The Cratistii (Greek Kratistioi) were an ancient pre-Roman, stock-raising people whose lands were situated along the upper Tagus valley, in the elevated plateau region of the western Cuenca and northeast Province of Teruel.
Origins
An intriguing people, their ethnic origins are difficult to determine, though their tribal name means "the most powerful". They bear no close relation to the Caristii who lived further north in the modern Vizcaya and Álava Basque provinces.
Culture
Archeological evidence retrieved from the cemetery of Madrigueras (Albacete) suggests that their culture was strongly Celtiberianized, being more closely affiliated with that of the neighbouring Olcades. Their presumed capital was Segobriga (Cerro de Cabeza de Griego, Saelices – Cuenca; Celtiberian-type mint: Sekobirikes)Pliny the Elder, Natural History, III, 26. and they held the important towns of Ercavica (Cañaveruelas – Cuenca; Celtiberian-type mint: Ercauica), and Contrebia Carbica (Fosos de Bayona, Villas Viejas – Cuenca; Celtiberian-type mints: Contebacom/Carbicom/Konterbia Karbica).Jesús Corrobles Santos, Los Carpetanos, in Prehistoria y Protohistoria de la Meseta Sur (Castilla-La Mancha) (2007), pp. 194-195.Mozota, Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados (1998, revised edition 2007), pp. 216-217.Marugán, "Caída y auge de Quinto Sertorio: la primera fase de la guerra" (2026), p. 24.
History
Initially a dependent tribe of the Carpetani since at least the early 3rd Century BC, the Cratistii were submitted to Carthaginian rule upon the conquest of eastern Carpetania by Hannibal in 221-220 BC.Polybius, Istorion, III, 3.Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 21: 5. Later they appear to have gravitated gradually towards the Roman sphere in the aftermath of the Second Punic War only to be raided by the Lusitani, who sacked Segobriga in 146 BC.Paulus Orosius, Historiarum Adversum Paganos, 5: 4, 5. During the Sertorian Wars of the early 1st Century BC, the Cratistii appear to have resisted Quintus Sertorius attempts to subjugate eastern Carpetania, possibly laying siege to the Cratistii town of Contrebia Carbica in 77 BC,Marugán, "Caída y auge de Quinto Sertorio: la primera fase de la guerra" (2026), p. 24. and ultimately forcing them to join the Sertorian cause. Later in 73 BC proconsuls Pompey and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius gained ground in Celtiberia and conquered one by one all the cities allied with Sertorius, including the Cratistii capital Segobriga.Appian, Romaikon Empúlion, 1, 112.Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain (2013), p. 145. Following the end of that conflict, the Cratistii regained their independence from the enfeebled Carpetani and were incorporated alongside their Uraci neighbours into romanized southern Celtiberia.Curchin, The Romanization of Central Spain: Complexity, Diversity and Change in a Provincial Hinterland (2004), pp. 35-36.
See also Carpetani Celtiberian script Olcades Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula Uraci
Notes
References
Ángel Montenegro et alii, Historia de España 2 - colonizaciones y formación de los pueblos prerromanos (1200-218 a.C), Editorial Gredos, Madrid (1989) Francisco Burillo Mozota, Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados, Crítica, Grijalbo Mondadori, S.A., Barcelona (1998, revised edition 2007) Francisco Romeo Marugán, "Caída y auge de Quinto Sertorio: la primera fase de la guerra", in Desperta Ferro – Antigua y medieval No. 95, Madrid (2026) , pp. 18-25. Juan Pereira Siesto (coord.), Prehistoria y Protohistoria de la Meseta Sur (Castilla-La Mancha), Biblioteca Añil n.º 31, ALMUD, Ediciones de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real (2007)
Philip Matyszak, Sertorius and the struggle for Spain, Pen & Sword Military, Barnsley (2013)
External links https://www.celtiberia.net