4. ATLANTIC IBERIA ------------------- EXTENT Portugal; modern Spanish regions of Galiza, Asturias, Cantabria, Euskadi, Navarra, La Rioja, Castilla y Leon, and Madrid. Note that this is an exceptional regional entry, in that it lacks sections on sources and on introductory works. For these you should see - probably before continuing to read this entry - the entry on the IBERIAN PENINSULA. PERIODISATION AND TERMS The Phoenicians landed at at least some sites in the southwest, and that region (now southern Portugal) was home to one of the many societies now known as "Iberian". In 220 BC Hannibal fought in the Duero valley for CARTHAGE. But by and large this region did not have a protohistoric period: in the mid-first millennium BC it was in the "Iron Age", and most of it had been entered by Celts (though everything about that is somewhat disputed); then in 195 BC ROME intruded, and the region's history proper began. The Romans didn't invade in earnest until the Celtiberi in the northeast and the Lusitani in the southwest started giving them trouble in the 150s BC. By around 138 BC they'd defeated the Lusitani, and the Celtiberi stronghold Numantia fell in 133 BC. But there were invasions of Cimbri and Teutones in 104 BC, and further rebellions for the next seventy years here and there. Finally in 26 BC the Emperor Augustus led a major invasion to conquer the northwestern remainder of the peninsula and incidentally consolidate the rest; the last revolt, by the Cantabri, ended in 19 BC. As with the earlier conquest of MEDITERRANEAN SPAIN, most of the great men of the period - too many to list here - were involved. Up to that time, the region had been split into Hispania citerior and Hispania ulterior, both governed from the Mediterranean side of the peninsula. Around 15 BC, Hispania ulterior was split; the part in this region now belonged to the province Lusitania but was still governed from the other half of the peninsula. Early in the next century, smaller administrative units called , often ancestral to modern boundaries, were established; these included ones based at Pax Julia (Beja), Scallabis (Santarem), and Emerita Augusta (Merida) in Lusitania, and at Clunia (Coruna del Conde), Asturica Augusta (Astorga), Bracara Augusta (Braga), Lucus Augusti (Lugo), Carthago Nova (Cartagena), and Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) in Hispania citerior, which was at some point renamed Tarraconensis. Also in the first century AD, the main army base was set at Legio (Leon), to guard the gold mines nearby. The only widely prominent native was the rhetorician Quintilian, born AD 33 in Calagurris (Calahorra). The gold mines died out after 200, while Christianity spread. The peninsula joined the empire of Postumus in 260. Later, the Franks harried the shores. In 298, the peninsula was reorganised: the new provinces of Gallaecia (governed from Braga and including also the conventi of Lugo and Astorga) and of Carthaginensis (governed from Cartagena) greatly reduced Tarraconensis, and the whole peninsula now had a greater capital at Merida. The conventi became unimportant. In the fourth century AD, this region first became prominent in the empire. Complutum (Alcala de Henares) became rich; great villas appeared in the Duero/Douro valley. Christian writers appeared in numbers, notably the heretic Priscillian, the poet Prudentius and the historian Orosius, and the Christian emperor Theodosius, a native of the Duero valley, brought many of his compatriots to high office. Nevertheless, the peninsula was overrun by invaders in 409. By 411 Alans held Lusitania and Carthaginensis, and SUEVES and Asding VANDALS held Gallaecia. The VISIGOTHS, sent by Rome in 416 to defeat them, were sent away again in 418 with the Alans indeed routed, but this only resulted in first Asding Vandals (from 420 to 429) and then Sueves (from at latest 438 to at earliest 455) moving south and east. Meanwhile in the remaining Roman province of Tarraconensis, the Vascones (Basques) and Cantabri were revolting. So the Visigoths came back. They demolished the Sueve kingdom in 456, driving the remaining Sueves back to Gallaecia, and spent the 460s establishing rule in most of the peninsula; in and after 472, they conquered what Rome still held of Tarraconensis. We have a detailed account of these years in the chronicle of Hydatius, a Gallaecian bishop. Information about politics (usually war) resumes around 540, but is detailed only for perhaps half a century. The Sueve kingdom by this time was back in business; the Basques were clearly independent (and would remain so although they faced Visigoth and MEROVINGIAN FRANK attacks repeatedly); and the Visigoths took Cantabria and La Rioja (for the first time?) in 574. They finally conquered the Sueves in 585. Warfare continued at least in Basque country thereafter, but most of what I've found on the later Visigothic period in the peninsula concerns Mediterranean Spain. REFERENCE As discussed under the super-regional entry for the Iberian Peninsula, most relevant works are at the level of modern Spanish regions or smaller areas, are in Spanish or Portuguese, and are unavailable to me. I have decided, faced with this situation, to relegate the many books I haven't been able to see to a companion document, and list in this one only those books I have stumbled on. These concern all of the region except Cantabria, La Rioja, Madrid, and Castilla, though not, inevitably, all periods. --Portugal-- . J. de Alarcao. --Galiza-- . Alain Tranoy. Paris: Diffusion de Boccard, 1981. Volume 7 of 'Publications du Centre Pierre Paris' and perhaps also of 'Collection de la Maison des Pays Iberique'. A hugely detailed, topical rather than narrative, treatment of early Galiza from well before the (rather late) Roman conquest to AD 469 or so. Recommended by pretty much everyone. --Asturias and Leon-- . Francisco Javier Lomas Salmonte. Number 32 of 'Anales de la Universidad Hispalense. Series: Filosofia y Letres'. Sevilla: Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla/ Editorial Catolica Espanola, 1975. A 1989 edition, which of course I haven't seen, has appeared. The 1975 edition is opinionated but thorough, and on a superficial examination appears competent though I don't recall seeing it recommended by many. It ends with the late 3rd century AD; it is not narrative. --Euskadi and Navarra-- . Roger Collins. A volume in 'The Peoples of Europe', James Campbell and Barry Cunliffe, general editors. Oxford and Cambridge, Massachusetts: Basil Blackwell, 1990. Little modified from the 1986 first edition in the same series. Although this traces the Basques and their land from prehistory to the present, something like a third of the book concerns the period from the first written records to AD 700. The structure is chronological and sometimes narrative.