Human sacrifice in the ancient Iberian Peninsula is recorded in classical sources, which give it as a custom of Lusitanians and other Celtic peoples from the northern area of the peninsula. Its most complete mention comes from the work of Greek chronicler Strabo, in which those ceremonies have a divinatory utility. Modern authors have seen in this phenomenon hints of a possible priestly class among the mentioned peoples, similar to but differentiated from European Celtic druids.
Strabo talks about an entire context of religious practice, executed by a diviner he calls "hieroscope" (Greek ἱερόσκοποσ, "observer of the sacred") and focused around human sacrifice by evisceration, utilized to extract prophecies from the body of a prisoner of war. Those rituals are attributed not only to Lusitanians, but also to other northern peninsular peoples described as "mountaineers". Among them, Vettones are also given similar rites by Plutarch. [1] [2]
The Lusitanians are given to offering sacrifices, and they inspect the vitals, without cutting them out. Besides, they also inspect the veins on the side of the victim; and they divine by the tokens of touch, too. They prophesy through means of the vitals of human beings also, prisoners of war, whom they first cover with coarse cloaks, and then, when the victim has been struck beneath the vitals by the diviner, they draw their first auguries from the fall of the victim. And they cut off the right hands of their captives and set them up as an offering to the gods.
Human sacrifice is her associated to conventional animal sacrifice, both of them directed to the god Ares, especially venerated by Hispanics. The name is likely an interpretative assimilation ( interpretatio graeca ) of a native warrior deity, identified by historians as receiving several theonyms: Neto , Cosus, Borus, Tarbucellus, Cariocecus , Sagatus y Tilennus, among others. [5]
To Ares they sacrifice a he-goat and also the prisoners and horses; and they also offer hecatombs of each kind, after the Greek fashion — as Pindar himself says, "to sacrifice a hundred of every kind."
— Strabo, Geographica, III 3, 6-7 [6]
A conjunction of both kinds of sacrifice, immolating a man and a horse, was used to seal pacts, [7] [8] o as a preparation before marching to war, [9] as told by Servius Sulpicius Galba to the Roman Senate. [6] [5] [10] In the funeral of Viriathus, multiple sacrifices are described to take place, being for some historians likely human immolations. [3] [8] Also, among the seers and magicians expelled by Scipio Aemilianus from his camp in the siege of Numantia there were likely native diviners. [8]
The practitioners of the sacrifices are named only by Strabo, [11] but the rites themselves are included in the work of Diodorus, [12] Titus Livius [10] and Plutarch, at least the first two being likely based on previous chronicles by Posidonius. [12] [13] Spanish and Portuguese archaeology, rich in findings related to mantic practices, [4] offers corroboration, such as the inhumation of a probable human victim under the walls of Bletisama (current Ledesma), meant to consecrate the building. [6]
As human sacrifice is a controversial topic, [12] [14] interpretation of those classical sources has been done with caution due to its disputable objectivity, [3] which makes equally possible that the rites are either ethnocentrist inventions against barbarian peoples or strange but truthful customs. [4] In this case, Hispanic historians concede that the sources' possible hostile tone, like Strabo himself, [12] does not necessarily imply a total fabrication of the mentioned rituals, [6] which could have been exceptional, [12] [14] even frequent events. [3] The testimonies show an inner coherence that, despite their diversity, supports it.. [12] [6] They have also considered that Greeks and Romans themselves acknowledge the realization of human sacrifice in their own cultures, it being notable the case of the prisoners sacrificed by burial after the Battle of Cannae (226 BC) or during the Roman-Gallic wars (216 and 114-113 BC). [3] [11] [15]
Hieroscopic sacrifices would be outlawed in 97 BC when Publius Licinius Crassus called for human sacrifice to be forbidden in all of the territory conquered by Rome. [4] [8] [11] In spite of this, Plutarch informs that the Vetton Bletonesii tribe (located on the mentioned Bletisama) continued practising it until three years later, when Roman authorities intervened to impede it. [4] [6] [14] This would not be the last case, however, as Emperors Tiberius and Claudius had to suffocate them in the Gaul and the northern areas of Africa. [3] Worship of the Lusitanian and Celtic gods that consecrated the sacrifices in Hispania seems to have lasted until 399 BC, into the Christianization. [8]
