COTTII REGNUM  , a

district in the north of Liguria, including a considerable part of the important road which led over the pass (6119 ft.) of the Alpis Cottia (Mont Genevre) into Gaul . Whether Hannibal crossed the Alps by this route is disputed, but it was certainly in use about too B.C . (see PUNIC WARS) . In 58 B.C . Caesar met with some resistance on crossing it, but seems after-wards to have entered into friendly relations with Donnus, the king of the district; he must have used it frequently, and refers to it as the shortest route . Donnus's son Cottius erected the triumphal arch at his capital Segusio, the modern Susa, in honour of Augustus . Under Nero, after the death of the last Cottius, it became a province under the title of "Alpes Cottiae," being governed by a procurator Augusti, though it still kept its old name also .