Iberian Peninsula at about 200 BC
[2] The Celtici were a Celtic tribe of the Iberian peninsula, akin either to the Lusitanians and Gallaecians or the Celtiberians, living in what today are the provinces of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal, though some migrated north alongside the Turduli. Their presence was the result of a third or even fourth wave of migrations of Celts (or other speakers of Indo-European languages) into Iberia. Their migration most likely occurred in the 4th century BC.
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- Strabo (3, 1, 6) echoed Poseidonius when he mentioned the Keltikoi as the main inhabitants of the region located between the rivers Tagus and Guadiana, approximately where the Alentejo (Portugal) stands today. [1]
The celtici were not considered a barbarian people, on the contrary they were what the greeks considered a civilized people almost in the same degree as the Turdetani.
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- They shared the same "gentle and civilized" character of the Turdetani. Strabo put this down to the fact that they
- were neighbouring populations, and Polybius proposed that they were related, "although the Celtici are less [civilized] because they generally live in hamlets (Str., 3, 2, 15)." [2]
Their main cities were Lacobriga (probably Lagos in the Algarve), Caepiana (in Alentejo), Braetolaeum, Miróbriga (near Santiago do Cacém), Arcobriga, Meribriga, Catraleucus, Turres, Albae and Arandis (near Castro Verde and Ourique).
Map of the main pre-Roman tribes in Portugal and their migrations. Turduli movement in red, Celtici in brown and Lusitanian in blue.
They appear to be the main group responsible for the "celticization" of the Conii, in the Algarve.
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- Their most famous city was Conistorgis (Str., 3, 2, 2), which, according to different sources, belonged to the Cunetes or Conii (App., Iber. 56-60). Similarly, Strabo (3, 2, 15) indicated that the Celtici established colonies, such as Pax Augusta.[3]
The origin of the Baeturian Celts was, according to Pliny, from the Celtici of Lusitania and were also kin to the gallaeci:
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- Celticos a Celtiberis ex Lusitania advenisse manifestum est sacris, lingua, oppidorum vocabulis, quae cognominibus in Baetica distinguntur.[4]
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- The Celtici from Guadiana had blood links with the Galician Celts, since there had been large-scale migration to the northwest of these Celts along with the Turduli (Str., 3, 3, 5).[5]
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- ...[Pliny] appears to regard [Celtici´s Lusitania] the original seat of the whole celtic population of the Iberian peninsula including the celtiberians, on the ground of an identity of sacred rites, language, and names of cities.[6]
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