesing population, prosperous agriculture, and the ever-present threat of inter-tribal and foreign war. Keltoi tribes formed inter-tribal alliances and federations, and the growing oppida became centres for trade, taxation and craft production. In Gaul several tribal federations developed political institutions such as elected magistrates, issued coinage, and even conduct population censuses. Generally, however, the Keltoi tribes rely upon the tribe and kinship groups.
The Celtic Migrations Celtic Migrations
The migration of the Celts into the Po Valley around 400 BC represented a significant movement of peoples. Polybius gives us an outline of this Celtic migration into the Po region, and the various tribes that participated in it. The Laevi and Lebecii occupied the lands near the Upper Po, the Insubres and Cenomani settled on the north bank of the river, while the Boii, Lingones and Senones settled along the Adriatic coast south of the river. The Boii and Insubres were the largest and most powerful of these tribes.
These Celtic tribes would remain entrenched and dominant in the lands north of the Appenine Mountains until they were challenged by Rome for the first time in the 330s. This is why the region is known as Cisalpine Gaul after c. 400 BC. Thereafter Celtic raiders, warbands and mercenaries are reported throughout Italy. In 387/86 the Senones led by Brennus even defeated a 40,000 strong army of Rome at the Battle of the Allia; the Gallic charge routed the Roman flanks, allowing their centre – a phalanx of Roman hoplites – to be surrounded and slaughtered. The Senones went on to sack Rome, although they famously failed to storm the Capitoline Hill thanks to the geese of Juno. The Romans paid a bribe of 1,000 pounds of gold to induce the Senones to depart Rome – an event that scarred the folk memory of Rome forever.[1] This defeat encouraged Rome to build stronger city defences – the Servian Wall – and to abandon the Greek-style phalanx and re-organise their military organization.
The migration also represented a further blow to the then weakening Etruscan city-states, already under pressure in Campania from Greek Italiotes and Oscan tribes, and in central Italy from an independent Rome and the Latin tribes.
Boii coin
In around 550 BC the Etruscan cities had expanded their dominion, and founded numerous colonies in the Po Valley. This new region was named Etruria Padana. The historian Livy relates how the Etruscans organized themselves into a confederation of twelve cities in the Po Valley, each derived from one of the twelve cities in the Etrurian motherland.[2] Pliny the Elder informs us that the Etruscan settlement of Felsina (modern Bologna) was the most important of the Etruscan cities in Etruria Padana, the princeps Etruriae. The urban and territorial organization that the Etruscans achieved in Etruria Padana in c. 550 BC was integrated economically. All the cities needed to cooperate so as to guarantee efficient and enduring trade relations with Greece via the Adriatic Sea, and trade with Tyrrhenian Etruria.
The Etruscan territorial and political achievement in the Po region was destroyed c. 400 BC by the Celtic migrations. Decisively defeated at sea and in southern Italy by the Greeks of Syracuse and Magna Graecia, the Etruscans were already a spent force in Campania by c. 470. The Etruscans were challenged in central Italy by the revolt of Rome in 509 BC. The migrations of the La Tene Celts, beginning in c. 400 BC, witnessed the influx of Celtic tribes into the Po Valley. The Celts – known as Gauls in the Graeco-Roman tradition – overran the Etruscan colonies of Etruria Padana. The Etruscan settlement at Marzabotto suddenly lost its urban character, and became a military outpost for the invading Gauls to control the Reno valley. Felsina too fell before the Celtic onslaught. Only Mantua and Spina appear to have survived the invasion, the later being a gathering point for many Etruscan refugees. “Once uprooted from their rich and fertile inland region, these people had little choice but to dedicate their lives to piracy on the Adriatic Sea.”[3] Further, it appears that Ligurian peoples moved southward from the Apennines at this time. Various Etruscan ports and trading-posts that had been established in the Eighth Century BC on the Ligurian coastline were now absorbed by Ligurian tribes, while the border area between Liguria and the north of Etruria above the Arno River, including Pisa, was now densely settled by small settlements of Ligurians, and the Etruscans forced to withdraw southward.[4]
The Celtic invaders not only occupied the land, and undermined Etruria Padana to its very foundation, but they also replaced the Etruscans as the chief middlemen between the Mediterranean and central Europe beyond the Alps. The new Celtic masters of the Po region embraced certain elements of the Etruscan lifestyle (wine, meat and athletic games), and there occurred a gradual “Etruscanization” of the upper level of Gallic society. Nevertheless, the organization of the region by “city” was now replaced by vici (agricultural settlements on plains) and oppidum (hillforts charged with the defence and control of the surrounding territory).[5]
There were several major incursions of Gallic armies into central Italy in the following years, and the sources report them in 356 BC and 344 BC. In around 330 BC the Gauls of the Po Valley concluded a formal treaty with the Romans, and there ensued a thirty year period of peace (Polybius, 2.18).
