Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Popularis politician of the 2nd century BC, together with Gaius Gracchus, one of the Gracchi brothers. As a plebeian tribune, he caused turmoil in the Republic with his reforms of agrarian legislation that sought to transfer wealth from the wealthy and otherwise. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy and he was murdered, along with many of his supporters, by members of the Roman Senate and supporters of the conservative Optimate faction. Tiberius was born between 168 and 163 BC, he was the son of Tiberius Gracchus the Elder and Cornelia Africana and his family, the Gracchi branch of the gens Sempronia, was one of the most politically connected in Rome. Tiberius was raised by his mother, with his sister and his brother Gaius Gracchus, he married Claudia Pulchra, daughter of Appius Claudius Pulcher. Tiberius military career started in the Third Punic War, as military tribune appointed to the staff of his brother in law, during his tenure as military tribune under Aemilianus, Tiberius became known for his bravery and discipline, recorded as the first to scale the enemy walls.
In 137 BC he was appointed quaestor to consul Gaius Hostilius Mancinus, Tiberius, as quaestor, saved the army from destruction by signing a peace treaty with the Numantines, an action generally reserved for a Legate. In the negotiations, Tiberius recalled the exploits of his father Tiberius, however, refused to take anything else save some incense used for sacrificial rituals. The people voted to have Mancinus sent back to the Numantines in chains, romes internal political situation was not peaceful. In the last hundred years, there had been several wars, since legionaries were required to serve in a complete campaign, no matter how long it was, soldiers often left their farms in the hands of wives and children. Small farms in this often went bankrupt and were bought up by the wealthy upper class. Furthermore, some ended up being taken by the state in war. After the war was over, much of this land would be sold to or rented to various members of the populace. Much of this land was given to only a few farmers who had large amounts of land that were more profitable than the smaller farms, the farmers with large farms had their land worked by slaves and did not do the work themselves, unlike landowners with smaller farms.
When the soldiers returned from the legions, they had nowhere to go, as only men who owned property were allowed to enroll in the army, the number of men eligible for army duty was therefore shrinking, and hence the military power of Rome. In 133 BC Tiberius was elected tribune of the people, soon he started to legislate on the matter of the homeless legionaries. Speaking before a crowd at the Rostra, Tiberius said, The wild beasts that roam over Italy have their dens, each has a place of repose and refuge. But the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy nothing but the air and light, without house or home they wander about with their wives, seeking to improve the lot of the poor, Tiberius Gracchus proposed a law known as Lex Sempronia Agraria
Douro
The Douro is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto. The Latinized name Durius, likely came from the Celtic tribes that inhabited the area before Roman times, in modern Welsh, dŵr is water, as well as dour in modern Breton with cognate dobhar in Irish. In Roman times, the river was personified as a god, the Douro vinhateiro, an area of the Douro Valley in Portugal long devoted to vineyards, has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Traditionally, the wine was taken down river in boats called rabelos, to be stored in barrels in cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia. In the 1950s and 1960s, dams were built along the river, now Port wine is transported in tanker trucks. In 1998, Portugal and Spain signed the Albufeira Convention, an agreement on the sharing of trans-boundary rivers to include the Douro, the convention superseded an original agreement on the Douro, signed in 1927, that was expanded in 1964 and 1968 to include tributaries.
It is the third-longest river in the Iberian Peninsula after the Tagus and its total length is 897 kilometres, of which only sections of the Portuguese extension below the fall line are navigable, by light rivercraft. In this region, there are few tributaries of the Douro, the most important are the Pisuerga, passing through Valladolid, and the Esla, which passes through Zamora. This region is generally semi-arid plains, with wheat and in places, especially near Aranda de Duero, with vineyards. Sheep rearing is still important. For 112 kilometres, the forms part of the national border line between Spain and Portugal, in a region of narrow canyons. It formed a barrier to invasions, creating a cultural/linguistic divide. In these isolated areas, in which the Aldeadávila Dam impounds the river, there are protected areas, the International Douro Natural Park and the Arribes del Duero Natural Park. The Douro fully enters Portuguese territory just after the confluence with the Águeda River, once the Douro enters Portugal, except for Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia at the river mouth, the only population centres of any note are Foz do Tua, Pinhão and Peso da Régua.
