Salassi

They are mentioned as dià Salassō̃n (διὰ Σαλασσῶν) by Polybius (2nd c. BC) and Strabo (early 1st c. AD),Polybius. Historíai, 34:10:18; Strabo. Geōgraphiká, 4:6:5. as Salassi by Livy (late 1st c. BC),Livy. Ab Urbe Condita Libri, 5:35:2. as Salassos by Pliny (1st c. AD),Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:134. as Salasíon (Σαλασίον) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD),Ptolemy. Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis, 3:1:10. as Salassoí (Σαλασσοί) by Appian (2nd c. AD).Appian. Illyr., 17.{{Harvnb|Falileyev|2010}}, s.v. Salassi.

The origin of the ethnic name Salassi remains unclear. If Celtic, it may derive from the root sal-, with various possible explanations regarding the word-formation. According to Cato the Elder and Strabo, the Salassi were a Ligurian tribe.Strabo, Geography, Book IV, Chapter 6Pliny, Natural History, Book 3, paragraph 20

The Salassi lived in the upper valley of the Dora Baltea river, where they controlled the Great and Little St Bernard passes in the Alps, collecting road tolls, and gold and iron mines.{{Sfn|Graßl|2006}}{{Sfn|Salway|Potter|2016}} Their territory was located south of the Veragri, north of the Iemerii and Taurini, west of the Lepontii, Montunates and Votodrones, east of the Acitavones.{{harvnb|Talbert|2000}}, Map 18: Augustonemetum-Vindonissa, Map 39: Mediolanum. According to Cato, they were part of the Taurisci.{{Sfn|Graßl|2006}}

They were subjugated by the Roman forces of Claudius in 143 BC.{{Sfn|Graßl|2006}} The Roman Republic took over the rich gold deposits, and a colony was later planted in 100 BC at Eporedia (Ivrea) to take control of the Alpine route into the Po Valley and guard over the Salassi.{{Sfn|Salway|Potter|2016}}

Relations with the Romans were not uniformly peaceful; Strabo mentions that the Salassi robbed Julius Caesar's treasury and threw stones on his legions on the grounds that they were making roads and building bridges.Strabo Geography 4.6.7 There may have been a Roman campaign against the Salassi in 35 or 34 BC, launched from the valley of the Isère river under Antistius Vetus{{Sfn|Rivet|1988|p=78}} or Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus.Syme R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=fj8oQ4lzteIC The Augustan Aristocracy]. OUP 1989. pp 204-5

For their last decade of freedom the Salassi – alongside some other, mainly Alpine, tribes subjugated by 14 BC – were almost the only remaining groups not under Roman control in the Mediterranean basin. After the Battle of Actium in 31 BC the Roman world was united under one ruler, Augustus, who could concentrate Roman forces against remaining holdouts.{{cite magazine|author=|date=8 August 1907|title=Roman Italy in the North: II—-Aosta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JR5AAQAAMAAJ&q=%22the+Salassi+who+had+joined+the+colony+from+its+beginning%22&pg=PA116|magazine=The Nation|location=New York|access-date=22 April 2016}}

They were definitively conquered by Aulus Terentius Varro Murena in 25 BC, and the colony of Augusta Praetoria (modern Aosta) was founded in the following year with 3,000 settlers.{{Sfn|Salway|Potter|2016}} Strabo records that two thousand Salassi were killed and all the survivors, nearly 40,000 men, women, and children, were taken to Eporedia (modern day Ivrea) and sold into slavery. However, some remained; an inscription found near the west gate of Augusta Praetoria Salassorum is a dedication to Augustus dated 23 BC of a statue (?) by "the Salassi who had joined the colony from its beginning."

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{Cite book|last=Appian|title=Roman History|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0674996472|series=Loeb Classical Library|translator-last=McGing|translator-first=Brian|author-link=Appian}}
• {{Cite book|last=Livy|title=History of Rome|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2019|isbn=978-0674992566|series=Loeb Classical Library|translator-last=Yardley|translator-first=J. C.|author-link=Livy}}
• {{Cite book|last=Pliny|title=Natural History|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1938|isbn=978-0674993648|series=Loeb Classical Library|translator-last=Rackham|translator-first=H.|author-link=Pliny the Elder}}
• {{Cite book|last=Polybius|title=The Histories|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-674-99637-3|series=Loeb Classical Library|translator-last=Paton|translator-first=W. R.|author-link=Polybius|translator-last2=Walbank|translator-first2=F. W.|translator-last3=Habicht|translator-first3=Christian}}
• {{Cite book|last=Strabo|title=Geography|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1923|isbn=978-0674990562|series=Loeb Classical Library|translator-last=Jones|translator-first=Horace L.|author-link=Strabo}}

{{refend}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{Cite book|last=Falileyev|first=Alexander|title=Dictionary of Continental Celtic Place-names: A Celtic Companion to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World|publisher=CMCS|year=2010|isbn=978-0955718236}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Graßl|first=Herbert|date=2006|title=Salassi|journal=Brill's New Pauly|doi=10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1027950}}
• {{Cite journal|last1=Salway|first1=Peter|last2=Potter|first2=T. W.|date=2016|title=Salassi|journal=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5669|isbn=9780199381135}}
• {{Cite book|last=Rivet|first=A. L. F.|title=Gallia Narbonensis: With a Chapter on Alpes Maritimae : Southern France in Roman Times|date=1988|publisher=Batsford|isbn=978-0-7134-5860-2|author-link=A.L.F. Rivet}}
• {{Cite book|last=Talbert|first=Richard J. A.|title=Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0691031699|author-link=Richard Talbert}}

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{{Gallic peoples}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Historical Celtic peoples

Category:Gauls

Category:Ligures

Category:Ancient peoples of Italy

Category:Tribes conquered by the Roman Republic

Category:Tribes conquered by Rome

Category:Aosta