Astures

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The Iberian Peninsula in the 3rd century BC.

The Astures or Asturs, also named Astyrs,

Trás os Montes in Portugal. They were a horse-riding highland cattle-raising people who lived in circular huts of stone drywall construction.[5] The Albiones were a major tribe from western Asturias.[6] Isidore of Seville[7] gave an etymology as coming from a river Astura, identified by David Magie with Órbigo River in the plain of León, by others the modern Esla River
.

Location

Conventus Asturum

The Asturian homeland encompassed the modern autonomous community of

Las Medulas? – León), Bergidum (Cacabelos, near Villafranca del Bierzo – León), Bedunia (Castro de Cebrones – León), Aliga (Alixa? – León), Curunda (Castro de Avelãs, Trás-os-Montes), Lucus Asturum (Lugo de Llanera – Asturias), Brigaetium (Benavente – Zamora), and Nemetobriga (A Pobra de Trives
– Ourense), which was the religious center.

Origins

The Astures may have been part of the early

Navia River and the central massif of the Picos de Europa, comprised the Iburri, Luggones, Paesici, Paenii, Saelini, Vinciani, Viromenici and Baedunienses; the Cismontani included the Amaci, Cabruagenigi, Lancienses, Lougei, Tiburi, Brigaecini, Orniaci, Superatii, Gigurri, Zoelae and Susarri (which dwelled around Asturica Augusta, in the Astura river valley, and was the main Astur town in Roman times). Prior to the Roman conquest in the late 1st century BC, they were united into a tribal federation with the mountain-top citadel of Asturica (Astorga
) as their capital.

Culture

Recent

Lugones related to the god Lugus or the parish of Beleño related to the god Belenus
, just to name a few.

According to classic authors, their family structure was

León, and with rectangular walls in flatter areas, similarly to their fellow Galicians. Their warrior class consisted of men and women and both sexes were considered fierce fighters.[5]

Religion

Most of their tribes, like the

toponomy of the places inhabited by the Astures. They may have venerated the deity Busgosu.[5]

Way of life

Gallaecian-Asturian gold torc (4th to 2nd century BC)

The Astures were vigorous

Asturcon, which still exists today. According to Pliny the Elder,[11]
these were small-stature saddle horses, slightly larger than ponies, of graceful walk and very fast, being trained for both hunting and mountain warfare.

During a large part of the year they used

Lucan calls them "Pale seekers after gold" ("Asturii scrutator pallidus auri").[13]

History

The Astures entered the historical record in the late 3rd century BC, being listed amongst the Iberian Peninsula mercenaries of

Roman Civil Wars of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, they re-emerged from a relative obscurity just prior to the outbreak of the first Astur-Cantabrian war in the late 1st century BC.[17]

Led by

Bellum Asturicum), which commenced in the spring of 26 BC, was successfully concluded in 25 BC with the ceremonial surrender of Mons Medullus to Augustus in person, allowing the latter to return to Rome and ostentatiously close the gates of the temple of Janus that same year.[20] The reduction of the remaining Asture holdouts was entrusted to Publius Carisius, the legate of Lusitania, who, after managing to trap Gauson and the remnants of his troops at the hillfort of Lancia, subsequently forced them to surrender when he threatened to set fire to the town.[21] The Astures were subdued by the Romans but were never fully conquered, and their tribal way of life changed very little.[5]

As far as the official Roman history was concerned, the fall of this last redoubt marked the conclusion of the conquest of the Asturian lands, which henceforth were included alongside Gallaecia and Cantabria into the new Transduriana Province under the suffect consul Lucius Sestius Albanianus Quirinalis. This was followed by the establishment of military garrisons at Castrum Legio VII Gemina (León) and Petavonium (Rosinos de Vidriales – Zamora), along with colonies at Asturica Augusta (Astorga) and Lucus Asturum (Lugo de Llanera – Asturias).

