![]() In the next year, however, he decided to invade Belgica, the northern part of Gaul. So far, Caesar's actions had been more or less defensive: he had supported old allies and had received support of new allies. The inhabitants of Andematunnum benefited from the trade route that connected the Mediterranean with the far west and north: they were Rome's natural allies. The Roman advance was possible because the Lingones had offered grain supplies. In 58 BCE, Julius Caesar defeated a tribe of wandering Helvetians who threatened Rome's allies, the Aeduans later, the Roman general moved to the valley of the Middle Rhine, where he attacked the Germanic warlord Ariovistus, who was also threatening the Gallic tribes. It comes as no surprise that they played a role of some importance during the Roman conquest of modern France. Its natural position made Andematunnum an important economic center and gave the Lingones considerable influence in ancient Gaul. Meanwhile, there were still Lingones living in the homeland. Caesar's allies Moccus and his boar, a god of the Lingones The river Rubico was regarded as the boundary between Italy and the Gallic territories south of the Alps ( Gallia Cisalpina). The area became known as the Ager Gallicus and even when it had been conquered by the Romans, it was still remembered as a frontier zone. First, they attacked the native Etruscans then a band of warriors sacked Rome (in 387/386 BCE more.) and finally, they settled south of the Po, along the shore of the Adriatic Sea. Members of the tribes of the Senonians and Lingones settled on the eastern Po plain, close to the Adriatic sea. Tombstone showing an Etruscan and a Celtic warrior The area along the Marne saw a rapid decline of population, and many of its former inhabitants seem to have crossed the Alps. There must have been social tensions, and mass migration appears to have been one of the solutions. Its exact cause is not really understood, but it is clear that between 440 and 380, there were social changes in the area between the rivers Marne and Upper Elbe, and the old aristocracy appears to have been replaced by a new warrior elite. The Lingones make their first appearance in history in c.400 BCE, when they joined the Gallic conquest of the plains of the Po. ![]() Whoever wanted to travel from the Saône to the Moselle had to cross the watershed at Andematunnum (modern Langres). It was built on a rocky promontory above the headwaters of the river Marne, which connects the town with the Atlantic Ocean but it is also situated on the great economic axis of Europe, the corridor from the Mediterranean to the North Sea that consists of the rivers Rhône, Saône, Moselle, and Rhine. Their capital Andematunnum ("fortress of the great bear"?) can with some justification be called the economic center of preindustrial western Europe. In this sense, the Lingones were an ancient Celtic tribe. There has been a lot of debate about the question who these Celts were, but today, most scholars will agree that we can call those people Celts who (a) spoke Gallic and (b) belonged to what archaeologists call the "La Tène culture". In the famous introduction to his Gallic War, the Roman commander Julius Caesar distinguishes three kinds of people living in the war zone: the Aquitanians in the southwest, the Belgians in the north, and those "we call Gauls but are in their own language called Celts". A Celtic tribe The Lingones in northern Gaul Lingones: tribe in ancient Gaul, living in the modern French département Haute-Marne.
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