Gallaeci


The Callaeci were a Late Iron Age tribal complex who inhabited the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now Galicia, the Norte Region in northern Portugal and the Spanish regions of western Asturias and western León before and during the Roman period. They spoke Indo-European dialects with Celtic and non-Celtic features, although their actual kinship is under discussion. The region was annexed by the Romans from the Lusitanian to the Cantabrian Wars, which paved the way for Romanization of the Callaeci over the following centuries.
The endonym of modern-day Galicians, galegos, derives directly from the name of this people.

Archaeology

Archaeologically, the Iron Age Callaeci evolved from the local Atlantic Bronze Age culture. During the Iron Age they received additional influences, including from Southern Iberian and Celtiberian cultures, and from central-western Europe, and from the Mediterranean. The Callaeci dwelt in hill forts, and the archaeological culture they developed is known by archaeologists as "Castro culture", characterised by their hillforts with round or elongated houses.
The Callaecian way of life was based in land occupation especially by fortified settlements that are known in Latin language as "castra" or "oppida" ; they varied in size from small villages of less than one hectare to great walled citadels with more than 10 hectares sometimes denominated oppida, being these latter more common in the Southern half of their traditional settlement and around the Ave river.
Due to the dispersed nature of their settlements, large towns were rare in pre-Roman Callaecia although some medium-sized oppida have been identified, namely the obscure Portus Calle, Avobriga, Tongobriga, Brigantia, Tyde/Tude, Lugus and the Atlantic trading port of Brigantium.
This livelihood in hillforts was common throughout Europe during the Bronze and Iron Ages, getting in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, the name of 'Castro culture" or "hillfort's culture", which alludes to this type of settlement prior to the Roman conquest. However, several Callaecian hillforts continued to be inhabited until the 5th century AD.
These fortified villages tended to be located in the hills, and occasionally rocky promontories and peninsulas near the seashore, as it improved visibility and control over territory. These settlements were strategically located for a better control of natural resources, including mineral ores such as iron. The Callaecian hillforts and oppidas maintained a great homogeneity and presented clear commonalities. The citadels, however, functioned as city-states and could have specific cultural traits.
The names of such hill-forts, as preserved in Latin inscriptions and other literary sources, were frequently composite nouns with a second element such as -bris, -briga, -ocelum, -dunum all meaning "hill > hill-fort" or similar: Aviliobris, Letiobri, Talabriga, Nemetobriga, Louciocelo, Tarbucelo, Caladunum, etc. Others are superlative formations : Berisamo, Sesmaca. Many Galician modern day toponyms derive from these old settlements' names: Canzobre < Caranzovre < *Carantiobrixs, Trove < Talobre < *Talobrixs, Ombre < Anobre < *Anobrixs, Biobra < *Vidobriga, Bendollo < *Vindocelo, Andamollo < *Andamocelo, Osmo < Osamo < *Uxsamo, Sésamo < *Segisamo, Ledesma < *φletisama... Usually they combine this Celtic element with non-Celtic material, such as Paemeiobriga or Pezobre.
Associated archaeologically with the hill forts are the famous Callaecian warrior statues - slightly larger than life size statues of warriors, assumed to be deified local heroes.

Political-territorial organization

The Callaecian political organization is not known with certainty but it is very probable that they were divided into small independent chiefdoms who the Romans called populus or civitas, each one ruled by a local petty king or chief, as in other parts of Europe. Each populus comprised a sizeable number of small hillforts. So each Callaecian considered themselves a member of his or her populus and of the hillfort where they lived, as deduced by their usual onomastic phormula: first Name + patronymic + populus or nation + origin of the person = name of their hill-fort :
  • Nicer Clvtosi > Cavriaca principis Albionum: Nicer son of Clutosius, from Cauria, prince of the Albions.
  • Apana Ambolli f Celtica Supertam> obri: Apana daughter of Ambollus, a Supertamaric Celtic, from obri.
  • Anceitvs Vacci f Limicvs > Talabric: Ancetos son of Vaccios, a Limic, from Talabriga.
  • Bassvs Medami f Grovvs > Verio: Bassos son of Medamos, a Grovian, from Verio.
  • Ladronu Dovai Brarus Castell Durbede: Ladronos son of Dovaios, a Bracaran, from the castle Durbeds.

    Callaeci tribes

The list of Gallaeci tribes sorted by minority groups:
Bracarenses
Lucenses
Other minor groups
  • Aebocosi
  • Amphilochi
  • Artodii
  • Aunonenses
  • Banienses
  • Barhantes
  • Brassii
  • Brigantes
  • Cuci
  • Iadones
  • Lapatianci
  • Louguei
  • Naebisoci / Aebisoci
  • Namarii
  • Poemani
  • Segodii
  • Tongobrigenses
Pomponius Mela, who described the Galician seashore and their dwellers around 40 AD, divided the coastal Callaeci in non-Celtic Grovii along the southern areas; the Celtic peoples who lived along the Rías Baixas and Costa da Morte regions in northern Galicia; and the also Celtic Artabri who dwelled all along the northern coast in between the latter and the Astures. Other authors, such as Strabo or Pliny the Elder, gave more nuanced views of the Callaecian ethnography.

