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Short description

These Salluvian swordsmen are ferocious and tough warriors, willing to demonstrate their courage in battle against any foe.

Description

These formidable warriors are recruited from the Salluvii, a powerful tribe leading a Celto-Ligurian confederation in the Rhône basin north of Massalia. They are outfitted with the finest weapons and armour they could afford. An iron helmet protects their head, a mail shirt their torso, and a torc adorns their neck. As proud warriors, these swordsmen will seek to distinguish themselves by finding glory in battle. They will open an engagement with a volley of javelins before charging the enemy head on, slashing and hacking their way through with their two-edged swords and defending themselves with their richly decorated thureos shields. Both as warriors and as local guides, they make for excellent mercenaries, serving only those who can afford them.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Salluvii were a tribe located in the northern hinterland of Massalia and south of the Durance River, occupying parts of the Maritime Alps and the Mediterranean coast (Strab. IV.6.3). They were divided into 10 cantons, capable of raising an impressive number of both infantry and cavalry (Strab. IV.6.3). According to Livy, the Phokaians who founded Massalia around 600 BC came to blows with the Salluvii relatively early on. Bellovesus, a legendary Celtic chief leading several tribes towards Italy, allegedly met the Salluvii while they were attacking Massalia, but assisted the Greeks in building their fortifications without interference (Liv. V.34.7-8). Relations between Massalia and its neighbours, especially the Salluvii, were complicated. Despite early hostilities, Massalia eventually succeeded in establishing friendly and beneficial relationships with the local tribes in its hinterland, with Greek wares travelling deep into Gallic territory. Thus strong Hellenic influences can be seen in the architectural remains of Glanum, one of the major Salluvian oppida in the 2nd century BC – even some Massaliote merchants and their families might have resided there. Furthermore, Salluvian mercenaries may have served in the Massaliote army, for example, acting as local guides for the Massaliote and Roman forces during the Second Punic War in 218 BC (Pol. III.41).

At the same time, the construction of stone fortifications around both various Celto-Ligurian oppida in the Rhône basin and around Massalia and its colonies during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, implies an increase of violent tensions and demonstrate the hostile side of the Massaliote-Salluvian relationship. The late 3rd century BC saw the Romans establishing a military presence in Southern Gaul, at first planning to intercept Hannibal near the Rhône River, later trying to secure the land route between Italy and their new provinces in Iberia. The arrival of Roman armies might have led to the creation of a larger Salluvian confederation in response to this new potential threat (Dietler, Archaeologies of Colonialism, p. 178). Strabo notes how the Salluvians managed to close Roman routes into Iberia along the coast and conducted raids both on land and at sea, growing in strength so much that even “large armies were scarcely able to force a passage”. They were only subdued after 80 years of fighting, with Rome even then only being able to clear a small area of “twelve stadia for the purpose of making a public road” (Strab. IV.6.3). Massalia, being caught in the middle of this new dynamic, had to increasingly rely on Roman intervention against Celto-Ligurian incursions to protect its own territorial and commercial interests. In 181 BC, it called for the Roman Republic to crush Ligurian pirates raiding the coast, in 154 BC to relieve the besieged subcolonies of Nikaia and Antipolis, and in 125 BC to fight off Salluvian assaults on Massaliote territory. The Salluvii were finally subdued in 122 BC and incorporated into the Roman province of Gallia Transalpina between 120 and 117 BC.