Arevaci
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The Arevaci or Aravaci (Arevakos, Arvatkos or Areukas in the
Origins
The Arevaci were of Celtic origin and part of the group of peoples known as the Celtiberians.[3] There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the ancestors of the Celtiberian groups were installed in the Meseta area of the
Location
The nucleus of the Arevaci homeland was the modern provinces of
- Clunia (either Alto del Cuerno or Coruña del Conde – Burgos; Celtiberian mint: Kolounioku),
- Voluce/Veluka (around Calatañazor – Soria),
- Osma– Soria; Celtiberian mints: Arcailicos/Uzamuz),
- Termantia (Montejo de Tiermes – Soria) also named Termes or Termesos,[7]
- Savia (Soria?)
- Numantia (Muela de Garray – Soria).
Other towns often mentioned in the sources, such as Segovia, Ocilis, Comfluenta, Tucris, Lutia, Mallia, Lagni and Colenda have not yet been located.[1][8][9][10]
Culture
They shared with the Vaccaei the same social structure of collectivist type which enabled the latter to exploit successfully the wheat- and grass-growing areas of the western plateau,
Religion
They practised the rite of excarnation by exposing the corpses of warriors slain in battle to the vultures, as described by Silius Italicus[13] and Claudius Aelianus,[14] and attested by funerary stelae and painted pottery from Numantia.
History
Regarded by the Greeks and Romans as the most militaristic people of the eastern Meseta, the Arevaci were said by Herodotus to have embarked early on an expansionist policy by taking part in the Celtici migrations of the 5th century BC alongside off-shots of Lusones and Vaccaei peoples to settle in the Iberian southwest.[15] In the late 4th-early 3rd centuries BC however, the Arevaci shifted the direction of their expansion to the east, towards the upper Duero and south into the central Iberian system mountains. Here they displaced the earlier inhabitants the Pellendones, conquering the towns of Savia and Numantia and submitted the Uraci, thus gaining control over the strategic towns of Aregrada (Ágreda? – Soria; Celtiberian mints: Areicoraticos/Arecorataz), Cortona (Medinaceli? – Soria), Segontia (Sigüenza – Guadalajara) and Arcobriga (Monreal de Ariza – Zaragoza).
In around the mid-3rd century BC, the Arevaci founded with their neighbours the Lusones, Belli, and Titii, a tribal federation designated the Celtiberian confederacy, with Numantia as its capital.
During the Second Punic War the confederacy kept itself neutral, though Celtiberian mercenaries are mentioned fighting for both sides on a number of occasions.[16][17] The first Roman incursion into the Celtiberian heartland occurred around 195 BC under Consul Cato the Elder, who attacked unsuccessfully the towns of Seguntia Celtiberorum and Numantia,[18] where he allegedly delivered a speech to the numantines.[19]
The Arevaci and the
With the fall of Numantia in 134-133 BC, the Romans forcibly disbanded the Celtiberian confederacy and allowed the Pellendones and Uraci to regain their independence from the Arevaci, who were now technically submitted and absorbed into Hispania Citerior province. Nevertheless, the remaining Arevacian cities managed to keep much of their military capabilities intact, and led by Clunia and Termantia they helped defending
Romanization
In spite of being technically made subject and finally aggregated to Hispania Citerior after 93 BC, the Arevacians’ relationship with Rome remained uneasy. During the Sertorian Wars, the Arevaci sided with Quintus Sertorius and provided unspecified troops to his army.[24][25] In fact, they still continued to resist Roman integration and assimilation policies for decades, a situation coupled by fiscal abuse that led to sporadic outbursts of violence well into the 1st century AD.
Although the Arevaci later, in 29 BC, contributed an auxiliary cavalry unit (the
See also
- Astur-Cantabrian war
- Celtiberian confederacy
- Celtiberian script
- Celtiberian Wars
- Numantine War
- Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
Notes
- ^ a b Ptolemy, Geographia, II, 6, 55.
- ISBN 0-85115-923-0.
- ^ a b Cremin, The Celts in Europe (1992), p. 57.
- ^ Cremin, The Celts in Europe (1992), p. 60.
- Pliny the elder, Historia Naturalis, III, 19; 26-27.
- ISBN 978-1-134-45112-8.
- ^ Appian, Iberiké, 99.
- Pliny the elder, Historia Naturalis, III, 27.
- ^ Livy, Periochae, 70.
- ^ Appian, Iberiké, 99-100.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliothekes Istorikes, V: 34, 3.
- ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliothekes Istorikes, V: 33, 16.
- ^ Silius Italicus, Punica, II: 3, 341-343; 13, 671-672.
- ^ Claudius Aelianus, De Natura Animalium, 10, 22.
- ^ Herodotus, Istoriai, II, 33; IV, 49.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 25: 32(3)-33; 34-36.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 28: 1, 5-8; 2.
- ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 34: 19.
- ^ Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 16: 1, 3; though neither Livy or any other Graeco-Roman author make no reference to such a speech.
- ^ Arevaci – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
- ^ Livy, Periochae, 67.
- ^ Livy, Periochae, 70.
- ^ Appian, Iberiké, 99-100.
- ^ Livy, Fragmenta Librii, 91.
- ^ Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain (2013), p. 79.
- ^ Tacitus, Annales, 4, 45.
References
- Ángel Montenegro et alii, Historia de España 2 - colonizaciones y formación de los pueblos prerromanos (1200-218 a.C), Editorial Gredos, Madrid (1989) ISBN 84-249-1386-8
- Alfredo Jimeno et alli, La necrópolis celtibérica de Numancia, Coleccion Memorias 12, Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, Valladolid (2004) ISBN 84-9718-289-8
- Lorrio Alvarado, Alberto José, Los Celtíberos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Murcia (1997) ISBN 84-7908-335-2
- Mozota, Francisco Burillo, Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados, Crítica, Barcelona (1998, revised edition 2007) ISBN 84-7423-891-9
- Rafael Trevino and Angus McBride, Rome's Enemies (4): Spanish Armies 218BC-19BC, Men-at-Arms series 180, Osprey Publishing Ltd, London (1986) ISBN 0-85045-701-7
- Philip Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley (2013) ISBN 978-1-84884-787-3
Further reading
- Aedeen Cremin, The Celts in Europe, Sydney, Australia: Sydney Series in Celtic Studies 2, Centre for Celtic Studies, University of Sydney (1992) ISBN 0-86758-624-9
- Daniel Varga, The Roman Wars in Spain: The Military Confrontation with Guerrilla Warfare, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley (2015) ISBN 978-1-47382-781-3
- Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, The Celts: A History, The Collins Press, Cork (2002) ISBN 0-85115-923-0
- Leonard A Curchin (5 May 2004). The Romanization of Central Spain: Complexity, Diversity and Change in a Provincial Hinterland. Routledge. pp. 37–. ISBN 978-1-134-45112-8.
- Esteban, J. Alberto Arenas & Tamayo, Mª Victoria Palacios, El origen del mundo celtibérico, Excmº Ayuntamiento de Molina de Aragón (1999) ISBN 84-922929-1-1
- Ludwig Heinrich Dyck, The Roman Barbarian Wars: The Era of Roman Conquest, Author Solutions (2011) ISBNs 1426981821, 9781426981821
- Luis Berrocal-Rangel, Los pueblos célticos del soroeste de la Península Ibérica, Editorial Complutense, Madrid (1992) ISBN 84-7491-447-7
- John T. Koch (ed.), Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO Inc., Santa Barbara, California (2006) ISBN 1-85109-440-7, 1-85109-445-8