The Ligurian coast became gradually subject to the Romans, and the road along it must have been correspondingly prolonged: up to the end of the Hannibalic war the regular starting-point for Spain by sea was Pisae; in 195 B.C. it was the harbour of Luna (Gulf of Spezia), though Genua must have become Roman a little before this time, while, in 137 B.C. C. Hostilius Mancinus marched as far as Portus Herculis (Villafranca), and in 121 B.C. the province of Gallia Narbonensis was formed and the coast-road prolonged to the Pyrenees. In 14 B.C. Augustus restored the whole road from Placentia to Dertona (Via Postumia), and thence to Vada Sabatia (Via Aemilia [2]) and the River Varus (Var), so that it thenceforth took the name of Via Julia Augusta. (See AEMILIA, VIA [2].) The other chief roads of Liguria were the portion of the Via Postumia from Dertona to Genua, a road from above Vada through Augusta Bagiennorum and Pollentia to Augusta Taurinorum, and another from Augusta Taurinorum to Hasta and Valentia. The names of the villages—Quarto, Quinto, etc.—on the south-east and Pontedecimo on the north of Genoa allude to their distance along the Roman roads. Even the Roman Liguria, forming the ninth region of Augustus, was thus far more extensive than the modern, including the country on the north slopes of the Apennines and Maritime Alps between the Trebia and the Po, and extending a little beyond Albintimilium. On the
west Augustus formed the provinces of the Alpes Maritimae and the Alpes Cottiae. Towns of importance were few, owing to the nature of the country. Dertona was the only colony, and Alba. Pompeia, Augusta Bagiennorum, Pollentia, Hasta, Aquae Sta tiellae, and Genua may also be mentioned; but the Ligurians dwelt entirely in villages, and were organized as tribes. The mountainous character of Liguria made the spread of culture diffi cult ; it remained a forest district, producing timber, cattle, ponies, mules, sheep, etc. Oil and wine had to be imported, and when the cultivation of the olive began is not known.
The arrangement made by Augustus lasted until the time of Diocletian, when the two Alpine provinces were abolished, and the watershed became the boundary between Italy and Gaul. At this time we find the name of Liguria extended as far as Milan, while in the 6th century the old Liguria was separated from it, and under the Lombards formed the fifth Italian province under the name of Alpes Cottiae. In the middle ages the ancient Liguria north of the Apennines fell to Piedmont and Lombardy, while that to the south, with the coast strip, belonged to the republic of Genoa.