The Autrigones were a pre- Roman tribe that settled in the north of the Iberian Peninsula , in what today is the western Basque Country (western regions of Biscay and Álava ) and northern Burgos and the East of Cantabria, Spain . Their territory limited with the Cantabri territory at west, the Caristii at east, the Berones at the southeast and the Turmodigi at the south. It is discussed whether the Autrigones were Celts , theory supported by the existence of toponyms of Celtic origin, such as Uxama Barca and other with -briga endings and that eventually underwent a Basquisation along with other neighboring tribes such as the Caristii and Varduli .
30-508: Roman historians as Pomponius Mela and Pliny the Elder located them in the northern region of present-day province of Burgos . Pliny the Elder writes about the "ten states of the Autrigones" and says the only ones worth mentioning are Tritium Autrigonum ( Monasterio de Rodilla , Burgos) and Virovesca (possibly the present-day Briviesca , Burgos; Celtiberian-type mint: Uirouiaz ) in
60-469: A UNESCO World Heritage Site . The province has an area of 14,300 km (5,500 sq mi) and a population of approximately 375,000 of whom nearly half live in the capital. The other locations higher than 20,000 inhabitants apart from Burgos are Miranda de Ebro and Aranda de Duero , both very industrialized. The Sierra de la Demanda , the northwesternmost end of the Sistema Ibérico ,
90-605: A process of Basquisation . The known toponyms of the Autrigones are of Celtic origin, as Uxama Barca in present-day Álava , and many others ending in -briga . The toponyms of rivers, as the Nervión , the anthroponyms, the archeological remains, tools and weapons relate them culturally with the Celts, but with a clear differentiation of other close Celtic tribes, as the Celtiberians . The Autrigones were culturally related to
120-514: Is a province of northern Spain , in the northeastern part of the autonomous community of Castile and León . It is bordered by the provinces of Palencia , Cantabria , Vizcaya , Álava , La Rioja , Soria , Segovia , and Valladolid . Burgos is the province of Spain that has borders with most provinces. Its capital is the city of Burgos . The Cartularies of Valpuesta from the monastery Santa María de Valpuesta, in Burgos, are considered to be
150-484: Is evidenced by several references to events of Augustus 's reign; especially to certain new names given to Spanish towns. Mela, like the two Senecas , Lucan , Martial , Quintilian , Trajan , Hadrian , were all part of Italic communities settled in various parts of Spain that eventually relocated in Rome. It has been conjectured that Pomponius Mela may have been related in some way to Marcus Annaeus Mela , son of Seneca
180-707: Is located in Burgos Province. The most important rivers in the province are the Ebro and the Duero . The river Duero is in the south of the province and leads to the Atlantic Ocean at Porto, Portugal . Planted near it is a notable vineyard , Ribera de Duero . The north and south-east of the province are mountainous. The Ebro flows to the Mediterranean Sea . In Valpuesta the oldest texts in
210-587: The Aquitanian -speaking Caristii further east the coastal highland region between the rivers Asón and Neroua ( Nervión ), in the modern eastern Cantabria , Vizcaya , and Álava Basque provinces. However, the Autrigones’ hold to this vast territory was not meant to last; some time after 300 BC they were driven out from southern Autrigonia – the western Burgos region – by the Turmodigi allied with
240-572: The Bay of Biscay more accurately than Eratosthenes or Strabo, his ideas of the British Isles and their position are also clearer than his predecessors. He is the first to name the Orcades or Orkney Islands , which he defines and locates pretty correctly. Of northern Europe his knowledge was imperfect, but he speaks of a great bay (" Codanus sinus ") to the north of Germany, among whose many islands
270-659: The Oca river valley. They seem to have taken no part in the Celtiberian Wars though as traditional allies of the Berones helped the latter in fighting off the Roman general Sertorius ' incursion into northern Celtiberia in 76 BC, and remained independent until the late 1st century BC, when the mounting pressure of Astures and Cantabri raids finally forced them to seek an alliance with Rome . Despite being aggregated in
300-592: The Spanish language has been found, dating from the tenth century. Transportation is developed through a wide net of highways and roads. Besides, the province is served by the Burgos Airport , and was to have received High-speed rail AVE around 2016. In the Atapuerca area, archaeologists have found evidence of occupation by hominids and humans for more than one million years. Discoveries have included
