TheCallaeci (alsoCallaici in the earliest sources andCallaeci in later sources;Ancient Greek:Καλλαϊκοί) were a Late Iron Age tribal complex who inhabited the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is nowGalicia, theNorte Region in northern Portugal and theSpanish regions of westernAsturias and westernLeón before and during theRoman period.[1][2] They spoke Indo-European dialects withCeltic and non-Celtic features, although their actual kinship is under discussion (seeCallaecian language).[3][4] The region was annexed by the Romans from theLusitanian to theCantabrian Wars, which paved the way forRomanization of the Callaeci over the following centuries.
The endonym of modern-dayGalicians,galegos, derives directly from the name of this people.
Archaeologically, the Iron Age Callaeci evolved from the localAtlantic Bronze Age culture (1300–700 BC). During theIron Age they received additional influences, including from Southern Iberian and Celtiberian cultures, and from central-western Europe (Hallstatt and, to a lesser extent,La Tène culture), and from theMediterranean (Phoenicians andCarthaginians). The Callaeci dwelt inhill forts (locally calledcastros), 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" (hillforts) or "oppida" (citadels); they varied in size from small villages of less than one hectare (more common in the northern territory) to great walled citadels with more than 10 hectares sometimes denominatedoppida, being these latter more common in the Southern half of their traditional settlement and around theAve river.
Due to the dispersed nature of their settlements, large towns were rare in pre-Roman Callaecia although some medium-sizedoppida have been identified, namely the obscurePortus Calle (also known asCales orCale;Castelo de Gaia, nearPorto),Avobriga (Castro de Alvarelhos –Santo Tirso?),Tongobriga (Freixo –Marco de Canaveses),Brigantia (Bragança?),Tyde/Tude (Tui),Lugus (Lugo) and the Atlantic trading port ofBrigantium (also designatedCarunium; eitherBetanzos orA Coruña).
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" (Castrum 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 (from proto-Celtic *brixs), -briga (from proto-Celtic *brigā), -ocelum (from proto-Celtic *okelo-), -dunum (from proto-Celtic *dūno-) all meaning "hill > hill-fort" or similar: Aviliobris, Letiobri, Talabriga, Nemetobriga, Louciocelo, Tarbucelo, Caladunum, etc. Others are superlative formations (from proto-Celtic *-isamo-, -(s)amo-): Berisamo (from *Bergisamo-), Sesmaca (from *Segisamo-). 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...[5] Usually they combine this Celtic element with non-Celtic material, such as Paemeiobriga or Pezobre.
Associated archaeologically with the hill forts are the famousCallaecian warrior statues - slightly larger than life size statues of warriors, assumed to be deified local heroes.
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 calledpopulus orcivitas, each one ruled by a local petty king or chief (princeps), as in other parts of Europe. Each populus comprised a sizeable number of small hillforts (castellum). 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 (genitive) + (optionally) populus or nation (nominative) + (optionally) origin of the person = name of their hill-fort (ablative):
Bracarenses | Lucenses | Other minor groups
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Pomponius Mela, who described the Galician seashore and their dwellers around 40 AD, divided the coastal Callaeci in non-CelticGrovii along the southern areas; the Celtic peoples who lived along theRías Baixas andCosta da Morte regions in northern Galicia; and the also CelticArtabri who dwelled all along the northern coast in between the latter and theAstures. Other authors, such asStrabo orPliny the Elder, gave more nuanced views of the Callaecian ethnography.
The Romans named the entire region north of theDouro, where theCastro culture existed, in honour of the castro people that settled in the area of Calle — theCallaeci. The Romans established a port in the south of the region which they calledPortus Calle, today'sPorto, in northern Portugal.[6] When the Romans first conquered the Callaeci they ruled them as part of the province ofLusitania but later created a new province ofCallaecia (Greek:Καλλαικία) orCallaecia.
The names "Callaici" and "Calle" are the origin of today'sGaia, Galicia, and the "Gal" root in "Portugal", among many other placenames in the region.
Callaeci spoke Indo-European dialects withCeltic and non-Celtic features, although their actual kinship is under discussion (seeCallaecian language). 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.
