{"history":[],"article":{"id":"bb41fb1c-35c4-4b4a-9dea-fa08ab29fc10","title":"Gallaeci","slug":"gallaeci","content":":::summary\n:::\n\n# \nThe **Gallaeci** (also **Callaeci** or **Callaici**; ) were a [Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-people) tribal complex who inhabited **Gallaeci**a, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now the [Norte Region](https://bliptext.com/articles/norte-region-portugal) in northern Portugal, and the [Spanish](https://bliptext.com/articles/spain) regions of [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galicia-spain), western [Asturias](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturias) and western [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/castile-and-le-n) before and during the [Roman period](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-period).\nThey spoke a [Q-Celtic language](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-languages) related to [Northeastern Hispano-Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtiberian-language), called [Gallaecian](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-language) or [Northwestern Hispano-Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-language).\nThe region was annexed by the Romans in the time of [Caesar Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/caesar-augustus) during the [Cantabrian Wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-wars), a war which initiated the assimilation of the Gallaeci into Latin culture.\nThe endonym of modern-day Galicians, galegos, derives directly from the name of this people.\n# [The Iberian Peninsula in the 3rd century BC. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Iberia///300BC-en.svg]\n# [Galician-Roman Stele from Crecente (Galicia). Held at the end of the century, was dedicated to a deceased aristocrat called Apana, from the Gallaecian tribe of Celtici Supertamarici, as can be read at the bottom of the stele itself. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Galician///Celtic///Stele///-///Estela///Galaica.jpg]\n\n# Archaeology\nArchaeologically, the Gallaeci evolved from the local [Atlantic Bronze Age](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-bronze-age) culture (1300–700 BC).\nDuring the [Iron Age](https://bliptext.com/articles/iron-age) they received additional influences, including from Southern Iberian and Celtiberian cultures, and from central-western Europe ([Hallstatt](https://bliptext.com/articles/hallstatt-culture) and, to a lesser extent, [La Tène culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/la-t-ne-culture)), and from the [Mediterranean](https://bliptext.com/articles/mediterranean) ([Phoenicians](https://bliptext.com/articles/phoenicians) and [Carthaginians](https://bliptext.com/articles/carthaginians)).\nThe Gallaeci dwelt in [hill forts](https://bliptext.com/articles/hill-forts) (locally called castros), and the archaeological culture they developed is known by archaeologists as \"[Castro culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-culture)\", a hill-fort culture (usually, but not always) with round or elongated houses.\nThe Gallaecian 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 denominated oppida, being these latter more common in the Southern half of their traditional settlement and around the [Ave river](https://bliptext.com/articles/ave-river).\nDue to the dispersed nature of their settlements, large towns were rare in pre-Roman Gallaecia although some medium-sized [oppida](https://bliptext.com/articles/oppidum) have been identified, namely the obscure Portus Calle (also known as Cales or Cale; [Castelo de Gaia](https://bliptext.com/articles/castelo-de-gaia), near [Porto](https://bliptext.com/articles/porto)), Avobriga ([Castro de Alvarelhos](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-de-alvarelhos) – [Santo Tirso](https://bliptext.com/articles/santo-tirso)?), Tongobriga ([Freixo](https://bliptext.com/articles/freixo) – [Marco de Canaveses](https://bliptext.com/articles/marco-de-canaveses)), Brigantia ([Bragança](https://bliptext.com/articles/bragan-a-portugal)?), Tyde/Tude ([Tui](https://bliptext.com/articles/tui-pontevedra)), Lugus ([Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo)) and the Atlantic trading port of Brigantium (also designated Carunium; either [Betanzos](https://bliptext.com/articles/betanzos) or [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a)).\nThis 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 Gallaecian hillforts continued to be inhabited until the 5th century AD.\nThese 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.