Interestingly, Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse, established or re-established certain trading-posts in the northern reaches of the Adriatic, such as at Ancona and the Etruscan trading post Adria, as well as the island of Lissus (Issa), so as to recruit Gallic mercenaries (presumably Senones?) for his armies in Sicily and southern Italy. Dionysius recruited Gallic mercenaries from here for thirty years.[6] This was also a period when Dionysius I made alliance with the Illyrians, to the detriment of Epirus; Dionysius I hoped to install his puppet Alcetas as king of the Molossians.[7]
Insubres coin
In 299 BC further war erupted, and the Gallic tribes are reported as joining alternatively with the Etruscans and the Samnites to combat the growing power of Rome. The Third Samnite War ended in 290 BC without either the Gauls or the Etruscans being completely subjugated by Rome. The Senones, who lived in Picenum, were expelled from their homeland, and the Romans planted a colony there “… and they named it Sena after the Gallic tribe which had previously inhabited it.” (Polybius, 2.19). This example struck fear in the Boii, who lived just north of Picenum, and who now feared that Rome sought not simply suzerainty over them, but to expel them from their homeland. In the following years the Etruscan cities of Volsinii and Vulci fomented unrest against the Romans, and in 285 secured an alliance with the Boii and Senone chieftains of Cisalpine Gaul. A large Gallic army marched southward into Italy in 284, intending to join their Etruscan allies, and besieged the Roman city of Arretium en route. A large Roman army was dispatched to raise the siege, and suffered a crushing defeat at Arretium in 283.[8] The Gauls and Etruscans then advanced into southern Etruria, but they were destroyed in a decisive battle at Lake Vadimone in 282 BC by the consul P. Cornelius Dolabella, during which the Senonian contigent was destroyed. The Etruscans and Boii fought on, but they were again defeated by Rome at Vetulonia in 282 BC by the new consul Q Aemilius Papus, after which they sued for peace and submitted to Rome.[9]
These victories of Rome in 283-282 BC were critical, in that they ensured that Rome’s northern borders remained quiet when King Pyrrhus invaded southern Italy in 280 BC; in addition, Polybius notes that the Roman legions that Pyrrhus faced were veterans (Polybius, 2.20).
Tenney Frank notes
“It is difficult to determine what attitude the Romans assumed towards these barbarians during the period. Polybius (2, 35) speaks of them much as the American colonists spoke of the Indians in the seventeenth century: as of creatures that have no rights in law, and are legitimate prey of any civilized nation. But Polybius was a Greek. It seems to be true that Rome desired more than the mere submission of the Insubres. She continued her attack apparently with the purpose of weakening the tribe till peace could be assured. But she probably rested this purpose upon the plea that the history of Gallic raids necessitated such action and not upon a general theory of the inferiority of the barbarian, as the Greek might have done. Proof of this attitude is the fact that the peaceful Cenomani and Veneti were never disturbed; their right to the possession of their land was recognized and they were finally admitted to Roman citizenship.” [10]
Hamilcar the Renegade
The Second Punic War ended in 202 BC, yet the Ligurians and the Insubres and Boii maintained their resistance to Rome in Cisalpine Gaul, refusing to again become Roman tributaries. In 200 BC there was again a significant Gallic “uprising” against Rome – this time led by a mysterious Carthaginian officer named Hamilcar. This Hamilcar may have been left behind by either Hasdrubal’s expedition of 208-207 or Mago’s in 205-203. This revolt was mounted not only by the Ligurians, Boii and Insubres, but was also joined by the typically pro-Roman Cenomani tribe. Hamilcar’s army succeeded in investing and storming the Latin colony at Placentia – an undertaking that both Hannibal and Hasdrubal had failed in! The colony was razed and its populace slain or enslaved. The Senate sent a delegation to Carthage to complain about the activity of this Hamilcar; the Carthaginian leadership declared Hamilcar renegade and confiscated his property. While besieging Cremona, Hamilcar’s Gallic host was brought to battle and defeated (Livy, 31.10-11, 19, 21-22.).
[1] Barry Cuncliffe, The Ancient Celts, Penguin Books, 1999, pp. 68-78.
[2] Livy 5.33.9-10.
