Germani (Oretania)

The Germani were an obscure pre-Roman ancient people of the Iberian Peninsula which settled around the 4th century BC in western Oretania, an ancient region corresponding to the south of Ciudad Real and the eastern tip of Badajoz provinces in eastern Andalusia.

Origins

Roman authors believed that a people of mixed Belgic and Germanic descent had somehow migrated to the Iberia around the fourth Century BC.[1][2] They also included people of Celtiberian and native Iberian-Tartessian affiliation, and it has been suggested that their language was a form of Proto-Germanic.

Culture

Archeological evidence retrieved from local Iron Age hillforts such as Alarcos (Ciudad Real) and Cerro de las Cabezas confirm that the material culture of the Germani did not differ from their southeastern Iberian neighbours nor the Celtiberians.

Location

Located to the west of the Olcades, they are credited of founding on western Oretania the towns of Mirobriga (near Capilla – Badajoz), their Capital Orissia or Oria, also designated Oretum Germanorum (Cerro Dominguez, near Granátula de Calatrava – Ciudad Real), Gemella Germanorum (Almagro – Ciudad Real), Lacurris (Alarcos – Ciudad Real), Sisapo (La Bienvenida, Almodóvar – Ciudad Real) and Mentesa Oretana (Villanueva de la Fuente – Ciudad Real).

History

Whether the Germani were clients or allies of the wealthy Iberian Oretani people during the 3rd Century BC remains unclear, though they certainly supported the powerful Oretanian King Orison at the battle of Helicen in 228 BC (Helike in the Greek sources, perhaps Elche de la Sierra, Elche or another oretanian city) against the Carthaginians under Hamilcar Barca.[3] Orison’s defeat in 227 BC [4] and its subsequent alliance with Carthage, however, caused a major friction between the Oretani and their Germani allies who continued to resist Punic expansion until being subdued by Hannibal Barca in 221 BC; the latter were certainly amongst the Oretani troops sent to Africa at the outbreak of the 2nd Punic War.

Romanization

The Germani appear to have adopted a less hostile stance towards Rome and in 156 BC they too were included into Hispania Citerior Province, being gradually assimilated by the Oretani though retaining their Celto-Germanic cultural identity for several more centuries.

Notes

  1. ↑ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 3, 29.
  2. ↑ Strabo, Geographika, III, 4, 12.
  3. ↑ Appian, Iberiké, 6
  4. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, 25, 42

References

See also