Bracari

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The Bracari were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, akin to the Calaicians or Gallaeci, living in the northwest of modern Portugal, in the province of Minho, between the rivers Tâmega and Cávado, around the area of the modern city of Braga (the Roman Bracara Augusta).

Appian wrote they were a very warlike people. According to him, The Bracari women warriors fought defending their town "never turning, never never showing their backs, or uttering a cry", preferring death to captivity.

Recent investigation is showing that they spoke a Celtic language, as it can be seen in the inscription dedicated to the goddess Nabia at Braga's Fonte do Ídolo (Portuguese for the Fountain of the Idol), or in the name of their town Tongobriga (in Marco de Canaveses).

The Fonte do Ídolo, in Braga.

At the beginning of the 1st century, the Citânia de Briteiros was their political main hill fort and seat of the "consilium gentis". It is possible that the Celtic Nemetati were an allied tribe of the Bracari, known previously as Kallaikoi.

[edit] References

Coutinhas, José Manuel (2006), Aproximação à identidade etno-cultural dos Callaici Bracari, Porto.
Queiroga, Francisco (1992), War and Castros, Oxford.
Silva, Armando Coelho Ferreira da (1986), A Cultura Castreja, Porto.