[3] Guiseppe Sassatelli, ‘The Etruscans on the Po Plain’, in Giovannangelo Camporeale (ed.), The Etruscans Outside Etruria, English translation by Thomas Michael Hartmann, The J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2004, pp. 168-191.
[4] Adriano Maggiani, ‘The Etruscans in Liguria’, in Giovannangelo Camporeale (ed.), The Etruscans Outside Etruria, English translation by Thomas Michael Hartmann, The J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2004, pp. 158-167.
[5] Guiseppe Sassatelli, ‘The Etruscans on the Po Plain’, in Giovannangelo Camporeale (ed.), The Etruscans Outside Etruria, English translation by Thomas Michael Hartmann, The J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2004, pp. 168-191.
[6]R L Beaumont, ‘Greek Influence in the Adriatic Sea before the Fourth Century BC’, The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 56, Part 2, 1936, (pp. 159-204), p. 202; Barry Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts, Penguin Books: London, 1997, p. 76.
[7]Brian Cavan, Dionysius I. War-Lord of Sicily, Yale University Press: London, 1990, pp. 149-153.
[8] M Gwyn Morgan, ‘The Defeat of L Mettellus Denter at Arretium’, The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 22, No. 2, Nov. 1972, pp. 309-325.
[9]E T Salmon, ‘Rome’s Battles with Etruscans and Gauls in 284-282 BC’, Classical Philology, Vol. 30, No. 1, Jan 1935, pp. 23-31.
[10]Tenny Frank, Roman Imperialism, Batoche Books: Kitchener, 2003, p. 69.
The Gallic Tribes of the Po Valley
Historical Background
The migration of the Celts into the Po Valley around 400 BC represented a significant movement of peoples. Polybius gives us an outline of this Celtic migration into the Po region, and the various tribes that participated in it. The Laevi and Lebecii occupied the lands near the Upper Po, the Insubres and Cenomani settled on the north bank of the river, while the Boii, Lingones and Senones settled along the Adriatic coast south of the river. The Boii and Insubres were the largest and most powerful of these tribes.
These Celtic tribes would remain entrenched and dominant in the lands north of the Appenine Mountains until they were challenged by Rome for the first time in the 330s. This is why the region is known as Cisalpine Gaul after c. 400 BC. Thereafter Celtic raiders, warbands and mercenaries are reported throughout Italy. In 387/86 the Senones led by Brennus even defeated a 40,000 strong army of Rome at the Battle of the Allia; the Gallic charge routed the Roman flanks, allowing their centre – a phalanx of Roman hoplites – to be surrounded and slaughtered. The Senones went on to sack Rome, although they famously failed to storm the Capitoline Hill thanks to the geese of Juno. The Romans paid a bribe of 1,000 pounds of gold to induce the Senones to depart Rome – an event that scarred the folk memory of Rome forever. This defeat encouraged Rome to build stronger city defences – the Servian Wall – and to abandon the Greek-style phalanx and re-organise their military organization.
It has been theorised that Brennus was operating in alliance with Dionysius I of Syracuse.
The migration also represented a further blow to the then weakening Etruscan city-states, already under pressure in Campania from Greek Italiotes and Oscan tribes, and in central Italy from an independent Rome and the Latin tribes.
Gallic Alpine migration routes
In around 550 BC the Etruscan cities had expanded their dominion, and founded numerous colonies in the Po Valley. This new region was named Etruria Padana. The historian Livy relates how the Etruscans organized themselves into a confederation of twelve cities in the Po Valley, each derived from one of the twelve cities in the Etrurian motherland. Pliny the Elder informs us that the Etruscan settlement of Felsina (modern Bologna) was the most important of the Etruscan cities in Etruria Padana, the princeps Etruriae. The urban and territorial organization that the Etruscans achieved in Etruria Padana in c. 550 BC was integrated economically. All the cities needed to cooperate so as to guarantee efficient and enduring trade relations with Greece via the Adriatic Sea, and trade with Tyrrhenian Etruria.
