The Allotriges or Allotrigones ( el, Allotrigoi), were a small 'Celticized'

mountain people Hill people, also referred to as mountain people, is a general term for people who live in the hills and mountains. This includes all rugged land above and all land (including plateaus) above elevation. The climate is generally harsh, with s ...

mentioned alongside the Plentauri by

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

, as inhabitants of the region roughly corresponding to present-day northwestern

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and N� ...

, around the area of the

Ebro , name_etymology = , image = Zaragoza shel.JPG , image_size = , image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza , map = SpainEbroBasin.png , map_size = , map_caption = The Ebro ...

sources.

Origins

As their name suggests, the Allotriges were initially a

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 ...

tribe possibly related to the

Autrigones The Autrigones were a pre-Roman tribe that settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, in what today is the western Basque Country (western regions of Biscay and Álava) and northern Burgos and the East of Cantabria, Spain. Their territory li ...

that arrived to this region in the wake of the Gallic-

Belgae The Belgae () were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by Ju ...

migrations of the 4th century BC,

, ''Geographikon'', III, 4, 12. settling themselves in the mountains north of the Arlanzón river.

Culture

The archeological record of the Allotriges remains somewhat scarce to this day, though some evidence points that they were influenced by the early

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 ...

' Bernorio- Miraveche' cultural group of northern

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

and

Palencia Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia. Located in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half o ...

provinces, and later by 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 ...

via their southern neighbours, the

Turmodigi The Turmodigi were a pre-Roman ancient people, later mixed with the Celts people of northern Spain who occupied the area within the Arlanzón and Arlanza river valleys in the 2nd Iron Age. Origins The ancestors of the Turmodigi arrived to the I ...

. Their linguistic affiliation has not been fully determined but it is likely that they spoke a '

Q-Celtic The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward L ...

' language.

History

Although the details of their history in the region are lacking, it seems that throughout the 3rd-1st Centuries BC the Allotriges successfully resisted the attempts made by the

Cantabri The Cantabri ( grc-gre, Καντάβροι, ''Kantabroi'') or Ancient Cantabrians, were a pre-Ancient Rome, Roman people and large tribal federation that lived in the northern coastal region of ancient Iberia in the second half of the first mille ...

and

to bring them into their tribal confederacies. Thus they managed to retain their tribal identity until the late 1st Century BC, when the mounting pressure of the Cantabrian raids finally made them to seek an alliance with

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

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)

External links