Tributaries here are small, merging into the Douro along the canyons, the most important are Côa, Sabor, Tavora, Paiva, Tâmega, none of these small, fast-flowing rivers is navigable. The most populous cities along the Douro River are Valladolid and Zamora in Spain, the latter two are located at the mouth of the Douro at the Atlantic Ocean. In Portugal, the Douro flows through the districts of Bragança, Viseu, Vila Real, Porto is the main hub city in northern Portugal. Its historic centre has designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its significant architecture
Vettones
The Vettones were a pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula of possibly Celtic ethnicity. Under a controversial interpretation, John T. Koch has proposed a western Hispano-Celtic classification for the Vettones, a Celtiberian origin has been claimed. Organized since the 3rd Century BC, the Vettones formed a confederacy of undetermined strength. Even though their names are obscure, the study of local epigraphic evidence has identified the Calontienses, Coerenses and Bletonesii. These are one of their most notable enduring legacies today, the other possibly being the game of Calva, other probable Vettonian towns were Tamusia, Ocelon/Ocelum and Lancia. Traditional allies of the Lusitani, the Vettones helped the latter in their struggle against the advancing Carthaginians led by Hasdrubal the Fair, at first placed under nominal Punic suzerainty by the time of the Second Punic War, the Vettones threw off their yoke soon after 206 BC. Crushed by the provincial propraetor Julius Caesar in 61 BC, they rose in support of Pompeys faction.
The Vettones are not to be confused with the Vettonenses, inhabitants of Vettona in Umbria. A, Álvarez-Sanchís, Los vettones, Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid ISBN9788495983169 Jesús R. The Romanization of Central Spain, Complexity and Change in a Provincial Hinterland, ludwig Heinrich Dyck, The Roman Barbarian Wars, The Era of Roman Conquest, Author Solutions ISBNs 1426981821,9781426981821 John T. Koch, Celtic Culture, A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO Inc. Santa Barbara, California ISBN 1-85109-440-7, 1-85109-445-8 Mapa del territorio vettón Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia
Numantia
Numantia was an ancient Celtiberian settlement, whose remains are located 7 km north of the city of Soria, on a hill known as Cerro de la Muela in the municipality of Garray. Numantia is famous for its role in the Celtiberian Wars, in the year 153 BC Numantia experienced its first serious conflict with Rome. After 20 years of hostilities, in the year 133 BC the Roman Senate gave Scipio Aemilianus Africanus the task of destroying Numantia and he laid siege to the city, erecting a nine kilometre fence supported by towers, impaling rods and so on. After 13 months of siege, the Numantians decided to burn the city and die free rather than live, the nearest settlement to the ruins of Numantia is the village of Garray in the province of Soria. Garray has grown up next to a bridge across the Duero and it is only a few miles from the small city of Soria, capital of the eponymous province. Numantia was an Iron Age hill fort, which controlled a crossing of the river Duero, pliny the Elder counts it as a city of the Pellendones, but other authors, like Strabo and Ptolemy place it among the Arevaci people.
The Arevaci were a Celtiberian tribe, formed by the mingling of Iberians and migrating Celts in the 6th century BC, the first serious conflict with Rome occurred in 153 BC when Quintus Fulvius Nobilior was consul. Numantia took in some fugitives from the city of Segeda, who belonged to another Celtiberian tribe called the Belli, the leader of the Belli, Carus of Segeda, managed to defeat a Roman army. The Romans besieged Numantia, and deployed a number of war elephants. Before their defeat in 133 BC, the Numantians gained a number of victories, for example, in 137 BC,20,000 Romans surrendered to the Celtiberians of Numantia. The young Roman officer Tiberius Gracchus, as quaestor, saved the Roman army from destruction by signing a treaty with the Numantines. The final siege of Numantia began in the year 134 BC, Scipio Aemilianus, who was a Roman consul at that time, was in command of an army of 30,000 soldiers. His troops constructed a number of surrounding the city as they prepared for a long siege.
