CE´LTICA
CE´LTICA,
CE´LTICI (
ἡ Κελτική,
οἱ Κελτικοί), Hispania.
The repeated occurrence of these names in the geography of Spain is at once
[p. 1.583]accounted for by the tradition that the population of the peninsula contained a large Celtic element [CELTIBERI; HISPANIA].
1.
Celtica, the general and at first very vague name for the whole NW. of Europe, is applied specifically to Spain, as, on the other hand, that of Iberia was sometimes extended to Gaul.
But the more particular reference of the term Celtica in Spain was to the northern and central portion of the peninsula. (Aristot.
de Mund. i. p. 850, du Val; Ephor. ap.
Strab. iv. p.199, Fr. 43, Didot;
Scymn. Ch. 168, foll.; Eratosthenes ap.
Strab. ii. p.107, gives a like extent to the
Γαλαταί.）
2.
Strabo mentions a tribe of Celtici in the S. of Lusitania, as inhabiting the country between the Tagus and the Anas, from the point where the latter river makes its great bend to the S., that is, in the S. of
Alemtejo. (But the district was also partly peopled by Lusitanians.) Their chief city was CONISTORGIS: another was PAX AUGUSTA. On the authority of Polybius, he connects these Celtici with the
TURDULI in kindred as well as proximity. (Strab. iii. pp. 139, 141, 151;
Plb. 34.9.3.)
3.
Pliny extends these Celtici into Baetica.
The country called
BAETURIA on the left bank of the Anas, is divided, he says, into two parts and two nations, the Celtici, who border on Lusitania, and belong to the conventus of
HISPALIS and the
TURDULI whose frontier extends along Tarraconensis as well as Lusitania, and whose judicial capital is Corduba.
He considers these Celtici to have migrated from Lusitania, which he appears to regard as the original seat of the whole Celtic population of the peninsula, including the Celtiberians, on the ground of an identity of sacred rites, language, and names of cities; the latter in Baetica, bearing epithets to distinguish them from those in Celtiberia and Lusitania. (
Plin. Nat. 3.1. s. 3: this seems to be the general sense of the passage, supported by the names of the cities mentioned; but the phrase “Celticos
a Celtiberis ex Lusitania advenisse manifestum est” is difficult to interpret precisely).
The cities referred to are
SERIA Fama Julia,
NERTOBRIGA Concordia Julia,
SEGIDA Restituta Julia,
UCULTUNIACUM or CUGIGA, LACONIMURGIS Constantia Julia, Tereses Fortunales, and Callenses Emanici: the last two names are those of the
inhabitants; of the
cities, the former is not elsewhere mentioned, the latter is called
CALENTUM The other cities of Celtica, as Pliny calls the district, were ACINIPO, ARUNDA, ARUCI, TUROBRIGA, LASTIGI, SALPESA, SAEPONE, SERIPPO. In like manner Ptolemy mentions the Celtici in Baetica (
Βαιτικοί Κελτικοί), and assigns to them the cities of Aruci, Arunda, Curgia, Acinippo, and Vama (
Ο῎υαμα), all but the last being included in Pliny's list. (
Ptol. 2.4.15.) Of the above names, those ending in
briga indicate a Celtic dialect; and the remark applies to many other parts of Spain.
4.
Celtici are again found in the extreme NW. of Spain, in Gallaecia, about the promontory of
NERIUM (
C. Finisterre), which was also called CELTICUM, in the very same district as the
ARTABRI whom Mela expressly calls a Celtic people. (
Strab. iii. p.153; Mela, 3.1;
Plin. Nat. 3.3. s. 4,
4.20,
22. s. 34, 35.) Strabo regards these Celtici as sprung from those upon the Anas; and relates how they marched northwards with the Turduli, but quarrelled, and separated from them at the river Limaea (
Lima). Mela places the Celtici along the whole W. coast up to this Celtic promontory. Pliny refers these Celtici to the conventus of Lucus Augusti (3.3. s. 4.), and mentions the tribes, Celtici Neriae and Celtici Praesamarci (4.20. s. 34). [
P.S]