\nThese settlements were strategically located for a better control of natural resources, including mineral ores such as iron.\nThe Gallaecian hillforts and oppidas maintained a great homogeneity and presented clear commonalities.\nThe citadels, however, functioned as city-states and could have specific cultural traits.\nThe 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-).\nMany 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...\nAssociated archaeologically with the hill forts are the famous [Gallaecian warrior statues](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-warrior-statues) - slightly larger than life size statues of warriors, assumed to be deified local heroes.\n# [Partial view of the Castro de Santa Tegra, an oppidum from the 2nd century BC. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Castro///en///santa///trega.jpg]\n# [Aerial view of Castromaior, Portomarín, 1950 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Castromaior///1956///01.png]\n# [Granite Warrior statues are one of the most famous cultural outputs of the Gallaeci | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/MuseuNacArqu-GuerreirosLusitanos.jpg]\n\n# Political-territorial organization\nThe Gallaecian political organization is not known with certainty but it is very probable that they were divided into small independent chiefdoms who the Romans called populus or civitas, each one ruled by a local petty king or chief ([princeps](https://bliptext.com/articles/princeps)), as in other parts of Europe.\nEach populus comprised a sizeable number of small hillforts (castellum).\nSo each Gallaecian 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):\n\n## Gallaeci tribes\nThe list of Gallaeci tribes sorted by minority groups:\n**Bracarenses**\n**Lucenses**\n**Other minor groups**\n[Pomponius Mela](https://bliptext.com/articles/pomponius-mela), who described the Galician seashore and their dwellers around 40 AD, divided the coastal Gallaeci in non-Celtic [Grovii](https://bliptext.com/articles/grovii) along the southern areas; the Celtic peoples who lived along the [Rías Baixas](https://bliptext.com/articles/r-as-baixas) and [Costa da Morte](https://bliptext.com/articles/costa-da-morte) regions in northern Galicia; and the also Celtic [Artabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/artabri) who dwelled all along the northern coast in between the latter and the [Astures](https://bliptext.com/articles/astures).\n\n# Origin of the name\nThe Romans named the entire region north of the [Douro](https://bliptext.com/articles/douro), where the [Castro culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-culture) existed, in honour of the castro people that settled in the area of Calle — the Callaeci.\nThe Romans established a port in the south of the region which they called [Portus Calle](https://bliptext.com/articles/portus-calle), today's [Porto](https://bliptext.com/articles/porto), in northern Portugal.\nWhen the Romans first conquered the Callaeci they ruled them as part of the province of [Lusitania](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitania) but later created a new province of Callaecia or [Gallaecia](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecia).\nThe names \"Callaici\" and \"Calle\" are the origin of today's [Gaia](https://bliptext.com/articles/vila-nova-de-gaia), Galicia, and the \"Gal\" root in \"Portugal\", among many other placenames in the region.\n\n# Gallaecian language\n[Gallaecian](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-language) was a Q-Celtic language or group of languages or dialects, closely related to Celtiberian, spoken at the beginning of our era in the north-western quarter of the Iberian Peninsula, more specifically between the west and north Atlantic coasts and an imaginary line running north–south and linking Oviedo and Mérida.\nJust like it is the case for Illyrian or Ligurian languages, its corpus is composed by 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.\nBesides, many of the isolated words of Celtic origin preserved in the local Romance languages could have been inherited from these Q-Celtic dialects.\n\n# Gallaecian deities\nThrough the Gallaecian-Roman inscriptions, is known part of the great pantheon of Gallaecian 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.\nThis will highlight the following:\n# [The Fonte do Ídolo (Portuguese for Idol's Fountain), in Braga. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Fonte///do///%C3%8Ddolo///Braga.jpg]\n\n# History\nThe fact that the Gallaeci did not adopt writing until contact with the [Romans](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-republic) constrains the study of their earlier history.