Resistance was hopeless but the Numantians refused to surrender and famine spread through the city. After eight months most of the decided to commit suicide rather than become slaves. Only a few hundred of the inhabitants and famished, surrendered to the victorious Roman legions, the expression may be used to indicate any desperate, suicidal last ditch stand resistance to invading forces. After the destruction, there are remains of occupation in the 1st century BC, with a street plan. Its decay starts in the 3rd century, but with Roman remains still from the 4th century, remains from the 6th century hint of a Visigoth occupation
Roman Senate
The Roman Senate was a political institution in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, during the days of the kingdom, it was little more than an advisory council to the king. The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was following a coup détat led by Lucius Junius Brutus. During the early Republic, the Senate was politically weak, while the executive magistrates were quite powerful, since the transition from monarchy to constitutional rule was most likely gradual, it took several generations before the Senate was able to assert itself over the executive magistrates. By the middle Republic, the Senate had reached the apex of its republican power, the late Republic saw a decline in the Senates power, which began following the reforms of the tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. After the transition of the Republic into the Principate, the Senate lost much of its power as well as its prestige. Following the constitutional reforms of the Emperor Diocletian, the Senate became politically irrelevant, when the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the Senate was reduced to a municipal body.
This decline in status was reinforced when the emperor Constantine the Great created an additional senate in Constantinople, the Senate in Rome ultimately disappeared at some point after AD603, although the title senator was still used well into the Middle Ages as a largely meaningless honorific. However, the Eastern Senate survived in Constantinople, until the ancient institution finally vanished there c. 14th century, the senate was a political institution in the ancient Roman kingdom. The word senate derives from the Latin word senex, which means old man, the early Roman family was called a gens or clan, and each clan was an aggregation of families under a common living male patriarch, called a pater. When the early Roman gentes were aggregating to form a common community, over time, the patres came to recognize the need for a single leader, and so they elected a king, and vested in him their sovereign power. When the king died, that power naturally reverted to the patres. The senate is said to have created by Romes first king, Romulus.
The descendants of those 100 men subsequently became the patrician class, Romes fifth king, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, chose a further 100 senators. They were chosen from the leading families, and were accordingly called the patres minorum gentium. Romes seventh and final king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, executed many of the men in the senate. During the years of the monarchy, the senates most important function was to new kings. While the king was elected by the people, it was actually the senate who chose each new king
Appian
Appian of Alexandria was a Roman historian of Greek origin who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan and Antoninus Pius. He was born c.95 in Alexandria, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Aegyptus, he went to Rome c. Because the position of procurator was open only to members of the equestrian order and his principal surviving work was written in Greek in 24 books, before 165. This work more closely resembles a series of monographs than a connected history and it gives an account of various peoples and countries from the earliest times down to their incorporation into the Roman Empire, and survives in complete books and considerable fragments. The work is valuable, especially for the period of the civil wars. The Civil Wars, five of the books in the corpus, concern mainly the end of the Roman Republic. Little is known of the life of Appian of Alexandria and he wrote an autobiography that has been almost completely lost. Information about Appian is distilled from his own writings and a letter by his friend Cornelius Fronto, however, it is certain that Appian was born around the year AD95 in Alexandria, the capital of Roman Egypt.