330-828: The Straits of Gibraltar , and describes the countries adjoining the south coast of the Mediterranean ; then he moves round by Syria and Asia Minor to the Black Sea , and so returns to Spain along the north shore of the Euxine, Propontis , etc. After treating the Mediterranean islands, he next takes the ocean littoral —to west, north, east and south successively—from Spain and Gaul round to India, from India to Persia , Arabia and Ethiopia ; and so again works back to Spain. Like most classical geographers he conceives of
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#1732764868570360-609: The Vaccei , who seized the Autrigones’ early capital Autraca. Thrust back to their lands on the mountain ranges of the upper Ebro north of the Arlanzón valley around the 3rd-2nd Centuries BC, the Autrigones allied themselves with the Berones and evolved into a tribal society similar to the peoples of the north-west. By the 1st century BC, they were organized into a federation of ten autonomous mountain-top fortified towns ( Civitates ), chiefly among them their new capital Virovesca in
390-496: The " Numantine " type. More archeological evidence have been found, emphasizing their celtiberian culture, such as the hospitality tesserae . These consisted on a zoomorphic-shaped metal tablet with an inscription using a variant of the Northeastern Iberian script (also known as Celtiberian script ), written in a form of celtiberian language . Around the beginning of the 4th century BC the Autrigones migrated to
420-540: The Elder and father of Lucan . The general views of the De situ orbis mainly agree with those current among Greek writers from Eratosthenes to Strabo ; the latter was probably unknown to Mela. But Pomponius is unique among ancient geographers in that, after dividing the Earth into five zones, of which two only were habitable, he asserts the existence of antichthones , inhabiting the southern temperate zone inaccessible to
450-531: The Peninsula and overrun the entire area corresponding today to the modern provinces of Cantabria and Burgos , which eventually became known as Autrigonia or Austrigonia . By the mid-4th century BC the Autrigones reached the Pisuerga valley where they established their capital Autraca or Austraca , located at the banks of the river Autra ( Odra ). They also gained an outlet to the sea by seizing from
480-514: The continent of Africa as surrounded by sea and not extending very far south. The editio princeps of Mela was published at Milan in 1471; the first critical edition was by Joachim Vadian (Wien, 1518), superseded by those of Johann Heinrich Voss (1658), Johann Friedrich Gronovius (1685 and 1696), A. Gronovius (1722 and 1728), and Tzschucke (1806–1807), in seven parts (Leipzig; the most elaborate of all); G. Paithey's (Berlin, 1867) for its text. The English translation by Arthur Golding (1585)
510-625: The current provinces of Burgos , Álava , and Biscay which lasted for nearly two centuries, before being conquered by their Varduli neighbours and ultimately destroyed or absorbed by the Vascones in around AD 580. Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela , who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest known Roman geographer . He was born at the end of the 1st century BC in Tingentera (now Algeciras ) and died c. AD 45. His short work ( De situ orbis libri III. ) remained in use nearly to
540-752: The earliest hominid skull in Europe. The Celtiberian region that became Burgos was inhabited by the Morgobos , Turmodigi , Berones and perhaps also the Pellendones , the last inhabitants of the northern part of the Celtiberian region. According to the Greek historian Ptolemy , the principal cities included: Brabum , Sisara , Deobrigula (nowadays Tardajos ), Ambisna Segiasamon ( Sasamón ) and Verovesca ( Briviesca ). Under Roman colonization, it
570-435: The early Iron Age "Monte Bernorio- Miraveche " cultural group of northern Burgos and Palencia provinces. Additional archeological evidence indicates that by the 2nd Iron Age they came under the influence of the Celtiberians . By the 1st century BC they were organized into a federation of autonomous mountain-top fortified towns ( Civitates ) on the mountain ranges of the upper Ebro , protected by stout adobe walls of
600-546: The first time on a document by Roman historian Livy in 76 BC, describing the actions of Quintus Sertorius in the Iberian Peninsula . Strabo mentions them in his book Geographica , naming them allótrigones , a word adapted from Greek meaning "strange people". Based on the study of their toponyms - as also happens with the Caristii and Varduli - it is likely they were a Celtic tribe who eventually suffered
