The Roman Republic’s rivalry with Celtic and Ligurian tribes over northern Italy was an important period in the development of Roman imperialism. The Romans, clinching victory after a long and difficult struggle against the Celts, not only overcame their fear of the Gauls (metus Gallicus), who had previously conquered their city. The victory at Telamon in 225 BC and the following subjugation of the Celts also gave them confidence that it was possible to defeat and conquer the hateful enemy. The success also brought Rome material profits: enormous booty and, most importantly, land for the citizens, whose numbers were constantly growing. In the Roman political and legal system, full citizenship involved owning land. Only a landowning citizen (assidui) paid taxes and, most importantly, could serve in the military, which was of great importance in a society so strongly focused on expansion. The enormous territories stretching between the Alps and the Aesis (present-day Esino) and the Macra (present-day Makra) rivers offered a great opportunity to divide land not only among Roman citizens, but also among allies and people with Latin status from across Italy. The conquered lands were very fertile, which drew numerous individual settlers and colonists in the 3rd and mainly the 2nd century. To make these territories more liveable, the woodlands and the wetlands needed to be prepared for farming and breeding. This required completing hydrological work (draining swamps, regulating numerous rivers), clearing woods, levelling land, building roads and, finally, establishing settlements. The Romans were not the first to undertake such projects. Their predecessors - the Etruscans, the Veneti, the Greeks (Spina and Adria) and the Celts had also made such investments, but it was the scale of the Roman activity that changed the Cisalpine landscape. The numerous Latin and Roman colonies cropping up in the late 3rd century (Placentia and Cremona - 218 BC) and in the first half of the 2nd century (Bononia, Mutina, Parma, Aquileia, and Luna and Lucca in Liguria), along with smaller centres such as fora, conciliabula, etc., enabled the Romans to transform northern Italy into a region of large wealthy cities, which it has remained to this day. The processes of assimilation and acculturation of the indigenous people, including the defeated Celtic tribes, also resulted in the transformation of the local centres (Mediolanum, Patavium, Brixia, Ravenna, etc.) into important Roman cities. Connected by a network of Roman roads (the via Aemilia, Postumia, Cassia, etc.) and waterways, full of natural resources, they made a wealthy region which gave Rome wool, meat, wine and wood. The conquest enabled the Romans to pursue their policy of expansion beyond the Alps, but it also created a protective barrier against danger from the north, such as the Cimbrian invasion in the late 1st century. The process of transforming these territories into an administrative part of Roman Italy was long and took place on many levels. Apart from the mentioned processes of assimilation and acculturation of the people, which resulted in granting Roman citizenship to all the inhabitants of the region in 49 BC, it is also worth noting the change of the administrative status of the lands. Initially an important target of Roman expansion and, later, political and cultural influence, in the 80s BC northern Italy became a Roman province- Gallia Cisalpina. In the late 40s BC, it became an administrative part of Roman Italy stretching from the Strait of Messina to the foot of the Alps.