The Titii or Tithii were a small and obscure Celtiberian people, whose lands were located along the middle

Jalón Xaló (; es, Jalón ), is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Marina Alta in the Valencian Community, Spain. Geography The town of Jalón is located in the Jalón Valley. The Jalón or Gorgos river crosses the town, which has a length of . ...

and upper

Tajuña The Tajuña (; from the Latin ''Tagonius'') is a river in central Spain, flowing through the provinces of Guadalajara and Madrid. It is a tributary of the river Jarama which in turn is a tributary of the Tagus. It rises in the Sierra de Solorio, n ...

valleys, somewhere between

Alhama de Aragón Alhama de Aragón is a spa town located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, situated on the river Jalón, a tributary of the Ebro. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 1,150 inhabitants. Principal indus ...

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

and

Molina de Aragón Molina de Aragón is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2009 census ( INE), the municipality had a population of 3,671 inhabitants. It holds the record (−28.2 °C) for the lowes ...

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...

provinces.

Origins

The Titii were of

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 Fo ...

origin, whose ancestors probably migrated to 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 ...

around the 4th Century BC, and part of the

Celtiberians 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 ...

. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the ancestors of the Celtiberian groups were installed in the Meseta area of the

from at least 1000 BC and probably much earlier.

Culture

Due to the lack of extensive archaeological surveys, no

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

settlements connected with this people were ever found in the area. Nevertheless, analysis of numismatic finds from the

(ancient ''Tagonius'') area has led some archaeologists to relate the

mints A mint or breath mint is a food item often consumed as an after-meal refreshment or before business and social engagements to improve breath odor. Mints are commonly believed to soothe the stomach given their association with natural byproducts ...

of three unknown Celtiberian towns – ''Aratis/Aratikos'', ''Titum'', and ''Titiakos'' – with the Titii, pointing Titum as their presumed capital. The town of ''Aratis/Aratikos'' was identified in 2014 with the

site of Castejón I – El Romeral at Aranda de Moncayo in

Zaragoza province Zaragoza (), also called Saragossa in English,''Encyclopædia Britannica''Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)/ref> is a province of northern Spain, in the central part of the autonomous community of Aragon. Its capital is Zaragoza, which is also t ...

History

Often mentioned in the ancient sources as allies or clients of the

Belli The Belli, also designated Beli or Belaiscos were an ancient pre-Roman Celtic Celtiberian people who lived in the modern Spanish province of Zaragoza from the 3rd Century BC. Origins Roman authors for unknown reasons wrote that the Belli wer ...

, they were subjected to

Turboletae The Turboletae or Turboleti (Greek: ''Torboletoi'' or ''Torboletes'') were an obscure pre-Roman people from ancient Spain, which lived in the northwest Teruel province since the early 3rd Century BC. Origins Their ethnical and linguistical affi ...

raids in the 3rd century BC and seem to have submitted by

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classi ...

just prior to 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 ...

, but what role they played in that conflict remains obscure. However, during the

Celtiberian Wars 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 Pellend ...

of the 2nd century BC they sided with the

and

Arevaci The Arevaci or Aravaci (''Arevakos'', ''Arvatkos'' or ''Areukas'' in the Greek sourcesPtolemy, ''Geographia'', II, 6, 55.), were a CelticCremin, ''The Celts in Europe'' (1992), p. 57. people who settled in the central Meseta of northern Hispania a ...

against Rome, being recorded as one of the signatories of the peace treaty with Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 179 BC. The Titii also retained their political autonomy until being defeated alongside the Belli in 142 BC by Proconsul

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus (c. 188 BC – 116 BC/115 BC) was a statesman and general of the Roman Republic during the second century BC. He was praetor in 148 BC, consul in 143 BC, the Proconsul of Hispania Citerior in 142 BC an ...

Appian, ''Iberiké'' 76. and later included into

Hispania Citerior Hispania Citerior (English: "Hither Iberia", or "Nearer Iberia") was a Roman province in Hispania during the Roman Republic. It was on the eastern coast of Iberia down to the town of Cartago Nova, today's Cartagena in the autonomous community of ...

province in 134 BC, and thereafter cease to be mentioned by the sources. After 72 BC however, they merged with the

Uraci The Uraci or Duraci (Greek: ''Urakoi'') were a little-known Celtic people of pre-Roman Iberia who dwelt to the east of the Vaccaei and the Carpetani, occupying the southern Soria, northern Guadalajara and western Zaragoza provinces since the 4th c ...

and

Cratistii The Cratistii (Greek ''Kratistioi'') were an ancient pre-Roman, stock-raising people whose lands were situated along the upper Tagus valley, in the elevated plateau region of the western Cuenca and northeast Province of Teruel. Origins An intr ...

tribes to create the

Late Celtiberian people Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

of romanized southern Celtiberia, losing their tribal identity in the process.

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) * Alberto J. Lorrio, ''Los Celtíberos'', Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Murcia (1997) * Francisco Burillo Mozota, ''Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados'', Crítica, Barcelona (1998, revised edition 2007)

External links

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