Uberi

The Uberi were a Celtic tribe dwelling near the source of the Rhône river, in the modern-day Canton of Valais (Switzerland), during the Iron Age and the Roman period.

Along with the Nantuates, Veragri and Seduni, the Uberi were part of the Vallenses, a group of tribes living between Lake Geneva and the Pennine Alps.[1]

Name

They are mentioned as Uberi in Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia (1st c. AD).[2]

Geography

The Uberi dwelled near the source of the Rhône river, in the upper part of the modern Canton of Valais.[3] Their territory was located north of the Seduni, west of the Lepontii, east of the Nantuates, and south of the Helvetii.[4]

After the Roman conquered the region in 16–15 BC, their territory was initially administered in common with the province of Raetia et Vindelicia under a legatus, when they likely had their own civitas within the administrative region of Vallis Poenina. They later lost their autonomy following their integration into the Alpes Graiae et Poeninae by Claudius (41–54 AD), with the creation of a single civitas (civitas Vallensium) shared with the other Vallensian tribes.[1]

History

They are mentioned by Pliny the Elder as one of the Alpine tribes conquered by Rome in 16–15 BC, and whose name was engraved on the Tropaeum Alpium.[1][5]

Culture

The Uberi had close links with the nearby and larger Lepontii. According to Pliny, they were actually a subsection of the Lepontii.[3][6] Archaeological evidence from the site of Gamsen-Waldmatte in Brig-Glis indicate that the Uberi were only partially Romanized.[6]

References
  1. Graßl 2006b.
  2. Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:135, 3:20.
  3. Graßl 2006a.
  4. Talbert 2000, Map 18: Augustonemetum-Vindonissa.
  5. Pliny. Naturalis Historia, 3:20.
  6. Uberi in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.

Primary sources
  • Pliny (1938). Natural History. Loeb Classical Library. Translated by Rackham, H. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674993648.

Bibliography
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