The Etruscan territorial and political achievement in the Po region was destroyed c. 400 BC by the Celtic migrations. Decisively defeated at sea and in southern Italy by the Greeks of Syracuse and Magna Graecia, the Etruscans were already a spent force in Campania by c. 470. The Etruscans were challenged in central Italy by the revolt of Rome in 509 BC. The migrations of the La Tene Celts, beginning in c. 400 BC, witnessed the influx of Celtic tribes into the Po Valley. The Celts – known as Gauls in the Graeco-Roman tradition – overran the Etruscan colonies of Etruria Padana. The Etruscan settlement at Marzabotto suddenly lost its urban character, and became a military outpost for the invading Gauls to control the Reno valley. Felsina too fell before the Celtic onslaught. Only Mantua and Spina appear to have survived the invasion, the later being a gathering point for many Etruscan refugees. “Once uprooted from their rich and fertile inland region, these people had little choice but to dedicate their lives to piracy on the Adriatic Sea.” Further, it appears that Ligurian peoples moved southward from the Apennines at this time. Various Etruscan ports and trading-posts that had been established in the Eighth Century BC on the Ligurian coastline were now absorbed by Ligurian tribes, while the border area between Liguria and the north of Etruria above the Arno River, including Pisa, was now densely settled by small settlements of Ligurians, and the Etruscans forced to withdraw southward.
The Celtic invaders not only occupied the land, and undermined Etruria Padana to its very foundation, but they also replaced the Etruscans as the chief middlemen between the Mediterranean and central Europe beyond the Alps. The new Celtic masters of the Po region embraced certain elements of the Etruscan lifestyle (wine, meat and athletic games), and there occurred a gradual “Etruscanization” of the upper level of Gallic society. Nevertheless, the organization of the region by “city” was now replaced by vici (agricultural settlements on plains) and oppidum (hillforts charged with the defence and control of the surrounding territory).
The Gauls of the Po Valley 385-225 BC
After the Gallic tribes settled in the Po Valley they consolidated their hold over the region, and the various tribes were commonly engaged in inter-tribal warfare (Polybius, 2.18). During this period the Romans re-established their authority over Latinum and rebuild their strength.
There were several major incursions of Gallic armies into central Italy in the following years, and the sources report them in 356 BC and 344 BC. In around 330 BC the Gauls of the Po Valley concluded a formal treaty with the Romans, and there ensued a thirty year period of peace (Polybius, 2.18).
Interestingly, Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse, established or re-established certain trading-posts in the northern reaches of the Adriatic, such as at Ancona and the Etruscan trading post Adria, as well as the island of Lissus (Issa), so as to recruit Gallic mercenaries (presumably Senones?) for his armies in Sicily and southern Italy. Dionysius recruited Gallic mercenaries from here for thirty years. This was also a period when Dionysius I made alliance with the Illyrians, to the detriment of Epirus; Dionysius I hoped to install his puppet Alcetas as king of the Molossians.
In 299 BC further war erupted, and the Gallic tribes are reported as joining alternatively with the Etruscans and the Samnites to combat the growing power of Rome. After the ebb and flow of fortune, the Gauls suffered crushing defeats in 284 and 283 BC, and the Senones, who lived in Picenum, were expelled from their homeland, and the Romans planted a colony “… and they named it Sena after the Gallic tribe which had previously inhabited it.” (Polybius, 2.19). This example struck fear in the Boii, who lived just north of Picenum, and who now feared that Rome sought not simply suzerainty over them, but to expel them from their homeland. A joint Boii-Etruscan army was destroyed by Rome at the Battle of Lake Vadimone in 283 BC; the Romans defeated the unlikely allies again in 282 BC, at which time the Boii sued for peace and submitted to Rome.
These victories of Rome in 283-282 BC were critical, in that they ensured that Rome’s northern borders remained quiet when King Pyrrhus invaded southern Italy in 280 BC; in addition, Polybius notes that the Roman legions that Pyrrhus faced were veterans (Polybius, 2.20).
The Gallic War of 225-222 BC
The Second Punic War (218-202 BC)
Hence, on the eve of the outbreak of the Second Punic War in 218 BC, the Carthaginians had good reason to think that they would find powerful allies in the Po Valley. Hannibal had sent agents into the western Alps and northern Italy to sound out the Gallic peoples and to win their support “promised everything” (Polybius, 3.34), and so set out on his march to Italy knowing he had alliance with the Gallic peoples of the Po Valley. Rome, knowing how sensitive its northern borders were, founded the colonies of Placentia and Cremona in the territory of the Cenomani in 218 BC. In fact as soon as they had word that Hannibal had crossed the Ebro, both the Boii and the Insubres rose up (Livy, 21.25) and fought with Rome and the Cenomani (They are the ‘Brixiani Galli’ of Livy, 21.25).
Hannibal famously crossed the Alps, entered the land of the Insubres, shattered the Insubres’ enemies the Taurini, and after defeating Rome at the battles of the Ticinus and Trebbia, he raised the Gallic tribes to resume their struggle against Rome, and to seek revenge for their defeats of 225-222 BC.