\nHowever, early allusions to this people 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. The oldest known inscription referring to the Gallaeci (reading Ἔθνο[υς] Καλλαϊκῶ[ν], \"people of the Gallaeci\") was found in 1981 in the [Sebasteion](https://bliptext.com/articles/sebasteion) of Aphrodisias, [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey), where a triumphal monument to [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus) mentions them among other fifteen nations allegedly conquered by this Roman emperor.\nProtected by their mountainous country and its isolation, the Gallaican tribes did not fall under [Carthaginian rule](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-carthage), though a combined Gallaeci-[Lusitani](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanians) mercenary contingent led by a chieftain named [Viriathus](https://bliptext.com/articles/viriathus-second-punic-war) (not to be confused with the later [Lusitani](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanians) general bearing the same name that battled the Romans in Hispania in the mid-2nd century BC) is mentioned in [Hannibal](https://bliptext.com/articles/hannibal)'s army during his march to Italy during the [Second Punic War](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-punic-war), participating in the [battles of Lake Trasimene](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-lake-trasimene) and [Cannae](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-cannae).\nOn his epic poem [Punica](https://bliptext.com/articles/punica-poem), [Silius Italicus](https://bliptext.com/articles/silius-italicus) gives a short description of these mercenaries and their military tactics:\n[…] 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 […]\nRich 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.\nThe Gallaeci came into direct contact with Rome relatively late, in the wake of the Roman punitive campaigns against their southern neighbours, the [Lusitani](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanians) and the [Turduli Veteres](https://bliptext.com/articles/turduli-veteres).\nRegarded as hardy fighters, Gallaeci warriors fought for the Lusitani during [Viriathus](https://bliptext.com/articles/viriathus)' [campaigns in the south](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-war), and in 138-136 BC they faced the first Roman incursion into their territory by consul [Decimus Junius Brutus](https://bliptext.com/articles/decimus-junius-brutus-callaicus), whose campaign reached as far as the river Nimis (possibly the [Minho or Miño](https://bliptext.com/articles/minho-river)).\nAfter seizing the town of [Talabriga](https://bliptext.com/articles/archaeological-site-of-cabe-o-do-vouga) (Marnel, [Lamas do Vouga](https://bliptext.com/articles/lamas-do-vouga) – [Águeda](https://bliptext.com/articles/gueda)) from the Turduli Veteres, he crushed an allegedly 60,000-strong Gallaeci relief army sent to support the Lusitani at a desperate and difficult battle near the [Durius river](https://bliptext.com/articles/douro), in which 50,000 Gallaicans were slain, 6,000 were taken prisoner and only a few managed to escape, before withdrawing south.\nIt remains unclear if the Gallaeci participated actively in the [Sertorian Wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/sertorian-war), although a fragment of [Sallust](https://bliptext.com/articles/sallust) records the sertorian [legate](https://bliptext.com/articles/legatus) [Marcus Perperna Veiento](https://bliptext.com/articles/marcus-perperna-veiento) capturing the town of Cale in around 74 BC. Later in 61-60 BC the [Propraetor](https://bliptext.com/articles/propraetor) of [Hispania Ulterior](https://bliptext.com/articles/hispania-ulterior) [Julius Caesar](https://bliptext.com/articles/julius-caesar) forced upon them the recognition of Roman suzerainty after defeating the northern Gallaeci in a combined sea-and-land battle at Brigantium, but it remained mostly nominal until the outbreak of the [first Astur-Cantabrian War in 29 BC](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-wars).\n[Paulus Orosius](https://bliptext.com/articles/paulus-orosius) briefly mentions that the Augustan [legates](https://bliptext.com/articles/legatus) [Gaius Antistius Vetus](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaius-antistius-vetus-consul-6-bc) and [Gaius Firmius](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaius-firmius) fought a difficult campaign to subdue the Gallaeci tribes of the more remote forested and mountainous parts of Gallaecia bordering the [Atlantic Ocean](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-ocean), defeating them only after a series of severe battles, though no exact details are given.