In spite of the harsh pacification policies implemented by Augustus, the Asturian country remained an unstable region subjected to sporadic revolts – often carried out in collusion with the Cantabri – and persistent guerrilla activity that kept the Roman occupation forces busy until the mid-1st century AD. New risings occurred in 24–22 BC (the 2nd Astur-Cantabrian War), in 20–18 BC (3rd Astur-Cantabrian 'War') – sparked off by runaway Cantabrian slaves returning from Gaul[22] – both of which were brutally quashed by General Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa[23] and again in 16–13 BC when Augustus crushed the last joint Astur-Cantabrian rebellion.

Romanization

Incorporated into the

Primipilus Centurion of Legio VI Victrix decorated for bravery in action[25]
confirms that the Astures staged a revolt in AD 54, prompting another vicious guerrilla war – unrecorded by surviving ancient sources – that lasted for fourteen years but the situation was finally calm around AD 68.

The early Middle Ages

During the

Visigoth raids throughout the 5th century AD, only to be ultimately defeated and absorbed into the Visigothic Kingdom by the Visigothic King Sisebut in the early 6th century AD. However, the Astures continued to rebel, with King Wamba sending an expedition to the Asturian lands only twenty years before the Muslim invasion of the peninsula and the fall of the Visigothic kingdom. The Astures chose Pelagius of Asturias
as their leader and in due course formed the Kingdom of Asturias.

Legacy

Maximum extension of Kingdom of Asturias, circa 910 AD. King Alfonso III of Asturias, (848 – 910)

At a later date, in the beginning of the Reconquista period in the early Middle Ages, their name was preserved in the medieval Kingdom of Asturias and in the modern town of Astorga, León, whose designation still reflects its early Roman name of Asturica Augusta, the "Augustan settlement of the Astures".

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Silius Italicus, Punica, III, 325.
  2. ^ Martino, Roma contra Cantabros y Astures – Nueva lectura de las fuentes, p. 18, footnote 15.
  3. ISBN 9781851094400
    .
  4. ^ Cólera, Carlos Jordán (16 March 2007). "The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula:Celtiberian" (PDF). E-Keltoi. 6: 749–750. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 June 2011. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  5. ^
    ISBN 1-58112-890-8
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-85109-440-0
    .
  7. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologies, IX: 2, 112, noted by David Magie, "Augustus' War in Spain (26-25 B.C.)" Classical Philology 15.4 (October 1920:323–339) p.336 note 3.
  8. ^ Cunliffe, The Celts – A Very Short Introduction (2003), p. 54.
  9. ^ a b Florus, Epitomae Historiae Romanae, II, 33.
  10. Paulus Orosius
    , Historiae adversus Paganos, VI, 21.
  11. ^ Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, 7, 166.
  12. ^ Strabo, Geographikon, III, 3, 7.
  13. Lucan, Pharsalia
    , IV, 298.
  14. ^ Livy, Ad Urbe Condita, 27: 43–49.
  15. ^ Polybius, Istorion, 11: 1–3.
  16. ^ Silius Italicus, Punica, III, 325-343.
  17. ^ David Magie in Classical Philology 1920 gives the pertinent passages in Florus and Orosius and critically assesses and corrects the inconsistent topography of the sources.
  18. Paulus Orosius
    , Historiae adversus Paganos, VI, 24.
  19. ^ Cassius Dio, Romaiké Istoria, 51, 20.
  20. ^ Cassius Dio, Romaiké Istoria, 53: 26.
  21. ^ Cassius Dio, Romaiké Istoria, 53: 25, 8; attributed the victory in error to Titus Carasius, father of Publius Carasius (Magie 1920:338 note 4).
  22. ^ Cassius Dio, Romaiké Istoria, 54: 11, 1.
  23. ^ Magie 1920:339.
  24. ^ Notitia Dignitatum, Or. XL, 35.
  25. Ariminum
    ; cf: B. Dobson, Die Primipilares (Beihefte der Bonner Jahrbücher XXXVII), Köln 1978, pp. 198–200.

Sources

Further reading

External links
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