The Arevaci, also called Aravaci, were a group of people from the Celtic culture who lived in the central part of northern Hispania. They controlled much of the region known as Celtiberia between the 4th century BC and the late 2nd century BC. The Vaccaei were their allies during this time.

Origins

The Arevaci were a group of people with Celtic origins who were part of a larger group called the Celtiberians. A lot of evidence shows that the ancestors of the Celtiberians lived in the Meseta region of the Iberian Peninsula as early as 1000 BC, and possibly even earlier. Some believe these ancestors were people who spoke an early form of a language called Q-Celtic from an area in Gaul, who moved to the Iberian Peninsula around the middle of the 6th century BC. They arrived at about the same time as the Vaccaei, a powerful group from the western Meseta. This has led some historians to suggest that the Arevaci were a branch of the Vaccaei, which may explain their name, meaning "Are-Vaccei" or "eastern Vacceians." However, the Roman writer Pliny the Elder offered another explanation, stating that the Arevaci were called Celtiberi Arevaci by the Romans. He believed their name came from the Areva River (also called Araviana), meaning "those who live near the Areva" or "those who live on the Areva."

Location

The main area of the Arevaci homeland included the modern provinces of Soria and most of Guadalajara up to the sources of the Tagus River. It also reached the eastern part of Segovia and the southeastern part of Burgos. For a time, they controlled parts of the nearby Zaragoza province. They established or took control of several important city-states (Civitates) in northern Celtiberia, including:

• Clunia (located in Burgos, near Alto del Cuerno or Coruña del Conde; Celtiberian name: Kolounioku),
• Voluce/Veluka (near Calatañazor in Soria),
• Uxama Argelae (near Osma in Soria; Celtiberian names: Arcailicos/Uzamuz),
• Termantia (Montejo de Tiermes in Soria), also called Termes or Termesos,
• Savia (possibly in Soria),
• Numantia (Muela de Garray in Soria),
• Segovia.

Other towns mentioned in historical records, such as Ocilis, Comfluenta, Tucris, Lutia, Mallia, Lagni, and Colenda, have not yet been identified.

Culture

The Vaccaei and Arevaci shared a social structure based on group cooperation, which helped the Vaccaei use the wheat- and grass-growing areas of the western plateau effectively. However, archaeological findings suggest that the Arevaci mainly raised livestock, moving their animals seasonally between the lowlands of the upper Ebro valley and higher areas. They raised sheep (primarily for wool), horses, and oxen, as shown by a tax of thirty talents demanded by Roman Consul Quintus Aulus Pompeius in 139 BC. The Numantines and Termantines paid this tax with 3,000 ox hides, 800 horses, and 9,000 woolen cloaks, even though they were unwilling to do so.

The Arevaci practiced a funeral custom in which the bodies of warriors killed in battle were left exposed to vultures. This practice is described by Silius Italicus and Claudius Aelianus and is also supported by evidence from funerary stones and painted pottery found in Numantia.

History

The Arevaci were considered by the Greeks and Romans to be the most warlike group in the eastern Meseta region of the Iberian Peninsula. According to the historian Herodotus, the Arevaci joined the migrations of the Celtici people in the 5th century BC, traveling with groups from the Lusones and Vaccaei tribes to settle in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. However, between the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, the Arevaci changed their expansion direction, moving east toward the upper Duero River and south into the central Iberian system mountains. There, they pushed out the Pellendones people, conquered the towns of Savia and Numantia, and brought the Uraci people under their control. This allowed the Arevaci to take control of key towns, including Aregrada (Ágreda – Soria), Cortona (Medinaceli – Soria), Segontia (Sigüenza – Guadalajara), and Arcobriga (Monreal de Ariza – Zaragoza).

Around the mid-3rd century BC, the Arevaci formed a tribal alliance with the Lusones, Belli, and Titii peoples, creating a group known as the Celtiberian confederacy, with Numantia as its capital. During the Second Punic War, the confederacy remained neutral, though some Celtiberian mercenaries fought for both Roman and Carthaginian forces. The first Roman attack on the Celtiberian heartland occurred in 195 BC under the Roman general Cato the Elder, who failed to capture the towns of Seguntia Celtiberorum and Numantia.

The Arevaci and Belli tribes rebelled against Roman rule during the Celtiberian War. After the fall of Numantia in 134–133 BC, the Romans dissolved the Celtiberian confederacy and allowed the Pellendones and Uraci people to regain independence from the Arevaci. The Arevaci were then incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Citerior. Despite this, the Arevaci cities retained much of their military strength and, led by Clunia and Termantia, helped defend Celtiberia from invasions by the Lusitani in 114 BC and the Cimbri, who came from the Pyrenees around 104–103 BC. Encouraged by these successes and frustrated by the lack of Roman recognition, the Arevaci began plotting against Roman rule, sparking uprisings with their Celtiberian neighbors between 99 and 81 BC. These rebellions were crushed by the Roman general Titus Didius between 93 and 92 BC, and the Arevaci suffered the destruction of their new capital, Termantia, and the city of Colenda around 98–94 BC.

Even after being incorporated into Hispania Citerior in 93 BC, the Arevaci remained distrustful of Rome. During the Sertorian Wars, the Arevaci supported Quintus Sertorius, a Roman general, and provided troops to his army. Towns like Clunia, Uxama, and Segontia Lanka resisted Roman forces for years after Sertorius was killed. The Arevaci continued to oppose Roman efforts to integrate and assimilate them for decades, a situation worsened by unfair taxation, which led to occasional violence well into the late 1st century BC.

In 29 BC, the Arevaci contributed a cavalry unit (the Ala Hispanorum Aravacorum) to fight alongside Roman legions during the first Astur-Cantabrian War. However, heavy taxation caused a revolt in the Termes region in 25 BC, leading to the ambush and assassination of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, a Roman official.