Pellendones


The Pellendones were an ancient pre-Roman people living on the Iberian Peninsula. From the early 4th century BC they inhabited the region near the source of the river Duero in what today is north-central Spain. The area comprises the north of Soria, the southeast of Burgos and the southwest of La Rioja provinces.

Origins

Possibly of mixed Illyrian and Celtic origin, the Pellendones migrated to the Iberian Peninsula around the 4th Century BC. Their original native name might have been *Kellendones and it is believed that they were related to the Gallic Belendi or Pelendi of the middle Sigmatis river valley in Gallia. They spoke a 'Q-Celtic' language.

Culture

A predominantly stock-raising people that practiced transhumance in the grazing lowlands of the Ebro valley, they had their capital at Visontium, and are credited as being the original founders of Numantia and Savia. They also controlled the towns of Aregrada, Arenetum, Quelia/Quelium and Contrebia Leukade, although the location of Viscintium, Lutia, Olibia and Varia remains either incertain or unknown.

History

Closely related with both the Arevaci – to whom they were a dependant tribe, though regarded as a separated people – and the Vettones, they threw off the Arevacian yoke possibly with Roman help in the late 2nd century BC, receiving the town of Numantia and respective lands when the Romans partitioned the territory of the defeated Arevaci amongst their neighbours. However, during the Sertorian Wars, they sided with Quintus Sertorius and provided unspecified troops to his army.
In the late 1st Century BC, the Pellendones were aggregated to the new Hispania Terraconensis province created by Emperor Augustus, who founded the Roman colony of Augustobriga in their territory.