Ligures Ligures Michael Giles Category="Ancient peoples"Category="History of Italy"The Ligures (Ligurians) were an ancient people who gave their name to Liguria, which once stretched from Northern Italy into southern Gaul. The Ligures inhabited what now corresponds to Liguria, northern Tuscany, Piedmont, part of Lombardy, and parts of southeastern France. Classical references and toponomastics suggests that the Ligurian sphere once extended further into central Italy.

It is not known for certain whether they were a pre-Indo-European people akin to Iberians; a separate Indo-European branch with Italic and Celtic affinities; or even a branch of the Celts. Kinship between the Ligures and Lepontii has also been proposed.

The Ligures were assimilated by the Romans, and before that by the Gauls, producing a Celto-Ligurian culture.

See also:Ligurian language. See also specific Ligurian tribes: Deciates, Oxybii.