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Celtiberian Scutarii (Swordsmen)
The Celtiberian Scutarii are a strong, fast moving heavy infantry, fierce and effective swordsmen in both attack and defence.
The Celtiberians were an aristocratic warrior society that inhabited the central-eastern portion of the Spanish Peninsula, and their nations included the Celtiberi, Vaccaei and Carpetani. They were pastoralists, who lived on the periphery of the Mediterranean and Celtic worlds, and were greatly influenced by both; by the third century BC they lived in larger supra-tribal kingdoms centred around fortified towns called oppidum by the Romans. The Celtiberians were very warlike. Cicero (Tusc. 2, 65) claimed that “...the Celtiberians delight in battle and lament if they are ill". Other authors express themselves in similar terms (Val. Max., 2, 6, 11; Sil. Ital. 1, 225, 3, 340-343; Iust., Ep. 44.2; Claud. Elianus 10.22), saying that death in combat was glorious for Celtiberians, and this is shown by the fact that those who fell in combat were rewarded with a specific funerary ritual: the exposure of the corpse to be devoured by the vultures, birds being considered sacred and entrusted with taking the deceased to "The Beyond". The Celtiberian warrior preferred death to losing his freedom, as he showed by committing suicide in practices such as the devotio (Val. Max., 2.6.11; 3.2.7; Sall., in Servio, adGeorg. 4.218; Flor., 1.34.11; Plut., Sert. 14), according to which consecrated warriors could not outlive their chieftain.
Celtiberians valued single combat and the literary sources describe the Celtiberians performing war dances and songs (Sil. Ital., 3, 346-349; Diod., 5, 34, 4; App., Iber. 67). Their purpose would be to embolden the warriors and inspire panic in the enemy. Salustius (2, 92) relates that mothers recounted "the warrior feats of their elders to the men who were preparing for battle or raiding parties, where they sung of their valiant deeds". The war horns of the Numantians (App., Iber. 78), documented archaeologically (Wattenberg 1963, Tables XV-XVI), could be related to these practices. In 151 BC in Intercatia, Lucullus, a native warrior on horseback with resplendent weapons challenged any Roman to single combat. Since none took up his challenge, he ridiculed his enemies, withdrew performing a dance, and continued his taunts until the young Scipio took up the challenge and killed him (App., Iber. 53). A similar episode is recounted by Valerius Maximus (3.2.21) and Livy in 143-142 BC. The protagonists of these duels would have belonged to the social elite. The literary sources refer to the protagonist of the duel with Scipio in Intercatia as rex (Flor. 1.33.11), while Valerius Maximus (3.2.6) uses the term dux.
Diodorus says that the Celtiberians wore black cloaks, probably the woollen sagum. These warriors wear sinew greaves and plumed bronze helmets of the ubiquitous Gallic Montefortino type. The Celtiberian is armed with javelins with long iron heads, reminiscent of the Iberian soliferrum type. The principal weapon of the Celtiberian warrior is the medium-length straight sword, developed locally antenna-hilted swords of the early Celtic Halstatt culture. Celtiberian steel swords had a famous reputation for strength and flexibility.
Celtiberian Scutarii are found throughout the Iberian Peninsula as mercenaries, where they serve the Iberian kings in Spain’s south and east (against Rome in 195; Livy, 34.17; against Carthage in 237, Diod. 25.8-16); they are also found in the employ of Carthage, and later even Roman armies. In 213 BC the Romans in Spain succeeded in "enticing the young Celtiberian soldiers to their side, with the same level of pay these had settled on with the Carthaginians"; Livy asserts this was the first time in a campaign that Rome extensively relied upon mercenaries (Livy, 24.49). In 211 BC the Scipios hired an army of 20,000 Celtiberians; they later deserted and returned home in excahnge for a large gift of money from Hasdrubal Barca (Livy 25.32-34). The Celtiberian prince Allucius, who in 209 thanked Scipio for releasing his betrothed, held hostage in Carthago Nova, by presenting him with 1,400 of his clients' equites (Livy, 26,51,7; Frontinus, str. 2.11.5; Diod. fr. 57.43; Val. Max. 4, 3, 1; Polybius, 19.19). An Indo king with his troops and cavalry was also involved in the wars between Caesar and Pompey's forces in 45 BC (De bell. Hisp. 10). In 207, in order to re-build the Carthaginian field army in Spain, a large Celtiberian contingent of 9,000 was recruited (Livy, 28.1-2). The Carthaginian army defeated at the Great Plains in Africa by Scipio in 206 BC was built around a large contingent of Celtiberians, "... who had come to Africa as hired soldiers..."; they held the centre, and were the only force to hold their ground (Livy 30.8). It is interesting that even after Carthage had lost Spain, they were still able to bring large Celtiberian mercenary forces to serve them in Africa.
During the third and second centuries BC war among the Celtiberians changed from being performed between family groups and neighbouring settlements to a way of resolving conflicts between Celtiberian city-states. The latter, now centres of political and administrative control, were ruled by the most powerful clans, which tried to increase their power and territory by inciting conflicts between neighbouring ethnic groups, as between Segeda and the Titti (App., Iber. 44). To the hospitality pacts between gentiliate clans were added alliances between cities or symmachía, like that reached between Segeda and the Numantians (App., Iber., 45) or between Lutia and Numantia (App., Iber., 94).
Prepared by the RTR History Dept.
Sacred Band (Elite Hoplites)
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....oh BTW what GFX Dev deserves the credit?
Originally Posted by Finn
