STATIELLI
Eth.
STATIELLI (Eth.
Στατίελλοι), a tribe of Ligurians, who inhabited the northern slopes of the Apennines, on both sides of the valley of the
Bormida. Their locality is clearly fixed by that of the town of Aquae Statiellae, now
Acqui, which grew up under the Roman Empire from a mere watering place into a large and populous town, and the chief place of the surrounding district. The Statielli are mentioned by Livy in B.C. 173, as an independent tribe, who were attacked by the Roman consul, M. Popillius: after defeating them in the field, he attacked and took their city, which Livy calls Carystus, and, not content with disarming them, sold the captives as slaves.
This proceeding was severely arraigned at Rome by the tribunes, especially on the ground that the Statielli had previously been uniformly faithful to the Roman alliance; but they did not succeed in enforcing reparation (
Liv. 42.7,
8,
9,
21). Livy writes the name Statiellates, while Decimus Brutus, who crossed their territory on his march from Mutina, B.C. 44, and addresses one of his letters to Cicero from thence, dates it “finibus Statiellensium” (
Cic. Fam. 11.1. 1). Pliny, who enumerates them among the tribes of Ligurians existing in his time, calls them Statielli, and their chief town Aquae Statiellorum (
Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 7).
The site of Carystus, mentioned only by Livy, in the passage above cited, is wholly unknown.
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E.H.B]
