The Autrigones were a pre-Ancient Rome 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 limited with the Cantabri territory at west, the Caristii at east, the Berones at the southeast and the Turmodigi at the south. It is discussed whether the Autrigones were Celts, theory supported by the existence of toponyms of Celtic origin, such as Uxama Barca and other with -briga endings[« Indoeuropeización ». Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa OnLine.] and that eventually underwent a Basquisation along with other neighboring tribes such as the Caristii and Varduli.[ Ethnic maps of Iberia ]
Location
Roman historians as
Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder located them in the northern region of present-day province of Burgos. Pliny the Elder writes about the "ten states of the Autrigones" and says the only ones worth mentioning are
Tritium Autrigonum (Monasterio de Rodilla, Burgos) and
Virovesca (possibly the present-day
Briviesca, Burgos; Celtiberian-type mint:
Uirouiaz)
[Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, Book III Chap.4,3 (eds. John Bostock, Henry Thomas Riley) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137&query=page%3D%23167] in the valley of Oca River.
The other Autrigones' towns were
Deobriga (near Miranda de Ebro, Burgos),
Uxama Barca (Osma de Valdegobia; Celtiberian-type mint:
Uarcaz),
Segisamunculum (Cerezo del Riotirón, Burgos),
Antecuia (near
Pancorbo, Burgos),
Vindeleia (Cubo de Bureba, Burgos),
Salionca (Poza de la Sal, Burgos) and the port of
Portus Amanus/
Flaviobriga (
Castro Urdiales,
Cantabria).
Origins
The Autrigones are mentioned for the first time on a document by
Ancient Rome historian
Livy in 76 BC, describing the actions of Quintus Sertorius in the Iberian Peninsula.
mentions them in his book
Geographica, naming them
allótrigones, a word adapted from Greek meaning "strange people".
Based on the study of their toponyms - as also happens with the Caristii and Varduli - it is likely they were a Celtic tribe who eventually suffered a process of Basquisation. The known toponyms of the Autrigones are of Celtic origin, as Uxama Barca in present-day Álava, and many others ending in -briga.[« Indoeuropeización ». Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa OnLine.] The toponyms of rivers, as the Nervión, the anthroponyms, the archeological remains, tools and weapons relate them culturally with the Celts, but with a clear differentiation of other close Celtic tribes, as the Celtiberians.[« Etnogénesis del País Vasco ». Euskomedia.]
Culture
The Autrigones were culturally related to the early
Iron Age "Monte Bernorio-
Miraveche" cultural group of northern Burgos and Palencia provinces. Additional archeological evidence indicates that by the 2nd
Iron Age they came under the influence of the
Celtiberians.
By the 1st century BC they were organized into a federation of autonomous mountain-top fortified towns (
Civitates) on the mountain ranges of the upper
Ebro, protected by stout
adobe walls of the "
Numantia" type.
More archeological evidence have been found, emphasizing their celtiberian culture, such as the hospitality tesserae. These consisted on a zoomorphic-shaped metal tablet with an inscription using a variant of the Northeastern Iberian script (also known as Celtiberian script), written in a form of celtiberian language.[« Nueva tésera celtibérica en la provincia de Burgos». Universidad de La Rioja.]
History
Around the beginning of the 4th century BC the Autrigones migrated to the Peninsula and overrun the entire area corresponding today to the modern provinces of Cantabria and Burgos, which eventually became known as
Autrigonia or
Austrigonia. By the mid-4th century BC the Autrigones reached the
Pisuerga valley where they established their capital
Autraca or
Austraca, located at the banks of the river
Autra (Odra). They also gained an outlet to the sea by seizing from the
-speaking
Caristii further east the coastal highland region between the rivers Asón and
Neroua (Nervión), in the modern eastern
Cantabria, Vizcaya, and Álava Basque provinces. However, the Autrigones’ hold to this vast territory was not meant to last; some time after 300 BC they were driven out from southern Autrigonia – the western Burgos region – by the
Turmodigi allied with the
Vaccei, who seized the Autrigones’ early capital Autraca. Thrust back to their lands on the mountain ranges of the upper
Ebro north of the Arlanzón valley around the 3rd-2nd Centuries BC, the Autrigones allied themselves with the
Berones[Livy, Periochae, 18.] and evolved into a tribal society similar to the peoples of the north-west. By the 1st century BC, they were organized into a federation of ten autonomous mountain-top fortified towns (
Civitates), chiefly among them their new capital
Virovesca in the
Oca River river valley.
Romanization
They seem to have taken no part in the
though as traditional allies of the
Berones helped the latter in fighting off the Roman general
Sertorius' incursion into northern
Celtiberia in 76 BC,
[Livy, Periochae, 91.] and remained independent until the late 1st century BC, when the mounting pressure of
Astures and
Cantabri raids finally forced them to seek an alliance with
Roman Empire. Despite being aggregated in the new Hispania Tarraconensis province at the early 1st century AD, the Autrigones were only partially romanized, never became Christian and continued to provide the Roman Imperial army with auxiliary troops (
Auxilia) up to the late Empire.
The early Middle Ages
The Autrigone people survived the overthrow of the
Roman Empire in Spain by the Germanic invasions of the late 4th century and briefly recreated their realm in parts of the current provinces of Burgos, Álava, and Biscay which lasted for nearly two centuries, before being conquered by their
Varduli neighbours and ultimately destroyed or absorbed by the
Vascones in around AD 580.
[« Localización de algunas ciudades várdulas citadas por Mela y Ptolomeo». Euskomedia.]
See also
Bibliography
-
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)
-
Further reading
-
Daniel Varga, The Roman Wars in Spain: The Military Confrontation with Guerrilla Warfare, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley (2015)
-
Philip Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley (2013)
-
Ludwig Heinrich Dyck, The Roman Barbarian Wars: The Era of Roman Conquest, Author Solutions (2011) ISBNs 1426981821, 9781426981821
External links
