Contestani () is an

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

of Roman Spain of the imperial period. It appears chiefly in the Greco-Roman writers

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

(

Natural History (Pliny) The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work' ...

iii.iii.19-20), 1st century, and Claudius

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

(''The Geography'' ii.5 on Hispania Tarraconensis), 2nd century. Pliny might be considered the more creditable, as he was for a time procurator of the official

Hispania Tarraconensis Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the northern, eastern and central territories of modern Spain along with modern North Region, Portugal, northern Portugal. Southern Spain, the region now ...

, a province of the Roman Empire encompassing all the north and all the east of the Iberian Peninsula (the chief part of the future nation of Spain). A geographic ethnonym from ancient times, however, was not necessarily the name of a people. It might be a toponym. Perhaps the name of the supposed people came from the name of the place. In that case, anyone could live in the place and be counted as one of its people without the necessity to belong to an ingroup such as a tribe. L. A. Curchin did an etymological study of all the ancient names in Contestani and Edetani to the north of it. The implied distribution was multilingual and therefore multiethnic: 14% Iberian, 3% Punic, 35% Indo-European, including 19% Greek and 18% Latin, the rest uncertain. An earlier literary fragment presents the same system.

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

, historian living in the Augustan period, writes in a fragment of Book 91 describing the revolt of the Iberian people under

Quintus Sertorius Quintus Sertorius ( – 73 or 72 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian Peninsula. Defying the regime of Sulla, Sertorius became the independent ruler of Hispania for m ...

against Rome under

Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (, ; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman people, Roman general and statesman of the late Roman Republic. A great commander and ruthless politician, Sulla used violence to advance his career and his co ...

, calls Ilercavonia and Contestania both gentes, "peoples" (a well-known word in Spanish). Here he uses the toponyms ending in -ia for the ethnics, equating place and people. The ethno/topo-nyms are made to fit into the grammatical contexts of the Greco-Latin sources just as though they were Latin words. They give the appearance of being Latin, and seem to contain segments of Latin. One is tempted to see contest in Contestania as though they were some sort of tribe that likes to contend. Similarly the Oretani might be mountain (Greek ore) men, and the Lacetani some sort of Lacedaemonian, while the Indigetes stand in place of the Indigenes (natives). -Tani looks like the -istan suffix as in Pakistan. However, the word formation is all wrong. The Greeks and Romans did not form words in that way. In all the body of Greek and Latin words, these are the only instances of these words, nor does searching the Indo-European roots help. Moreover, there is nothing like them at all in the Iberian vocabulary. At a loss for any other explanation, the scholars fall back on the theory that the Roman soldiers invented these words to imitate the foreign language that they heard there. A famous modern example is the rendering of

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

Iceland into rinkey-dink by the allied troops passing through. Llobregat says:

We know nothing of the meaning of these geographical names that the Roman invader probably forged on indigenous gentiles. Recent research attempts to unravel the meaning of these terms, which often, as in the present case, have only very late literary documentation, at a time when the country was completely Romanized. ... but what is their significance? For the time being, it is unknown to us, ... There is only one way left open that allows us to identify these compartmentalizations in some way, ... a geographical analysis. ... In a word, to try to identify a homogeneous and reasonable territory that could serve as the basis for the concept of the ancient administrative division.

The real name, if any, of the people was not known. Accordingly, Llobregat chose for the name of the people and the book, ''Contestania Iberica'', meaning the Iberian territory that would become Contestania. Observing that the culture evolved into this role, he coined the term Contestanianization.

Geography

Greco-Roman

They lived in a region located in the southwest of Hispania

Tarraconensis Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the northern, eastern and central territories of modern Spain along with modern northern Portugal. Southern Spain, the region now called Andalusia, was t ...

, east of the territory of the Bastetani, between the city of ''Urci'', located NE of the

Baetica Hispania Baetica, often abbreviated Baetica, was one of three Roman provinces created in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) in 27 BC. Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Tarraconensis. Baetica remained one of ...

and river ''Sucro'', today known as

Júcar The Júcar () or Xúquer () is a river in Spain, on the Iberian Peninsula. The river runs for approximately 509 km. Its source is located at Ojuelos de Valdeminguete, in the municipality of Tragacete, province of Cuenca, on the eastern fla ...

. Cartago Nova was within its territory. Other important towns were ''Setabi'' (

Xàtiva Xàtiva (; ) is a town in eastern Spain, in the province of Valencia, on the right (western) bank of the river Albaida and at the junction of the Valencia, Spain, Valencia–Murcia and Valencia Albacete railways. It is located 25 km ...

), Lucenti or

Lucentum Lucentum (, ''Loúkenton''), called Lucentia by Pomponius Mela, is the Roman Empire, Roman predecessor of the city of Alicante, Spain. Particularly, it refers to the archaeological site in which the remains of this ancient settlement lie, at a pl ...

(La Albufereta in

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

), ''Alonis'' ( Villajoyosa), ''Ilici'' (

Elche Elche (, ; , , , ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2024's data, Elche has a population of 234,800 inhabitants,

), ''Menlaria'', ''Valentia'' and ''Iaspis''.

Iberian

Iberian coins were minted at ''Setabi''.

Archaeology

Important Contestani archaeological sites include Tolmo de Minateda hill near

Hellín Hellín is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain located in the province of Albacete, Castilla–La Mancha. The municipality spans across a total area of 781.66 km2. As of 1 January 2020, it has a population of 30,200, which mak ...

and Bastida de les Alcusses, near Mogente.Abad Casal L, Gutiérrez Lloret S, Sanz Gamo R. ''El Tolmo de Minateda. Una historia de tres mil quinientos años.'' Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha, Toledo, 1999

References

Reference bibliography

* * *Ángel Montenegro ''et alii'', ''Historia de España 2 - colonizaciones y formación de los pueblos prerromanos (1200-218 a.C)'', Editorial Gredos, Madrid (1989)

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20120721085139/http://www.contestania.com/
Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)Alicante Archaeological MuseumVillena Archaeological Museum
Ancient peoples of Spain Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula {{Spain-hist-stub