Crossing the Alps
Hannibal had some 16,000 Gauls with him at Cannae in 216 BC, including some 4,000 cavalry, and perhaps another 8,000 were left to guard the Carthaginian camp ; and in that same year an independent Gallic army, that of Hannibal’s allies the Boii, destroyed at the Battle of Litana the entire army of consul designate Lucius Postumius, comprised of 10,000 Romans and 15,000 allies. The victorious Boii thereafter used the consul designates severed head as a holy vessel. At this point, the desperate Romans resolved to abandon any attempt to revive their authority over the Boii until they had defeated Hannibal (Livy, 23.24).
Hannibal’s Gallic allies were mostly drawn from the Insubres and the Boii, and served under their own chieftains.
The Insubres and Boii of the Po Valley, together with the Ligurians, remained allies of Carthage and enemies of Rome throughout the Second Punic War. Hasdrubal recruited great numbers of Transalpine Gauls (including the Averni) as well as Cisalpine Gauls and Ligurians into his army in 207, prior to his decisive defeat at the battle of Metaurus (Livy, 27.29).
Mago Barca’s expedition to northern Italy in 205-203 BC only makes strategic sense if one appreciates that the Carthaginians were desperate to keep their Ligurian and Gallic allies in the field, and continue to threaten Rome from the north (Livy, 29.5 and 29.13). Cisalpine Gaul and Liguria are named as formal “allies” of Carthage in Hannibal’s treaty with Phillip V of Macedon in 215 BC (Polybius, 7.9). Mago landed with some 14,000 troops, and Carthage later sent him another 7,000, including some 2,000 Numidian cavalry and some elephants, together with funds, by sea. Mago also corresponded with Etruscan noblemen, so that “…Etruria had almost entirely transferred its support to Mago, hoping that a change of regime could be effected through him, and the consul Marcus Cornelius maintained control less by armed force than by dread of his judicial proceedings” (Livy 29.36). Mago was finally defeated by Rome in a hard fought battle while he was in the lands of the Insubrian Gauls (Livy, 30.18). Mago, wounded, withdrew to the coast and the lands of the Ligurian Ingauni, where he received fresh orders from Carthage to embark for Africa. Mago died of his wounds en route, and the Romans intercepted several of his transports near Sardinia as his forces attempted to reach Carthage (Livy, 30.19).
The Final Subjugation of the Gallic Tribes (202-191 BC)
The Second Punic War ended in 202 BC, yet the Ligurians and the Insubres and Boii maintained their resistance to Rome in Cisalpine Gaul, refusing to again become Roman tributaries. In 200 BC there was again a significant Gallic “uprising” against Rome – this time led by a mysterious Carthaginian officer named Hamilcar. This Hamilcar may have been left behind by either Hasdrubal’s expedition of 208-207 or Mago’s in 205-203. This revolt was mounted not only by the Ligurians, Boii and Insubres, but was also joined by the typically pro-Roman Cenomani tribe. Hamilcar’s army succeeded in investing and storming the Latin colony at Placentia – an undertaking that both Hannibal and Hasdrubal had failed in! The colony was razed and its populace slain or enslaved. The Senate sent a delegation to Carthage to complain about the activity of this Hamilcar; the Carthaginian leadership declared Hamilcar renegade and confiscated his property. While besieging Cremona, Hamilcar’s Gallic host was brought to battle and defeated (Livy, 31.10-11, 19, 21-22.).
Soldiers of Gaul
As imagined by a late 19th century illustrator for the Larousse dictionary, 1898
In 199 BC Rome felt that 5,000 allied troops were enough to enforce its suzerainty in Cisalpine Gaul (Livy, 32.1), as commitments in Macedonia and elsewhere had priority. In 198 BC the consul Sextus Aelius Paetus went to Cisalpine Gaul with a freshly levied army, “but there was nothing memorable in his performance” (Livy, 32.8-9.).
