Alpine Regiments of The Roman Army - Roman Conquest - Introduction

Introduction

When he assumed sole control of the Roman empire in 30 BC, the emperor Augustus was faced with a pressing strategic anomaly. Although Rome had subjugated all Gaul up to the Rhine and much of Illyricum, the Alpine region which separated these possessions from Italy and from each other remained outside Roman control and in the hands of independent mountain tribes. These were warlike and troublesome, alternately attacking and robbing transient Roman troops and supply convoys or exacting exorbitant tolls from them for the privilege of using the key Alpine mountain passes e.g. the Salassi, who reportedly ambushed Julius Caesar on one occasion by hurling rocks on his army, charged Messalla extortionate fees for supplies and forced the escaping murderer of Caesar Decimus Brutus to pay a toll of one denarius per man to allow his army to cross the Great St Bernard Pass in 43 BC. That Rome's overland communications with its transalpine territories should be thus held to ransom was no longer tolerable, especially as Augustus was intent on advancing the Roman sphere of control as far as the Danube river.

A secondary strategic aim of annexing the Alpine regions was to seize control of their substantial mineral wealth, which included gold and the prized iron ore of Noricum.

In the period 25-14 BC, therefore, Augustus' generals subdued the entire Alpine region. In Augustus' own words: Alpes a regione ea, quae proxima est Hadriatico mari, ad Tuscum pacari feci, nullae genti bello per iniuriam inlato ("I pacified the Alps all the way from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian seas, without waging an unjust war on any tribe"). Although the latter claim is questionable, there is no doubt about the comprehensive and permanent nature of Augustus' subjugation of all the mountain tribes.

In 7 BC, Augustus erected the Tropaeum Alpium ("Victory Monument of the Alps") at La Turbie (Alpes-Maritimes, France) to commemorate his conquest of the Alps. The inscription on the monument, transcribed by Pliny the Elder, listed 45 Alpinae gentes devictae ("conquered Alpine tribes"), including the Raeti and Vindelici. However, the names of tribes in the eastern Alps are not included, leading to the suggestion that the subjugation of the latter was achieved with much less bloodshed.