\nAfter conquering Gallaecia, [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus) promptly used its territory – now part of his envisaged [Transduriana Province](https://bliptext.com/articles/es-provincia-transduriana), whose organization was entrusted to [suffect consul](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-consul) [Lucius Sestius Albanianus Quirinalis](https://bliptext.com/articles/lucius-sestius-albanianus-quirinalis) – as a springboard to his rear offensive against the [Astures](https://bliptext.com/articles/astures).\n\n## Romanization\nIn the later part of the 1st century BC military colonies were established and the pacified Gallaeci tribes were integrated by Augustus into his new [Hispania Tarraconensis](https://bliptext.com/articles/hispania-tarraconensis) province.\nLater in the 3rd century AD, Emperor [Diocletian](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian) created an administrative division which included the [Conventus](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-iuridicus) of Gallaecia, Asturica and, perhaps, Cluniense into the new province of Gallaecia ([Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-greek): Kallaikia), with the colony of Bracara Augusta ([Braga](https://bliptext.com/articles/braga)) as its provincial capital.\nGallaecia 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 Emperor [Claudius](https://bliptext.com/articles/claudius)' [conquest of Britain in AD 43-60](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-conquest-of-britain).\nThe region remained one of the last redoubts of Celtic culture and language in the [Iberian Peninsula](https://bliptext.com/articles/iberian-peninsula) well into the Roman imperial period, at least until the spread of [Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) and the [Germanic invasions of the late 4th/early 5th centuries AD](https://bliptext.com/articles/migration-period), when it was conquered by the [Suevi](https://bliptext.com/articles/suebi) and their [Hasdingi](https://bliptext.com/articles/hasdingi) [Vandals](https://bliptext.com/articles/vandals)' allies.","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-25T22:45:56.916Z","updated_at":"2025-01-25T22:45:56.916Z","search_vector":"'gallaeci':1","search_content":" \n \n\n# \nThe **Gallaeci** (also **Callaeci** or **Callaici**; ) were a [Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-people) tribal complex who inhabited **Gallaeci**a, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now the [Norte Region](https://bliptext.com/articles/norte-region-portugal) in northern Portugal, and the [Spanish](https://bliptext.com/articles/spain) regions of [Galicia](https://bliptext.com/articles/galicia-spain), western [Asturias](https://bliptext.com/articles/asturias) and western [León](https://bliptext.com/articles/castile-and-le-n) before and during the [Roman period](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-period).\nThey spoke a [Q-Celtic language](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtic-languages) related to [Northeastern Hispano-Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/celtiberian-language), called [Gallaecian](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-language) or [Northwestern Hispano-Celtic](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-language).\nThe region was annexed by the Romans in the time of [Caesar Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/caesar-augustus) during the [Cantabrian Wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-wars), a war which initiated the assimilation of the Gallaeci into Latin culture.\nThe endonym of modern-day Galicians, galegos, derives directly from the name of this people.\n# [The Iberian Peninsula in the 3rd century BC. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Iberia///300BC-en.svg]\n# [Galician-Roman Stele from Crecente (Galicia). Held at the end of the century, was dedicated to a deceased aristocrat called Apana, from the Gallaecian tribe of Celtici Supertamarici, as can be read at the bottom of the stele itself. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Galician///Celtic///Stele///-///Estela///Galaica.jpg]\n\n# Archaeology\nArchaeologically, the Gallaeci evolved from the local [Atlantic Bronze Age](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-bronze-age) culture (1300–700 BC).