The Pellendones, also designated Pelendones Celtiberorum and Cerindones, were an ancient pre-Roman Celtic people living on the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

. From the early 4th century BC they inhabited the region near the source of the river Duero in what today is north-central Spain, an area comprising the north of

Soria Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 ( INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial populatio ...

, the southeast of

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

and the southwest of

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community and provinces of Spain, province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other List of municipalities in La Rioja, cities and towns in the ...

provinces.

Origins

Possibly of mixed Illyrian and

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

origin, the Pellendones migrated to the

around the 4th Century BC. Their original native name might have been ''*Kellendones'', and is possible that they were related to the Gallic Belendi or Pelendi of the middle ''Sigmatis'' (today's Leyre) river valley (approximately today's Belin-Béliet territory) in Gallia (

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

). They spoke a '

Q-Celtic The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 170 ...

' language.

Culture

A predominantly stock-raising people that practiced

transhumance Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or Nomad, nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions (''vertical transhumance''), it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and low ...

in the grazing lowlands of the

Ebro The Ebro (Spanish and Basque ; , , ) is a river of the north and northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain. It rises in Cantabria and flows , almost entirely in an east-southeast direction. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea, forming a de ...

valley, the Pellendones are attributed to the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

" Culture of the Soria hillforts" (''Cultura de los castros sorianos'') that flourished between the 6th and 4th centuries BC in the north of present-day Soria province. Their capital was ''Visontium'' ( Vinuesa –

), and are credited as being the original founders of ''

Numantia Numantia () is an ancient Celtiberian settlement, whose remains are located on a hill known as Cerro de la Muela in the current municipality of Garray ( Soria), Spain. Numantia is famous for its role in the Celtiberian Wars. In 153 BC, Num ...

'' ( Muela de Garray – Soria) and ''Savia'' (

?). They also controlled the towns of ''Aregrada''/''Arekorata'' ( Muro de Ágreda – Sória; Celtiberian mints: ''Areicoraticos''/''Arecorataz''), ''Arenetum'' ( Arnedo, near Inestrillas –

), ''Quelia''/''Quelium'' ( Quel, near Arnedo –

; Celtiberian mint: ''Cueliocos'') and '' Contrebia Leukade'' ( Aguillar del Rio Alhama –

), although the location of ''Viscintium'', ''Lutia'' ( Cantalucia?), ''Olibia'' and ''Varia'' remains either incertain or unknown.

History

Closely related with both the Arevaci – to whom they were a dependant tribe, though regarded as a separated people – and the

Vettones The Vettones (Greek language, Greek: ''Ouettones'') were an Prehistoric Iberia#Iron Age, Iron Age pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula. Origins Lujan (2007) concludes that some of the names of the Vettones show clearly Hispano-Celtic lan ...

, they threw off the Arevacian yoke possibly with Roman help in the late 2nd century BC, receiving the town of Numantia and respective lands when the Romans partitioned the territory of the defeated Arevaci amongst their neighbours. However, they lost these lands to the Uraci after supporting the ill-fated early 1st Century BC anti-Roman uprisings in

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) ...

(the 4th

Celtiberian War The First Celtiberian War (181–179 BC) and Second Celtiberian War (154–151 BC) were two of the three major rebellions by the Celtiberians (a loose alliance of Celtic tribes living in east central Hispania, among which we can name the Pellendo ...

). Later during 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, they sided with

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 ...

and provided auxiliary troops to his army. It remains unclear what role the Pellendones played during the period of unrest that rocked northern Celtiberia in 50-25 BC and in the subsequent Astur-Cantabrian Wars between 29-13 BC.

Romanization

In the late 1st Century BC, the Pellendones were aggregated to the new Hispania Terraconensis province created by Emperor

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

, who founded on the site of ''Arekorata'' the Roman colony of ''Augustobriga'' ( Muro de Ágreda) in their territory.

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 ...

, ''Geographiké Hyphegésis'', II, 6, 53; 55.

Notes

Bibliography

* 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, Barcelona (1998, revised edition 2007) * *M.ª de Lourdes Albertos Firmat, "La antroponimia prerromana de la Península Ibérica", in ''Actas del I Coloquio sobre Lenguas y Culturas Prerromanas de la Peninsula Iberica'', Salamanca, pp. 57-86. (1976)

External links

*https://www.celtiberiasoria.es *https://www.celtiberia.net *https://www.pelendonia.net {{Pre-Roman peoples in Spain Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula Celtic tribes of the Iberian Peninsula Ancient peoples of Spain