Τῶν Κελτῶν φόβος. Cisalpine Gauls and the Ebro Treaty
- Alberto Pérez Rubio Universdidad Autónoma de Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1836-5959
Abstract
This article analyses how Rome's relationship with the Gauls and its expansionist policy in the Cisalpine were the primary cause behind the Ebro treaty, which sought to avoid a possible conflict on two fronts and the union between Punics and Gauls in such an eventuality. It argues the strategic and psychological reasons —the metus gallicus— behind Rome's interest in securing peace with Carthage while dealing with its secular northern enemies.
Downloads
References
Almagro-Gorbea, Martín (2016): “Lancea, palabra lusitana, y la etnogénesis de los Lancienses”, Complutum 27/1, 131-168 (https://doi.org/10.5209/CMPL.53220).
Amat Séguin, Brigitte (1987): “Diodore XIV, 113 : une catastrophe climatique à l'origine des pérégrinations sénones en Italie péninsulaire”, Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome – Antiquité 99/2, 823-846.
Amat Séguin, Brigitte (1989): “Denys d’Halicarnasse et la prise de Rome par les Gaulois : réflexions sur la méthode d’un rhéteur historien”, Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome – Antiquité 101/1, 143-157.
Balsdon, John Percy Vyvian Dacre (1957): “The Veracity of Caesar”, Greece & Rome 4/1, 19-28.
Bandelli, Gino (2005): “La conquista dell’ager Gallicus e il problema della colonia Aesis”, Aquileia Nostra 76, 13-54.
Baronowski, Donald Walter (1993): “Roman Military Forces in 225 B.C. (Polybius 2.23-4)”, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 42/2, 181-202.
Bellen, Heinz (1985): Metus Gallicus-Metus Punicus: zum Furchtmotiv in der romischen Republik, Stuttgart.
Bellomo, Michelle (2021a): “L'espansione romana nella seconda metà del III secolo a.C. e il caso delle guerre liguri tra 'grande strategia' e competizione nobiliare”, [en] Silvia Giorcelli Bersani – Marica Venturino (eds.), I Liguri e Roma, Roma, 149-167.
Bellomo, Michelle (2021b): “Da Roma alle Alpi. Competizione nobiliare, consenso popolare e strategia militare nella politica espansionistica romana in Cisalpina tra la fine del III e l’inizio del II secolo a.C.”, Historika. Studi di Storia greca e romana 11, 205-238 (https://doi.org/10.13135/2039-4985/5954).
Beloch, Karl Julius (1926): Römische Geschichte, Berlin.
Bender, Peter (1997): “Rom, Karthago und die Kelten”, Klio 79, 87-106.
Bienkowski, Pierre (1908): Die Darstellungen der Gallier in der hellenistischen Kunst, Wien.
Bienkowski, Pierre (1928): Les Celtes dans les arts mineurs gréco-romains. Avec des Recherches Iconographiques sur Quelques Autres Peuples Barbares, Cracovie.
Bloch, Raymond (1964): “Traditions étrusques et traditions celtiques dans l'histoire des premiers siècles de Rome”, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 108ᵉ année, N. 2, 388-400.
Bourdin, Stéphane (2007): “Les Gaulois à Chiusi : Réflexions sur les mouvements migratoires et sur l’activité diplomatique des Celtes en Italie”, Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome - Antiquité 119/1, 17-24 (https://doi.org/10.3406/mefr.2007.10322).
Bourdin, Stéphane (2011): “Le rôdeur devant le seuil. L’installation de garnisons étrangères sur le territoire des cités d’Italie républicaine (IVe-IIe siècles av. J.-C.)”, [en] Jean-Christophe Couvenhes – Sandrine Crouzet – Sandra Péré-Noguès (dirs.), Pratiques et identités culturelles des armées hellénistiques du monde méditerranéen (=Hellenistic Warfare 3, Scripta Antiqua 38), Bordeaux, 19-34.
(2012): Les peuples de l'Italie préromaine: identités, territoires et relations inter-ethniques en Italie centrale et septentrionale (VIIIe-Ier s. av. J.-C.), Rome.
Cassola, Filippo (1974): “I rapporti fra Roma e la Gallia Cisalpina nell'età delle Guerre Puniche”, Antichità Altoadriatiche 5. Aquileia e l'Africa, Trieste, 11-21.
Cassola, Filippo (1982): “Diodoro e la storia romana”, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.30.1, 724-773.
Chevallier, Raymond (1983): La romanisation de la Celtique du Pô. Essai d'histoire provinciale, Rome.
