Histri

The Carni are usually considered a Gaulish tribe, although some associate them with the Venetic peoples, a group closely related to but probably distinct from the Celts.

Their area of settlement isn't known with precision.

Strabo confines them to the mountains, while Ptolemy assigns them two cities near the Adriatic coast.

They are likely eponymous of the regions of Carnia, Carniola and Carinthia.

The first historical date related to the arrival of the Carni is 186 BCE, when some fifty thousand Carni, composed of armed men, women and children, descend from the northeast corner of transpadane Italy towards the plains (in which they previously used to winter) and on a hill they establish a stable defensive settlement, Akileja, situated at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about ten kilometers from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natissa).

The Romans have by 181/180 BCE forced back the Carni to the mountains, destroyed their settlement and established a defensive settlement not far from where the Gaulish invaders had attempted to settle, on land along the Natiso south of the Julian Alps but about eight miles north of the lagoons.

The colony is to serve as a frontier fortress to protect the Veneti, faithful Roman allies, during the Illyrian Wars and act as a buttress to check the advance of other warlike people, such as the hostile Carni and Histri tribes.

Aquileia is established with Latin rights by the triumvirate of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, Caius Flaminius, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, two of whom are of consular and one of praetorian rank.

They lead three thousand pedites (infantry), mainly from Samnium, who with their families form the bulk of the settlers; they are soon supplemented by native Veneti: Aquileia's strategic military position also serves to promote the Venetic trade in amber imported from the Baltic.

Pula is inhabited in classical antiquity by the Histri, a Venetic or Illyrian tribe from whom the name Istria is derived, recorded by Strabo in the 1st century CE and who are credited as being the builders of the hillfort settlements (castellieri).

The Histri are classified in some sources as a "Venetic" Illyrian tribe, with certain linguistic differences from other Illyrians.The Romans described the Histri as a fierce tribe of pirates, protected by the difficult navigation of their rocky coasts.

It takes two military campaigns for the Romans in 177 BCE to finally subdue the Histri, starting a period of Romanization.

The region is called together with the Venetian part the X. Roman Region of "Venetia et Histria", the ancient definition of the northeastern border of Italy.

Dante Alighieri will efers to it as well; the eastern border of Italy per ancient definition is the river Arsia. The eastern side of this river is settled by people whose culture is different than Histrians.

Earlier influence of the Iapodes is attested there, while at some time between the fourth and first century BCE, the Liburnians extend their territory and it becomes a part of Liburnia. On the northern side, Histria goes much further north and includes Tergeste, today the Italian city of Trieste.

Tergeste, built mostly on a hillside that becomes a mountain at the head of the Adriatic Sea, was originally an Illyrian settlement but the town was later captured by the Carni; it falls to the Romans in 177 BCE.

Istria, the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner, is named for the Histri.

Classified in some sources as a "Venetic" Illyrian tribe, with certain linguistic differences from other Illyrians, the Romans describe the Histri as a fierce tribe of pirates, protected by the difficult navigation of their rocky coasts.

It had taken two military campaigns for the Romans to finally subdue them in 177 BCE.

Together with the Venetian part, the region is now called the X. Roman Region of "Venetia et Histria", the ancient definition of the northeastern border of Italy.

The eastern border of Italy, per ancient definition, is the river Arsia.

The eastern side of this river has been settled by people whose culture is different than Histrians.

Earlier influence of the Iapydes was attested here, while at some time between the fourth and first century BCE, the Liburnians extend their territory and it becomes a part of Liburnia.

On the northern side, Histria goes much further north and includes the newly garrisoned Tergeste (now the Italian city of Trieste, and the region of Venezia-Julia. For political reasons, modern Trieste and Venezia-Julia are not included in today’s Istria.)

The Romans had established their colony in Aquileia in 181 BCE and taken control of all Venetia in the north, thus expanding towards the Illyrian area from the northwest.

They had conquered Istria in the north of the eastern Adriatic coast, settled by tribe of Histri, in 177 BCE, while the Iapydes, the northern Liburnian neighbors, attacked Aquileia in 171 BCE, but these accidents have not involved the Liburnian territory.

The Liburnians probably keep away from direct conflicts with the Romans to safeguard their remaining naval activities.

Aquileia is connected by road with Bologna probably in 173 BCE.

Fifteen hundred more Latin colonists with their families are settled in the town in 169 BCE as a reinforcement to the garrison.

Rome proceeds in 167 BCE to punish those who had sided with Perseus (such as the Illyrian Genthius), those whose loyalty had wavered (such as Eumenes), and even those who had contemplated acting as mediators in the war (such as the Rhodians).

Enslavement is a common fate for the defeated: the Romans had enslaved five thousand Macedonians in 197 BCE; five thousand Histri (Illyrians of Istria) in 177 BCE; and in 174 BCE an unspecified number of Sardinians, but so many that “Sardinian” will become a byword for “cheap” slave.

These are only a few examples for which the sources happen to give numbers.

More slaves flood into Italy after Rome destabilizes the eastern Mediterranean in 167 BCE, enslaving one hundred and fifty thousand Epirotes in this year, giving pirates and bandits the opportunity to carry off local peoples of Anatolia and sell them on the block at Delos by the thousands. (Delos, independent since 322 BCE, comes under Roman rule in 166 BCE.)

Tergeste, under Roman control from 177 BCE, had been granted the status of colony under Julius Caesar, who recorded its name as Tergeste in his Commentarii de bello Gallico (51 BCE).

