While the situation in the East could be maintained as Pompey and Mark Antony had left it, in the West, a territorial reorganization between the Rhine and the Black Sea appeared necessary to guarantee internal stability and, at the same time, more defensible frontiers.

This campaign was followed by another in the Alps, aimed at securing the border and roads between Italy and Gaul: These two years of campaigning were devoted to subduing the populations settled around the Great St Bernard Pass, under the joint action of generals Aulus Terentius Varro Murena, who operated from the south against the Salassi people, and Marcus Vinicius,[4] in the north, as legate of chevelue Gaul, who subdued the population of Vallis Poenina (today's Valais).

[4] At the end of the military operations, the 44,000 surviving Salassi were sold as slaves on the market of Eporedia (Ivrea), while the colony of Augusta Praetoria (Aosta) was founded on the site of their stronghold.

At one time or another, the following legions were involved: Tiberius, just appointed praetor, accompanies Augustus to Gaul, where he spends the next three years, until 13 BC, assisting him in the organization and administration of the Gallic provinces.

[8][9] The princeps also took his son on a punitive campaign across the Rhine against the tribe of Sicambres and their allies Tencteres and Usipetes, who in the winter of 17-16 BC defeated proconsul Marcus Lollius Paulinus, resulting in the partial destruction of legio V Alaudae and the loss of its insignia.

C. in honor of Emperor Augustus, contains the names of 45 Alpine peoples from Italy, Narbonne Gaul and Rhetia: Triumpilins, Camunni, Vennonetes, Venostes, Isarcians, Breunes, Génaunes, Focunates, the four tribes of the Vindéliciens (Consuanètes, Rucinates, Licates and Caténates), Ambisuntes, Rugusces, Suanètes, Calucons, Brixentes, Lépontiens, Vibères, Nantuates, Sédunes, Véragres, Salasses, Acitavons, Médulles, Ucènes, Caturiges, Brigians, Sogiontiens, Brodiontiens, Némalones, Édénates, Ésubiens, Veamini, Gallitae, Triulattes, Ectini, Vergunni, Éguitures, Némentures, Oratelles, Néruses, Vélaunes et Suetrii.

The limits of the Roman Empire were pushed north and east, from the Rhine and the Alps to the Elbe and the Danube, in the hope of reducing the length of continental frontiers to be defended.