Barbarian Europe

Officers under Marcus Claudius Marcellus were then heard. It seemed that they were inclined towards peace and the senate thought that the consul was more disposed towards the enemy than the allies.

Appian also wrote that the senate was not happy that these people had refused the terms which had earlier been put forward by Nobilitor. However, when he described the campaign by Nobilitor he did not mention him making any terms with the Celtiberians. The senate replied to the envoys that Marcellus would communicate its decision to them.

Polybius wrote that the private opinion of the senate was that what the allies said was true and to the advantage of Rome, that the Arevaci had a high opinion of themselves, and that Marcellus was afraid of war. It secretly ordered the officers under Marcellus to continue to fight.

It mistrusted Marcellus and it was minded to send one of the new consuls to replace him. It made preparations for the campaign as if the future of Roman Iberia depended upon this, assuming that if the enemy were defeated then all the other tribes would submit to Rome, and that if the Arevaci could avoid further war then they and all the other tribes would be encouraged to resist.

Quintus Fulvius Nobilitor spread rumours of continuous battles, great Roman losses, and about the valour of the Celtiberians, as well as claims that Marcellus was afraid of continuing the war. The young recruits panicked and found excuses to avoid recruitment which could not be verified. Competent officers were not willing to serve.

Then, the young Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus spoke in the senate where he asked to be allowed to be sent to Iberia as an officer or a junior commander. He was willing to do this even though he had already been assigned to a safer post in Macedonia in order to settle disputes there.

All were surprised because of his youth and cautious disposition. He became popular, and made those who had been avoiding military service now feel ashamed. The young men enlisted and the officers volunteered.

The remains of the wall of the Pelondones settlement of Augustobriga (today's Muro de Agreda), which would seem to be very close to the tribal oppidum of Visontium (External Links: Diego Delso, delso.photo, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International)

Appian wrote that the army which was to be sent to Iberia was chosen by lot instead of the customary levy. It was the first time this happened. Apparently 'many had complained that they had been treated unfairly by the consuls in the enrolment, while others had been chosen for easy service'.

The new consul, Lucius Lincinius Lucullus, was assigned to Iberia in 151 BC. While he was on his way, Marcellus told the Celtiberians about the impending war and returned the hostages. He had a long conversation with the leader of the envoys, seeking to persuade the Celtiberians to put matters in his hands because he wanted to bring the war to an end before Lucullus could get there.

Five thousand Arevaci took possession of the city of Nertobriga and Marcellus encamped his force near Numantia. While he was driving the inhabitants inside the wall, their leader asked for a meeting, claiming that the Arevaci, Belli, and Titti would place themselves in his hands. He demanded and received hostages and money and then he let them go free.

Marcellus had managed to bring the war to an end before the new consul, Lucullus, even reached Iberia.

This depiction of Celtiberians ambushing Roman soldiers offers a glimpse of the bitter Roman battle to control Iberia after it had won the Punic Wars

On his arrival, Lucullus was greatly put out by the arrangement. He took to fighting an illegal war against the Vaccaei which was only brought to an end by Scipio Aemilianus. At the same time another Roman commander, Servius Sulpicius Galba, found himself at war with the Lusitani, a matter in which he was joined by Lucullus, with both Galba and Lucullus being predatory.

When the new leader of the Lusitani, Viriathus, took control in 147 BC, he incited the Celtiberians to rebel which led to the third war between 143-133 BC, known as the Numantine War, after the town of Numantia which had become the major stronghold of the Arevaci.

The Numantine War (Third Celtiberian War)

After open war reignited in 143 BC, Rome sent a series of generals to the Iberian peninsula to deal with the Numantines. In that year, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus tried and failed to take Numantia by siege, but he did succeed in subjugating all the other tribes of the Arevaci.

His successor, Quintus Pompeius, was inept, suffering severe defeats at their hands, so he secretly negotiated a peace in which the residents of the town abided by the previous treaty.