Authors have also noted similarities between the Lusitanian rite and the one attributed to other Indo-Europeans. [6] [12] Of Gaul druids, Diodorus recounts that they divined the same way: after killing the victim with a thrust to the body, they auscultated the form of his fall, the flow of blood and the convulsions of their members. [2] [3] [12] Priestesses of the Cimbri also purportedly examined the entrails of prisoners, whom they previously drained off their blood by slaughter. [12] Even Eurasian Scythians, whose customs are described by Herodotus, sport strong similarities with Lusitanians, as they would also sacrifice prisoners to Ares and would amputate the right arm as an offering. [6] [12] Immolation of horses and goats or sheep, also a Scythian ritual, resembles Roman suovetaurilia [5] [8] and Indian sautramani. [6]
For several authors, the sacrificers named hieroscopes by Strabo might have been members of a hypothetical priestly office within the religion of northern Hispania, possibly related to Celtic druidism given the similarities of their divinatory practices. [4] [5] [12] Those priests might have shared other transcendent functions, such as herbology, astronomy and creation of calendars, [14] as well as the rituals of incubation associated to sanctuaries of the god Endovelicus. [8]
Traditionally, the existence of religious specialists in Hispania has been proposed only tentatively, as sources do not attest them beyond the mentioned part, and the existence of druids in particular has been dismissed due to their literary absence in comparison to their prolific documentation in Gaul and Britania, two similarly Celtic lands. [5] [12] As thought by Blázquez and others, close ties between druidism and Celtic monarchies may explain that a similar caste was not developed in Hispania, as the absence of the latter would impede the former. They also speculate with a lesser Celtic influence in the Iberian Peninsula. [12] [4] [11] At the same time, they concede there is a veritable analogy between druids and hieroscopes, which has driven authors like Quintela and Cardete to postulate that the believability of a rudimentary priestly class. [12] [4]
Historians attached to this theory reason that the wide archaeological evidence of temples, sanctuaries, nemeta and rituals in Hispania could not be understood without a religious staff that kept and managed them, [5] [8] especially given the level of social development of Hispanic cultures. [14] They also cite findings such as the Vetton necropolis of La Osera (Ávila), [1] the Luzaga's Bronze and the Botorrita plaque as possible additional evidence. [5] An inscription on Queiriz, Beira Alta that reads ouatius has been identified by Quintela as the term vates (ouates), associated to Gaul prophets and philosophers. [12] Hieroscopes have been also compared not only to druids, but also Greek and Roman haruspices. [5]
It is discussed, however, the degree of professionalization sported by those possible priests, going from an occasional function, assumed sporadically by chieftains, elders or political figures, to an authentic religious caste, entirely dedicated to it. [4] [8] [14] It has been proposed an individualized divinatory profession, without a true organization of class. [11]
Viriathus was the most important leader of the Lusitanian people that resisted Roman expansion into the regions of western Hispania or western Iberia, where the Roman province of Lusitania would be finally established after the conquest.
Lusitanian mythology is the mythology of the Lusitanians, an Indo-European speaking people of western Iberia, in what was then known as Lusitania and Gallaecia. In present times, the territory comprises most of Portugal, Galicia, Extremadura and a small part of Salamanca.
The Lusitanians were an Indo-European speaking people living in the west of the Iberian Peninsula prior to its conquest by the Roman Republic and the subsequent incorporation of the territory into the Roman province of Lusitania.
Ataegina was a goddess worshipped by the ancient Iberians, Lusitanians, and Celtiberians of the Iberian Peninsula. She is believed to have ruled the underworld.
Trebaruna, also Treborunnis and possibly *Trebarunu, was a Lusitanian deity, probably a goddess. Trebaruna's cult was located in the cultural area of Gallaecia and Lusitania.
Lusitanian was an Indo-European Paleohispanic language. There has been support for either a connection with the ancient Italic languages or Celtic languages. It is known from only six sizeable inscriptions, dated from circa 1 CE, and numerous names of places (toponyms) and of gods (theonyms). The language was spoken in the territory inhabited by Lusitanian tribes, from the Douro to the Tagus rivers, territory that today falls in central Portugal and western Spain.