Cifani, Gabrielle (2012): “The Servian Walls”, [en] Andrea Carandini (ed.) The Atlas of Ancient Rome, Princeton, 81-84.
Cifani, Gabrielle (2016): “The fortifications of archaic Rome: social and political significance”, [en] Rune Frederiksen – Silke Müth – Peter Schneider – Mike Schnelle (eds.), Focus on Fortification: New research on fortifications in the Ancient Mediterranean and the Near East. Papers of the conference on the Research of Ancient Fortifications, Athens 6-9 December 2012, Oxford, 82-93.
Coarelli, Filippo (2014): La Gloria dei Vinti. Pergamo, Atene, Roma, Milano.
Corbett, John H. (1971): “Rome and the Gauls 285-280 B.C.”, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte 20/5-6, 656-664.
Cornell, Tim J. (1995): The Beginnings of Rome. Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC), London.
Cornell, Tim J.(2005): “The Value of the Literary Tradition Concerning Archaic Rome”, [en] Kurt A. Raaflaub (ed.) Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders Expanded and Updated Edition, Malden-Oxford, 47-74.
Delfino, Alessandro (2009): “L’incendio gallico: tra mito storiografico e realtà storica”, Mediterraneo Antico 12/1-2, 339-360.
Desnier, Jean-Luc (1991): “Le Gaulois dans l’imaginaire monétaire de la République romaine. Images plurielles d'une réalité singulière”, Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome - Antiquité, 103/2, 605-654.
Eckstein, Arthur M. (1982): “Human Sacrifice and Fear of Military Disaster in Republican Rome”, American Journal of Ancient History 7, 69-96.
Eckstein, Arthur M. (2006): Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome, Berkeley.
Eckstein, Arthur M. (2012): “Polybius, the Gallic Crisis, and the Ebro Treaty”, Classical Philology 107/3, 206-229.
Engerbeaud, Mathieu
Eckstein, Arthur M. (2018): “Le ‘jour de l’Allia’ (dies Alliensis). Recherches sur l’anniversaire d’une défaite dans les calendriers romains”, Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome – Antiquité 130/1, 251-266 (https://doi.org/10.4000/mefra.4769).
Eckstein, Arthur M. (2024): “Le sac gaulois de Rome : nouveau départ pour l’histoire romaine ou repère chronologique surestimé ?”, Romana Res Publica 3, 59-79.
Ercolani Cocchi, Emanuela (2004) “Il territorio di Ariminum : avamposto della colonizzazione”, [en] Emanuela Ercolani Cocchi – Anna Lina Morelli – Diana Neri (eds.), Romanizzazione e moneta. La testimonianza dei rinvenimenti dall’Emilia Romagna, Firenze, 29-42.
Erdkamp, Paul (2008): “Polybius 2.24. Greek propaganda and Roman manpower”, Ancient Society 38, 137-152 (https://doi.org/10.1086/665622).
Erdkamp, Paul (2009): “Polybius, the Ebro Treaty, and the Gallic Invasion of 225 B.C.E.”, Classical Philology 104/4, 495-510 (https://doi.org/10.1086/650983).
Erdkamp, Paul (2020): “War, Vestal Virgins and live burials in the Roman Republic”, [en] Matthew Dillon – Cristopher Matthew (eds.) Religion and Classical Warfare. Volume II: The Roman Republic, London, 180-215.
Errington, Robert Malcom (1970): “Rome and Spain before the Second Punic War”, Latomus 29, 25-57.
Fernández-Götz, Manuel (2014): De la familia a la etnia. Protohistoria de la Galia oriental, Madrid.
Ferris, Iain M. (2011): “The Pity of War: Representations of Gauls and Germans in Roman Art”, [en] Erich S. Gruen (ed.), Cultural Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean, Los Angeles, 185-201.
Fichtl, Stéphane (2003): “Cité et territoire celtique à travers l'exemple du Belgium”, Archivo Español de Arqueología 76, 97-110 (https://doi.org/10.3989/aespa.2003.v76.107).
Fronda, Michael P. (2014): Between Rome and Carthage: Southern Italy during the Second Punic War, Cambridge.
Gardner, Jane F. (1984): “The 'Gallic Menace' in Caesar's Propaganda”, Greece & Rome 30/2, 181-189.
Gnoli, Tommaso (2015): “Metus Gallicus: ‘metus’ come spinta al cambiamento”, Storicamente, 11, 1-16.
Gorini, Giovanni (2010): “La monetazione di Ariminum”, Revue numismatique 6/166, 311-335.
