The Belli, also designated Beli or Belaiscos, were an ancient pre-Roman Celtic [1] Celtiberian people who lived in the modern Spanish province of Zaragoza from the 3rd Century BC.
The Belli, also designated Beli or Belaiscos, were an ancient pre-Roman Celtic [1] Celtiberian people who lived in the modern Spanish province of Zaragoza from the 3rd Century BC.
Apparently of mixed Illyrian and Celtic (Belgic) origin and probably related with the Bellovaci, the Belli were said to have migrated to the Iberian Peninsula around the 4th Century BC. [2] [3] They were also part of the Celtiberians. [1] However, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the ancestors of the Celtiberian groups were installed in the Meseta area of the peninsula from at least 1000 BC and probably much earlier. [4]
The Belli inhabited the middle Jiloca and Huerva river valleys in Zaragoza province with their territories stretching up to the Guadalope and upper Turia valleys, close to their neighbours and clients, the Titii.
Their early capital was Segeda (Poyo de Maya – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Sekaiza), subsequently transferred to nearby Durón de Belmonte and later offset by Bilbilis (Valdeherrera, near Calatayud – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Bilbiliz). Other Belli urban centers included Nertobriga (La Almunia de Doña Godina – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Nertobis), Contrebia Belaisca (Zaforas de Botorita – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Contebacom Bel), Beligiom (Piquete de la Atalaya de Azuara – Zaragoza; Celtiberian mint: Belikiom), Belgeda (Belchite – Zaragoza) and Lesera (Moleta dels Frares, near El Forcall – Castellón). [5] [6]
It is plausible that by the 2nd Century BC they exerted some form of control over the strategic frontier towns of Belia (situated somewhere between the Huerva' and Aguas Vivas' rivers; Celtiberian mint: Belaiscom), Osicerda (El Palau de Alcañiz – Teruel; Iberian designation: Usercerte), Damania (Hinojosa de Jarque – Teruel; Celtiberian mint: Tamaniu) and Orosis (La Caridad de Caminreal – Teruel; Celtiberian mint: Orosiz), facing the Iberian Lobetani and Edetani peoples of the modern Valencia coastal region.
The most culturally advanced of the peoples of southern Celtiberia, the Belli were the first Celtiberian tribe to adopt coinage in the aftermath of the Second Punic War [7] and to post laws in written form on bronze tablets (Tabulae), using a modified Northeastern Iberian script (known as the Celtiberian script) for their own language. In this script and language they inscribed the characteristic Celtiberian 'hospitality tokens' which are small bronze objects, in two halves, each half being retained by people who stood in hospitality relationship to one another. [8] These would act as a sort of identity card, and were probably used as safe-conducts or other warranties. [8] The two halves have been found in places several hundreds of kilometres apart, which implies that the various Celtic groups maintained a system of communications throughout at least central Spain. [8]
The most complete Celtiberian text we have on the bronze 'hospitality tokens' that acted as a sort of identity card is from the Belli and reads lubos alisokum aualoske kontebias belaiskas meaning 'Lubos of the Aliso family, son of Aualos, from Contrebia Belaisca' showing the self-description of this man, by paternity, extended family and territory which is characteristically Celtic. [8]
During the 3rd-2nd centuries BC, the Belli joined the Celtiberian confederacy alongside the Arevaci, Lusones and Titii, with whom they developed close political and military ties [9] – in 153 BC the Numantines even elected the Belli General Caros as leader of the Celtiberian coalition army that ambushed the Consul Quintus Fulvius Nobilior at the battle of Vulcanalia (Ribarroya), at the Baldano river valley in the beginning of the first Numantine War. [10] Prior to that, they had been forced in 181 BC to accept Roman suzerainty by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, [11] [12] but this did not prevent them from resisting further Roman encroachment of their lands as well as fighting off Turboletae raids and the Iberian Lobetani people.
Defeated in 143 BC by Proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, [13] and faced with the fall of Numantia in 133 BC and the subsequent collapse of the Celtiberian confederacy, the Belli territory was incorporated into Hispania Citerior province though little is known of their history afterwards. The Belli appear to have remained independent until the Sertorian Wars of the early 1st Century BC, when they sided with Quintus Sertorius and provided auxiliary troops to his army. [14] [15] During that conflict, the Belli found themselves being gradually pushed back from the upper Jiloca by the Edetani who seized Beligiom, Belgeda, Damania and Orosis, therefore losing all the lands east of the Huerva River. Around 72 BC they and their Titii allies merged with the pro-Roman Uraci, Cratistii and Olcades tribes to form the Late Celtiberian people (Latin: Celtiberi) of romanized southern Celtiberia. [16]
The Celtiberians were a group of Celts and Celticized peoples inhabiting an area in the central-northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the final centuries BC. They were explicitly mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors. These tribes spoke the Celtiberian language and wrote it by adapting the Iberian alphabet, in the form of the Celtiberian script. The numerous inscriptions that have been discovered, some of them extensive, have enabled scholars to classify the Celtiberian language as a Celtic language, one of the Hispano-Celtic languages that were spoken in pre-Roman and early Roman Iberia. Archaeologically, many elements link Celtiberians with Celts in Central Europe, but also show large differences with both the Hallstatt culture and La Tène culture.
