Insubrian Infantry
Spearmen Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
Typical of Celtic warriors, these men are a definite asset to any army, and a dangerous enemy.
Description
A Celtic people of upper Italy, the most powerful in Gallia Transpadana, inhabiting the country between the Adda, the Ticinus and the Alps. According to Livy, they appear to have been a branch of the Aedui, though others assume that they were Umbrian's, a view to some extent supported by the form Is-ombr-es. Livy states that Bellovesus and his Gauls, having crossed the Alps and defeated the Etruscans near the Ticinus, found themselves in the territory of the Insubres (also the name of a pagus of the Aedui). Here they built a city and called it Mediolanum (Milan), after the name of a village in their home in Gallia Transalpina.
Though Celtic at the time of Roman conquest, they were most likely the result of the fusion of pre-existing Ligurian, Celtic and Italic populations.
Together with the Boii, Lingones, Taurini, Gaesatae and other Gallic groups, the Insubres were defeated in 224 or 225 BC by the Roman army led by consul Lucius Aemilius Papus at the Battle of Telamon. Two years later the Romans, backed by their Gallic allies the Cenomani, reduced the only fortified place of the Insubres at Acerrae, and defeated them again at the Battle of Clastidium. After the defeat of the Gaesatae, they were compelled to accept the Roman occupation of Milan in 221 and a forced alliance with Rome.
During the invasion of Hannibal in 218-217 BC, the Insubres rebelled in support of the Carthaginians. They also supported the Carthaginians again in 200 BC, this time under Hamilcar. After several other clashes, they definitively allied with Rome after being subdued by L. Valerius Flaccus in 194 BC. In 89 BC they obtained Latin citizenship and, in 49 BC, Roman citizenship.