Camunni

A people of obscure origin, they lived in a region, the Val Camonica, that had already been the site of a cultural tradition dating back to the early Neolithic.

Conquered by Rome at the beginning of the 1st century AD, the Camunni were gradually incorporated into the political and social structures of the Roman Empire as a self-governing polity called the Res Publica Camunnorum.

The Licattii, the Clautenatii, and the Vennones proved to be the boldest warriors of all the Vindelici, as did the Rucantii and the Cotuantii of all the Rhaeti.The Roman historian Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD), citing the Origines of Cato the Elder (234–149 BC), spoke instead of the Camunni as one of several tribes of the Euganei: Verso deinde in Italiam pectore Alpium Latini iuris Euganeae gentes, quarum oppida XXXIIII enumerat Cato.

ex iis Trumplini, venalis cum agris suis populus, dein Camunni conpluresque similes finitimis adtributi municipisTurning then to the side of the Alps which fronts Italy, we have the Euganean nations enjoying Latin rights, and of whom Cato enumerates thirty-four towns.

Among these are the Triumplini, a people who were sold with their territory; and then the Camuni, and several similar tribes, each of them in the jurisdiction of its neighbouring municipal town.The Etruscans, already widespread in the Po Valley, had contacts with Alpine populations by the 5th century BC.

[3] Val Camonica was subjected to Rome during the campaigns of Augustus to conquer Raetia and the Alpine arc, conducted by his generals Nero Claudius Drusus and Tiberius (the future emperor) against the mountain peoples in 16–15 BC.

Publius Silius Nerva, governor of Illyricum, was to complete the conquest of the eastern Alpine front, which reached from the valley of Como to Lake Garda (therefore including the Valcamonica), in addition to the Vennoneti of Vinschgau.

This conquest was celebrated in the Trophy of the Alps (Tropaeum Alpium), a Roman monument erected in 7–6 BC and located in the French town of La Turbie, whose frontal inscription named the conquered Alpine peoples: · GENTES ALPINAE DEVICTAE TRVMPILINI · CAMVNNI · VENOSTES ·After the Roman conquest, the Camunni were annexed to the nearest cities in a condition of semi-subjection through the practice of adtributio, which allowed them to maintain their own tribal constitution while the dominant city became the administrative, judicial, and fiscal center.