Taurini
The Taurini were the pre-Roman people settled in the upper Po plain and at the outlet of the western Alpine valleys, in the area where Turin stands today. The Enciclopedia Italiana describes them as the people who occupied «a vast stretch of the sub-Alpine region north and south of the Dora Riparia»[1]. From their name comes that of the Roman colony of Augusta Taurinorum and, through it, the very name of the city[1]. They left no written texts: what is known about them comes from a few passages by Greek and Latin authors and from archaeological excavations scattered across the territory.
Name and origin
Rather than a compact ethnic group, the name Taurini probably denoted a set of tribes united by living close to the Alpine arc and by controlling the routes to the passes of the Cottian and Pennine Alps[2]. Already the ancient authors – Cato, Polybius, Strabo, Pliny – wavered between the forms «Taurini» and «Taurisci»[2]; for Pietro Baroccelli, who wrote the Treccani entry in 1937, the Taurini would be a branch of the Taurisci, a people widespread across various Alpine regions[1].
The etymology too is debated. According to Baroccelli the name derives from a pre-Roman root meaning "mountain", making the Taurini "those of the mountains"[1]; a widespread reading instead links it to the Latin taurus, the bull, an animal that has remained the city's emblem[3]. As for their lineage, Pliny the Elder and Strabo considered them of ancient Ligurian origin, although other sources call them Gauls[1]: today they are often described as a Celtic-Ligurian population[3]. In the Naturalis historia Pliny records the Roman colony with a formula that has remained famous:
«coloniae ab Alpium radicibus Augusta Taurinorum — inde navigabili Pado — antiqua Ligurum stirpe»
Translated: at the foot of the Alps, the colony of Augusta Taurinorum, of ancient Ligurian stock, from where the Po becomes navigable[4].
Taurasia and Hannibal (218 BC)
The Taurini enter written history in the autumn of 218 BC, when Hannibal came down from the Alps with the Carthaginian army marching against Rome[5]. The Greek historian Polybius recounts that at that time the Taurini were at war with the Insubres, the Gauls of the Milan area allied with the commander, and were suspicious of the Carthaginians. Hannibal offered them friendship and alliance; upon their refusal, he laid siege to their main town and took it after three days[6]. Those who had resisted were put to the sword[5]. The Latin historian Livy summarizes the episode thus:
«Taurinorumque unam urbem, caput gentis eius, quia volentes in amicitiam non veniebant, vi expugnarat»
That is: Hannibal had taken by force the capital city of the Taurini, because they would not willingly enter into friendship with him[7]. This city is traditionally called Taurasia, but archaeological research has never succeeded in locating it; many scholars place it near the confluence of the Dora and the Po, a point favorable for trade and defense[2]. According to the sources, the survivors did not rebuild it on the same site and scattered into several villages[8]. It is precisely this destruction at Hannibal's hands that explains why a "city of the Taurini" appears in Roman authors[2]; after 218 BC the Taurini become almost invisible again in the sources until Romanization[5].
Bric San Vito, an outpost on the Po
The clearest archaeological evidence of a Taurini settlement is on the hill at Pecetto Torinese. On Bric San Vito (or San Viter), at 624 meters above sea level, a village founded between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC overlooked the Chieri plain[9]. The site was identified in 1991 by volunteers of the Gruppo Archeologico Torinese on the basis of research by the historian Aldo Settia[10]; after initial surveys in 1991-1993, the Piedmont Archaeological Superintendency carried out three excavation campaigns there between 1994 and 1996, and the materials are now held at the Museo di Antichità in Turin[9]. Remains of dwellings, postholes for wooden structures, and hearths have come to light[11].
Archaeologists read the village as a control point on the Po, marking the boundary between the Taurini to the north and the Ligurians to the south, and at the same time as a commercial bridgehead toward the Ligurian settlements, in particular Carreum, present-day Chieri[9]. The municipality of Pecetto describes it as a small Taurini settlement with emporium functions, active in the second Iron Age; later, in the Middle Ages, a fortification was built on the height[10].
From Romanization to Augusta Taurinorum
Between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC the Taurini drew closer to Rome of their own accord, developing a state organization and forging alliances: MuseoTorino speaks of "self-Romanization"[2]. In 89 BC the law of Pompeius Strabo extended Latin rights to them, and Julius Caesar later granted Roman citizenship[1]. The colony of Augusta Taurinorum was founded between 25 and 15 BC, in the years when Augustus was completing the "pacification" of the Alps: the confluence of the Po and the Dora served as a rear base for armies heading to the Montgenèvre pass, at the head of the Susa Valley, and to the other passes[8]. To the northeast lay the Salassi, settled between the upper Canavese and the Aosta Valley[8].
Whether the colony rose on the site of ancient Taurasia remains an open question among scholars[1]. Even the blood tie between the Taurini and the first Roman Torinese is weak: according to a recent reconstruction, the colony was largely populated by immigrants and veterans, with few direct descendants of the local population[3].
A name that remained with the city
Of the Taurini, today's Turin preserves above all the name, through the Latin form Taurinorum, and the bull that became the city's symbol[3]. Certainty is lacking, however, on many essential aspects – where the main center was, what the boundaries were, what language was spoken – and even the link between the name and the bull, however widespread, is not proven[11]. The most concrete picture remains that of hilltop villages like Bric San Vito and the few passages of Polybius, Livy, and Pliny, while the regular layout of the Roman city can still be read in the streets of the Quadrilatero Romano and in the remains of the theater next to Palazzo Reale[3].
Pages linking here
Related articles: Augusta Taurinorum, Palazzo Madama, Porta Palatina, Quadrilatero Romano, Torino