Since his parents were Roman citizens capable of paying for their son’s education and it is believed that Appian moved to Rome in 120, where he became a barrister. In the introduction to his Roman History, he boasts “that he pleaded cases in Rome before the emperors. ”The emperors he claims to have addressed must have been either Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius and definitely Antoninus Pius, for Appian remained in Egypt at least until the end of the reign of Trajan. In the letter of Cornelius Fronto, it is revealed that a request on behalf of Appian to receive the rank of procurator occurred during the co-regency between 147 and 161, although Appian won this office, it is unclear whether it was a real job or an honorific title. The only other certain biographical datum is that Appians Roman History appeared sometime before 162 and this is one of the few primary historical sources for the period. Appian began writing his history around the middle of the second century AD, only sections from half of the original 24 books survive today.
The most important remnants of Appians work are the five books on the Civil Wars—books 13-17 of the Roman History, especially notable is this works ethnographic structure. Appian most likely used this structure to facilitate his readers orientation through the sequence of events, a literary example of this can be found from Appian’s Civil Wars. One might expect that a work covering nine centuries and countless different peoples would involve a multitude of testimonials from different periods. However, Appians sources remain uncertain, as he mentions the source of his information under special circumstances. He may have relied primarily on one author for each book, at our present state of knowledge questions regarding Appian’s sources cannot be solved
Spain
By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem.
This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula.
The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
Ancient Rome
In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, politics, art, architecture, warfare, religion and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires.
Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent and unwanted.
This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid
Ebro
The Ebro or Ebre is one of the most important rivers on the Iberian Peninsula. It is the second longest river in the Iberian peninsula after the Tagus, the source of the river Ebro is in Fontibre, from the Latin words Fontes Iberis, source of the Ebro. Close by is the big artificial lake Embalse del Ebro created by the damming of the river, the upper Ebro rushes through rocky gorges in Burgos Province. Karst geological processes shaped the landscape of layers of carbonate rock of extensive limestone bedrock formed in an ancient seabed. Aragonite, a named for Aragon, attests to the fact that carbonates are abundant in the central Ebro Valley. The valley expands and the Ebros flow becomes slower as its volume increases. There, larger tributaries flowing from the Central Pyrenees and the Iberian System discharge large amounts of water, as it flows through Zaragoza the Ebro, is already a sizeable river. There, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar stands next to the Ebro, the soils in most of the valley are primarily poor soils, pebbly and sometimes salted with saltwater endorheic lagoons.
The semi-arid interior of the Ebro Valley has either drought summers and it is covered with chaparral vegetation. Summers are hot and winters are cold, the dry summer season has temperatures of more than 35 °C, occasionally reaching over 40 °C. In winter, the temperatures drop below 0 °C. In some areas the vegetation depends heavily on moisture produced by condensation fogs and it is a continental Mediterranean climate with extreme temperatures. There are many ground frosts on clear nights, and sporadic snowfalls, the biomes are diverse in these Mediterranean climate zones, Mediterranean forests and scrub. Hinterlands are particularly distinctive on account of extensive sclerophyll shrublands known as maquis, the dominant species are Quercus coccifera and Quercus ilex. These trees form monospecific communities or communities integrated with Pinus, Mediterranean buckthorns, Chamaerops humilis, Pistacia, Thymus, etc. The mountain vegetation is mostly coniferous forests that are drought adapted and their presence is related to the marine origin of the Ebro valley and the extensive marine deposits in the same area.
After reaching Catalonia, the Ebro Valley narrows, and the river becomes constrained by mountain ranges, massive dams have been built in this area, such as the dams at Mequinenza, Riba-roja, Flix. In the final section of its course the river bends southwards, the massive calcareous cliffs of the Serra de Cardó range constrain the river during this last stretch, separating the Ebro Valley from the Mediterranean coastal area
Celtiberians
The Celtiberians were a group of Celts inhabiting the central-eastern Iberian Peninsula during the final centuries BC. They were explicitely mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors and these tribes spoke the Celtiberian language and wrote it by adapting the Iberian alphabet. Archaeologically, many elements link Celtiberians with Celts in Central Europe, there is no complete agreement on the exact definition of Celtiberians among classical authors, nor modern scholars. The Ebro river clearly divides the Celtiberian areas from non-Indoeuropean speaking peoples, on the other directions, the demarcation is less clear. Most scholars include the Arevaci, Belli and Lusones as Celtiberian tribes, strabo just saw the Celtiberians as a branch of the Celti. Settlements of circular huts survived until Roman times across the north of Iberia, from Northern Portugal and Galicia through Cantabria and northern Leon to the Ebro River. Celtic presence in Iberia likely dates to as early as the 6th century BC, archaeological finds identify the culture as continuous with the culture reported by Classical writers from the late 3rd century onwards.
