CLIENT PREFECTS?: ROME AND THE COTTIANS IN THE WESTERN ALPS

In their monuments and actions, the Cottian rulers did not go so far as to claim incorporation by Rome; rather they played up the ambiguity of their new position-they were prefects descended from kings, independent but intimately connected. [...]the Cottian kings demonstrated one way in which local rulers might react to a Roman alliance, in this case with behavior that was not designed solely for Roman consumption but rather made for a domestic audience.