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:
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The fact that the Callaeci did not adopt writing until contact with theRomans constrains the study of their earlier history.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] The oldest known inscription referring to the Callaeci (readingἜθνο[υς] Καλλαϊκῶ[ν], "people of the Callaeci") was found in 1981 in theSebasteion of Aphrodisias,Turkey, where a triumphal monument toAugustus mentions them among other fifteen nations allegedly conquered by this Roman emperor.[7]
Protected by their mountainous country and its isolation, the Gallaican tribes did not fell underCarthaginian rule in the 3rd century BC, though a combined Callaeci-Lusitani mercenary contingent led by a chieftain namedViriathus (not the laterViriathus that defended westernHispania) is mentioned inHannibal's army during his march to Italy during theSecond Punic War, participating in thebattles of Lake Trasimene andCannae.[8]
On his epic poemPunica,Silius Italicus gives a short description of these mercenaries and their military tactics:[9]
[…] Fibrarum et pennae divinarumque sagacem flammarum misit dives Gallaecia pubem, barbara nunc patriis ululantem carmina linguis, nunc pedis alterno percussa verbere terra ad numerum resonas gaudentem plauder caetras […]
Rich Gallaecia sent its youths, wise in the knowledge of divination by the entrails of beasts, by feathers and flames, now howling barbarian songs in the tongues of their homelands, now alternately stamping the ground in their rhythmic dances until the ground rang, and accompanying the playing with sonorous shields.
The Callaeci came into direct contact with Rome relatively late, in the wake of the Roman punitive campaigns against their southern neighbours, theLusitani and theTurduli Veteres. Regarded as hardy fighters,[10] Callaeci warriors fought for the Lusitani duringViriathus'campaigns in the south,[11] and in 138-136 BC they faced the first Roman incursion into their territory by consulDecimus Junius Brutus, whose campaign reached as far as the riverNimis (possibly theMinho or Miño). After seizing the town ofTalabriga (Marnel,Lamas do Vouga –Águeda) 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 theDurius river, in which 50,000 Gallaicans were slain, 6,000 were taken prisoner and only a few managed to escape, before withdrawing south.[12][13][14][15]
It remains unclear if the Callaeci participated actively in theSertorian Wars, although a fragment ofSallust[16] records the sertorianlegateMarcus Perperna Veiento capturing the town of Cale in around 74 BC. Later in 61-60 BC thePropraetor ofHispania UlteriorJulius Caesar forced upon them the recognition of Roman suzerainty after defeating the northern Callaeci in a combined sea-and-land battle atBrigantium,[17] but it remained mostly nominal until the outbreak of thefirst Astur-Cantabrian War in 29 BC. Again, the involvement of the Callaeci in the latter conflict remains obscure, withPaulus Orosius[18] briefly mentioning that the AugustanlegatesGaius Antistius Vetus andGaius Firmius fought a difficult campaign to subdue the Callaeci tribes of the more remote forested and mountainous parts of Callaecia bordering theAtlantic 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 envisagedTransduriana Province, whose organization was entrusted tosuffect consulLucius Sestius Albanianus Quirinalis[19] – as a springboard to his rear offensive against theAstures.
In the later part of the 1st century BC military colonies were established atPortus Cale (Porto),Bracara Augusta (Braga),Lucus Augusti (Lugo) andAsturica Augusta (Astorga), with the pacified Callaeci tribes being integrated by Augustus into his newHispania Tarraconensis province. Later in the 3rd century AD, EmperorDiocletian created an administrative division which included theConventus of Callaecia, Asturica and, perhaps, Cluniense into the new province of Callaecia (Greek:Kallaikia), withBracara Augusta as the new provincial capital. Callaecia during the Empire became a recruiting district of auxiliary troops (auxilia) for the Roman Army and Gallaican auxiliary cavalry (equitatae) and infantry (peditatae) units (Cohors II Lucensium,Cohors III Lucensium,Cohors I Bracaraugustanorum,Cohors III Bracaraugustanorum,Cohors III Callaecorum Bracaraugustanorum,Cohors V Callaecorum Lucensium,Cohors VI Braecarorum,Cohors I Asturum et Callaecorum) distinguished themselves during EmperorClaudius'conquest of Britain in AD 43-60.
The region remained one of the last redoubts of Celtic culture and language in theIberian Peninsula well into the Roman imperial period, at least until the spread ofChristianity and theGermanic invasions of the late 4th/early 5th centuries AD, when it was conquered by theSuevi and theirHasdingiVandals' allies.
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