Etymology

The Romans named the entire region north of the Douro, where the Castro culture existed, in honour of the castro people that settled in the area of Calle — the Callaeci. The Romans established a port in the south of the region which they called Portus Calle, today's Porto, in northern Portugal. When the Romans first conquered the Callaeci they ruled them as part of the province of Lusitania but later created a new province of Callaecia or Callaecia.
The names "Callaici" and "Calle" are the origin of today's Gaia, Galicia, and the "Gal" root in "Portugal", among many other placenames in the region.

Callaecian language

Callaeci spoke Indo-European dialects with Celtic and non-Celtic features, although their actual kinship is under discussion. As is the case for Illyrian or Ligurian languages, its corpus is composed of isolated words and short sentences contained in local Latin inscriptions, or glossed by classic authors, together with a considerable number of names – anthroponyms, ethnonyms, theonyms, toponyms – contained in inscriptions, or surviving up to date as place, river or mountain names.

Callaecian deities

Through the Callaecian-Roman inscriptions, is known part of the great pantheon of Callaecian deities, sharing part not only by other Celtic or Celticized peoples in the Iberian Peninsula, such as Astur — especially the more Western — or Lusitanian, but also by Gauls and Britons among others. This will highlight the following:
  • Bandua: Callaecian God of War, similar to the Roman god, Mars. Great success among the Callaeci of Braga.
  • Berobreus: god of the Otherworld and beyond. The largest shrine dedicated to Berobreo documented until now, stood in the fort of the Torch of Donón, in the Morrazo's Peninsula, front of the Cíes Islands.
  • Bormanicus: god of hot springs similar to the Gaulish god, Bormanus.
  • Nabia: goddess of waters, of fountains and rivers. In Galicia and Portugal still nowadays, numerous rivers that still persist with his name, as the river Navia, ships and in northern Portugal there is the Idol Fountain, dedicated to the goddess ship.
  • Cossus, warrior god, who attained great popularity among the Southern Callaeci, was one of the most revered gods in ancient Callaecia. Several authors suggest that Cosso and Bandua are the same God under different names.
  • Reue, associated with the supreme God hierarchy, justice and also death.
  • Lugus, or Lucubo, linked to prosperity, trade and craft occupations. He is one of gods most common among the Celts and many place names are derived from his name.
  • Coventina, goddess of abundance and fertility. Strongly associated with the water nymphs, their cult record for most Western Europe, from England to Callaecia.
  • Endovelicus, god of prophecy and healing, showing the faithful in dreams.

    History

The fact that the Callaeci did not adopt writing until contact with the Romans constrains the study of their earlier history. However, early allusions to the Callaeci are present in ancient Greek and Latin authors prior to the conquest, which allows the reconstruction of a few historical events of this people since the second century BC. The oldest known inscription referring to the Callaeci was found in 1981 in the Sebasteion of Aphrodisias, Turkey, where a triumphal monument to Augustus mentions them among other fifteen nations allegedly conquered by this Roman emperor.
Protected by their mountainous country and its isolation, the Gallaican tribes did not fell under Carthaginian rule in the 3rd century BC, though a combined Callaeci-Lusitani mercenary contingent led by a chieftain named Viriathus is mentioned in Hannibal's army during his march to Italy during the Second Punic War, participating in the battles of Lake Trasimene and Cannae.
On his epic poem Punica, Silius Italicus gives a short description of these mercenaries and their military tactics:
The Callaeci came into direct contact with Rome relatively late, in the wake of the Roman punitive campaigns against their southern neighbours, the Lusitani and the Turduli Veteres. Regarded as hardy fighters, Callaeci warriors fought for the Lusitani during Viriathus' campaigns in the south, and in 138-136 BC they faced the first Roman incursion into their territory by consul Decimus Junius Brutus, whose campaign reached as far as the river Nimis. After seizing the town of Talabriga from the Turduli Veteres, he crushed an allegedly 60,000-strong Callaeci relief army sent to support the Lusitani at a desperate and difficult battle near the Durius river, in which 50,000 Gallaicans were slain, 6,000 were taken prisoner and only a few managed to escape, before withdrawing south.
It remains unclear if the Callaeci participated actively in the Sertorian Wars, although a fragment of Sallust records the sertorian legate Marcus Perperna Veiento capturing the town of Cale in around 74 BC. Later in 61-60 BC the Propraetor of Hispania Ulterior Julius Caesar forced upon them the recognition of Roman suzerainty after defeating the northern Callaeci in a combined sea-and-land battle at Brigantium, but it remained mostly nominal until the outbreak of the first Astur-Cantabrian War in 29 BC. Again, the involvement of the Callaeci in the latter conflict remains obscure, with Paulus Orosius briefly mentioning that the Augustan legates Gaius Antistius Vetus and Gaius Firmius fought a difficult campaign to subdue the Callaeci tribes of the more remote forested and mountainous parts of Callaecia bordering the Atlantic Ocean, defeating them only after a series of severe battles, though no exact details are given. After conquering Callaecia, Augustus promptly used its territory – now part of his envisaged Transduriana Province, whose organization was entrusted to suffect consul Lucius Sestius Albanianus Quirinalis – as a springboard to his rear offensive against the Astures.