Gallaeci

The Gallaeci or Callaeci were a large Celtic tribal federation who inhabited Gallaecia, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now Galicia (Spain), northern Portugal and Western Asturias, before and into the Roman period. They spoke a Q-Celtic language related to Northeastern Hispano-Celtic, usually called Gallaic, Gallaecian, or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic.

The region was annexed by the Romans in the time of Caesar Augustus during the Cantabrian Wars, a war which initiated the assimilation of the Gallaeci into Latin culture.

The fact that the Gallaeci did not adopt writing until the first contacts with the Roman Empire makes the study of history before the first contacts with Romans impossible. However, early allusions to this people are present in ancient Greek and Latin authors prior to the conquest, which allows the reconstruction of a few historical events of this people since the second century BC.

Thanks to Silius Italicus, it is known that between the years 218 and 201 BC, during the Second Punic War, some Gallaecian troops were involved in the fight in the ranks of Carthaginian Hannibal against the Roman army of Scipio Africanus. Also Silius Italicus added a short description of the Gallaecian contingent and their curious military tactics:

After Silius Italicus, Appian of Alexandria mentioned in his book Iberiké, the first military conflict known between Gallaeci and Romans. In it, Appian narrates the events that occurred during the Lusitanian War (155-139 BC), mentioning that this last year (139 BC), after being cheated by the Lusitanian chief (Viriatus) the Quintus Servilius Caepio's army devastated few Gallaecian and Vettonian regions. The attack on these Southern Gallaecian peoples, probably in the modern Alto Douro (modern North of Portugal), near the border with Vettones, had a character of punishment, due to the Gallaecian support to Lusitanians.

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