Celtiberians
The Celtiberians were a group of
There is no complete agreement on the exact definition of Celtiberians among classical authors, nor modern scholars. The
In 195 BC, part of Celtiberia was conquered by the Romans, and by 72 BC the entire region had become part of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior. The subjugated Celtiberians waged a protracted struggle against the Roman conquerors, staging uprisings in 195–193 BC, 181–179 BC, 153–151 BC, and 143–133 BC. In 105 BC, Celtiberian warriors drove the Germanic Cimbri from Spain in the Cimbrian War (113–101 BC) and also played an important role in the Sertorian War (80–72 BC).
Etymology
The term Celtiberi appears in accounts by Diodorus Siculus,[5] Appian[6] and Martial[7] who recognized intermarriage between Celts and Iberians after a period of continuous warfare, though Barry Cunliffe says "this has the ring of guesswork about it."[8] Strabo just saw the Celtiberians as a branch of the Celti.[1] Pliny the Elder thought that the original home of the Celts in Iberia was the territory of the Celtici in the south-west, on the grounds of an identity of sacred rites, language, and the names of cities.[9]
History
Early history
Strabo cites
Celtic presence in Iberia likely dates to as early as the 6th century BC, when the castros evinced a new permanence with stone walls and protective ditches. Archaeologists Martín Almagro Gorbea and Alberto José Lorrio Alvarado recognize the distinguishing iron tools and extended family social structure of developed Celtiberian culture as evolving from the archaic castro culture which they consider "proto-Celtic".
Archaeological finds identify the culture as continuous with the culture reported by Classical writers from the late 3rd century onwards (Almagro-Gorbea and Lorrio). The ethnic map of Celtiberia was highly localized however, composed of different tribes and nations from the 3rd century centered upon fortified oppida and representing a wide-ranging degree of local assimilation with the autochthonous cultures in a mixed Celtic and Iberian stock.
The cultural stronghold of Celtiberians was the northern area of the central
Excavations at the Celtiberian strongholds Kontebakom-Bel Botorrita, Sekaisa Segeda, Termantia[12] complement the grave goods found in Celtiberian cemeteries, where aristocratic tombs of the 6th to 5th centuries BC give way to warrior tombs with a tendency from the 3rd century BC for weapons to disappear from grave goods, either indicating an increased urgency for their distribution among living fighters or, as Almagro-Gorbea and Lorrio think, the increased urbanization of Celtiberian society. Many late Celtiberian oppida are still occupied by modern towns, inhibiting archaeology.
Metalwork stands out in Celtiberian archaeological finds, partly from its indestructible nature, emphasizing Celtiberian articles of warlike uses, horse trappings and prestige weapons. The two-edged sword adopted by the Romans was previously in use among the Celtiberians, and Latin lancea, a thrown spear, was a Hispanic word, according to
From the 3rd century, the clan was superseded as the basic Celtiberian political unit by the oppidum, a fortified organized city with a defined territory that included the castros as subsidiary settlements. These civitates as the Roman historians called them, could make and break alliances, as surviving inscribed hospitality pacts attest, and minted coinage. The old clan structures lasted in the formation of the Celtiberian armies, organized along clan-structure lines, with consequent losses of strategic and tactical control.
Late period
The Celtiberians were the most influential ethnic group in Iberia when the Mediterranean powers (
In 155 BC, a raid into
Nearby fields were laid waste and what was not used burned. The stronghold of Numantia then was circumvallated with a ditch and palisade, behind which was a wall ten feet high. Towers were placed every hundred feet and mounted with
There were several desperate attempts to break out but they were repulsed. Nor could there be any help from neighboring towns. Eventually, as their hunger increased, envoys were sent to Scipio, asking if they would be treated with moderation if they surrendered, pleading that they had fought for their women and children, and the freedom of their country. But Scipio would accept only deditio (surrender). Hearing this demand for absolute submission, the Numantines, "who were previously savage in temper because of their absolute freedom and quite unaccustomed to obey the orders of others, and were now wilder than ever and beside themselves by reason of their hardships," slew their own ambassadors.
After eight months, the starving population was reduced to cannibalism and, filthy and foul smelling, compelled to surrender. But, "such was the love of liberty and of valour which existed in this small barbarian town," relates Appian, that many chose to kill themselves rather than capitulate. Families poisoned themselves, weapons were burned, and the beleaguered town set ablaze. There had been only about 8,000 fighting men when the war began; half that number survived to garrison Numantia. Only a pitiable few survived to walk in Scipio's triumph. The others were sold as slaves and the town razed to the ground, the territory divided among its neighbors.
After Numantia was finally taken and destroyed, Roman cultural influences increased; this is the period of the earliest Botorrita inscribed plaque; later plaques, significantly, are inscribed in Latin. The Sertorian War (80–72 BC) marked the last formal resistance of the Celtiberian cities to Roman domination, which submerged the Celtiberian culture.
The Celtiberian presence remains on the map of Spain in hundreds of Celtic place-names. The archaeological recovery of Celtiberian culture commenced with the excavations of Numantia, published between 1914 and 1931.
