CAMU´NI
Eth.
CAMU´NI (Eth.
Καμοῦνοι), an Alpine people, who inhabited the valley of the Ollius (
Oglio), from the central chain of the Rhaetian Alps to the head of the Lacus Sebinus (
Lago d'Iseo).
This valley, which is still called the
Val Camonica, is one of the most extensive on the Italian side of the Alps, being above 60 miles in length. Pliny tells us that the Camuni were a tribe of Euganean race; while Strabo reckons them among the Rhaetians.
The name of the Camuni appears among the Alpine tribes who were reduced to subjection by Augustus: after which the inhabitants of all these valleys were attached, as dependents, to the neighbouring towns of Gallia Transpadana ( “finitimis attributi municipiis,”
Plin. Nat. 3.20. s. 24;
Strab. iv. p.206;
D. C. 54.20).
At a later period, however, the Camuni, appear to have formed a separate community of their own, and we find mention in inscriptions of the “Res Publica Camunorum.” (Orell.
Inscr. 652, 3789.)
In the later division of the provinces they came to be included in Rhaetia.
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E.H.B]