Ancient Celtic religion, commonly known as Celtic paganism, was the religion of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe. Because the ancient Celts did not have writing, evidence about their religion is gleaned from archaeology, Greco-Roman accounts, and literature from the early Christian period. Celtic paganism was one of a larger group of Iron Age polytheistic religions of Europe. It varied by region and over time, but underlying this were "broad structural similarities" and "a basic religious homogeneity" among the Celtic peoples.
The Tartessian language is the extinct Paleo-Hispanic language of inscriptions in the Southwestern script found in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly in the south of Portugal, and the southwest of Spain. There are 95 such inscriptions, the longest having 82 readable signs. Around one third of them were found in Early Iron Age necropolises or other Iron Age burial sites associated with rich complex burials. It is usual to date them to the 7th century BC and to consider the southwestern script to be the most ancient Paleo-Hispanic script, with characters most closely resembling specific Phoenician letter forms found in inscriptions dated to c. 825 BC. Five of the inscriptions occur on stelae with what has been interpreted as Late Bronze Age carved warrior gear from the Urnfield culture.
The Cantabri or Ancient Cantabrians, were a pre-Roman people and large tribal federation that lived in the northern coastal region of ancient Iberia in the second half of the first millennium BC. These peoples and their territories were incorporated into the Roman Province of Hispania Tarraconensis in 19 BC, following the Cantabrian Wars.
Cantabrian mythology refers to the myths, teachings and legends of the Cantabri, a pre-Roman Celtic people of the north coastal region of Iberia (Spain). Over time, Cantabrian mythology was likely diluted by Celtic mythology and Roman mythology with some original meanings lost. Later, the ascendancy of Christendom absorbed or ended the pagan rites of Cantabrian, Celtic and Roman mythology leading to a syncretism. Some relics of Cantabrian mythology remain.
Bandua was a theonym used to refer to a god or goddess worshipped in Iberia by Gallaeci and Lusitanians. Whether the name referred to a discrete deity or was an epithet applied to different deities is arguable.
Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, first as Hispania Nova, later renamed "Callaecia". From Diocletian's Tetrarchy onwards, the south of the remainder of Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis, and all of the mainland Hispanic provinces, along with the Balearic Islands and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana, were later grouped into a civil diocese headed by a vicarius. The name Hispania was also used in the period of Visigothic rule.
The economy of Hispania, or Roman Iberia, experienced a strong revolution during and after the conquest of the peninsular territory by Rome, in such a way that, from an unknown but promising land, it came to be one of the most valuable acquisitions of both the Republic and Empire and a basic pillar that sustained the rise of Rome.
Reo is a name appearing on Latin dedications to a Lusitanian-Gallaecian deity, usually with an epithet relating to a place, such as Reo Paramaeco discovered in Lugo in Galicia. The name Reo is in the Latin dative case, for a Latinized name *Reus.
A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. While they were reported to have been literate, they are believed to have been prevented by doctrine from recording their knowledge in written form. Their beliefs and practices are attested in some detail by their contemporaries from other cultures, such as the Romans and the Greeks.
Punicus was a chieftain of the Lusitanians, a proto-Celtic tribe from western Hispania. He became their first military leader during the Lusitanian War, and also led their first major victories against Rome.
Curius and Apuleius were chieftains of the Lusitanians, a proto-Celtic tribe from western Hispania. They were active at the last phase of the Lusitanian War.
Warfare in ancient Iberian peninsula occupied an important place in historical chronicles, first during the Carthaginian invasion of Hispania, including the Punic Wars, and later during the Roman conquest of the peninsula. The densely bellicose character of the Pre-Roman peoples who inhabited Hispania was repeatedly shown in their conflicts against Rome, Carthage and each other.
Mercenary life is recorded as a custom of Iron Age Spain, particularly in the central area of the Iberian peninsula. Departing from the native tribe and applying to serve in others was a way for economically disadvantaged youth to escape poverty and find an opportunity to use their fighting skills. Starting from 5th century BC, mercenary life would become a true social phenom in Hispania, with great numbers of fighters from distant lands coming to join the armies of Carthage, Rome, Sicily and even Greece, as well as other Hispanic peoples.
Arentius and Arentia are considered to be a pair of indigenous deities that belong to the Lusitanian pantheon, and attested mainly in epigraphy.