From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Iberian Peninsula in the 3rd century BC.

The Gallaeci or Callaeci were a large Celtic tribal federation who inhabited Gallaecia, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now Galicia (Spain), northern Portugal and Western Asturias, before and into the Roman period.[1] They spoke a Q-Celtic language related to Celtiberian, usually called Gallaic or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic, which also shows other linguistic influences, mainly Lusitanian.[2][3]



Overview of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures.

The fact that the Gallaeci did not adopt writing until the first contacts with the Roman Empire makes the study of history before the first contacts with Romans impossible.[citation needed] However, 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.[citation needed]

Thanks to Silius Italicus, it is known that between the years 218 and 201 BC, during the Second Punic War, some Gallaecian troops were involved in the fight in the ranks of Carthaginian Hannibal against the Roman army of Scipio Africanus. Also Silius Italicus added a short description of the Gallaecian contingent and their curious military tactics:

After Silius Italicus, Appian of Alexandria mentioned in his book Iberiké, the first military conflict known between Gallaeci and Romans. In it, Appian narrates the events that occurred during the Lusitanian War (155-139 BC), mentioning that this last year (139 BC), after being cheated by the Lusitanian chief (Viriatus) the Quintus Servilius Caepio's army devastated few Gallaecian and Vettonian regions. The attack on these Southern Gallaecian peoples, probably in the modern Alto Douro (modern North of Portugal), near the border with Vettones, had a character of punishment, due to the Gallaecian support to Lusitanians.


Archaeologically, the Gallaeci were a local Atlantic Bronze Age people (1300–700 BC). During the Iron Age they received several influences, from central-western Europe (Hallstatt and, to a lesser extent, La Tène culture), and from the Mediterranean (Phoenicians and Carthaginians). The Gallaeci dwelt in hill forts (locally called castros), and the archaeological culture they developed is called "Castro culture", a hill-fort culture with round houses.


The Gallaecian life style was based in land occupation especially by fortified settlements that are known in Latin language as "castrum" (hillforts), being able to vary its size from a small village of less than one hectare (more common in the northern territory), and great forts with more than 10 hectares denominated oppida or "citadel," being these latters more common in the Southern half of their traditional settlement. This mode of inhabiting the territory-by 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 before the Roman arrival. However, an important quantity of Gallaecian hillforts continued to be inhabited until the 5th century AD.

These fortified villages tended to be located in the hills, rocky promontories and peninsulas surrounded on the sea, it improved its visibility, advocacy and the domain over territory. The location of these settlements was also studied to a better control of natural resources used by its inhabitants. The Gallaecian hillforts and oppidas maintain a great homogeneity, presenting evident commonalities.

Political-territorial organization[edit]

The Gallaecian political organization is not known with certainty, but it is very probable that they were divided into small independent states that comprised in its interior a great number of small forts, commanded these states by the figure of a local king, which the Romans called princeps as in other parts of Europe. Each Gallaecian considered himself also a member of the hillfort where lived (according to the most common interpretation of the reversed C of epigraphy later) and the state / people to whom they belonged, and that the Romans called populus, among all some of them left us their names: Arrotrebae, Albion, Praestamarici, Lemavi, etc.…, just as at the end of the eighteenth century, people in Galicia still identified with their parish.

Gallaeci tribes:

Origin of the name[edit]

The Romans named the entire region north of the Douro, where the Castro culture existed, in honour of the castro people that settled in the area of Calle — the Callaeci. The Romans established a city in the south of the region which they called Portus Calle, today's Porto, in northern Portugal.[4] When the Romans first conquered the Callaeci they ruled them as part of the province of Lusitania but later created a new province of Callaecia (Greek: Καλλαικία) or Gallaecia.


Gallaecian language[edit]


Gallaecian deities[edit]



  • Nabia: goddess of waters, of fountains and rivers. In Galicia still noradays, as in northern Portugal, numerous rivers that still persists with his name, as the river Navia, ships and even in northern Portugal there is still the Idol Fountain, dedicated to the goddess ship.
  • Cossus, warrior god, who attained great popularity among the Southern Gallaeci, was one of the most revered gods in ancient Gallaecia. Several authors pointed out that Cosso Bandua and are the same God under different names.
  • Endovelicus, god of prophecy and healing, showing the faithful in dreams.

See also[edit]


  4. ^ "Roteiro Arqueológico" (PDF). Eixo Atlântico 
  5. ^ Jordán Colera 2007: 750



External links[edit]