Yet resistance to Rome in Cisalpine Gaul continued. In 197 BC both Roman consuls marched upon Cisalpine Gaul; Gaius Cornelius invading the territory of the Insubres, while Quintus Minucius began operations around Genoa against the Ligurians. Minucius enjoyed success; “The towns of Clastidium and Litubium, both belonging to the Ligures, surrendered, as did the also two communities of the same people, the Celeiates and the Cerdiciates. By this time all the peoples on this side (i.e. south) of the Po were under Roman control, except the Boii among the Gauls, and the Ilvates among the Ligurians. It was reported that fifteen towns and 15,000 men had surrendered” (Livy, 32.29). Minucius then invaded the Boiian lands. This caused the combined army of the Insubres, Cenomani and Boii to divide; the Boii marched south to defend their homes. Cornelius now advanced upon Brescia, the chief town of the Cenomani, where “he discovered that the young men were in arms without authority from the elders, and that the Cenomani had joined the Insubrian revolt without a decision of the people on the matter” (Livy, 33.30). The Cenomani did not abandon the “revolt”, but they came to be regarded by their Gallic compatriots as being less reliable. When Cornelius confronted the Insubres and Cenomani in pitched battle, the Gallic forces were routed, perhaps because the Cenomani attacked the Insubres in the rear. Livy reports that “35,000 of the enemy were killed, 5,200 captured alive, and among them Hamilcar, the Carthaginian commander, who was the chief cause of the war…” (Livy, 33.30). At news of this defeat of the Insubrian army, the Boiian host dispersed and the Ligurian Ilvates submitted to Rome. The Cenomani submitted to Gaius Cornelius in 197 BC, but the Boii and Insubres stubbornly fought on.
In 196 BC the consul Marcellus entered the territory of the Boii, and while he was pitching camp was ambushed by a Boiian chieftain named Corolamus, and lost some 3,000 men. Marcellus then crossed the Po, and moved into the lands of the Insubres, where he fought a pitched battle against the confident Gauls, and won a great victory, the Gallic camp being taken and plundered. In the aftermath of this victory some 28 towns submitted to Rome (Livy, 33.36). Meanwhile, the other consul L. Furius Purpurio invaded the lands of the Boii, and after a circuitous march united with his colleague. Together they devastated the Boiian countryside and captured Felsina, and “… all the Boii, except the men of military age who were in arms with a view to plunder, they had by this time withdrawn into the recesses of the forests“ (Livy, 33.37). The two consuls then advanced into Liguria, and the Boiian forces “suddenly crossed the Po in boats and devastated the lands of the Laevi and Libui”. While returning home the Boii army encountered the Roman consular army, and to the astonishment of both armies a battle erupted. The Romans won a battle sufficiently important for the Senate to grant Marcellus a triumph (Livy, 33.38).
In 195 Rome sent a consul and some 30,000 men to Spain, while “the other consul [Lucius Valerius Flaccus ] should enroll two legions, since the province of [Cisalpine] Gaul could be adequately defended with this force, given that the morale of the Insubres and Boii had been broken in the previous year” (Livy, 33.43). Yet the pacification of these Gallic tribes was not yet complete, for the following year, in 194 BC, the proconsul Lucius Valerius Flaccus was forced to confront a combined Insubrian and Boii army led by Dorulatus near Milan, which he defeated. Simultaneously, the consul Tiberius Sempronius invaded the land of the Boii, where “Boiorix, their chieftain at the time, had, with his two brothers, roused the whole people to revolt”. Wanting to defeat Tiberius Sempronius before his army could unite with that of the proconsul Lucius Valerious Flaccus, the Boii launched an assault on his fortified encampment. In a hard fought melee the Boii were finally forced to withdraw, but they succeeded in destroying those Roman units that pursued them too closely. Livy reports that the Boii lost some 11,000 men, and the Romans 5,000 (Livy, 34.46-47).
The Dying Gaul
A Roman marble copy of a lost ancient Greek statue, thought to have been executed in bronze,
In 193 BC a Ligurian host besieged Pisa; the consul Minucius raised this siege but was unwilling to risk battle against the larger Ligurian host. The other consul Lucius Cornelius Merula invaded the Boii, devastating the countryside until the Boii accepted battle. The battle was hard fought, but the Boii were finally routed, losing 14,000 to the Romans loss of 5,000, including “twenty-three centurions, four commanders of allied contingents, and Marcus Genucius and Quintus and Marcus Marcius, military tribunes of the second Legion” (Livy, 35.5). Despite this defeat, the Boii army seems to have escaped the battle, and their resistance continued. Livy speaks of how a Ligurian army outmaneuvered Minucius’ Roman force. Some 800 Numidian Cavalry serving with the Romans then proceeded to save the Roman army from the trap (Livy, 35.11).
In 191 BC Roman forces fought campaigns against both the Ligurians and the Boii; while the proconsul Quintus Minucius defeated a Ligurian surprise night attack on his encampment, slaying 4,000 of the enemy, the consul Publius Cornelius won a great victory against the 50,000 strong army of the Boii (Livy, 36.38). Two days after the battle Publius Cornelius accepted the final submission of the Boii, “… old men and boys were all that the Boii now had left.” The Romans took hostages, confiscated half of the Boii territory for Roman colonists, and Publius Cornelius celebrated a triumph in Rome (Livy, 36.39-40).
