Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: April 30, 2025
On the other hand even before the time of Marius, especially in the cavalry and the light infantry, extra-Italian subjects the heavy mounted troopers of Thrace, the light African cavalry, the excellent light infantry of the nimble Ligurians, the slingers from the Baleares were employed in ever-increasing numbers even beyond their own provinces for the Roman armies; and at the same time, while there was a want of qualified burgess-recruits, the non- qualified poorer burgesses pressed forward unbidden to enter the army; in fact, from the mass of the civic rabble without work or averse to it, and from the considerable advantages which the Roman war-service yielded, the enlistment of volunteers could not be difficult.
On the wide region beyond Ravenna as far as the Alps non-Italian peoples were settled. At the western end of the plain the Ligurians began, who, mingled with isolated Celtic tribes, and settled on the Apennines from above Arezzo and Pisa westward, occupied the region of the sources of the Po.
History, too, the history of the sub-Alpine countries, from the Ligurians to Hannibal, from Hannibal to Charlemagne, from Charlemagne to Napoleon, passed through my mind. All the possible points of view, were, so to speak, piled upon each other, and one caught glimpses of some eccentrically across others. I was enjoying and I was learning.
Of all the Italians in Marius's army, the Ligurians were the first that charged; and when they caught the word of the enemy's confused shout, they, too, returned the same, as it was an ancient name also in their country, the Ligurians always using it when speaking of their descent.
Instead of discussing such little things as the Turnours and their Bertie, we began to talk of Phoenicians, Ligurians, and of Romans; of Pliny, who had a beloved friend at Fréjus; and all the while to breathe in the perfume of a land over which a vast tidal wave of balsamic pines had swept.
Although great numbers of the soldiers belonging to the city legions had made application to the plebeian tribunes, to take cognizance of the cases of such men as claimed exemption from the service, on account either of having served out their time, or of bad health; yet a letter from Tiberius Sempronius banished all thoughts of such proceeding; for in this it was announced that "fifteen thousand of the Ligurians had come into the lands of Placentia, and wasted them with fire and sword, to the very walls of that city and the bank of the Po; and that the Boian nation were looking out for an occasion to rebel."
Already 8000 Ligurians, enlisted by Phoenician gold, were ready to unite with Hasdrubal; if he gained the first battle, he might hope that like his brother he should be able to bring the Gauls and perhaps the Etruscans into arms against Rome.
They were spoils from the war with the Samnites. Farther on, standing along the wall, a row of hideous wooden dwarfs, dyed red and blue, stripped from the prows of Carthaginian ships after the great victory at the Ægates Islands; iron bars which had closed the gates of many cities conquered by the Romans; the golden standards decorated with fantastic animals which led the troops of Pyrrhus; the enormous tusks of the elephants which this descendent of Achilles had marched against the legions of Rome; the horned or eagle-winged helmet of the Ligurians; the darts of Alpine tribes, and, beside the door, as a trophy of honor, the armor of the glorious Camillus, paraded in triumph by the city after this great Roman had driven the Gauls from the Capitol.
The other consul laid waste the country of the Ligurians to a wide extent, and took some forts: in which expeditions he not only acquired booty of all sorts, together with many prisoners, but he also recovered several of his countrymen, and of the allies, who had been in the hands of the enemy.
After this discourse Masinissa departed. Laelius, the next day, sailed from Hippo with his ships loaded with booty, and returning to Sicily, delivered to Scipio the injunctions of Masinissa. About the same time the ships which were sent from Carthage to Mago touched at the country between the Albingaunian Ligurians and Genoa. Mago happened to be lying here with his fleet at this time.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking