Gaul (Cisalpine)
Gaul (Cisalpine)(see map: The Roman empire (western provinces)) The prosperous northern region of modern Italy, comprising the Po (Padus) plain and its mountain fringes from the Apennines to the Alps, was known to the Romans as Cisalpine Gaul. In the middle republic it was not even considered part of Italy, which extended only to the foothills of the Apennines along a line roughly from Pisa to Rimini (Ariminum). Beyond the Apennines lay Gaul, a land inhabited by Celtic peoples whom the Romans looked upon with fear and wonder. (See Gaul (Transalpine).)
The background to this situation is difficult to reconstruct in detail. Archaeological evidence broadly confirms literary reports of Etruscan settlement in Emilia-Romagna during the 6th cent. bc, and of the infiltration of Celtic peoples from beyond the Alps during the 5th and 4th cents. Rich warrior...
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