During Roman times, Tergeste is defined an "Illyrian city" by Artemidorus of Ephesus, a Greek geographer, and "Carnic" by Strabo.

The border of "Roman Italia" has moved from the Timavo river to Formione (today Risano).

The Roman Tergeste flourishes due to its position as a crossroad from Aquileia, the main Roman city in the area, and Istria, and as a port as well, some ruins of which are still visible.

Octavian builds a line of walls around the city in 33-32 BCE, and supervises the construction of harbor facilities.

The former fishing village of Pola, located on the Adriatic Sea at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula, about sixty miles (one hundred kilometers) south of Tergeste (modern Trieste), between 46 and 45 BCE had been elevated to colonial rank as the tenth region of the Roman Republic, under Julius Caesar.

The town had grown during that time and had at its zenith a population of about thirty thousand, becoming a significant Roman port with a large surrounding area under its jurisdiction.

The town in 42 BCE  during the civil war of the triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus against Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius, had taken the side of Cassius, since the town had been founded by Cassius Longinus, brother of Cassius.

The town had been demolished after Octavian's victory.

Soon rebuilt at the request of Octavian's daughter Iulia, it was then called Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea'.

Great classical constructions are built of which a few remain.

Construction begins on a great amphitheater, Pula Arena (completed in CE 68), much of it still standing to this day.

The Romans also supply the city with a water supply and sewage systems, and fortify the city with a wall with ten gates, a few of which still remain: the Gate of Hercules (in which the names of the founders of the city are engraved), the Twin Gates, and the triumphal Arch of the Sergii.

The arch commemorates three brothers of the Sergii family, specifically Lucius Sergius Lepidus, a tribune serving in the twenty-ninth legion that participated in the Battle of Actium and in 27 BCE disbanded.

This suggests an approximate date of construction.

The arch stands behind the original naval gate of the early Roman colony.

The Sergii are a powerful family of officials in the colony and for centuries will retain their power.

The Romans in the second century BCE had subjugated various parts of Illyria, such as Histria in 177 BCE and the Ardaeian kingdom in 168 BCE, when they defeated the army of king Gentius.

Southern Illyriafrom 167 BCE had become a formally independent protectorate of the Romans, for whom the region has considerable strategic and economic importance.

It possesses a number of important commercial ports along its coastline, and has gold mines in its interior regions.

Illyria is also the starting point of the Via Egnatia, the great Roman road that runs from Dyrrachium (modern Durazzo), on the Adriatic, to Byzantium in the east.

Next came the interior of the western Balkans, accumulating in the wars with the Dalmatae in 156BCE  and 78 BCE, and in 129 BCE against the Iapydes.

Illyricum in 59 BCE after the Lex Vatinia had been assigned as provincia together with Cisalpine Gaul (zone of responsibility rather than the province as is understood today) to Caesar.

No province had been established until Octavius's wars in Illyricum during 35-33 BCE.

Caesar's assassination had encouraged the Illyrians to regain their liberty.

They refused to pay taxes and destroyed five cohorts of the army commanded by P. Vatinius, also killing the senator Bebius.

The Roman senate had charged Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins of Caesar, to lead the army in Illyria and Macedonia.

He had marched in the winter of 42 BCE from Greece at the head of the army, through roads covered by snow, doubtless coming along the Via Egnatia in order to appear by surprise before the walls of Dyrrhachian, sick with exhaustion and the cold.

Brutus after this took Apollonia and Byllis, pursuing and breaking the power of Gaius Antonius, who withdrew to Buthrotum.

Octavius in 35 BCE had been compelled to revisit Illyrian lands yet again, this time Dalmatia.

At the head of ten legions, he had marched from the north and subjugated the Iyapedes, Liburnians and Pannonians.

The most difficult war proved to be with the Dalmatians, in which the young future emperor was wounded twice, as Suetonius writes, first in the knee with a stone from a slingshot and later when a bridge fell during the siege of the Iapydian city of Metulum.

Octavian in that siege had seen with his own eyes the bravery of the Illyrians.

After managing to conquer the upper part of the city, Octavian had asked the inhabitants to surrender their weapons, but they collected their women and children and locked them in the council building, putting guards around it and ordering them to set the building on fire if the men were to suffer any harm.

After taking these measures they assailed the Romans in desperation, but since they were down below and the Romans above, they were badly broken and all were killed.

The assembly guards then set the building on fire, as they had been ordered, and many women and children were burned to death; and even more threw themselves on the fire, along with their children.

Together with them the city was burned so completely, that although it had been a very large city, not a trace of it remains.

The first mention of the province of Illyricum had occurred in the context of the Augustan settlement of 27 BCE.

The province was subsequently enlarged as the Romans expanded their power in the region through a series of wars known as Pannonian wars (Bellum Pannonicum), fought from 12 BCE -9 BCE against group of peoples known as the Pannonians.

The taxes imposed by the Romans are greatly resented by the native Illyrians, who are frustrated by this new shift of power.

The Romans often treat the their subjects terribly, selling the women and children as slaves and destroying their settlements.

The turn of the millennium has also seen the recruitment of many Illyrian soldiers into the Roman army to fight against the Germanic tribes in the north.

The widening gap between the Roman government and its subjects in Illyricum leads ultimately to the great revolt that begins in the spring of CE 6, when several regiments of Daesitiates, natives of the area that now comprises central Bosnia and Herzegovina, are gathered in one place to prepare to join Augustus's stepson and senior military commander Tiberius in a war against the Germans.

Instead, the Daesitiates, led by Bato the Daesitiate (Bato I), mutiny and defeat a Roman force sent against them.