\nDuring the [Iron Age](https://bliptext.com/articles/iron-age) they received additional influences, including from Southern Iberian and Celtiberian cultures, and from central-western Europe ([Hallstatt](https://bliptext.com/articles/hallstatt-culture) and, to a lesser extent, [La Tène culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/la-t-ne-culture)), and from the [Mediterranean](https://bliptext.com/articles/mediterranean) ([Phoenicians](https://bliptext.com/articles/phoenicians) and [Carthaginians](https://bliptext.com/articles/carthaginians)).\nThe Gallaeci dwelt in [hill forts](https://bliptext.com/articles/hill-forts) (locally called castros), and the archaeological culture they developed is known by archaeologists as \"[Castro culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-culture)\", a hill-fort culture (usually, but not always) with round or elongated houses.\nThe Gallaecian 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 denominated oppida, being these latter more common in the Southern half of their traditional settlement and around the [Ave river](https://bliptext.com/articles/ave-river).\nDue to the dispersed nature of their settlements, large towns were rare in pre-Roman Gallaecia although some medium-sized [oppida](https://bliptext.com/articles/oppidum) have been identified, namely the obscure Portus Calle (also known as Cales or Cale; [Castelo de Gaia](https://bliptext.com/articles/castelo-de-gaia), near [Porto](https://bliptext.com/articles/porto)), Avobriga ([Castro de Alvarelhos](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-de-alvarelhos) – [Santo Tirso](https://bliptext.com/articles/santo-tirso)?), Tongobriga ([Freixo](https://bliptext.com/articles/freixo) – [Marco de Canaveses](https://bliptext.com/articles/marco-de-canaveses)), Brigantia ([Bragança](https://bliptext.com/articles/bragan-a-portugal)?), Tyde/Tude ([Tui](https://bliptext.com/articles/tui-pontevedra)), Lugus ([Lugo](https://bliptext.com/articles/lugo)) and the Atlantic trading port of Brigantium (also designated Carunium; either [Betanzos](https://bliptext.com/articles/betanzos) or [A Coruña](https://bliptext.com/articles/a-coru-a)).\nThis 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 Gallaecian hillforts continued to be inhabited until the 5th century AD.\nThese 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.\nThese settlements were strategically located for a better control of natural resources, including mineral ores such as iron.\nThe Gallaecian hillforts and oppidas maintained a great homogeneity and presented clear commonalities.\nThe citadels, however, functioned as city-states and could have specific cultural traits.\nThe 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-).\nMany 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...\nAssociated archaeologically with the hill forts are the famous [Gallaecian warrior statues](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-warrior-statues) - slightly larger than life size statues of warriors, assumed to be deified local heroes.\n# [Partial view of the Castro de Santa Tegra, an oppidum from the 2nd century BC. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Castro///en///santa///trega.jpg]\n# [Aerial view of Castromaior, Portomarín, 1950 | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Castromaior///1956///01.png]\n# [Granite Warrior statues are one of the most famous cultural outputs of the Gallaeci | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/MuseuNacArqu-GuerreirosLusitanos.jpg]\n\n# Political-territorial organization\nThe Gallaecian political organization is not known with certainty but it is very probable that they were divided into small independent chiefdoms who the Romans called populus or civitas, each one ruled by a local petty king or chief ([princeps](https://bliptext.com/articles/princeps)), as in other parts of Europe.\nEach populus comprised a sizeable number of small hillforts (castellum).\nSo each Gallaecian 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):\n\n## Gallaeci tribes\nThe list of Gallaeci tribes sorted by minority groups:\n**Bracarenses**\n**Lucenses**\n**Other minor groups**\n[Pomponius Mela](https://bliptext.com/articles/pomponius-mela), who described the Galician seashore and their dwellers around 40 AD, divided the coastal Gallaeci in non-Celtic [Grovii](https://bliptext.com/articles/grovii) along the southern areas; the Celtic peoples who lived along the [Rías Baixas](https://bliptext.com/articles/r-as-baixas) and [Costa da Morte](https://bliptext.com/articles/costa-da-morte) regions in northern Galicia; and the also Celtic [Artabri](https://bliptext.com/articles/artabri) who dwelled all along the northern coast in between the latter and the [Astures](https://bliptext.com/articles/astures).