- Calucones
The Calucones were a Germanic tribe mentioned by a few of the classical sources, but not all.
Pliny the Elder (Book 3 Chapter 24 ofNaturalis Historia , published in 77 CE) quotes a monument to the reign of Augustus, the tropeaum Alpium, located in theRhaetia of his day, stating that Augustus subdued the Alpine peoples from the upper sea to the lower sea, including the Calucones.Ptolemy inGeography (Book 2 Chapter 10) on the other hand locates the Kaloukones on either side of theElbe "below" (north of?) theSilingae orSilesians . Since the Elbe does not drain the Alps, if the two Calucones are the same, the tropeaum cannot have meant that Augustus subdued only Rhaetia. However, the tropeaum also lists the Rugusci, who, at that early date, must still have been located on or nearRügen . Pliny's upper and lower seas must have been the Baltic and theMediterranean respectively.Such extravagant claims are characteristic of the Augustan age. In this case they are not likely to be true, unless Augustus achieved some sort of alliance.
Marbod , later commander of all German forces in the struggle againstRome , lived for some years at peace in Augustan Rome. Very likely, the Calucones occupied the land ascribed to them over a thousand years later byOrtelius , in the vicinity ofDresden andLeipzig . The Roman authors were too quick to transmute peace into pax Romana, Roman-enforced peace.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.