630-774: The folk of the northern temperate regions from the unbearable heat of the intervening torrid belt. On the divisions and boundaries of Europe , Asia and Africa , he repeats Eratosthenes; like all classical geographers from Alexander the Great (except Ptolemy ) he regards the Caspian Sea as an inlet of the Northern Ocean, corresponding to the Persian and Arabian ( Red Sea ) gulfs on the south. His Indian conceptions are inferior to those of some earlier Greek writers; he follows Eratosthenes in supposing that country to occupy
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#1732764868570660-653: The new Hispania Tarraconensis province at the early 1st century AD, the Autrigones were only partially romanized, never became Christian and continued to provide the Roman Imperial army with auxiliary troops ( Auxilia ) up to the late Empire. The Autrigone people survived the overthrow of the Roman Empire in Spain by the Germanic invasions of the late 4th century and briefly recreated their realm in parts of
690-530: The oldest known documents containing words written in the Spanish language . Since 1964, archaeologists have been working at numerous areas of the Archaeological Site of Atapuerca , where they have found ancient hominid and human remains, the former dating to more than one million years ago, with artefacts from the Palaeolithic and Bronze Ages of man. The site has been designated
720-740: The south-eastern angle of Asia, whence the coast trended northwards to Scythia, and then swept round westward to the Caspian Sea. As usual, he places the Riphean Mountains and the Hyperboreans near the Scythian Ocean. In western Europe his knowledge (as was natural in a Spanish subject of Imperial Rome) was somewhat in advance of the Greek geographers. He defines the western coast-line of Spain and Gaul and its indentation by
750-609: The subject in Classical Latin . Little is known of Pomponius except his name and birthplace—the small town of Tingentera or Cingentera (identified as Iulia Traducta ) in southern Spain , on Algeciras Bay (Mela ii. 6, § 96; but the text is here corrupt). The date of his writing may be approximately fixed by his allusion (iii. 6 § 49) to a proposed British expedition of the reigning emperor, almost certainly that of Claudius in AD 43. That this passage cannot refer to Julius Caesar
780-452: The valley of Oca River. The other Autrigones' towns were Deobriga (near Miranda de Ebro , Burgos), Uxama Barca (Osma de Valdegobia; Celtiberian-type mint: Uarcaz ), Segisamunculum (Cerezo del Riotirón, Burgos), Antecuia (near Pancorbo , Burgos), Vindeleia ( Cubo de Bureba , Burgos), Salionca ( Poza de la Sal , Burgos) and the port of Portus Amanus / Flaviobriga ( Castro Urdiales , Cantabria ). The Autrigones are mentioned for
810-496: The year 1500. It occupies less than one hundred pages of ordinary print, and is described by the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) as "dry in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity , and occasionally relieved by pleasing word-pictures." Except for the geographical parts of Pliny 's Historia naturalis (where Mela is cited as an important authority), the De situ orbis is the only formal treatise on
840-428: Was celebrated. A recent English translation is that of F. E. Romer, originally published in 1998. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Bunbury, Edward Herbert ; Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). " Mela, Pomponius ". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 18 (11th ed.). p. 87. Province of Burgos The province of Burgos
870-569: Was one, "Codanovia", of pre-eminent size; this name reappears in Pliny the Elder 's work as Scatinavia . Codanovia and Scatinavia were both Latin renderings of the Proto-Germanic * Skaðinawio , the Germanic name for Scandinavia . Mela's descriptive method follows ocean coasts, in the manner of a periplus , probably because it was derived from the accounts of navigators. He begins at
900-645: Was part of Hispania Citerior ("Hither Spain") and then Hispania Tarraconensis . In the fifth century, the Visigoths drove back the Suevi . In the eighth century, the Arabs occupied all of Castiles . Alfonso III the Great , king of León reconquered the area around the middle of the ninth century, and built many castles for the defence of Christendom. Gradually the area was reconquered. The region came to be known as Castile (Latin castella ), i.e. "land of castles". In
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