\n\n# Origin of the name\nThe Romans named the entire region north of the [Douro](https://bliptext.com/articles/douro), where the [Castro culture](https://bliptext.com/articles/castro-culture) existed, in honour of the castro people that settled in the area of Calle — the Callaeci.\nThe Romans established a port in the south of the region which they called [Portus Calle](https://bliptext.com/articles/portus-calle), today's [Porto](https://bliptext.com/articles/porto), in northern Portugal.\nWhen the Romans first conquered the Callaeci they ruled them as part of the province of [Lusitania](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitania) but later created a new province of Callaecia or [Gallaecia](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecia).\nThe names \"Callaici\" and \"Calle\" are the origin of today's [Gaia](https://bliptext.com/articles/vila-nova-de-gaia), Galicia, and the \"Gal\" root in \"Portugal\", among many other placenames in the region.\n\n# Gallaecian language\n[Gallaecian](https://bliptext.com/articles/gallaecian-language) was a Q-Celtic language or group of languages or dialects, closely related to Celtiberian, spoken at the beginning of our era in the north-western quarter of the Iberian Peninsula, more specifically between the west and north Atlantic coasts and an imaginary line running north–south and linking Oviedo and Mérida.\nJust like it is the case for Illyrian or Ligurian languages, its corpus is composed by 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.\nBesides, many of the isolated words of Celtic origin preserved in the local Romance languages could have been inherited from these Q-Celtic dialects.\n\n# Gallaecian deities\nThrough the Gallaecian-Roman inscriptions, is known part of the great pantheon of Gallaecian 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.\nThis will highlight the following:\n# [The Fonte do Ídolo (Portuguese for Idol's Fountain), in Braga. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Fonte///do///%C3%8Ddolo///Braga.jpg]\n\n# History\nThe fact that the Gallaeci did not adopt writing until contact with the [Romans](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-republic) constrains the study of their earlier history.\nHowever, early allusions to this people 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. The oldest known inscription referring to the Gallaeci (reading Ἔθνο[υς] Καλλαϊκῶ[ν], \"people of the Gallaeci\") was found in 1981 in the [Sebasteion](https://bliptext.com/articles/sebasteion) of Aphrodisias, [Turkey](https://bliptext.com/articles/turkey), where a triumphal monument to [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus) mentions them among other fifteen nations allegedly conquered by this Roman emperor.\nProtected by their mountainous country and its isolation, the Gallaican tribes did not fall under [Carthaginian rule](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-carthage), though a combined Gallaeci-[Lusitani](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanians) mercenary contingent led by a chieftain named [Viriathus](https://bliptext.com/articles/viriathus-second-punic-war) (not to be confused with the later [Lusitani](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanians) general bearing the same name that battled the Romans in Hispania in the mid-2nd century BC) is mentioned in [Hannibal](https://bliptext.com/articles/hannibal)'s army during his march to Italy during the [Second Punic War](https://bliptext.com/articles/second-punic-war), participating in the [battles of Lake Trasimene](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-lake-trasimene) and [Cannae](https://bliptext.com/articles/battle-of-cannae).\nOn his epic poem [Punica](https://bliptext.com/articles/punica-poem), [Silius Italicus](https://bliptext.com/articles/silius-italicus) gives a short description of these mercenaries and their military tactics:\n[…] 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 […]\nRich 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.\nThe Gallaeci came into direct contact with Rome relatively late, in the wake of the Roman punitive campaigns against their southern neighbours, the [Lusitani](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanians) and the [Turduli Veteres](https://bliptext.com/articles/turduli-veteres).