Turduli Veteres

Last updated
Main language areas in Iberia c. 300 BC Iberia 300BC-en.svg
Main language areas in Iberia c. 300 BC
Migrations of pre-Romanic tribes in the territory of present-day Portugal: Pink: Turduli Brown: Celtici Blue: Lusitani Mapa de Portugal tribos principais.png
Migrations of pre-Romanic tribes in the territory of present-day Portugal: Pink: Turduli Brown: Celtici Blue: Lusitani

The Turduli Veteres, translated as "Ancient Turduli" or "Old Turduli" were an ancient pre-Roman tribe of present day Portugal, akin to the Calaicians or Gallaeci and Lusitanians.

Contents

Location

The Turduli Veteres territory was located south of the estuary of the river Douro, in the north of modern Portugal, being neighbors of the Paesuri. [1] [2] Their capital was Langobriga (Fiães – Santa Maria da Feira); other Turduli Veteres' towns were Talabriga (situated either in the vicinity of Branca, Albergaria-a-Velha or Marnel, Lamas do Vouga – Águeda) and possibly Oppidum Vacca (Cabeço do Vouga – Águeda). They also dwelt around Vila Nova de Gaia as evidenced by the two bronze plaques (Tesserae Hospitales) found in Monte Murado in Pedroso.

History

The Turduli Veteres appear to have originated as an off-shot of the Turduli of ancient south-west Iberia. Alongside the Celtici, the Turduli Veteres migrated northwards around the 5th century BC, [3] [4] [5] before settling in a coastal region situated along the lower Douro and Vacca (Vouga) river basins (i.e. north-western parts of present-day Beira Litoral).

Unlike related and neighbouring peoples, the Turduli Veteres did not fall under Carthaginian rule during the later 3rd Century BC. Neither is there any evidence that they took part in the Second Punic War. It is still not clear if they played any significant role in the Lusitanian Wars of the 2nd century BC. Moreover, the Turduli Veteres, unlike the Turduli Oppidani (located in the west coastal areas of modern Portugal), appear to have remained independent until the late 2nd century BC and to have resisted attempts by the Lusitani and Gallaeci to incorporate them into their respective tribal federations.

Roman incursions, dominance and Romanization

Being relatively unaccustomed to interaction with and dominance by other peoples, the Turduli Veteres (like the Lusitani and Gallaeci), bore the brunt of the first Roman forays into north-west Iberia. According to Roman accounts, the Veteres assisted the Lusitani in attempting to resist the Romans; in retaliation, during 138-136 BC, the Roman Consul Decimus Junius Brutus temporarily occupied the Veteres' hillfort of Talabriga and laid waste a significant proportion of the Veteres' lands. [6] In 61-60 BC, the Veteres and the Oppidani were defeated and incorporated into Hispania Ulterior province by the Propraetor Julius Caesar. [7] In 27-13 BC, the Turduli Veteres were aggregated into the Roman province of Lusitania during the reign of Emperor Augustus.

See also

Notes

  1. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, IV, 21.
  2. Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia, III, 1.
  3. Strabo, Geographikon, III, 3, 5.
  4. Pomponius Mela, De Chorographia, III, 8.
  5. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, IV, 112-113.
  6. Appian, Iberiké, 73.
  7. Cassius Dio, Romaïké istoría, 37, 52-55.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lusitania</span> Roman province in Hispania (27 BC – c. 410 AD)

Lusitania was an ancient Iberian Roman province comprising part of modern Portugal and a large portion of western Spain. It was named after the Lusitanians, an Indo-European tribe that lived in the region prior to the arrival of the Romans.

The Lusitanians were a people living in the far west of the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding roughly to Central Portugal and some areas of modern-day Extremadura and Castilla y Leon, in Spain. After its conquest by the Roman Republic the land was subsequently incorporated as a Roman province named after them (Lusitania).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallaecia</span> Roman province in the northwest Iberian Peninsula

Gallaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province in the north-west of Hispania, approximately present-day Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Leon and the later Kingdom of Gallaecia. The Roman cities included the port Cale (Porto), the governing centers Bracara Augusta (Braga), Lucus Augusti (Lugo) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga) and their administrative areas Conventus bracarensis, Conventus lucensis and Conventus asturicensis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vettones</span> Ancient people of Spain

The Vettones were an Iron Age pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula of possibly Celtic ethnicity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cynetes</span> Pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula

The Cynetes or Conii were one of the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, living in today's Algarve and Lower Alentejo regions of southern Portugal, and the southern part of Badajoz and the northwestern portions of Córdoba and Ciudad Real provinces in Spain before the 6th century BCE. According to Justin's epitome, the mythical Gargoris and Habis were their founding kings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celtici</span> Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian peninsula

The Celtici were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian peninsula, inhabiting three definite areas: in what today are the regions of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal; in the Province of Badajoz and north of Province of Huelva in Spain, in the ancient Baeturia; and along the coastal areas of Galicia. Classical authors give various accounts of the Celtici's relationships with the Gallaeci, Celtiberians and Turdetani.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coelerni</span>

The Coelerni were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia in Hispania, part of Calaician or Gallaeci people, living in what was to become the Roman Province of Hispania Tarraconensis, in what is now the southern part of the province of Ourense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paesuri</span>

The Paesuri or Paesures were an ancient pre-Roman people of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitani, to whom they were a dependent tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tapoli</span>

The Tapoli or Tapori were an ancient Celtic tribe of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitanians, to whom they were a dependent tribe, living just north of the river Tagus, around the border area of modern-day Portugal and Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turduli</span> Historic ethnic group

The Turduli or Turtuli were an ancient pre-Roman people of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turduli Oppidani</span>

The Turduli Oppidani or Turdulorum Oppida, were a pre-Roman coastal people in present-day Portugal, related to the Turduli Veteres and akin to the Lusitanians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaccaei</span> Pre-Roman Celtic people of Northern Spain

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. Their capital was Intercatia in Paredes de Nava.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallaeci</span> Historical Celtic tribal complex in Northwest Iberia

The Gallaeci were a Celtic tribal complex who inhabited Gallaecia, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now the Norte Region in northern Portugal, and the Spanish regions of Galicia, western Asturias and western León before and during the Roman period. They spoke a Q-Celtic language related to Northeastern Hispano-Celtic, called Gallaecian or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic. The region was annexed by the Romans in the time of Caesar Augustus during the Cantabrian Wars, a war which initiated the assimilation of the Gallaeci into Latin culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lusones</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olcades</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bardili (Turduli)</span>

The Bardili were a small, pre-Roman tribe of the Iberian Peninsula, and an offshoot of the widespread Turduli people, who lived in what is now southwestern Portugal in the 5th-1st centuries BC.

This section of the timeline of Iberian history concerns events from before the Carthaginian conquests.

The Gallaeci or Callaeci were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the northwest of modern Portugal, roughly in today's western half of the Porto District, from the west of the Tâmega river valley to the Atlantic coast in the west and north of the Douro river. The Greek name of the tribe was Kallaikoi. Culturally, the Gallaeci were part of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Castro Culture.

References