The Cratistii (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''Kratistioi'') were an ancient pre-

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

, stock-raising people whose lands were situated along the upper

Tagus The Tagus ( ; ; ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales between Cuenca and Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally westward, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon. Name T ...

valley, in the elevated

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

region of the western Cuenca and northeast

Province of Teruel Teruel ( Catalan: ''Terol'' ) is a province of Aragon, in the northeast of Spain. The capital is Teruel. It is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia (including its exclave Rincón de Ademuz), Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Z ...

Origins

An intriguing people, their ethnic origins are difficult to determine, though their tribal name means "the most powerful". They bear no close relation to the

Caristii The Caristii were a pre-Ancient Rome, Roman tribe settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, in what today are known as the historical territories of Biscay and Álava, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, northern Spa ...

who lived further north in the modern Vizcaya and

Álava Álava () or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a Provinces of Spain, province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, heir of the ancient Basque señoríos#Lords of Álava, Lordship ...

Basque provinces.

Culture

Archeological evidence retrieved from the cemetery of Madrigueras ( Albacete) suggests that their culture was strongly Celtiberianized, being more closely affiliated with that of the neighbouring Olcades. Their presumed capital was ''Segobriga'' ( Cerro de Cabeza de Griego, Saelices – Cuenca; Celtiberian-type mint: ''Sekobirikes'') and they held the important towns of ''Ercavica'' (

Cañaveruelas Cañaveruelas is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Province of Cuenca, Cuenca, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It has a population of 223. Arcavica Within the territory of the present-day municipality once stood the town of Ercavica (or Arcav ...

– Cuenca; Celtiberian-type mint: ''Ercauica''), and ''Contrebia Carbica'' ( Fosos de Bayona, Villas Viejas – Cuenca; Celtiberian-type mints: ''Contebacom/Carbicom/Konterbia Karbica'').

History

Initially a dependent tribe of the

Carpetani The Carpetani ( Greek: ''Karpetanoi''), also named ''Karpesioi'' by Polybius, were one of the Celtic peoples inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula prior to the Roman conquest. Their core domain was constituted by the lands between the Tagus and the ...

since at least the early 3rd Century BC, the Cratistii were submitted to Carthaginian rule upon the conquest of eastern

Carpetania Carpetania was an ancient region of what is today Spain, located between the Sierra de Guadarrama, the mountains of Toledo, the river Guadiana and the mountain range of Alcaraz, including approximately, the present independent communities of Mad ...

Hannibal Hannibal (; ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Punic people, Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Ancient Carthage, Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's fat ...

in 221-220 BC. Later they appear to have gravitated gradually towards the Roman sphere in the aftermath of the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Ancient Carthage, Carthage and Roman Republic, Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For ...

only to be raided by the

Lusitani The Lusitanians were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European-speaking people living in the far west of the Iberian Peninsula, in present-day central Portugal and Extremadura and Castilla y Leon of Spain. It is uncertain whether the Lusitanians ...

, who sacked Segobriga in 146 BC. Following the end of the

Sertorian War The Sertorian War was a civil war in the Roman Republic fought from 80 to 72 BC between two Roman factions, one led by Quintus Sertorius and another led by the senate as constituted in the aftermath of Sulla's civil war. The war was fough ...

s in the mid-1st Century BC, the Cratistii regained their independence from the enfeebled

and were incorporated alongside their Uraci neighbours into romanized southern

Celtiberia The Celtiberians were a group of Celts and Celticized peoples inhabiting an area in the central-northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the final centuries BC. They were explicitly mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors (e.g. Strabo) ...

.Curchin, ''The Romanization of Central Spain: Complexity, Diversity and Change in a Provincial Hinterland'' (2004), pp. 35-36.

Notes

References

* Ángel Montenegro ''et alii'', ''Historia de España 2 - colonizaciones y formación de los pueblos prerromanos (1200-218 a.C)'', Editorial Gredos, Madrid (1989) * Francisco Burillo Mozota, ''Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados'', Crítica, Grijalbo Mondadori, S.A., Barcelona (1998, revised edition 2007) * Juan Pereira Siesto (coord.), ''Prehistoria y Protohistoria de la Meseta Sur (Castilla-La Mancha)'', Biblioteca Añil n.º 31, ALMUD, Ediciones de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real (2007) *

External links