Cynetes
The Cynetes or Conii were one of the
Etymology
The name Cynetes (Latin Conii) probably stems from Proto-Celtic *kwon ('dog') connected with greek kyοn, κύων, dog.[3][4]
Origins and location
They are often mentioned in the ancient sources under various designations, mostly Greek or Latin derivatives of their two tribal names: ‘Cynetas’/’Cynetum’;[5] ‘Kunetes’, ‘Kunetas’, and ‘Kunesioi'[6] or ‘Cuneus’,[7] followed by ‘Konioi’,[8] ‘Kouneon’[9] and ‘Kouneous’/‘Kouneoi’.[10] The Conii occupied since the late Bronze Age most of the present-day Lower Alentejo, Algarve, the southern part of Badajoz and the northwestern portions of Córdoba and Ciudad Real provinces,[11] giving the Algarve its pre-Roman name, the Cyneticum. Prior to the Celtic-Turduli migrations of the 5th to 4th centuries BC, the original Conii territories also included upper Alentejo and the Portuguese coastal Estremadura region stretching up to the Munda (Mondego) river valley.
Genetics
It has been suggested that the
Culture
Their presence in these regions is attested archeologically by the elaborated cremation burial-mounds of their ruling elite, whose rich grave-goods and the inscribed slabs in ‘Tartessian alphabet’ – also referred to as ‘
Inscriptions in the Tartessian language have been found in the area, in a variety often referred to as Southwest Paleohispanic script.[14][15] The name Conii, found in Strabo, seems to have been identical with the Cynesii, who were mentioned by Herodotus as the westernmost dwellers of Europe and distinguished by him from the Celts.[16]
Towns
The capital of the Conii was Conistorgis, according to Strabo, who considered the region Celtic.[17] In the local language Conistorgis probably means "City of the Conii". Its precise location has not been determined. Some authors[18] suggest that Pax Julia might have been founded over the ruins of Conistorgis.
Other Conii towns (Oppida) included Ipses (Alvor), Cilpe (Cerro da Rocha Branca – Silves), Ossonoba (near Faro; Iberian-type mint: Osunba), Balsa (Quinta da Torre de Aires, Santa Luzia – Tavira), Baesuris (Castro Marim; Iberian-type mint: Baesuri) and Myrtilis (Mértola; Iberian-type mint: Mrtlis Saidie). According to Pomponius Mela the population of these parva oppida did not surpass 6,000 inhabitants.[19]
A powerful urban aristocracy of
History
The Conii seemed to have played no significant role in the Second Punic War and subsequent conflicts, even though they were constantly under the pressure from the northernly Celtic tribes throughout the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, which may explain their willingness to place themselves under the protection of foreign powers such as Carthage and later Rome.
Around the 3rd century BC, the
In 138-137 BC the Cyneticum was aggregated into Hispania Ulterior province, only to become again a battleground during the Sertorian Wars, when Quintus Sertorius seized Conistorgis and Consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius devastated the region in retaliation,[23] being defeated at the battle of Laccobriga in 78 BC.[24]
Romanization
In 27-13 BC the romanized Conii were incorporated into Lusitania province.
See also
- History of Portugal
- Prehistoric Iberia
- Conistorgis
- Cyneticum
- Timeline of Portuguese history
- Sefes
- Sertorian Wars
- Southwest Paleohispanic script
- "Tartessian" language (Southwestern or "South-Lusitanian" language)
- Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
Notes
- ^ "Arkeotavira.com map". Archived from the original on 2011-02-26. Retrieved 2008-04-07.
- ^ Justin, Epitome historiarum Trogi Pompeii, 44: 4-5.
- ^ Sergent 1991, p. 12.
- ^ Delamarre 2003, p. 132.
- ^ Avienius, Ora Marítima, 200, 205, 223.
- ^ Herodoros of Heracleia, Fragments.
- ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History, V, 41, 145.
- ^ Polybius, Istorion, 10: 7, 5.
- ^ Strabo, Geographikon, III, 1, 4.
- ^ Appian, Iberiké, 10: 75
- ^ Bendala Galán (1991). Historia General de España y América. De la Protohistoria a la Conquista Romana (2nd ed.). Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, S. A.
- PMID 9382919.
- ^ Dr. Manuel Maria da Fonseca Andrade Maia (Dissertação de Doutoramento em Pré-História e Arqueologia [1] Archived February 14, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa, 1987)
- ISBN 978-1-84217-410-4.
- ISBN 978-1-907029-07-3. Archived from the originalon 2011-07-23.
- ^ Herodotus writes "now the Celtae dwell beyond the pillars of Hercules, being neighbours of the Cynesii, who are the westernmost of all nations inhabiting Europe" (Herodotus, II, 33). In another reference noting the Celts again in the extreme west, he refers to their neighbors the Cynetes: "...the Celts, who, save only the Cynetes, are the most westerly dwellers in Europe." (IV, 49).
- ^ "In the country of the Celti, Conistorgis is the best known city" (Strabo, III, 2, 2).
- ^ Ensaio Monográfico de Beja, 1973, Manuel Joaquim Delgado e Beja XX Séculos de História de Uma Cidade,
- ^ Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia, III, 7.
- ^ Arruda 2005.
- ^ Appian, Iberiké, 56-57.
- ^ Appian, Iberiké, 68-69.
- ^ Sallust, Excerptae de Historiis, 1, 112-113.
- ^ Plutarch, Sertorius, 13.
References
- Arruda, Ana M. (2005). "O 1° milénio a.n.e. no Centro e no Sul de Portugal: leituras possíveis no início de um novo século". O Arqueólogo Português (in Portuguese). 4: 9–156.
- Berrocal-Rangel, Luis (2005). "The Celts of the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula". e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies. 6: 481–96.
- Delamarre, Xavier (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental (in French). Errance. ISBN 9782877723695.
- Júdice Gamito, Teresa (2005). "The Celts in Portugal". e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies. 6: 571–605. Archived from the original on 2011-05-24. Retrieved 2010-08-12.
- Mattoso, José (dir.), História de Portugal. Primeiro Volume: Antes de Portugal, Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 1992. (in Portuguese)
- .
Primary
- Geographika, III, 2, 2.
Further reading
- 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
- Berrocal-Rangel, Luis, Los pueblos célticos del soroeste de la Península Ibérica, Editorial Complutense, Madrid (1992) ISBN 84-7491-447-7
- Philip Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley (2013) ISBN 978-1848847873
- Luis Silva, Viriathus and the Lusitanian resistance to Rome 155-139 BC, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley (2013) ISBN 9781781591284
- Palacios, Fernando Fernández. "CELTIC ‘DOGS’ IN THE IBERIAN PENINSULA." In Celtic from the West 3: Atlantic Europe in the Metal Ages — Questions of Shared Language, edited by Koch John T. and Cunliffe Barry, by Cleary Kerri and Gibson Catriona D., 477-88. OXFORD: Oxbow Books, 2016. Accessed June 29, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh1dhg7.19.