Gallia cisalpina
Gallia cisalpina or Gallia citerior (German "Gallien this side of the Alps" or "this side of the Gaul") was from 203 to 41 BC. A province of the Roman Empire and then became an integral part of the Roman heartland. According to modern geographical terms, the Gallia cisalpina roughly encompassed present-day Northern Italy and the present-day Croatian peninsula of Istria ( Histria ).
Since the area has been around since the 5th century BC. Was settled by Celts in the ancient world, it initially belonged to Gaul , not to the Italian settlement area, and was conquered by Rome during the Second Punic War against Hannibal . In the first few years the naming of the province fluctuated. Livy called them, depending on which source he was following, alternately "Gallia", "Ligures et Gallia" and " Ariminum ". The name "Gallia cisalpina" had probably already been used by Sulla's time at the latest , but it was only used for the year 59 BC. When Gaius Iulius Caesar received the Lex Vatinia for administration of this province, together with Gallia Narbonensis and Illyria . In 49 BC BC the inhabitants were given Roman citizenship ( civitas Romana ). 41 BC The province was dissolved and incorporated into the Roman heartland.
Gallia cisalpina was home to important Latin writers such as Catullus , Virgil , Livius , Cornelius Nepos , Pliny the Elder and the Younger .
The province was divided into regions
- Aemilia (or Gallia cispadana ),
- Liguria ,
- Venetia et Histria and
- Transpadana (also Gallia transpadana ).
literature
- Tilmann Bechert : The provinces of the Roman Empire. Introduction and overview. von Zabern, Mainz 1999, ISBN 3-8053-2399-9 , p. 63f
- John Anthony Cramer : A Geographical and Historical Description of Ancient Italy , Volume I, Oxford 1826, pp. 40-110
