Gallia Cisalpīna
“Gaul this side of the Alps,” with reference to Rome, a name
given to the northern part of Italy, as occupied by the Gallic tribes which had poured over
the Alps into this extensive tract of country. It is also called Gallia
Citerior. Livy assigns to these migrations of the Gauls as early a date as B.C. 600.
Having securely established themselves in their new possessions, they proceeded to make
further inroads into various parts of Italy, and thus came into contact with the forces of
Rome. More than two hundred years had elapsed from the time of their first invasion, when they
totally defeated the Roman army on the banks of the Allia, and became masters of Rome itself.
The defence of the Capitol and the exploits of Camillus (
Livy, v.
47 foll.), or, rather, if Polybius be correct (ii. 18), the gold of the vanquished and
the dangers which threatened the Gauls at home, preserved the State. From that time, the
Gauls, though they continued by frequent incursions to threaten and even to ravage the
territory of Rome, could make no impression on that power. Though leagued with the Samnites
and Etruscans, they were almost always unsuccessful. Defeated at Sentinum in Umbria, near the
Lake Vadimonis in Etruria, and in a still more decisive action near the port of Telamo in the
same province (Polyb. ii. 19 foll.), they soon found themselves forced to contend, not for
conquest, but for existence. The same ill success, however, attended their efforts in their
own territory. The progress of the Roman arms was irresistible; the Gauls were beaten back
from the Adriatic to the Po, from the Po to the Alps, and soon beheld Roman colonies
established and flourishing in many of the towns which had so lately been theirs.
Notwithstanding these successive disasters, their spirit, though curbed, was still unsubdued;
and when the enterprise of Hannibal afforded them an opportunity of retrieving their losses
and wreaking their vengeance on the foe, they eagerly embraced it. It is to their zealous
co-operation that Polybius ascribes in a great degree the primary success of that expedition.
By the efficient aid which they afforded Hannibal, he was enabled to commence operations
immediately after he had set foot in Italy, and to follow up his early success with
promptitude and vigour (Poly b. iii. 66). As long as this great commander maintained his
ground and gave employment to all the forces of the enemy, the Gauls remained unmolested, and
enjoyed their former freedom, without being much burdened by a war which was waged at a
considerable distance from their borders; but when the tide of success had again changed in
favour of Rome and the defeat of Hasdrubal, together with other disasters, had paralyzed the
efforts of Carthage, they once more saw their frontiers menaced; Gaul still offered some
resistance, even after Carthage itself had been obliged to sue for peace; but it was weak and
unavailing; and about twelve years after the termination of the Second Punic War, it was
brought under entire subjection and became a Roman province. Under this condition it continued
to receive various accessions of territory as the Romans extended their dominions towards the
Alps, till it comprised the whole of that portion of Italy which lies between those mountains
and the rivers Magra and Rubicon. It was sometimes known by the name of Gallia Togata (
Mela, ii. 4;
Plin.iii. 14), to distinguish it
from Transalpine Gaul, to which the name of Gallia Comata was applied
(
Cic. Phil. viii. 9). The epithet Togata
alludes to the rights of citizenship conferred on the natives of the country. The towns of
Cisalpine Gaul obtained the privileges of Latin cities, and, consequently, the right of
wearing the Roman toga, by a law of Pompeius Strabo (Ascon.
Com. in Or. in
Pison. p. 490), about B.C. 88.
According to Polybius, Cisalpine Gaul was included in the figure of a triangle, which had
the Alps and Apennines for two of its sides, and the Adriatic, as far as the city of Sena
Gallica, for the base. This is, however, but a rough sketch. (See
Italia.) Polybius describes the country as abounding in wine, corn, and
every kind of grain, and in fine wool. Herds of swine, both for public and private supply,
were bred in its forests; and such was the abundance of provisions of every kind that
travellers when at an inn did not find it necessary to agree on the price of any article which
they required, but paid so much for the whole amount of what was furnished them; and this
charge, at the highest, did not exceed half a Roman
as (Polyb. ii. 15).
