The Cessetani were an ancient Iberian (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 ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

) people of the

Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

(the Roman

Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania ...

). They are believed to have spoken the

Iberian language The Iberian language was the language of an indigenous western European people identified by Greek and Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula in the pre-Migration Era (before about 375 AD). The a ...

. Their territory extended along the coast between the

Coll de Balaguer The Coll de Balaguer is a mountain pass in Catalonia, Spain. It is located at the point where the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range reaches the sea, in L'Almadrava, within the Vandellòs i l'Hospitalet de l'Infant municipality, Baix Camp. Despite its sc ...

and the

Garraf Massif The Garraf Massif ( ca, Massís del Garraf, ) is a mountain range of the Catalan Coastal Range, Catalonia, Spain. Its cliffs reach the Mediterranean waters. Its highest point on the coastal side is La Morella, 593 metres above sea level and furth ...

and was limited in the west by the

Prades Mountains Prades Mountains, also known as Muntanyes de Prades, is a large calcareous mountain massif straddling the comarcas of Alt Camp, Baix Camp, Conca de Barberà, Garrigues and Priorat, in Catalonia, Spain. They are a Site of Community Importance. The ...

. One of their main cities was

Tarraco Tarraco is the ancient name of the current city of Tarragona (Catalonia, Spain). It was the oldest Roman settlement on the Iberian Peninsula. It became the capital of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior during the period of the Roman Republic ...

, modern day

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; Phoenician: ''Tarqon''; la, Tarraco) is a port city located in northeast Spain on the Costa Daurada by the Mediterranean Sea. Founded before the fifth century BC, it is the capital of the Province of Tarragona, and part of Tar ...

. Although there are no remains visible of the Cessetani civilization, you can visit the Roman remains of a theater, a stadium and a Roman city wall. The Roman ruins of Tarraco are also listed on Unesco. Tarraco was captured by the Romans in 218 BC, after the

Battle of Cissa The Battle of Cissa was part of the Second Punic War. It was fought in the fall of 218 BC, near the Celtic town of Tarraco in north-eastern Iberia. A Roman army under Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus defeated an outnumbered Carthaginian army und ...

, in which Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio triumphed over the Carthaginians during the beginning of the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

. The Cessetani minted their own coins, almost ever only with the name of one of their main cities, ''kese'', but a few bore the inscription ''kesesken'' in

northeastern Iberian script The northeastern Iberian script, also known as Levantine Iberian or Iberian, was the main means of written expression of the Iberian language. The language is also expressed by the southeastern Iberian script and the Greco-Iberian alphabet. ...

that is interpreted in

as a self-reference to the ethnic name of that people: from the Cessetani or from those of ''kese''.

External links

Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)
Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula History of Catalonia Ancient peoples of Spain Tribes conquered by Rome {{Spain-hist-stub

See also

External links