Rediscovering the Roman Conquest of the North-western Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

In ancient times, different ethnic groups inhabited the north-western area of the Iberian Peninsula, symbolically delimited in the south by the river Douro and in the east by the course of the Esla and/ or Cea. The arrival of Roman power implied their integration and generic grouping into three conuentus, those called after the Callaeci Lucenses (northwest), the Callaeci Bracarenses (southwest), and the Astures (east). The absorption of these territories into the Roman world has been commonly linked with certain conquest episodes, which have largely monopolised the historiographical discourse. However, these traditional approaches were very dependent on Greco-Roman written sources due to the scarcity of archaeological data. The awakening of Roman military archaeology as an autonomous discipline in Spain has forced a transformation of this scenario. Still, to what extent have the existence of new archaeological data changed the way in which we approach to the Roman conquest of these territories?