the same historian, was the origin of the Celtiberi in Spain. BOOK These warlike people, continues Diodorus, were equally cxxxvii. formidable as cavalry and infantry, for when the horse had broken the enemy's ranks, the men dismounted and fought on foot. Their dress consisted of a sagum or coarse woollen mantle; they wore greaves made of hair, an iron helmet adorned with a red feather, a round buckler and a broad two-edged sword of so fine a temper as to pierce through the enemy's armour. Although they boasted of cleanliness both in their nourishment and in their dress, it was not unusual for them to wash their teeth and bodies with urine, a custom which they considered favourable to health. Their habitual drink was a sort of hydromel; wine was brought into the country by foreign merchants. The land was equally distributed, and the harvests were divided among all the citizens; the law punished with death the person who appropriated more than his just share. They were hospitable, nay, they considered it a special favour to entertain a stranger; being convinced that the presence of a foreigner called down the protection of the gods on the family that received him. They sacrificed human victims to their divinities, and the priests pretended to read future events in the palpitating entrails.* At every full moon, says Strabo, they celebrated the festival of a god without a name; from this circumstance, their religion has been considered a corrupt deism.

colonies.

The Phenicians were the first people who established co- Earliest lonies on the coasts of Spain; Tartessus was perhaps the most ancient; at a later period, they founded Gades, now Cadiz on the isle of Leon. They carried on there a very lucrative trade, in as much as it was unknown to other nations; but in time, the Rhodians, the Samians, the Phocians and other Greeks established factories on different parts of the coast.

Carthage had been founded by the Phenicians; but the inhabitants, regardless of their connexion with that people, took possession of the Phenician stations, and conquered the whole of maritime Spain. The government of these

* Diodorus, Book V. ch. 31.

BOOK

CXXXVII.

Spain, a

Roman

republicans was still less supportable; the Carthaginians were unable to form any friendly intercourse with the Spaniards in the interior; their rapine and cruelty excited the indignation of the natives.

The ruin of Carthage paved the way to new invaders, and province. Spain was considered a Roman province two centuries before the Christian era. Those who had been the allies, became the masters of the Spaniards, and the manners, customs and even language of the conquerors were introduced into the Peninsula. But Rome paid dear for her conquest; the north or the present Old Castille, Arragon and Catalonia were constantly in a state of revolt; the mountaineers shook off the yoke, and it was not before the reign of Augustus that the country was wholly subdued. The Peninsula was then divided into three provinces, Lusitania, Betica and Tarraconensis.

Lusitania.

Betica.

Tarraconensis.

Inhabit

ants of Lusitania.

The Lusitanian province or the western region was separated on the north from Tarraconensis by the Duero, above its confluence with the Tormes; the two most eastern points within its limits were Libora on the Tagus, and Augustobriga. The course of the Guadiana served as a boundary from the mountains of Toledo to the Mediterranean. Thus, it comprehended the greater part of Portugal, and all Estremadura. Emerita Augusta, the present Merida, was the capital of the province.

Betica was separated from Lusitania by the Guadiana, and from Tarraconensis by a line extending from the neighbourhood of Civdad-Real to the Rio-Almanzar; it formed the most southern portion of the Peninsula; Corduba was its capital.

All the rest of Spain was included in the province of Tarraconensis; Galloecia on the north-west, now Gallicia, Carthaginensis, now the kingdom of Murcia, and the Balearic islands were contained in it.

The same province was also called Hispania Citerior, while the two others formed Hispania Ulterior.

The province of Lusitania was partly peopled by the Cynetes or Cinesii, the earliest inhabitants of Algarve. The Celtisi or Celtes-Glebas possessed the land between the Guadiana and the Tagus. The country round the mountains of

Gredos belonged to the Vettones, a people that passed from a BOOK state of inactivity and repose to the vicissitudes and hard- cxxxvII. ships of war. The Lusitani, a nation of freebooters, were settled in the middle of Estremadura, they were distinguished by their activity and patience of fatigue; their food was flour and sweet acorns, beer was their common beverage. They were swift in the race; they had a martial dance, which the men danced, while they advanced to battle.*

ants of Be

The part of Betica near the Mediterranean, was peopled Inhabitby the Bastuli or, as they were also called, the Poni. The tica. Turduli inhabited the shores of the ocean, near the mouths of the Botis. The Boturi dwelt on the Mariani mountains, and the Turdetani inhabited the southern declivities of the Sierra d'Aracena. The last people, more enlightened than any other in Betica, were skilled in different kinds of industry long before their neighbours. When the Phenicians arrived on their coast, silver was so common amongst them, that their ordinary utensils were made of it. What was afterwards done by the Spaniards in America, was then done by the Phenicians in Spain, they exchanged iron and other articles of little value for silver; nay, if ancient authors can be credited, they not only loaded their ships with the same metal, but if their anchors at any time gave way, others of silver were used in their place.

