Regarded by the Greeks and Romans as the most militaristic people of the eastern Meseta, the Arevaci were said by
Herodotus to have embarked early on an expansionist policy by taking part in the
Celtici migrations of the 5th century BC alongside off-shots of
Lusones and Vaccaei peoples to settle in the Iberian southwest. In the late 4th-early 3rd centuries BC however, the Arevaci shifted the direction of their expansion to the east, towards the upper Duero and south into the
central Iberian system mountains. Here they displaced the earlier inhabitants the
Pellendones, conquering the towns of Savia and Numantia and submitted the
Uraci, thus gaining control over the strategic towns of
Aregrada (
Ágreda? – Soria; Celtiberian mints:
Areicoraticos/
Arecorataz),
Cortona (
Medinaceli? – Soria),
Segontia (
Sigüenza – Guadalajara) and
Arcobriga (
Monreal de Ariza – Zaragoza). In around the mid-3rd century BC, the Arevaci founded with their neighbours the
Lusones,
Belli, and
Titii, a tribal federation designated the
Celtiberian confederacy, with Numantia as its capital. During the
Second Punic War the confederacy kept itself neutral, though Celtiberian mercenaries are mentioned fighting for both sides on a number of occasions. The first Roman incursion into the Celtiberian heartland occurred around 195 BC under
Consul Cato the Elder, who attacked unsuccessfully the towns of
Seguntia Celtiberorum and Numantia, where he allegedly delivered a speech to the numantines. The Arevaci and the
Belli revolted against
Roman rule in the
Celtiberian War. With the fall of Numantia in 134-133 BC, the Romans forcibly disbanded the Celtiberian confederacy and allowed the Pellendones and Uraci to regain their independence from the Arevaci, who were now technically submitted and absorbed into
Hispania Citerior province. Nevertheless, the remaining Arevacian cities managed to keep much of their military capabilities intact, and led by Clunia and Termantia they helped defending
Celtiberia from invasion attempts by both the
Lusitani in 114 BC and the
Cimbri, who poured from the
Pyrenees around 104-103 BC. Emboldened by these successes – and resented by the lack of Roman recognition for their efforts – the Arevaci began secretly hatching plots against Roman rule by stirring up their equally disgruntled Celtiberian neighbours into the 99-81 BC uprisings (a.k.a. 3rd Celtiberian ‘War’). However, not only were the Arevacians ruthlessly quashed by
Proconsul Titus Didius in 93-92 BC, but also had to endure the destruction of their new capital, Termantia, and the city of Colenda in around 98-94 BC.
Romanization In spite of being technically made subject and finally aggregated to Hispania Citerior after 93 BC, the Arevacians’ relationship with
Rome remained uneasy. During the
Sertorian Wars, the Arevaci sided with
Quintus Sertorius and provided auxiliary troops to his army, with the towns of Clunia, Uxama and Segontia Lanka offering stubborn resistance to Pompey long after Sertorius had been assassinated. In fact, they still continued to resist Roman integration and assimilation policies for decades, a situation coupled by fiscal abuse that led to sporadic outbursts of violence well into the late 1st century BC. Although the Arevaci later, in 29 BC, contributed an auxiliary cavalry unit (the
Ala Hispanorum Aravacorum) to fight alongside the
Roman legions in the first
Astur-Cantabrian war,
Tacitus cites heavy taxation as the major reason for a revolt in the Termes region which resulted in the ambush and assassination of
Lucius Calpurnius Piso,
Praetor of H. Citerior Tarraconensis in 25 BC. ==See also==