Harmand, Jacques (1973): “Une composante scientifique du Corpus Caesarianum: le portrait de la Gaule dans le De Bello Gallico I-VIII", Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt I.3, 523-595.
Höckmann, Ursula (1991) “Galliera Stellungen in der Etruskischen Grabkunst des 2. Jahrunderts u. Chr.”, Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 106, 199-230.
Holliday, Peter J. (1994): “Celtomachia: The Representation of Battles with Gauls on Etruscan Funerary Urns”, Etruscan Studies. Journal of the Etruscan Foundation 1, 23-45.
Hoyos, Dexter (1998): Unplanned Wars. The Origins of the First and Second Punic Wars, Berlin.
Humm, Michel (2017): “Rome, une ‘cité grecque’ prise par les Hyperboréens”, Ktéma 42, 53-71.
Ikäheimo, Janne – Kuusela, Jari-Matti – Jarva, Eeero (2017): “Buried Under? Re-examining the Topography and Geology of the Allia Battlefield”, Arctos. Acta Philologica Phennica 51, 89-109 (https://doi.org/10.17613/M6736M18C).
Johnston, Andrew C. (2017): “Nostri and ‘The Other(s)’” [en] Luca Grillo – Christopher B. Krebs (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to the Writings of Julius Caesar, Cambridge, 81-94 (https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139151160.007).
Kerremans, Bernt (2015): “Metus Gallicus, tumultus Cimbricus? The Possible Promulgation of a tumultus in the Cimbrian War (105-101 BCE)”, Mnemosyne 69/5, 822-841.
Koptev, Aleksandr (2011): “The Massacre of Old Men by the Gauls in 390 BC and the Social Meaning of Old Age in Early Rome”, [en] C. Krötzl – K. Mustakallio (eds.) On Old Age: Approaching Death in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Turnhout, 153-182 (https://doi.org/10.1484/M.HDL-EB.4.3008).
Kruta, Venceslas (2008): “Les Sénons dans les Marches aux IVe et IIIe siècles avant J.-C. État de la question”, Études Celtiques 36, 7-20.
Kuttner, Ann L. (1995): “Republican Rome Looks at Pergamon”, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 97, 157-178 (http://doi.org/10.2307/311304).
La Rocca, Eugenio (2025): “Celtomachies in Italy and the Influence of the Pergamene Gauls”, [en] Thomas J Nelson – Giuseppe Pezzini – Stefano Rebeggiani (eds.) Pergamon and Rome: Culture, Identity, and Influence, Oxford, 372-408 (https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198912071.003.0016).
Landolfi, Maurizio (1987): “Presenze galliche nel Piceno a sud del fiume Esino”, [en] Daniele Vitali (ed.), Celti ed Etruschi nell’Italia centro-settentrionale dal V secolo a.C. alla romanizzazione, Atti del colloquio internationale, Bologna 1985, Imola, 443-468.
Landolfi, Maurizio (1991): “I Senoni dell’Adriatico dopo la battaglia di Sentinum”, [en] Venceslas Kruta (ed.), Les Celtes au IIIe s. avant J.-C., Actes du IXe Congrès international d’études celtiques, Paris 1991. Études celtiques 28, 219-235.
Landolfi, Maurizio (2001): “Continuità e discontinuità culturale nel Piceno del IV secolo a.C.”, [en] Eroi e Regine, Piceni popolo d’Europa, Roma Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, avril-Juillet 2001, Roma, 176-178.
Lepore, Giuseppe (2013): “L’origine della colonia romana di Sena Gallica”, [en] Gianfranco Paci (ed.), Epigrafia e Archeologia romana nel territorio marchigiano. In memoria di Lidio Gasperini, Atti del Convegno (Macerata, 22-23 aprile 2013), Tivoli, 297-332.
Lepore, Giuseppe (2014): “La colonia di Sena Gallica : un progetto abbandonato?”, [en] Monica Chiabà (ed.) HOC QVOQVE LABORIS PRAEMIVM. Scritti in onore di Gino Bandelli, Trieste, 219-242.
Lepore, Giuseppe – Silani, Michele (2021a): “Lo sviluppo di una conquista. Dalla fondazione della colonia di Sena Gallica all’organizzazione dell’ager”, [en] Michel Tarpin (dir.), Colonies, territoires et statuts : nouvelles aproches (=Dialogues d'histoire ancienne. Supplément 23), Besançon, 179-212 (https://doi.org/10.3917/dha.hs23.0179).
Lepore, Giuseppe – Silani, Michele (2021b): “The Roman colony of Sena Gallica. Urban space and economic activities”, [en] Frank Vermeulen – Arjan Zuiderhoek (eds.), Space, Movement and the Economy in Roman Cities in Italy and Beyond, London, 158-179.
