Celtic Spain-- Celtiberia-- was a center of resistance against Rome. The town of Numantia on the Duero river was a core of rebel activities. The Arevaci tribe had developed Numantia into a formidable hillfort of about fifty acres, situated on a ridge surrounded by a forest and two ravines through which two rapid rivers flowed. It was fortified with ditches and ramparts, a wood and stone stockade. For twenty years, the Romans were unable to take the town of between four and eight thousand people. The Roman soldiers stationed in Iberia were demoralized. Their famous discipline broke down and they began to rely on auguries for any signs of victory. Prostitutes had range of the camps; order within the rank and file was collapsing. Rome sent its best general, along with sixty thousand troops from outside of the area, to quell the rebelion and restore confidence among the troops. Scipio Aemilianus, also called Africanus Minor, expelled the fortunetellers, traders and prostitutes from the camps, and identified Numantia as an important center of rebel activity. Planning a siege, he instructed his troops to plunder the fields around the town. He had them store what was immediately needed by the Romans and to burn the rest. Then he had his men build seven forts around the hill with a ditch and wall joining them. Behind this there was a palisade and ditch. The Numantines were still receiving supplies via the Duero River. Scipio had two towers erected, one on either side of the river, and a log studded with knives and other sharp objects strung between them so that it bobbed in the water and could be raised or lowered by men in the towers. This put an end to the supply route. Rhetogenes, one of Numantia’s leading warriors, went for help. In the middle of the night, he and his party put ladders against the Roman walls and sped to their relations, the Areveci, for help. The Arevaci were afraid of Rome and refused to assist them. So Rhetogenes and his party went on to Lutia. The young men of Lutia were eager to help, but the older people doubted the wisdom of this and informed the Romans of the plan. Scipio left Numantia and surrounded Lutia. He demanded that the four hundred young men of the town come out to meet him, then had their hands cut off so they couldn’t help the Numantines. Then he and his men went back to the siege. Avarus, the leader of Numantia, and his envoys approached Scipio with the Numantine terms. But Scipio would have nothing less than unconditional surrender. His mission a failure, Avarus and his envoys returned to Numantia. But the people of Numantia suspected trickery on the part of the diplomatic mission, believing that they had made a private deal with the Romans, and killed them all. Conditions worsened in Numantia. Their food was gone and they resorted to canabalism. The town was surrendered at last, but many of the population preferred suicide to becoming slaves of Rome. Of the ones who were left, Scipio took fifty of the best warriors and sold the rest into slavery. Then he had the town burned and razed. The siege lasted sixteen months and was the decisive blow to organized Celtiberian resistance. It took Rome’s best general at the time and sixty thousand troops whose morale had not been affected to defeat a town of less than ten thousand. The year 133 BC is generally considered to be the end of the Spanish insurrection. Ceridwen.
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