The campaigns fought by Rome in Cisalpine Gaul between 200-191 BC were a brutal pacification campaign. The Gallic tribes were defeated again and again, and yet the Boii and Insubres stubbornly resisted until they had completely exhausted their resources. While the Romans were persistently victorious, many of these battles were hard fought and Roman losses substantial. After Rome’s victory, and the widespread confiscations of Gallic territory, much of Cisalpine Gaul was settled by Roman and Latin colonists; the Insubres were able to maintain a degree of local autonomy and in 89 BC they obtained Latin citizenship, before finally, with the whole of “Gallia Transpadana”, in 49 BC, Roman citizenship.
Tenney Frank notes “It is difficult to determine what attitude the Romans assumed towards these barbarians during the period. Polybius (2, 35) speaks of them much as the American colonists spoke of the Indians in the seventeenth century: as of creatures that have no rights in law, and are legitimate prey of any civilized nation. But Polybius was a Greek. It seems to be true that Rome desired more than the mere submission of the Insubres. She continued her attack apparently with the purpose of weakening the tribe till peace could be assured. But she probably rested this purpose upon the plea that the history of Gallic raids necessitated such action and not upon a general theory of the inferiority of the barbarian, as the Greek might have done. Proof of this attitude is the fact that the peaceful Cenomani and Veneti were never disturbed; their right to the possession of their land was recognized and they were finally admitted to Roman citizenship.”
It is interesting to consider that during the period 200-191 BC, while Rome was again reducing the Gallic tribes of Cisalpine Gaul to tributary status, it was also engaged in the Second Macedonian War (200-196 BC) against Phillip V of Macedonia, and commitments in Lusitania and Iberia, Illyria and Greece against the Spartan tyrant Nabis, the Seleucids and the Aetolian League.
Aedui Faction Roster Keltoi Gaesatae (Naked Fanatic)
Keltoi Ambacti (Elite Swordsmen)
Keltoi Soldurii (Elite Swordsmen)
Keltoi Heavy Cavalry
Keltoi Light Cavalry
Keltoi AOR Keltoi Slingers
Keltoi Archers
Keltoi Javelinmen (Skirmisher)
Keltoi Spearmen
Keltoi Swordsmen
Keltoi Mercenaries
Keltoi Ambacti (Elite Swordsmen)
Keltoi Swordsmen
Keltoi Heavy Cavalry Mercenaries
Keltoi Light Cavalry (Mercenary)
Ancient Winter Festivals
Yule - Winter solstice - 21st/22nd December
Yule or the Midwinter Solstice is the time of year when we experience our shortest day and longest night - the sun is at its lowest point in the sky at noon. Yule meaning 'wheel' is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world. Our ancestors celebrated the rebirth of the Sun god at Yule, and the expulsion of the evil winter spirits. The winter solstice was considered a mysterious and powerful time, for it is at this point the sun begins to make the return journey across our skies. After the longest night of the year the sun is seen as growing stronger and the return of the warmer season is welcomed - the concept of rebirth became strongly associated with the Winter Solstice.
Stonehenge, erected around 2500 BC
Three days after Yule many people exchange gifts and celebrate Christmas - the birth of Jesus, as our ancestors celebrated the return of light and the sun growing in strength. The well-known figure of Father Christmas may have derived from the Pagan god, Herne the Hunter. Yule was celebrated with bonfires to stimulate the ascent of the sun, and lamps illuminated houses decorated with evergreens to simulate summer. It is a time to look on the past year's achievements. The days will now grow longer up to the mid summer solstice.
The Saturnalia - 17/23 December
The Saturnalia was a large and important Roman public festival. It was originally celebrated in Ancient Rome for only a day, on Dec. 17th, but it was so popular that it was soon extended to last a week, ending on Dec. 23rd, and this despite Augustus' efforts to reduce it to three days, and Caligula's, to five. It involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year.
Saturnalia: A time to eat, drink, and be merry!
