Celtiberi

Celtiberi, a brave and powerful people of ancient Spain, supposed to have sprung from a blending of the aboriginal Iberians with Celtic invaders from Gaul. They inhabited a large inland district of the peninsula, corresponding to the south-west half of Aragon, nearly the whole of Cuença and Soria, and a great part of Burgos, but the name Celtiberia had often a wider signification, including the country as far south as the sources of the Guadalquivir. The Celtiberi were divided into four tribes, the chief the Arevacæ and Lusones, and were unquestionably one of the bravest and noblest peoples in the peninsula. Their cavalry and infantry were equally excellent. For many years they withstood the efforts of the Romans to subdue them, and it was not till after the death of Sertorius (72 B.C.) that they began to adopt the Roman language, dress, and manners. The chief cities were Legobriga, the capital; Bilbilis, the birthplace of Martial; and Numantia, destroyed by Scipio Africanus after a desperate ten years' resistance, 133 B.C.