vettones

Lujan (2007) concludes that some of the names of the Vettones show clearly western Hispano-Celtic features.{{cite book |last=Wodtko |first=Dagmar S. |chapter=Chapter 11: The Problem of Lusitanian |title=Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature |editor1-first=Barry|editor1-last=Cunliffe |editor2-first=John T.|editor2-last=Koch |year=2010 |series=Celtic Studies Publications |publisher=Oxbow Books |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-84217-410-4}}{{rp|360–361}} Reissued in 2012 in softcover as {{ISBN|978-1-84217-475-3}}. A Celtiberian origin has also been claimed. Organized since the 3rd Century BC, the Vettones formed a tribal confederacy of undetermined strength. Even though their tribes' names are obscure, the study of local epigraphic evidence has identified the Calontienses, Coerenses, Caluri, BletonesiiConrad Cichorius, Römische Studien (Berlin, 1922).Plutarch, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Roman_Questions*/D.html#ref187 Quaestiones Romanes], question 83. and Seanoci,Edmondson, "A criação de uma sociedade provincial romana" (2022), p. 36. but the others remain unknown.

File:Yeclacastro.jpg, stone walls]]

A predominately horse-Silius Italicus, Punica, III, 378. and cattle-herder people that practiced transhumance, archeology has identified them with the local 2nd Iron Age ‘Cogotas II’ Culture, also known as the ‘Culture of the Verracos’ (verracos de piedra), named after the crude granite sculptures representing pigs, wild boars and bulls that still dot their former region. These are one of their most notable enduring legacies today, the other possibly being the game of Calva, which dates to the time of their influence.

The Iron Age sites and respective cemeteries of Las Cogotas, La Osera, El Raso de Candeleda, La Mesa de Miranda, Yecla la Vieja, El Castillo, Las Merchanas and Alcántara have provided enough elements – weapons, shields, fibulae, belt buckles, bronze cauldrons, Campanian and Greek pottery – which attest the strong contacts with the Pellendones of the eastern meseta, the Iberian south and the Mediterranean.

File:Vettones_cities_location_map-es.svg

The Vettones lived in the western part of the meseta—the high central upland plain of the Iberian Peninsula—the region where the modern Spanish provinces of Ávila and Salamanca are today, as well as parts of Zamora, Toledo, Cáceres and also the eastern border areas of modern Portuguese territory. Their own capital city, which the ancient sources mysteriously failed to mention at all, has not yet been found though other towns mentioned by PtolemyPtolemy, Geographiké Hyphegésis, II, 5, 7. were located, such as Capara (Ventas de Cápara), Obila (Ávila?), Mirobriga (Ciudad Rodrigo?), Turgalium (Trujillo, Cáceres), Alea (Alía – Cáceres) and probably Bletisa/Bletisama (Ledesma, Salamanca).Conrad Cichorius, Römische Studien (Berlin, 1922).Plutarch, [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Roman_Questions*/D.html#ref187 Quaestiones Romanes], question 83. Other probable Vettonian towns were Tamusia (Villasviejas de Tamuja, near Botija, Cáceres; Celtiberian-type mint: Tamusiensi), Ocelon / Ocelum (Castelo Branco), Cottaeobriga (Almeida) and Lancia (Serra d’Opa).

File:VERRACO DE VILLANUEVA DEL CAMPILLO 2.jpg in Villanueva del Campillo (Castile and León, Spain)]]

Traditional allies of the Lusitani, the Vettones helped the latter in their struggle against the advancing Carthaginians led by Hasdrubal the Fair and Hannibal in the late 3rd century BC. At first placed under nominal Punic suzerainty by the time of the Second Punic War, the Vettones threw off their yoke soon after 206 BC. However, a mercenary contingent of Vettones accompanied Hannibal on his march to Italy, led by the chieftain Balarus.Silius Italicus, Punica, III, 378-414. At the Lusitanian Wars of the 2nd century BC they joined once again the Lusitani under Punicus, Caesarus and Caucenus in their attacks on Baetica, Carpetania, the Cyneticum and the failed incursion on the North African town of Ocilis (modern Asilah, Morocco) in 153 BC.Appian, Iberiké, 57.Livy, Periochae, 47.

