VAGIENNI
Eth.
VAGIENNI (
Βαγιεννοί), a Ligurian tribe, who inhabited the region N. of the Maritime Alps, and S. of the territory of the Taurini.
According to Pliny they extended as far to the W. as the Mons Vesulus or
Monte Viso, in the main chain of the Alps (
Plin. Nat. 3.16. s. 20), while their chief town or capital under the Roman rule, called Augusta Vagiennorum, was situated at
Bene, between the rivers
Stura and
Tanaro, so that they must have occupied an extensive territory.
But it seems impossible to receive as correct the statement of Velleius (1.15) that the Roman colony of Eporedia (
Ivrea) was included within their limits. [
EPOREDIA] It is singular that Pliny more than once speaks of them as being descended from the Caturiges, while at the same time he distinctly calls them a Ligurian tribe, and the Caturiges are commonly reckoned a Gaulish one.
It seems probable, however, that many of the races which inhabited the mountain valleys of the Alps were of Ligurian origin; and thus the Caturiges and Segusiani may very possibly have been of a Ligurian stock like their neighbours the Taurini, though subsequently confounded with the Gauls. We have no account of the period at which the Vagienni were reduced under the Roman yoke, and their name is not found in history as an independent tribe. But Pliny notices them as one of the Ligurian tribes still existing in his time, and their chief town, Augusta, seems to have been a flourishing place under the Roman Empire. Their name is sometimes written Bagienni (Orell.
Inscr. 76), and is found in the Tabula under the corrupt form Bagitenni. (
Tab. Pent.)
[
E.H.B]
