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| Iberians And Celt-Iberians |
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 Iberian auxiliaries often accounted for half of a Carthaginian army, while the Romans usually employed much smaller contingents.
Though
the Iberians were considered second-rate troops by both the
Carthaginians and Romans, they may well have taken a lack of enthusiasm
to die for their colonial masters as an indication of their true
capabilities. Certainly the Iberian tribes put up a tremendous struggle
against the Roman occupation for some 200 years following the overthrow
of Carthaginian power in Spain.
Celts,
living on the central mesetas in direct contact with the Iberians,
adopted many Iberian cultural fashions, including wheel-made pottery,
rough stone sculptures of pigs and bulls, and the eastern Iberian
alphabet on coins and inscriptions, such as the bronze plaque from
Botorrita (Saragossa), but they did not organize themselves into urban
settlements until the 3rd century BC. The Celt-Iberians were tribes of
mixed Iberian and Celtic stock who inhabited an area in present
north-central Spain from the 3rd century BC onward . These Celtiberians
inhabited the hill country between the sources of the Tagus (Tajo) and
Iberus (Ebro) rivers, including most of the modern province of Soria
and much of the neighbouring provinces of Guadalajara and Teruel.
In
historic times the Celtiberians were composed of the Arevaci, Belli,
Titti, and Lusones. The earliest population of Celtiberia was that of
the southeastern Almer�a culture of the Bronze Age, after which came
Hallstatt invaders, who occupied the area shortly before 600 BC. The
Hallstatt people were in turn subjugated by the Arevaci, who dominated
the neighbouring Celtiberian tribes from the powerful strongholds at
Okilis (modern Medinaceli) and Numantia. The Belli and the Titti were
settled in the Jal�n valley, the Sierra del Solorio separating them
from the Lusones to the northeast.
Recreation of a Celtic soldier
 The
material culture of Celtiberia was strongly influenced by that of the
Iberian people of the Ebro valley. Horse bits, daggers, and shield
fittings attest the warlike nature of the Celtiberians, and one of
their inventions, the two-edged Spanish sword, was later adopted by the
Romans. To the west and north of Inland Spain developed a world that
classical writers described as Celtic. Iron was known from 700 BC, and
agricultural and herding economies were practiced by people who lived
in small villages or, in the northwest, in fortified compounds called
castros. The people spoke Indo-European languages (Celtic, Lusitanian)
but were divided culturally and politically into dozens of independent
tribes and territories; they left behind hundreds of place-names.
Metalworking
flourished, and distinctive neck rings (torques) of silver or gold,
along with brooches and bangles, attest to their technical skills.
The
warriors of Celt-Iberia enjoyed a reputation as the finest barbarian
mercenary infantry in the western world. They were believed to possess
the finest qualities of the Celts, savage battle lust and great
physical courage, along with the steadiness and organization of the
more civilized Iberians. Their reputation was such that after the rout
of the Carthaginians by Scipio Africanus at the Burning of the Camps in
203, the arrival of a band of only 4,000 Celt-Iberians encouraged the
Carthaginians to take the field once more.
The
Celtiberians first submitted to the Romans in 195 BC, but they were not
completely under Roman domination until 133 BC, when Publius Cornelius
Scipio Aemilianus destroyed Numantia. The Mediterranean way of life
reached the interior only after the Romans conquered Numantia. Asturias
was only pacified in 19 BC. |
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