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Gallaecia, also known asHispania Gallaecia, was the name of aRoman province in the northwest ofHispania, approximately present-dayGalicia,northern Portugal,Asturias andLeón, and the laterKingdom of Gallaecia. The Roman cities includedAuria (Ourense), the port ofCale (Porto), and the governing centersLucus Augusti (Lugo),Bracara Augusta (Braga), andAsturica Augusta (Astorga), together with their administrative areas:Conventus Lucensis,Conventus Bracarensis, andConventus Asturicensis, respectively.
The Romans named the northwest part of Hispania or theIberian PeninsulaGallaecia after theCeltic tribes of the area, theGallaeci or Gallaecians.[1]
The Gallaic make their entry into written history in the first-century epicPunica ofSilius Italicus on theFirst Punic War:
Fibrarum et pennae divinarumque sagacem
flammarum misit dives Callaecia pubem,
barbara nunc patriis ululantem carmina linguis,
nunc pedis alterno percussa verbere terra,
ad numerum resonas gaudentem plaudere caetras. (Book III pp. 344–347)
"Rich Gallaecia sent its youths, wise in the knowledge of divination by the entrails of beasts, by feathers and flames—who, now crying out thebarbarian song of their native tongue, now alternately stamping the ground in their rhythmic dances until the ground rang, and accompanying the playing with sonorouscaetrae" (acaetra was a small type ofshield used in the region).
Gallaecia, as a region, was thus marked for the Romans as much for the Gallaeci'scastros, a system ofhillforts, as it was for the lure of its gold mines. This culture extended over present-dayGalicia, the north ofPortugal, the western part ofAsturias, theBierzo, andSanabria and was distinct from the neighbouring Lusitanian culture to the south according to the classical authorsPomponius Mela andPliny the Elder.[2]
At a far later date, the mythic history that was encapsulated inLebor Gabála Érenn credited Gallaecia as the point from which the Gaels sailed to conquerIreland, as they had Gallaecia, by force of arms.
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Strabo in hisGeography lists the people of the northwestern Atlantic coast of Iberia as follows:
... then the Vettonians and the Vaccaeans, through whose territory the Durius [Douro] River flows, which affords a crossing at Acutia, a city of the Vaccaeans; and last, the Callaicans, [Gallaicans] who occupy a very considerable part of the mountainous country. For this reason, since they were very hard to fight with, the Callaicans themselves have not only furnished the surname for the man who defeated the Lusitanians [meaningDecimus Junius Brutus Callaicus, Roman general] but they have also brought it about that now, already, most of the Lusitanians are called Callaicans.
After the Punic Wars, the Romans turned their attention to conquering Hispania. The tribe of theGallaeci 60,000 strong, according toPaulus Orosius, faced the Roman forces in 137 BC in a battle at the riverDouro (Spanish:Duero,Portuguese:Douro,Galician:Douro,Latin:Durius), which resulted in a great Roman victory, by virtue of which the Roman proconsulDecimus Junius Brutus returned a hero, receiving theagnomenCallaicus ('conqueror of the Callaicoi', a Gallaecian tribe inhabiting the southernmost region of Gallaecia by the mouth of the Douro), his campaign followed the Atlantic coast all the way to the riverLimia, but no further than the riverMiño. This campaign was largely a punitive one, in the context of the aftermath of the Lusitanian wars, as the capital of the Callaici (Portus Cale) was only definitively occupied byMarcus Perpena in 74 BC.
Further incursions in southern Gallaecia, includedPublius Licinius Crassus's campaign of 96–94 BC.
The first incursion intoNorthern Gallaecia happened in 61 BC, during Julius Caesar's consulship, a largely naval-based campaign across the entire Northern Hispanic coastline, defeating the Gallaecians a battle nearBrigantium.
The final conquest of Gallaecia happened during theCantabrian Wars, fought under the EmperorAugustus from 26 to 19 BC. The resistance was appalling: collective suicide rather than surrender, mothers who killed their children before committing suicide, crucified prisoners of war who sang triumphant hymns, rebellions of captives who killed their guards and returned home fromGaul.
For Rome, Gallaecia was a region formed exclusively by twoconventus—theLucensis and theBracarensis—and was distinguished clearly from other zones like the Asturica, according to written sources:
In the 3rd century AD,Diocletian created an administrative division which included theconventus of Gallaecia, Asturica, and possibly Cluniense. This province took the name of Gallaecia since it was the most populous and important zone within the province. In 409, as Roman control collapsed, theSuebi conquests transformed Roman Gallaecia (convents Lucense and Bracarense) into theKingdom of Galicia (theGalliciense Regnum recorded byHydatius andGregory of Tours).
On the night of 31 December 406 AD, severalGermanic barbarian tribes, theVandals,Alans, andSuebi, swept over the Roman frontier on the Rhine. They advanced south, pillagingGaul, and crossed the Pyrenees. They set about dividing up the Roman provinces ofCarthaginiensis,Tarraconensis, Gallaecia, andBaetica. The Suebi took part of Gallaecia, where they later established a kingdom. After the Vandals and Alans left for North Africa, the Suebi took control of much of the Iberian Peninsula. However,Visigothic campaigns took much of this territory back. The Visigoths emerged victorious in the wars that followed, and eventually annexed Gallaecia.
After the Visigothic defeat andthe annexation of much of Hispania by theMoors, a group of Visigothic states survived in the northern mountains, including Gallaecia. InBeatus of Liébana (d. 798),Gallaecia became used to refer to the Christian part of theIberian Peninsula, whereasHispania was used for the Muslim one. The emirs, preferring to focus on the task of consolidation of conquered territory, ultimately never expanded into these highly defended mountains, which the Romans before them also had taken generations to incorporate.
InCharlemagne's time, bishops of Gallaecia attended the Council of Frankfurt in 794. During his residence inAachen, he received embassies fromAlfonso II of Gallaecia, according to the Frankish chronicles.
Sancho III of Navarre in 1029 refers toBermudo III of León asImperator domus Vermudus in Gallaecia.