The Vettones were an Iron Age pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Vaccaei or Vaccei were a pre-Roman Celtic people of Spain, who inhabited the sedimentary plains of the central Duero valley, in the Meseta Central of northern Hispania.
The Lusones were an ancient Celtiberian (Pre-Roman) people of the Iberian Peninsula, who lived in the high Tajuña River valley, northeast of Guadalajara. They were eliminated by the Romans as a significant threat in the end of the 2nd century BC.
The Autrigones were a pre-Roman tribe that settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, in what today is the western Basque Country and northern Burgos and the East of Cantabria, Spain. Their territory limited with the Cantabri territory at west, the Caristii at east, the Berones at the southeast and the Turmodigi at the south. It is discussed whether the Autrigones were Celts, theory supported by the existence of toponyms of Celtic origin, such as Uxama Barca and other with -briga endings and that eventually underwent a Basquisation along with other neighboring tribes such as the Caristii and Varduli.
The First Celtiberian War and Second Celtiberian War were two of the three major rebellions by the Celtiberians against the presence of the Romans in Hispania.
The Lusitanian War, called Pyrinos Polemos in Greek, was a war of resistance fought by the Lusitanian tribes of Hispania Ulterior against the advancing legions of the Roman Republic from 155 to 139 BC. The Lusitanians revolted in 155 BC, and again in 146 BC and were pacified. In 154 BC, a long war in Hispania Citerior, known as the Numantine War, was begun by the Celtiberians. It lasted until 133 and is an important event in the integration of what would become Portugal into the Roman and Latin-speaking world.
The Carpetani, also named Karpesioi by Polybius, were one of the Celtic peoples inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula prior to the Roman conquest. Their core domain was constituted by the lands between the Tagus and the Anas, in the southern Meseta. Agriculture is thought to have had a greater importance in the Carpetanian economy than other neighboring peoples'.
The Arevaci or Aravaci, were a Celtic people who settled in the central Meseta of northern Hispania and dominated most of Celtiberia from the 4th to late 2nd centuries BC. The Vaccaei were their allies.
The Lobetani, were a small pre-Roman Iberian people of ancient Spain mentioned only once by Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD, situated around the mountainous Albarracín area of the southwest Province of Teruel.
The Turboletae or Turboleti were an obscure pre-Roman people from ancient Spain, which lived in the northwest Teruel province since the early 3rd Century BC.
The Olcades were an ancient stock-raising pre-Roman people from Hispania, who lived to the west of the Turboletae in the southeastern fringe of the Iberian system mountains.
The Berones were a pre-Roman Celtic people of ancient Spain, although they were not part of the Celtiberians. They lived north of the latter and close to the Cantabrian Conisci in the middle Ebro region between the Tirón and Alhama rivers.
The Titii or Tithii were a small and obscure Celtiberian people, whose lands were located along the middle Jalón and upper Tajuña valleys, somewhere between Alhama de Aragón in Zaragoza and Molina de Aragón in Guadalajara provinces.
The Pellendones, also designated Pelendones Celtiberorum and Cerindones, were an ancient pre-Roman Celtic people living on the Iberian Peninsula. From the early 4th century BC they inhabited the region near the source of the river Duero in what today is north-central Spain, an area comprising the north of Soria, the southeast of Burgos and the southwest of La Rioja provinces.
The Uraci or Duraci were a little-known Celtic people of pre-Roman Iberia who dwelt to the east of the Vaccaei and the Carpetani, occupying the southern Soria, northern Guadalajara and western Zaragoza provinces since the 4th century BC.
The Cratistii were an ancient pre-Roman, stock-raising people whose lands were situated along the upper Tagus valley, in the elevated plateau region of the western Cuenca and northeast Province of Teruel.
This section of the timeline of Iberian history concerns events from before the Carthaginian conquests.
This section of the timeline of Hispania concerns Spanish and Portuguese history events from the Carthaginian conquests to before the barbarian invasions.
The Celtiberian confederacy was a tribal federation formed around the mid-3rd century BC, by the Arevaci, Lusones, Belli and Titii, with the Arevacian city of Numantia as the confederate capital.