A Saturnalicius princeps was elected master of ceremonies for the proceedings. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia) and a special market (sigillaria). Gambling was allowed for all, even slaves; however, although it was officially condoned only during this period, one should not assume that it was rare or much remarked upon during the rest of the year. It was a time to eat, drink, and be merry. The toga was not worn, but rather the synthesis, i.e. colorful, informal "dinner clothes"; and the pileus (freedman's hat) was worn by everyone. Slaves were exempt from punishment, and treated their masters with (a pretense of) disrespect. The slaves celebrated a banquet: before, with, or served by the masters. Yet the reversal of the social order was mostly superficial; the banquet, for example, would often be prepared by the slaves, and they would prepare their masters' dinner as well. It was license within careful boundaries; it reversed the social order without subverting it.
Hannibal ante portas - vestras!
Hannibal ante portas - vestras! (Hannibal is at - your - gates!) is a book project that has been many months in preparation by members, and others, of the RTR team. Taking a look at the exploits of the great Carthaginian general, Hannibal, from a different perspective, it is designed to compliment and add more depth to FOE. It has been born out of a great love for “the grandeur that was the Antiquity”, to paraphrase the well-known title by J.C. Stobart. All those who worked together to transform this project into a palpable reality share a great love for this moment of human history – remote in time, but by no means devoid of importance or of charm. The pages of this book are a literary tribute to great heroes, whose example continues to inspire today.
Hannibal ante portas - vestras!: an extract Hannibal ante portas - vestras! is a collection of short stories focusing on the Second Punic War, better known as "Hannibal's War". An introduction outlines the historical context, while the stories narrate through the eyes of direct witnesses various episodes, from the Battle of Cannae to the Battle of Zama. The book is lavishly decorated with colour illustrations, both in in the form of full-page images and vignettes. It is a commercial venture and available via this
link . The book is availble both as a download, and in traditional hard copy.
Important. However, this project is so new that we have not yet been able to verify the quality of the printed version, so we currently recommend holding off on that option until we can check it out!
Xmas Messages from the Team To all RTR fans everywhere. The Library/Research Team wish you a satisfying seasonal round of digital mayhem and destruction. And dont forget to leave a mince pie and a glass of sherry out for Sol Invictus -
Clearchus of Sparta
I'd like to wish all you RTR fans out there, patiently waiting for FOE, a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. My New year's resolution is not to let the release of Empire - Total War distract topo much away from my tasks on FOE! Come March 2009, I may even have to lock the box away in a cupboard and hide the key to make sure that I'm not tempted
-
Tony83
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year RTR fans!
The new year promises much Total Realism and Total War fun with FoE and Empires on the doorstep. Enjoy it! Oh... and don't forget your family and friends in the real world...
-
PatricianS Quinctius Cincinnatus wishes the fans all the best for the New Year- and ye better likes his movies or he'll come after you!
Season's greetrings to all of our fans out there. I hope you all have a good holiday -
Solaris
Battle Images
Bits 'n' Pieces
New Power
Kepper, one of RTR's intrepid beta testers, has been working on a little project of his own,
New Power , which is a modification of The Iberian Conflict (TIC) 1.1
This new mini mod includes several new regions and adds more playable factions to the mix, including a horde!
Download -
Filefront
Installation
Uncompress the downloaded file and copy and paste the
data folder over the existing TIC 1.1
data folder.
Please note that this overwrites the original TIC 1.1 mod, so you may wish back up your original TIC 1.1 data folder before proceding.
As the mod makes changes to the TIC map you should delete the map.rwm file before starting your first campaign with this mod.
This is a wip, so if you have any queations, or wish to make any comments, please do so
here .
Kepper would like to thank the members of the RTR team who have assisted him in his project, in particular, PatricianS and Muizer.
So here you are guys, a little Xmas present, TIC with a shot in the arm. Give it a go and do let us know how you get on.
Because it's Christmas, the RTR VII Movie Department would like to offer fans a sample of their work. We present nothing less than the RTR VII - Fate of Empires official S.P.Q.R. Faction Intro! We sincerely hope you enjoy it and promise you - there is more to come. Enjoy!
"The RTR VII movie department highly recommends everyone to OR watch the YouTube movie in high quality OR download the movie from the given FileFront link. Also don't forget to subscribe to the offical RTR VII YouTube account to receive all the updates on the movies!"
FOE Progress Report
Steady progress is being maintained on getting FOE ready for release. Work on the new government and trade systems, and other innovatove gameplay elements, is going well and nears completion for inclusion into the beta. We are confident that we will be able to begin serious campaign balance testing early in the New Year.
So we come to the end of the fifth FOE preview, we hope you have enjoyed it and found it informative. All that remains for us to do is to wish you a Happy Xmas/Yule/Sol Invicta or whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year, and a peaceful and prosperous New Year. See you all in 2009!
RTR: Fate of Empires - Preview Five
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