10-28-2009, 06:34 PM
Greetings:
I am brand new on Roman Army Talk, so please forgive me if I make any mistakes! :lol:
The campaigns in Spain were long, nasty and generally a real problem for the Roman republic as it grew into an empire.
Most of the sources I've seen focus on the period of the Punic Wars on through the battles against Viriathus and the war against Numantia (ending 133 BCE). These struggles finished the power of the Celtiberians and the Lusitanii.
But the Romans were fighting in Spain until Augustus' time; after the Sertorius revolt and the civil wars, there are a series of campaigns against the tribes of the north-west, in what would later be known as Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria.
Does anyone know much about these people and these campaigns. Any good sources in English? Alas, my Spanish is restricted to ordering beer, finding the bathroom and some bits of Nicaraguan profanity picked up building houses on a hillside outside Managua this summer.
What I know (or think I know!) so far is that these isolated tribes lacked the Iberian influence of the Celtiberian peoples to their south and east. They built stone hillforts and archaeologists refer to their culture as the 'Castro culture'. They probably spoke an earlier Celtic(or 'proto-Celtic') language than the Celtiberians, who were descended from later arrivals from across the Pyrenees.
Cassis Dio has a chapter, but it's on the slim side. I've been told to look at Pliny the Elder, but all I have found is his Natural History, which discusses Spain in a cursory manner. Strabo discusses the Lusitanians and runs them together with what he terms the mountain people of the north.
There are some Wikipedia entries on the Cantabrian Wars that seem sensible and knowledgable, while some others are full of the reasons people point to Wikipedia and guffaw. I can't verify the parts that look good, of course.
From a military (and appearance) viewpoint, are they more or less old-fashioned Celts with lots of light infantry who can run about the mountains?
I am brand new on Roman Army Talk, so please forgive me if I make any mistakes! :lol:
The campaigns in Spain were long, nasty and generally a real problem for the Roman republic as it grew into an empire.
Most of the sources I've seen focus on the period of the Punic Wars on through the battles against Viriathus and the war against Numantia (ending 133 BCE). These struggles finished the power of the Celtiberians and the Lusitanii.
But the Romans were fighting in Spain until Augustus' time; after the Sertorius revolt and the civil wars, there are a series of campaigns against the tribes of the north-west, in what would later be known as Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria.
Does anyone know much about these people and these campaigns. Any good sources in English? Alas, my Spanish is restricted to ordering beer, finding the bathroom and some bits of Nicaraguan profanity picked up building houses on a hillside outside Managua this summer.
What I know (or think I know!) so far is that these isolated tribes lacked the Iberian influence of the Celtiberian peoples to their south and east. They built stone hillforts and archaeologists refer to their culture as the 'Castro culture'. They probably spoke an earlier Celtic(or 'proto-Celtic') language than the Celtiberians, who were descended from later arrivals from across the Pyrenees.
Cassis Dio has a chapter, but it's on the slim side. I've been told to look at Pliny the Elder, but all I have found is his Natural History, which discusses Spain in a cursory manner. Strabo discusses the Lusitanians and runs them together with what he terms the mountain people of the north.
There are some Wikipedia entries on the Cantabrian Wars that seem sensible and knowledgable, while some others are full of the reasons people point to Wikipedia and guffaw. I can't verify the parts that look good, of course.
From a military (and appearance) viewpoint, are they more or less old-fashioned Celts with lots of light infantry who can run about the mountains?