Vaccaei

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Iberian Peninsula in the 3rd century BC.
Painting depicting the Vaccaei going out to defend Palencia from the troops of Lucius Licinius Lucullus (151 BC). (Artist: Eugenio Oliva)

The Vaccaei or Vaccei were a pre-

Intercatia in Paredes de Nava
.

Origins

Also designated Vaccaenas in the ancient sources,

river Cea, prefixed by the Indo-European root *aued- (water).[4]

They often acted in concert with their neighbours, the Celtiberi, suggesting that they may have been part of the

Callaeci.[5][6][7] The Vaccean civilization was the result of a process of local evolution, importing elements from other cultures, whether by new additions of people or cultural and trading contacts with neighbouring groups. It is also believed that it was from the Vaccei that the warlike Arevaci
stemmed from around the late 4th Century BC to conquer the eastern meseta.

Culture

A grave excavated at Pintia in June 2008, containing many perfume bottles

Archeology has identified the Vaccei with the 2nd

Eneolithic times to the Iron Age, when the Vaccean period arose. The necropolis at Pintia is currently being excavated by an international field school students’ team every summer under the supervision of the University of Valladolid
and the Federico Wattenberg Center of Vaccean Studies.

The Vaccei were considered the most cultivated people west of the Celtiberians, and were distinguishable by a special collectivist type social structure, which enabled them to exploit successfully the wheat- and grass-growing areas of the western plateau.[8]

Religion

Like the Arevaci, they also practiced the rite of excarnation by exposing the corpses of warriors slain in battle to the vultures, which were regarded as sacred animals, as described by Claudius Aelianus.[9]

Location

Map of the territory of the Vaccaei

The Vaccean homeland extended throughout the center of the northern Meseta, along both banks of the

Odra), seized from the Autrigones
in the late 4th century BC – to name but a few.

Although its borders are difficult to define, and shifted from time to time, it can be said to have occupied all of the

Aliste (Zamora), between them and the Lusitanians
. It is likely that there was some contact with the latter to the west of Zamora.

History

A warrior people,[

Paulus Orosius.[11] They participated in the 5th century BC Celtici migrations alongside off-shots of the Arevaci and Lusones to settle in the west and southwest regions of the Iberian Peninsula.[12] In the early 3rd Century BC they aided the smaller Turmodigi people[citation needed] in their liberation from the rule of the Autrigones
. The Vaccaei enter the historical record around the late 3rd century BC, when in 221-220 BC they allied themselves with the
Lusitani, they were again beaten by the Praetor of Hispania Ulterior Lucius Postumius Albinus during its first incursion into the central Meseta in 179 BC.[16]

Allies of the

Astur-Cantabrian wars, only to be subdued by Consul Titus Statilius Taurus.[28]

Romanization

The Vaccaei were later aggregated to the new

).

Namesake

The Basques came to be called mistakenly Vaccaei and Vacceti by several early medieval chronicles and authors.

Gallery

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Cremin, The Celts in Europe (1992), p. 57.
  2. ^ .
  3. ^ Strabo, Geographikon, III, 3, 4.
  4. ^ Martino, Roma contra Cantabros y Astures – Nueva lectura de las fuentes (1982), p. 18, footnote 14.
  5. ^ Almagro-Gorbea, Martín; Alberto J. Lorrio (2004). "War and Society in the Celtiberian World". Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies. 6.
  6. .
  7. ^ Cólera, Carlos Jordán (March 16, 2007). "The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula:Celtiberian" (PDF). E-Keltoi. 6: 749–750. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  8. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliothekes Istorikes, V: 34, 3.
  9. ^ Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia, X, 22.
  10. ^ Ptolemy, Geographia, II, 5, 6
  11. Paulus Orosius
    , Historiae Adversus Paganos, 5: 5.
  12. ^ Herodotus, Istoriai, II, 33; IV, 49.
  13. ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 21: 5, 7-17.
  14. ^ Polybius, Istorion, III, 13, 14, 2-9.
  15. ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 37: 7, 6.
  16. ^ Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 40: 35, 39, 44, 47-50.
  17. ^ Appian, Romaika, 6, 51-52; 54.
  18. ^ Appian, Iberiké 76.
  19. ^ Appian, Romaika, 17, 79.
  20. ^ Appian, Romaika, 6, 81-83.
  21. ^ Livy, Periochae, 56: 1-2.
  22. Paulus Orosius
    , Historiae Adversus Paganos, 5: 5.
  23. ^ Livy, Fragmenta Librii, 91.
  24. ^ Appian, Romaika, 1, 112.
  25. ^ Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain (2013), p. 145.
  26. ^ Frontinus, Stratagemata, II, 11, 2.
  27. ^ Cassius Dio, Romaïké istoría, 39, 54.
  28. ^ Cassius Dio, Romaïké istoría, 51: 20; 53: 23.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links