\nRegarded as hardy fighters, Gallaeci warriors fought for the Lusitani during [Viriathus](https://bliptext.com/articles/viriathus)' [campaigns in the south](https://bliptext.com/articles/lusitanian-war), and in 138-136 BC they faced the first Roman incursion into their territory by consul [Decimus Junius Brutus](https://bliptext.com/articles/decimus-junius-brutus-callaicus), whose campaign reached as far as the river Nimis (possibly the [Minho or Miño](https://bliptext.com/articles/minho-river)).\nAfter seizing the town of [Talabriga](https://bliptext.com/articles/archaeological-site-of-cabe-o-do-vouga) (Marnel, [Lamas do Vouga](https://bliptext.com/articles/lamas-do-vouga) – [Águeda](https://bliptext.com/articles/gueda)) from the Turduli Veteres, he crushed an allegedly 60,000-strong Gallaeci relief army sent to support the Lusitani at a desperate and difficult battle near the [Durius river](https://bliptext.com/articles/douro), in which 50,000 Gallaicans were slain, 6,000 were taken prisoner and only a few managed to escape, before withdrawing south.\nIt remains unclear if the Gallaeci participated actively in the [Sertorian Wars](https://bliptext.com/articles/sertorian-war), although a fragment of [Sallust](https://bliptext.com/articles/sallust) records the sertorian [legate](https://bliptext.com/articles/legatus) [Marcus Perperna Veiento](https://bliptext.com/articles/marcus-perperna-veiento) capturing the town of Cale in around 74 BC. Later in 61-60 BC the [Propraetor](https://bliptext.com/articles/propraetor) of [Hispania Ulterior](https://bliptext.com/articles/hispania-ulterior) [Julius Caesar](https://bliptext.com/articles/julius-caesar) forced upon them the recognition of Roman suzerainty after defeating the northern Gallaeci in a combined sea-and-land battle at Brigantium, but it remained mostly nominal until the outbreak of the [first Astur-Cantabrian War in 29 BC](https://bliptext.com/articles/cantabrian-wars).\n[Paulus Orosius](https://bliptext.com/articles/paulus-orosius) briefly mentions that the Augustan [legates](https://bliptext.com/articles/legatus) [Gaius Antistius Vetus](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaius-antistius-vetus-consul-6-bc) and [Gaius Firmius](https://bliptext.com/articles/gaius-firmius) fought a difficult campaign to subdue the Gallaeci tribes of the more remote forested and mountainous parts of Gallaecia bordering the [Atlantic Ocean](https://bliptext.com/articles/atlantic-ocean), defeating them only after a series of severe battles, though no exact details are given.\nAfter conquering Gallaecia, [Augustus](https://bliptext.com/articles/augustus) promptly used its territory – now part of his envisaged [Transduriana Province](https://bliptext.com/articles/es-provincia-transduriana), whose organization was entrusted to [suffect consul](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-consul) [Lucius Sestius Albanianus Quirinalis](https://bliptext.com/articles/lucius-sestius-albanianus-quirinalis) – as a springboard to his rear offensive against the [Astures](https://bliptext.com/articles/astures).\n\n## Romanization\nIn the later part of the 1st century BC military colonies were established and the pacified Gallaeci tribes were integrated by Augustus into his new [Hispania Tarraconensis](https://bliptext.com/articles/hispania-tarraconensis) province.\nLater in the 3rd century AD, Emperor [Diocletian](https://bliptext.com/articles/diocletian) created an administrative division which included the [Conventus](https://bliptext.com/articles/conventus-iuridicus) of Gallaecia, Asturica and, perhaps, Cluniense into the new province of Gallaecia ([Greek](https://bliptext.com/articles/ancient-greek): Kallaikia), with the colony of Bracara Augusta ([Braga](https://bliptext.com/articles/braga)) as its provincial capital.\nGallaecia 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 Emperor [Claudius](https://bliptext.com/articles/claudius)' [conquest of Britain in AD 43-60](https://bliptext.com/articles/roman-conquest-of-britain).\nThe region remained one of the last redoubts of Celtic culture and language in the [Iberian Peninsula](https://bliptext.com/articles/iberian-peninsula) well into the Roman imperial period, at least until the spread of [Christianity](https://bliptext.com/articles/christianity) and the [Germanic invasions of the late 4th/early 5th centuries AD](https://bliptext.com/articles/migration-period), when it was conquered by the [Suevi](https://bliptext.com/articles/suebi) and their [Hasdingi](https://bliptext.com/articles/hasdingi) [Vandals](https://bliptext.com/articles/vandals)' allies.","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}