Insubres

Attributes: | +40% Recruitment Rate, +20% Brigade Size, Flooded Marsh Movement

The **Insubres** are a medium-sized Gallic faction, located in the Po Valley at the northern edge of the map.

Its starting neighbours are the Ligures, Cenomani and North Etruscans.

### In-game Description

"The Insubres are the earliest known Gallic tribe to exist south of the Alps, a trend which would be followed often enough for the area to become known as "Cisalpine Gaul", or "Gaul on this side of the Alps" long after the Gauls there were Romanized.

Livy describes the Insubrian traversal of the Alps as the surplus population of six Gallic tribes led by Bellovesus, son of the Biturigian king Ambicatus' sister. Bellovesus founded Mediolanum after driving the Etruscans out of the area. Modern scholarship doubts this, archaeological remnants hinting more towards a gradual celticization of the local Golasecca culture rather than an actual migration from Gaul."

### Starting Cities

* **Mediolanum**: Ancient predecessor to the city of Milan, Mediolanum was founded by the Insubres tribe and quickly became one of the most important cities in Cisalpine Gaul due to its central location. First capital of the Western Roman Empire, Mediolanum was also the site of the Emperor Constantine's famous Edict of Milan that paved the way for the rise of Christianity in the Empire.
* **Comum**: Comum is a settlement of the gallic tribe Orobii located in the hills southwest of modern Como. After subjugation to the Romans, Julius Caesar would drain the swamps then filling its modern location at the south coast of the lake and move the city there, renaming it Novum Comum and establishing it in the Roman style of perpendicular streets.
* **Golasecca**: Golasecca is the centre and namesake of a major pre-Celtic Italian culture, perhaps the last surviving European Bronze Age Urnfield culture, which is thought to have survived in a distinct form into the 4th century. The long Celticization rather than sudden replacement point to a peaceful integration with the Insubres, who may have at least partly come from the Golasecca culture themselves.
* **Ticinum**: Ticinum, known in modern times as Pavia, is a city which controls a major crossing of the Ticinum River. Roman historians contradict eachother on its origins, with Ptolemy claiming it as an Insubrian city while Pliny the Elder prefers a joint founding by two Ligurian tribes.
* **Acerrae**: Acerrae is a powerful city of the Insubres that controls the river Adda. It will withstand an extended siege when the Romans war against the Insubres, but surrender when the Insubrian king Viridomarus is killed near Clastidium.

### Historic Starting General

When playing this faction in a sandbox setting, the player may choose to start with the following pre-defined historic general instead of a generic one. These characters usually have far better bonuses than can be obtained with the generic starting generals.

### Strategy

Though the multitude of rivers in the area could theoretically serve as defensible borders if fortified with walled bridges, the rivers have a large amount of crossings that would need to be fortified and it may be easier to simply secure your borders through diplomacy.

Any of your neighbours can be a viable first target for expansion, but annexing the Ligures first is a good choice if you want to keep the amount of bordering factions that need to be managed down to a minimum, since their territory sits in a corner of the map and is also largely shielded by the Apennine Mountains.

### Trivia & History

* As referenced in the in-game tooltip, the Insubres were the first and most important Gallic tribe to exist south of the Alps. Unlike the other Gallic tribes in the area (i.e. the Cenomani, Boii, Senones and Lingones), the Insubres do not have any known related tribes outside of Italy, and it's possible they originated in Italy itself as a fusion of local Ligurian and Celtic elements with Gallic influences, rather than being an originally Gallic tribe that migrated across the Alps.
* The Insubres entered conflict with Rome in the 220s BC, when they allied with the Boii and Gaesatae to resist Roman expansion. The Romans won the initial conflict, but the Insubres and Boii used the Second Punic War of 218-203 BC as an opportunity to revolt and align themselves with Carthage. The Romans redoubled their efforts to annex Cisalpine Gaul after the end of that war, and the Insubres decided to cease their resistance and ally with Rome in 194 BC, in return for maintaining some autonomy.
* The faction icon depicts a stylized lion, the exact design of which featured on ancient coins found in Cisalpine Gaul.