A Roman army auxiliary unit, the Cohors I Celtiberorum, is known from Britain, attested by 2nd century AD discharge diplomas.[17]
Genetics
In a March 2019 genetic study published in
See also
- Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
- Gallaeci
Notes
- ^ a b Strabo. Geography. Book III Chapter 4 verses 5 and 12.
- ISBN 978-1-85109-440-0.
- ^ Roman History, Book XVIII "Cato sailed away and reached Spain, where he learned that all the inhabitants as far as the Iberus (Ebro river) had united in order to wage war against him in a body. After organizing his army he attacked and defeated them and forced them to submit to him, since they feared that otherwise they might lose their cities at a single stroke. At the time he did them no harm, but later, when some of them incurred his suspicion, he deprived them all of their arms and caused the natives themselves to tear down their own walls. For he sent letters in all directions with orders that they should be delivered to everybody on the same day; and in these he commanded the people to raze their walls immediately, threatening the disobedient with death. The officials upon reading the letters thought in each case that message had been written to them alone, and without taking time for deliberation they all threw down their walls. Cato now crossed the Iberus, and though he did not dare to contend with the Celtiberian allies of the enemy on account of their number, yet he handled them in marvellous fashion, now persuading them by a gift of larger pay to change front and join him, now admonishing them to return home, and sometimes even announcing a battle with them for a stated day. The result was that they broke up into separate factions and became so fearful that they no longer ventured to fight with him."
- ^ The Celts in Iberia: An Overview, e-Keltoi: Volume 6 https://www4.uwm.edu/celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol6/6_4/lorrio_zapatero_6_4.html Archived November 21, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Celtiberian manners and customs in Diodorus Siculus v. 33–34; Diodorus relies on lost texts of Posidonius.
- ^ Appian of Alexandria, Roman History.
- Bilbilis was the birthplace of Martial.
- ISBN 0-19-280418-9.
- ^ Sir William Smith (1854), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, Volume 2, Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
- ^ Strabo (1923). "LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book IV Chapter 4". The Geography of Strabo; with an English translation by Horace Leonard Jones. Vol. II, book IV, chapter 4 (Loeb Classical Library ed.). London: Heinemann.
- ISBN 978-1-85109-440-0. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
- ^ The Site of Tiermes Archived January 12, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, official website
- ^ The Celts: Bronze Age to New Age. Routledge. 2014. p. 54.
- ^ Sertorius and the Struggle for Spain. Pen and Sword. 2013.
- ^ Dictionary of Wars. Routledge. 2013. p. 339.
- ^ Florus, I.34.13
- ISBN 0-7524-1923-4; p. 241.
- ^ Olalde et al. 2019, Supplementary Materials, p. 9.
- ^ Olalde et al. 2019, p. 3.
- ^ Olalde et al. 2019, Supplementary Tables, Table 4, Row 91.
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
- Antonio Arribas, The Iberians, Thames & Hudson, London (1964)
- Francisco Burillo Mozota, Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados, Crítica, Barcelona (1998, revised edition 2007) ISBN 84-7423-891-9
- ISBN 0-14-025422-6
- Alberto J. Lorrio Alvarado, Los Celtíberos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Murcia (1997) ISBN 84-7908-335-2
- Alberto J. Lorrio Alvarado and Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero, "The Celts in Iberia: an Overview" in e-Keltoi 6
- J. P. Mallory, In Search of the Indo-Europeans, Thames & Hudson, London (1989) ISBN 0-500-05052-X
- Martín-Gil, Jesús; Palacios-Leblé, Gonzalo; Martín-Ramos, Pablo; Martín-Gil, Francisco J. "Analysis of a Celtiberian protective paste and its possible use by Arevaci warriors". E-Keltoi. 5: 63–76.
- J. Alberto Arenas Esteban, & Mª Victoria Palacios Tamayo, El origen del mundo celtibérico, Excmº Ayuntamiento de Molina de Aragón (1999) ISBN 84-922929-1-1
- Olalde, Iñigo; et al. (March 15, 2019). "The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years". PMID 30872528.
External links
- Júdice Gamito, Teresa (September 2005). "The Celts in Portugal". E-Keltoi. 6: The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula. Center for Celtic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: 571–605. Archived from the original on October 11, 2017. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
- Lorrio Alvarado, Alberto J.; Ruiz Zapatero, Gonzalo (February 2005). "The Celts in Iberia: An Overview". E-Keltoi. 6: The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula. Center for Celtic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: 167–254.
- Rodríguez Ramos, Jesús (March 17, 2006). "Iberian Epigraphy Page". Archived from the original on December 27, 2008. Retrieved November 29, 2008.
- "Botorrita 1". Quellentexte (in German). Vienna: *indegermanistik wien: Institutsteil des Instituts für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Wien. 2002. Archived from the original on September 29, 2009. Retrieved November 30, 2008.
- Almagro-Gorbea, Martín; Lorrio Alvarado, Alberto J. (October 2004). "War and Society in the Celtiberian World" (PDF). E-Keltoi. 6: The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula. Center for Celtic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: 73–112.
- James Grout: The Celtiberian War, part of the Encyclopædia Romana
- Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)
- Tirado, Jesús Bermejo (2018). "Domestic Patterns of Tableware Consumption in Roman Celtiberia". Internet Archaeology. 50.