The Insubres in 218 B.C.

The Insubres — Celtic Tribes.

The largest tribe of all the Gauls of the Po, holding the broad plain north of the river about Mediolanum — the leading power of Cisalpine Gaul. With the Boii they were the great enemies of Rome in the war that closed at Telamon, and their land was the prize of the consuls’ marches: in 222 their king Viridomarus fell in single combat to Marcellus at Clastidium, yielding the rarest of Roman trophies, the spolia opima, and Mediolanum was stormed soon after. Now, in 218, the Insubres have joined the Boian revolt and stand among Hannibal’s first and surest allies in Italy.