The Cratistii (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

''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 ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

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

Tagus The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to e ...

valley, in the elevated

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), 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. Often one or more sides ...

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 Za ...

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-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, northern Spain. Origins Their historical territory today corres ...

who lived further north in the modern Vizcaya and

Álava Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Álava, former medieval Catholic bishopric and now Latin titular see. Its c ...

Basque provinces.

Culture

Archeological evidence retrieved from the cemetery of Madrigueras (

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...

) suggests that their culture was strongly Celtiberianized, being more closely affiliated with that of the neighbouring

Olcades The Olcades were an ancient stock-raising pre- Roman people from Hispania, who lived to the west of the Turboletae in the southeastern fringe of the Iberian system mountains. Origins Related to both the Celtiberians and Carpetani, the Olcades ...

. Their presumed capital was ''Segobriga'' ( Cerro de Cabeza de Griego,

Saelices Saelices is a municipality located in the province of Cuenca, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Insti ...

– Cuenca; Celtiberian-type mint: ''Sekobirikes'') and they held the important towns of ''Ercavica'' ( Cañaveruelas – 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'') were one of the Celtic pre- Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (the Roman Hispania, modern Spain and Portugal), akin to the Celtiberians, dwelling in the central part of the '' meseta'' - the high centr ...

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 Madri ...

by Hannibal in 221-220 BC. Later they appear to have gravitated gradually towards the Roman sphere in the aftermath of the 2nd Punic War only to be raided by the

Lusitani The Lusitanians ( la, Lusitani) were an Indo-European speaking people living in the west of the Iberian Peninsula prior to its conquest by the Roman Republic and the subsequent incorporation of the territory into the Roman province of Lusitania. ...

, who sacked Segobriga in 146 BC.

Paulus Orosius Paulus Orosius (; born 375/385 – 420 AD), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Roman priest, historian and theologian, and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible that he was born in ''Bracara Augusta'' (now Braga, Portugal), th ...

, ''Historiae Adversus Paganus'', 5: 4, 5. Following the end of the

Sertorian War The Sertorian War was a civil war fought from 80 to 72 BC between a faction of Roman rebels ( Sertorians) and the government in Rome (Sullans). The war was fought on the Iberian Peninsula (called ''Hispania'' by the Romans) and was one of the ...

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 BCE. They were explicitly mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors (e.g. Strab ...

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