Celtiberians
The Celtiberians dwelt in the Iberian Peninsula and spoke a Celtic language. They lived chiefly in what is now north central Spain.Two other Celtic languages, Tartessian and Lusitanian, were spoken in pre-Roman Iberia. The Lusitanii gave their name to Lusitania, the Latin name for Portugal. Extant tribal names include the Arevaci, Belli, Titti, and Lusones.
Some students maintain that the Celtiberians had some cultural contacts with the Caucasian Iberians (now territory of Eastern Georgia), who were natives of the Caucasus. Very little remains of the language Celtiberians spoke. Any theories of their extinct language have to be grounded on the linguistic origins of some pre-Roman placenames ("toponyms") in the Iberian peninsula that survived long enough to be recorded in documents, on the formulas that were used in some personal names (giving hints of grammar), and on some untranslated inscriptions on bronze and lead plaques, written in an alphabet that combines Phoenician and Greek characteristics. Enough has been preserved to suggest that, unlike the P-Celtic or Brythonic Gaulish language spoken in what is now France, the Celtiberian language was Q-Celtic or Goidelic. The longest extant Celtiberian inscription is on one of several bronze plaques from Botorrita, near Saragossa, late 2nd century BCE.
The Celtiberians had their largest impact on history during the Second Punic War, during which they became the (perhaps unwilling) allies of Carthage in its conflict with Rome, and crossed the Alps under Hannibal's command. As a result of the defeat of Carthage, the Celtiberians first submitted to Rome in 195 BC; In 182 to 179 T. Sempronius Gracchus spent years pacifying (as the Romans put it) the Celtiberians; however, conflicts between various semi-independent bands of Celtiberians continued. After the Numantine War (154 - 133 BCE), Roman cultural influences increased; this is the period of the earliest Botorrita inscibed plaque; later plaques, significantly, are inscribed in Latin. The war with Sertorius, 79 - 72 BCE, marked the last formal resistance of the Celtiberian cities to Roman domination, which submerged the Celtiberian culture.
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