Loreto, Luigi (2012): “Roman Politics and Expansion, 241-219”, [en] Dexter Hoyos (ed.), A Companion to the Punic Wars, Malden, 184-203 (https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444393712.ch11).
Lucas, Gérard (2009): “Gésates et gaesum dans les sources littéraires gréco-latines”, [en] Marie-Jeanne Roulière-Lambert et alii (eds.), De l’âge du Bronze à l’âge du Fer en France et en Europe occidentale (Xe-VIIe siècle av. J.-C.). La moyenne vallée du Rhône aux âges du Fer. Actes du XXXe Colloque International de l'Association Française pour l'Étude de l'Âge du Fer (AFEAF), mai 2006, Saint-Romain-en-Gal (=Revue archéologique de l'Est, 27e suppl.), Dijon, 11 25.
Luce, T. James (1971): “Design and Structure in Livy : 5.32-55”, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 102, 265-302.
Marco Simón, Francisco (1993): “Feritas Celtica: imagen y realidad del bárbaro clásico”, [en] Emma Falqué – Fernando Gascó (ed.) Modelos ideales y prácticas de vida en la Antigüedad clásica, Sevilla, 141-166.
Marco Simón, Francisco (2012): “Iconografía de la derrota: formas de representación del bárbaro occidental en época tardorrepublicana y altoimperial”, [en] Francisco Marco Simón – Francisco Pina Polo – José Remesal Rodríguez (eds.), Vae victis! Perdedores en el mundo antiguo (=Instrumenta 40), Barcelona, 177-195.
Marszal, John R. (2000): “Ubiquitous Barbarians. Representations of the Gauls at Pergamon at Elsewhere”, [en] Nancy T. de Grummond – Brunilde S. Ridgway (eds.), From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context, Berkeley, 191-234.
Massa-Pairault, Françoise-Hélène (1992): Iconologia e politica nell'Italia antica. Roma, Lazio, Etruria dal VII al I secolo a.C., Milano.
Mattingly, Harold B. (1982): “Polybius' use of Fabius Pictor”, Liverpool Classical Monthly 7, 20-43.
Mommsen, Theodor (1879): Römische Forschungen II, Berlin.
Morgan, M. Gwyn (1972): “The Defeat of L. Metellus Denter at Arretium”, The Classical Quarterly, New Series 22/2, 309-325
Ortalli, Jacopo (1990): “Le mura coloniali di Ariminum e il deposito monetale di fondazione con semuncia a ‘testa di Gallo’”, Etudes Celtiques 27, 103-118.
Östenberg, Ida (2014): “War and remembrance. Memories of defeat in ancient Rome”, [en] Brita Alroth – Charlotte Scheffer [eds.] Attitudes towards the past in Antiquity. Creating identities, Proceedings of an International Conference held at Stockholm University, 15-17 May 2009, Stockholm, 255-265.
Panvini, Francesco (1962): “La monetazione di Ariminum”, Studi Romagnoli 13, 159-173.
Péré-Noguès, Sandra (2014): “Réflexions autour du mercenariat en Méditerranée occidentale : le cas des Gésates”, [en] Olivier Buchsenschutz – Olivier Dutour – Claude Mordant (eds.), Archéologie de la violence et de la guerre dans les sociétés pré et protohistoriques, Paris, 141-146.
Pérez Rubio, Alberto (2016): “Sur les premiers contacts diplomatiques entre la Keltiké et les États méditerranéens : la genèse d’un droit de la guerre”, Ktèma 41, 143-165.
Pérez Rubio, Alberto (2017a): “Fabio Píctor y el doble de Breno”, Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome – Antiquité 129/2, 373-398 (https://doi.org/10.4000/mefra.4478).
Pérez Rubio, Alberto (2017b): “Singing the deeds of the ancestors. The memory of battle in Late Iron Age Gaul and Iberia", [en] Manuel Fernández-Götz – Nico Roymans (eds.), Conflict Archaeology: Materialities of Collective Violence in Late Prehistoric and Early Historic Europe. London-New York, 89-101.
Pérez Rubio, Alberto (2022): Coaliciones, diplomacia y conectividad en la Galia ca. 150-50 a.C. Una Segunda Edad de Hierro en red, Tesis doctoral, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Pérez Rubio, Alberto (2023): “Hijos de Teutates. El nacimiento de las identidades étnicas en la Galia”, Desperta Ferro Arqueología e Historia 49, 56-61.
