Vacceos

The Vacceos were an ancient tribe who settled in the Meseta Central of northern Hispania (in modern Spain). According to Diodorus Siculus, they were the most cultured group of the Celtiberians, and Silius Italicus would define them as merchants and businessmen. Their existence is proved at least from the third century BC. Polybius relates, although he wasn't an eyewitness, the taking of the Vaccean cities of Helmántica (Salamanca) and Arbucala (Zamora) by Hannibal in 220 BC.

When the Vacceos are considered a part of the Celtiberian people group, one has to look for their origen pre-existing ibero-ligur indigenous substratum. In this account, the Vaccean civilization was the result of the a process of local evolution, importing elements from other cultures, whether by new additions of people or contacts with neighboring groups. Other, more recent theories have suggested that the Vacceos a Celtic people, that, along with similar groups, arrived in successive waves in the area, becoming the first permanent inhabitants.

In the study of their settlements one finds elements of the Vaccean culture over top of the traces of earlier cultures. For example, at Pincia (modern-day Valladolid), there is evidence of a population from Eneolithic times until the Iron Age, which is to say, the Vaccean period. Such details allows the study of the evolution of human groups and gives ground for the theories on the development of the Vaccean civilization.

The Vaccean civilization extended through the center of the Meseta, along both banks of the Douro River. Although its frontiers are difficult to pin down and shifted from time to time, it can be said to have occupied all of the province of Valladolid, and parts of León, Palencia, Burgos, Segovia, Ávila, Salamanca y Zamora. At the time of the arrival of the Romans, the Cea and Esla rivers separated the Vacceos from the Astures in the northeast, while the line traced between the Esla and the Pisuerga rivers was the border with the Cantabri. To the east, the Pisuerga and Arlanza rivers marked the frontier with the Turmogos, and a little farther south, the Arévacos were their neighbors and allies. On the south and southeast lay the Vettones in an area that is difficult to pin down. It is probable that there was contact with the Lusitanians to the west of Zamora.