And yet, in 138 BC, a new general arrived in the form of Marcus Pompilius Laenas. When the Numantine envoys came to finish their obligations in relation to the peace treaty, Pompeius disavowed any such peace. The matter was referred to the senate for judgment.

The city of Numantia dates back in its earliest form to around 2000 BC, with Celtiberian control beginning in the first millennium BC when the Arevaci tribe built a grand stone-and-mud city over the earlier site, although today only the later, Roman city is generally visible

Rome decided to ignore the Pompeius peace, in 136 BC sending Gaius Hostilius Mancinus to continue the war. He assaulted the city and was repulsed several times before being routed and encircled, and so forced to accept a treaty which was negotiated by a young Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus.

The senate did not ratify this treaty either, but only sent Mancinus to the Numantines as a prisoner. His successors, Lucius Furius Philus and Gaius Calpurnius Piso, avoided conflict with the Numantines.

Consul Scipio Aemilianus was sent in 134 BC to Hispania Citerior to end the war. He recruited twenty thousand men and forty thousand allies, including Numidian cavalry under Jugurtha. Scipio built a ring of seven fortresses around Numantia itself before beginning the siege proper.

After suffering pestilence and famine, most of the surviving Numantines committed suicide rather than surrender to Rome. The decisive Roman victory over Numantia ushered in an era of lasting peace in Iberia until the Sertorian War over half a century later.

This war also launched the careers of several important figures, two of whom later became bitter enemies: Gaius Marius and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus whose father and uncle conquered the Balearics in 123 BC. A third ended up fighting both of them: Jugurtha of Numidia.

Twenty years later Marius became governor of Hispania Ulterior, where he made his fortune before becoming one of Rome's more successful generals. Metellus Pius, son of Metellus Numidicus, later served in the Sertorian War.

The Iberian peninsula prior to the Carthaginian invasion and partial conquest was a melange of different tribal influences (click or tap on map to view full sized)

Aftermath

With the fall of Numantia in 134-133 BC, the Romans forcibly disbanded the Celtiberian confederacy and allowed the Pelondones and Uraci to regain their independence from the Arevaci, who had technically now submitted and had been absorbed into the Hispania Citerior province.

It was not an easy time for any of the tribes, debilitated and impoverished and having to endure constant looting and taxes. Nevertheless, the remaining Arevaci towns managed to keep intact much of their military capability, Led by Clunia and Termantia they helped in defending Celtiberia from invasion attempts both by the Lusitani in 114 BC and by the Cimbri who poured in across the Pyrenees around 104-103 BC.

Emboldened by these successes - and resenting the lack of Roman recognition for their efforts - the Arevaci began secretly hatching plots against Roman rule by stirring up their equally-disgruntled Celtiberian neighbours. Uprisings were the result, across 99-81 BC.

However, not only were the Arevacians ruthlessly quashed by Proconsul Titus Didius in 92 BC, but also had to endure the destruction of their new capital, Termantia.

The lengthy duration of these wars could be attributed to two factors, the first being the fierce independence of the Celtiberians. The second was down to internal rivalries and differing political factions within Rome's senate, along with constant procrastination in military matters and difficulty in arriving at ready-made political solutions.

In spite of having technically been subjected and, finally, aggregated into Hispania Citerior after 93 BC, the Arevaci relationship with Rome remained uneasy.

The Arevaci during the Sertorian War sided with Quintus Sertorius and provided an unspecified number of troops to his forces. In fact, they still continued to resist Roman integration and assimilation policies for decades, a situation which was coupled with Roman fiscal abuse which led to sporadic outbursts of violence well into the first century AD.

Main Sources

Martin Amalgro Gorbea - War and Society in Celtiberia (E-Keltoi UWM)

Franciso Burillo Mozota - Los Celtiberos, etnias y estados

Alberto Lorrio Alvarado - Los Celtiberos

Ángel Montenegro et allii - Historia de España 2 - colonizaciones y formación de los pueblos prerromanos (1200-218 a.C (BC))

Text and maps copyright © Trish Wilson & P L Kessler. An original feature for the History Files.