Although technically incorporated around 134-133 BC into Hispania Ulterior, the Vettones continued to raid the more romanized regions further south and during the Roman civil wars of the early 1st century BC, they sided with Quintus Sertorius. In 79 BC, Proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius attempted to methodically secure the cities and tribes of central Hispania by establishing fortified bases for his military operations in Vettonia, mainly at Metellinum (Medellín), Castra Caecilia (Cáceres el Viejo), and Viccus Caecilius (somewhere in the Sierra de Gredos), but this did not prevented the Vettones from providing auxiliary troops to Sertorius' army in 77-76 BC.Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain (2013), pp. 79; 144. Crushed by the provincial Propraetor Julius Caesar in 61 BC, they later rose in support of Pompey's faction and fought at the battle of Munda (Montilla – Córdoba) in Baetica.Caesar, De Bello Civili, I, 38, 1-4.

In the 1st Century BC, the Romans began to establish military colonies throughout Vettonia, first at Kaisarobriga or Caesarobriga (Talavera de la Reina – Toledo) and Norba Caesarina (near Cáceres), latter followed by Metellinum (Medellín), and in around 27-13 BC the Vettones were aggregated to the newly created Roman province of Lusitania with Emerita Augusta (Mérida) as the capital of the new province.{{cite book|last=Garcia y Bellido|first= Antonio|title=Las colonias romanas de la provincia Lusitania|url=http://descargas.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/12937953117077191865624/021576.pdf?incr=1|year=1958|publisher=Antigua: Historia y Arqueología de las civilizaciones|pages=3, 4}}

Despite their progressive assimilation into the Roman world, the Vettones managed to retain their martial traditions, which enabled them to provide the Roman Army with an auxiliary cavalry unit (Ala), the Ala Hispanorum Vettonum Civium Romanorum, which participated in Emperor Claudius' invasion of Britain in AD 43–60.{{Cite web|url=https://www.celticahispana.com/el-caballo-en-la-sociedad-celtiberica|title = El caballo en la sociedad celtibérica|date = 24 September 2015}}

The Vettones are not to be confused with the Vettonenses, inhabitants of Vettona (today's Bettona) in Umbria.

File:Cogotas-II (dagas)-Segunda Edad del Hierro.jpg

File:Avila 60 museo by-dpc.jpg

File:Tahalí vetón de tipo Monte Bernorio -M.A.N.jpg

File:Broche de cinturón vetón procedente de la Necrópolis de La Osera - M.A.N.jpg

File:Puñal y vaina vetones - M.A.N.jpg

File:Cogotas II (Nielado) Edad del Hierro.jpg

File:Contera de vaina y tahalí de puñal vetones - M.A.N.jpg

File:Vasija funeraria vettona de la Necrópolis de Trasguija (Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid).JPG

File:Avila 59 museo by-dpc.jpg

File:Espada vetona de antenas y vaina de espada vetona de la Necrópolis de La Osera - M.A.N.jpg

File:Espada (32713788491).jpg

File:Fíbulas con forma de caballitos y jinete - M.A.N. 02.jpg

• Arevaci
• Bletonesii
• Carpetani
• Celtiberians
• Celtiberian script
• Cynetes
• Lusitanian Wars
• Sertorian Wars
• Roman civil wars
• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
• Ala Hispanorum Vettonum civium Romanorum

{{Reflist}}

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{{refend}}

• [http://www.celtiberia.net/verimg.asp?id=609 Mapa del territorio vettón (Map of Vettonian Territory)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081006160601/http://www.arqueotavira.com/Mapas/Iberia/Populi.htm Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)]

{{Pre-Roman peoples in Iberia}}

Category:Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula

Category:Celtic tribes of the Iberian Peninsula

Category:Ancient peoples of Spain

Category:Tribes conquered by Rome