ants of

The people in Gallaecia, a subdivision of Tarraconensis, Inhabitwere the Artabri, who derived their name from Cape Arta- Tarraconbrum, now Cape Finistere, the Bracari, whose chief town ensis. was Bracara, the present Braga, and lastly the Lucences, Lugo was the capital of their country. These tribes and some others formed the nation of the Calaici or Gallæci, who, according to the ancients, had no religious notions. The Asturi, now the Asturians, inhabited the banks of the Asturis or the country on the east of the Gallœcian mountains. Asturica Augusta was their capital. The Vacceï, the least barbarous of the Celtiberians, cultivated the country on the east of the Asturi. The fierce Cantabri occupied the coasts of old Castille; it was customary for two to mount

Strabo, Book III. chap. 3.

BOOK CXXXVII.

Manners of the ancient Spaniards.

on the same horse, when they went to battle. The Carites or Caristi inhabited part of Biscay on the same declivities of the Pyrences; on the southern sides, the Turmodiges and the Murbogii were settled in the province of Burgos. Their neighbours on the east, were the Autrigones in Alava, the Berones in Rioja, and the Varduli in Guipuscoa. The Vascones or Navarrenses, the ancestors of the present Gascons, were settled on the north of the Ebro. The Jaccetani were scattered on the Pyrenean declivities of Arragon. The brave Ilergetes resided in the country round Lerida, and the Vescitani, between the Vascones and Ilergetes. As to the country on the east of these tribes, the whole of Catalonia was peopled by the Cerretani, Indigetes, Castellani, the Ausetani, Saletani and Cosetani. The lands on the south of the Ebro were inhabited by the Arevaci and Pelendones, the former were so called from the river Areva; they were settled in the neighbourhood of Arevola, and in the province of Segovia; the latter possessed the high plains of Soria and Moncayo. The space between the mountains of Albarracino and the river, was peopled by the Edetani, one of the most powerful tribes in Spain. The Ilercavones, who were not less formidable, inhabited an extensive district between the Upper Jucar and the lower Ebro. The territory of the Suessetani, between the Ebro and the Guadalaviar, extended to the shores of the Mediterranean. The country of the Carpetani, or the space from the Guadiana to the Somo-Sierra, forms at present the archiepiscopal see of Toledo. The people on the south of the last, were the Oretani, between the Guadiana and the Mariani mountains, and the Olcades, a small tribe, near the confluence of the Gabriel and the Jucar. Carthaginensis, a subdivision of Tarraconensis, was inhabited by two tribes;-the Bastetani in the centre of Murcia, who often made incursions into Betica, and the Contestani, who possessed the two banks of the Segura, near the shores of the Mediterranean from Cape Palos to the Jucar.

In time of peace, says Diodorus Siculus, the Iberi and Lusitani amused themselves in a lively and light dance, which requires much activity. The ancient writer alludes perhaps to the fandango, a dance of which the origin is un

known.

An assembly, composed of old Celtiberians was BOOK held every year, it was part of their duty to examine what CXXXVII. the women had made with their own hands within the twelvemonth, and to her, whose work the assembly thought the best, a reward was given. An ancient author* mentions that singuar custom, and adds that corpulency was considered a reproach by the same people; for in order to preserve their bodies light and active, the men were measured every year by a cincture of a certain breadth, and some sort of punishment was inflicted on those who had become too large. The age of marriage was fixed by law; the girls chose their husbands among the young warriors, and the best means of obtaining the preference, was to present the fair one with the head of an enemy slain in battle.

Strabo enters into some details concerning the dress of the ancient Spaniards. The Lusitani covered themselves with black mantles, because their sheep were mostly of that colour. The Celtiberian women wore iron collars with rods of the same metal rising behind, and bent in front; to these rods was attached the veil, their usual ornament. Others wore a sort of broad turban, and some twisted their hair round a small ring about a foot above the head, and from the ring was appended a black veil. Lastly, a shining forehead was considered a great beauty; on that account, they pulled out their hair, and rubbed their brows with oil.t

Dress.

the middle

The different tribes were confounded while the Romans Spain in oppressed the country, but in the beginning of the fifth ages. century, the Sueves, Vandals and Visigoths invaded the Peninsula, and mixing with the Celts and Iberians, produced the different races, which the physiologist still observes in Spain. The first people or the Sueves descended the Duero under the conduct of Ermeric, and chose Braga for the capital of their kingdom. Genseric led his Vandals to the centre of the Peninsula, and fixed his residence at Toledo; but fifteen years had not elapsed after the settlement of the barbarous horde, when Theodoric, con

Nicholas of Damas. See his fragments collected by Constantine Porphyro

genetes.

+ Strabo, Book III. ch. 2 and 3.