Region
Liguria
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Liguria takes its name from the Ligurians, a people already known to Herodotus, whose land Augustus made the ninth region of Italy, with Genoa as its chief city. It stretched well beyond the modern Italian region, inland to towns such as Asti and Alba. The Greek geographer Strabo noted that the coastal Ligurians were treated like Italians, while the mountain tribes were sent a lesser governor. The Roman historian Fabius Pictor told of a garrison besieged by Ligurians: a swallow from the fort was brought to him, and he sent it back with a knotted thread on its foot, the knots telling the defenders on which day help would come.