There, when Greek and Roman geographers and historians encountered them, the dominant tribe were the Arevaci, who dominated their neighbors from powerful strongholds at Okilis and who rallied the long Celtiberian resistance to Rome. Other Celtiberians were the Belli and Titti in the Jalón valley, many late Celtiberian oppida are still occupied by modern towns, inhibiting archaeology. Metalwork stands out in Celtiberian archaeological finds, partly from its nature, emphasizing Celtiberian articles of warlike uses, horse trappings. The two-edged sword adopted by the Romans was previously in use among the Celtiberians, and Latin lancea, Celtiberian culture was increasingly influenced by Rome in the two final centuries BC. These civitates as the Roman historians called them, could make and break alliances, as surviving inscribed hospitality pacts attest, the old clan structures lasted in the formation of the Celtiberian armies, organized along clan-structure lines, with consequent losses of strategic and tactical control.
The Celtiberians were the most influential group in Iberia when the Mediterranean powers started its conquest. In 220 BC, the Punic army was attacked when preparing to cross the Tagus river by a coalition of Vaccei and Olcades. After the conflict, Rome took possession of the Punic empire in Spain, tiberius Sempronius Gracchus spent the years 182 to 179 pacifying the Celtiberians, conflicts between various semi-independent bands of Celtiberians continued. The Sertorian War,80 –72 BC, marked the last formal resistance of the Celtiberian cities to Roman domination, the Celtiberian presence remains on the map of Spain in hundreds of Celtic place-names. The archaeological recovery of Celtiberian culture commenced with the excavations of Numantia, a Roman army auxiliary unit, the Cohors I Celtiberorum, is known from Britain, attested by 2nd century AD discharge diplomas. Center for Celtic Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,6, The Celts in the Iberian Peninsula, 571–605
Consul
Consul was the title of one of the chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently a somewhat significant title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other city states and revived in modern states. The relating adjective is consular, from the consularis, in modern terminology, a consul is a type of diplomat. The American Heritage Dictionary defines consul as an appointed by a government to reside in a foreign country. Throughout most of southern France, a consul was an equivalent to the échevins of the north. The most prominent were those of Bordeaux and Toulouse, which came to be known as jurats and capitouls, the capitouls of Toulouse were granted transmittable nobility. In many other towns the first consul, was the equivalent of a mayor today, assisted by a variable number of secondary consuls. His main task was to levy and collect tax, the Dukes of Gaeta often used the title of consul in its Greek form Hypatos. The city-state of Genoa, unlike ancient Rome, bestowed the title of consul on various state officials, among these were Genoese officials stationed in various Mediterranean ports, whose role included helping Genoese merchants and sailors in difficulties with the local authorities.
This institution, with its name, was emulated by other powers and is reflected in the modern usage of the word. In reality, the first consul, dominated his two colleagues and held power, soon making himself consul for life and eventually, in 1804. Chief magistrate, an office held for four months by one of the consuls. As noted above, Bologna already had consuls at some parts of its Medieval history, while many cities had a double-headed chief magistracy, often another title was used, such as Duumvir or native styles such as Meddix, but consul was used in some. It was not uncommon for an organization under Roman private law to copy the terminology of state, the founding statute, or contract, of such an organisation was called lex, law. The people elected each year were patricians, members of the upper class. org, see each present country
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