Termancia (Tiermes)

Tiermes was a Celtiberian hill fort (name: Termes) and later a Roman Municipium. It is remarkable for its impressive site on an arid red sandstone hill and for the way buildings have been carved in the solid rock.

The city was an ally of Numancia during the Celtiberian Wars. It is located on the edge of the Douro Valley in Spain, and close to the town of Montejo de Tiermes (Soria, Castile and León).

The wealth of Tiermes in Celtiberian and Roman times came possibly from sheep farming (there are indications of an annual transfer of flocks between the northern plateau and Extremadura) and from deposits of iron ore and other metals in their area of influence.

The conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Rome was a long process that lasted two centuries. One of the highlights was the Celtiberian Wars that led to the incorporation of much of Celtiberia up to the middle of the Alto Douro after the fall of Numantia in 133 BC. During this phase Termes was attacked by the Roman consul Q. Pompey in 141 BC, who signed a treaty with Termes in 139 BC, along with Numantia. The treaty was overruled by the Roman Senate, though continued hostilities did not directly affect Termes. Finally, at the end of the 2nd century BC, Rome restarted the conquest beyond Numantia; Termes fell in 98 BC, after the assault of the consul Titus Didius, who forced the inhabitants to move down to the plain, which according to archaeological data lasted only one or two decades. Afterwards Termes paid tribute (stipendiaria civitas), beginning a slow process of Romanisation.

From 70 BC the city began major urban renewal, using the three terraces of the hill, especially the middle, where the most important buildings would be located in the future.

The city was probably given the title Municipium during the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Termes was assigned to the Conventus Cluniensis and thereafter the Hispanic-Roman city began to take shape, whose period of greatest splendour was between the first and second centuries AD. It was endowed with large public buildings, two fora (first Julio-Claudian and later a Flavian forum), thermal baths, a possible theatre, an aqueduct and urban development suited to the location of the city on a sandstone bluff surrounded by river gorges and forests.

...
Wikipedia