(e.p): “Galatai y Galli, ‘los más bravos’” [en] Miguel Ángel Lechuga – Juan Pedro Bellón – Fernando Quesada (eds.), Arqueología del Conflicto (=Anejos de Gladius), Madrid.
Pierozzi, Andrea (2019): “Dionisio I, i Celti e il sacco di Roma. Alcune riflessioni sulla cronologia e sulla strategia delle operazioni militari siracusane tra l'Elleporo e Pyrgi”, Erga-Logoi. Rivista di storia, letteratura, diritto e culture dell'antichità 7/2, 45-82.
Piegdoń, Maciej (2013): “Coloniam Deducere. Colonisation as an Instrument of the Roman Policy of Domination in Italy in the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BC, as Illustrated by Settlements in the Ager Gallicus and Picenum”, Electrum 20, 117-141.
Rich, John (1996): “The Origins of the Second Punic War”, [en] Timothy J. Cornell – Boris Rankov – Paul Sabin (eds.), The Second Punic War: A Reappraisal, London, 1-37.
Rosenberger, Veit (1998): Gezähmte Götter: Das Prodigienwesen der römischen Republik, Stuttgart.
Rosenberger, Veit (2003): “The Gallic Disaster”, The Classical World 96, 365-373.
Roy, Allison (2022): “Terror Gallicus: Gallic Warriors and Captive Enemies in Roman Visual Culture”, Nuova Antologia Militare 3/10, 217-246.
Russo, Federico (2012): “L'Italia nella prospettiva romana (III secolo a.C.)”, Studi Classici e Orientali 58, 11-186.
Salamon, Gérard (1987): “Arruns de Clusium et l'entrée des Gaulois en Italie”, Revue des études latines 65, 74-88.
Salmon, Edward Togo (1935): “Rome’s Battles with Etruscans and Gauls in 284-282 B.C.”, Classical Philology 30/1, 23-31.
Schultz, Celia E. (2010): “The Romans and Ritual Murder”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78/2, 516-541.
Sordi, Marta (1960): I rapporti romano-ceriti e I'origine della civitas sine suffragio, Roma.
Sordi, Marta (1976): “La leggenda di Arrunte chiusino e la prima invasione gallica in Italia”, Rivista Storica dell’Antichità 6-7, 111-117.
Sordi, Marta (1981-1982): “I Galli in Apulia”, Invigilata lucernis 3-4, 5-12.
Sordi, Marta (2002): “Dionigi e il Tirreno”, [en] Nicola Bonacasa – Lorenzo Braccesi – Ernesto De Miro (eds.) La Sicilia dei due Dionisî, Atti della settimana di studio, Agrigento 24-28 febbraio 1999, Roma, 493-500.
Spigola, Barbara (2024): Les premières étapes de la pénétration romaine en Cisalpine centrale et occidentale (295 – 143 av. n. è.) : une relecture des sources, Tesis doctoral, Università di Torino.
Steingräber, Stephan (2000): “Pergamene Influences on Etruscan Hellenistic Art”, [en] Nancy T. de Grummond – Brunilde S. Ridgway (eds.), From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context, Berkeley, 235-254.
Taylor, Michael J. (2017): “Etruscan Identity and Service in the Roman Army: 300-100 B.C.E.”, American Journal of Archaeology 121/2, 275-292 (https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.121.2.0275).
Vacanti, Claudio (2015): “Pensare l’Italia, progettare Roma. Hard power, suasione, soft power: i tria corda della grande strategia romana tra III guerra sannitica e I guerra púnica”, Atene e Roma, Nuova Serie Seconda 9/3-4, 129-162.
Várhelyi, Zsuzsanna (2007): “The Specters of Roman Imperialism: The Live Burials of Gauls and Greeks at Rome”, Classical Antiquity 26/2, 277-304.
Vattuone, Riccardo (2007): “Western Greek historiography”, [en] John Marincola (ed.), A companion to Greek and Roman historiography, Oxford, 188-199 (https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405185110.ch15).
Vitali, Daniele (2002): “L'armamento dei celti nel periodo della battaglia del Metauro”, [en] Mario Luni (ed.), La battaglia del Metauro. Tradizione e studi, Urbino, 103-134.
Walbank, Frank William (1957): A historical commentary on Polybius, vol. 1: Books I-VI, Oxford.
Williams, Jonathan (2001): Beyond the Rubicon. Romans and Gauls in Republican Italy, Oxford.
Wolski, Józef (1956): “La prise de Rome par les Celtes et la formation de l'annalistique romaine”, Historia 5, 24-52.
Article download
Crossmark
License
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Gerión. Revista de Historia Antigua is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
