Chapter V

The Calendar-Changing Celtiberians Wars

Segeda’s wall had not yet been sufficiently strengthened so the inhabitants asked to be taken into Numantia, which welcomed them as allies and friends. In the opinion of Florus, Numantia was dragged into the war unjustly. These wars changed the Roman calendar. Up to that time the year had officially began on the Ides of March (15th), on which day the war-waging consuls and administrators were appointed. By the time they got to the meseta, however, it was late June. This meant a precious time was wasted, since war was waged in spring and summer.  Rome therefore saw itself forced to bring forward its calendar to the kalendas of January (day 1). We have hence inherited the Roman calendar as dictated by the Celtiberian wars.

The Siege of Scipio

The Roman Senate, and above all the hawks within it, could no longer put up with a small town like Numantia posing so many niggling problems to an army that was sweeping all before it elsewhere in the Mediterranean, especially at a time when its expansion was stretching resources to the limit. Numantia needed to be given short shrift; a general of maximum prestige would have to be sent to deal with it once and for all. Under public pressure the Senate appointed Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, the leading hawk who had acquired the highest possible prestige with his destruction of the city of Carthage. As with Marcellus, the rules were bent to make him a Consul in January 134 BCE even though the official eligibility ten-year period had not yet passed since his previous appointment.

Scipio found he had to deal with a sadly depleted army of only about 20,000 men. From Rome he could bring only 4000 volunteers plus a few men seconded by Micipsa, King of Numidia. Drawing on the economic aid of Antiochus of Syria and Attalois of Pergamon, however, he was able to recruit many mercenaries, in the end mustering a contingent of two consular armies (60,000 men). Discipline was very slack so his first task was to lick them into shape by dint of harsh training sessions meant to imbue them with efficacy, discipline and morale. According to Appian , after the campaign against the Vaccaei, in 134 BCE, Scipio moved on to winter in the region of Numantia.

After having set up his two camps nearby the city, he placed one of them (Peña Redonda) under the orders of his brother, Maximus, and took the other (Castillejo) under his own control. As the Numantines were egging on the Romans to wage battle, he preferred to shut them in and wear them down by attrition. To do so he built seven forts around the city and ordered it to be surrounded by a moat and fence.

1

Castillejo Camp

Located 1 kilometer north of Numantia and, according to Schulten, was the headquarters of Scipio. In their excavations they found structures from three overlapping camps (those of consuls Marcelus, Pompeius, and Scipio). The most recent, with a surface area of 8 hectares, has a wall 5.5 m in width (two walls and filled with pebbles). In the interior, the praetorium, barracks, batteries, etc are preserved. There were found amphorae, Campanian ceramics, coins, weapons… Towards the southeast, the wall descends to the plain but it loses (perhaps for having the lagoon here that Apian mentioned) and reappears before arriving at Travesadas.

2

Fort of Travesadas

Schulten did not find the rest of the wall but part of the quarters and the Pretorian door flanked by two towers. Although they did not found the rest of the wall between this fort and that of Valdevorrón, the outline could be followed because remains of materials appear in this zone.

3

Fort of Valdevorrón

Traces of the wall were found. They were identified as interior walls, the Pretorian door and abundant small objetcs.

4

Peña Redonda

It is a hill surrounded by ravines. The camp that Scipio entrusted to his brother Fabius Maximus. Abundant remains of buildings and materials were found in this place. Surrounded by a 4 meter width wall, it conserves the pretorian and decumana entrances, and in its interior pretorium, forum, batteries and barracks for the legions.

5

Fort of Molino

Situated on a flat terrace of 2 hectares near the joining of the rivers Duero and Merdancho. Schulten found remains of four half preserved barracks and four complete barracks of the infantry, and stables and bedrooms of a cavalry squad, but not the wall.

6

Fort of Dehesilla

It is the biggest fort in the proximity. A wall 4 m wide and a surface of 14.6 hectares.

7

Fort of Peña del Judio

It is a small bastion where a 2.5 m wide and 0.9 m high wall and a 2 x 2 m square tower were found

8

Fort of Alto Real

Excellent strategic position, northeast of Numantia and surrounded by the curve that Duero traces north of the hill. Schulten located on this hill a fort surrounding the wall 2 m wide. Remains of amphorae, Campanian ceramics, Celtiberian ceramics were found…some authors doubt that may be part of the ruins of the the fort wall.

9

Fort of Vega

Located on a small terrace of two hectares next to the joining of the rivers Duero and Tera. Schulten found remains of the wall, and varied artifacts.

10

Riverside Castles

Two dams mark the remains of the two forts that Apain speaks of, one on each shore of the river. Scipio spread rafts from them, carrying darts and spears to make access impossible from the surface of the river or diving.

When this work was finished, to make the bulwark even stronger, he built yet another moat a little bit further out, bristling with stakes. For good measure he then built a wall eight feet wide and ten feet high, without counting the battlements. Several arrow-launching towers were built, each one about thirty metres from the other. It proved impossible to prolong the wall over the nearby lake, so he built a causeway across it of the same height and width.

1

Siege wall and towers

This would have been the besiegers’ view. A 3m-high wall (plus 1.5 m of apparatus) with wooden towers every 30 metres along the whole 9 km perimeter.

2

A deep ditch armed with pointed stakes... but, who on earth would dare to escape from these siegeworks? Perhaps it was more permeable than might first be thought; in any mercenary army there was always some purchase for corruption.

3

The towers were wooden, multi-tiered. The upper tier was used for inter-camp communication by means of visual signals. This information was received instantly, making sure needy areas were given immediate reinforcements.

4

Stones launched by catapults and slings, fire arrows to start fires... The projectiles crashed into the walls or against the houses. The Numantines had to wear protective helmets when they went abroad within the besieged town; any stone launched from a sling 300 metres away could easily turn out to be fatal. Sling-launched stones were the besiegers’ most commonly used weapon against the soldiers working around the city.

5

The wall was four metres high plus an additional superstructure of 2 metres. Depending on the particular vulnerability of each zone, the wall was built higher or lower. In the sheer zone dropping down to the River Duero, for example, the wall did not need to be so high, while it did need to be built up higher in the more accessible eastern and northern zones.

6

A patrol passageway separated the wall from the houses. Impacts from the Roman missiles called for continual repair work.

7

The catapult is a war machine used to launch stones, javelins and fireballs up to a distance of about 400 m. The Roman engi-neers built them in situ; they did not need to be brought in from elsewhere.

8

The front-line houses, hard by the wall and within easier firing range, were the hardest hit.

9

The drawing simplifies the distances. The siegewall was 300 to 1000 metres from the city. According to Appian there were also closer towers and stockades. The attacks from Roman war machines were launched from closer zones to bring more within range.

Instead of bridges over the River Douro he towered the river downstream from the union between the Merdancho and Douro, stringing from tower to tower across the river a cable hung with blades and darts (stimuli) to prevent both boats and swimmers from leaving or entering the besieged city. Nothing daunted, the irrepressible Numantines tried to break the siege on several occasions. Finally their greatest warrior Rhetogenes, accompanied by five fellow counter-attackers and five servants, managed with incredible derring-do to break the blockade on a dark night of spring 133 BCE, surprising and killing the sentries, thereafter escaping quickly on horseback.

He first went for help to the Arevaci cities, urging them to rebel anew against Rome, but his plea was rejected due to fear of Roman reprisals. Only in the city of Loutia (lying 56 km from Numantia, but in an unidentified location) did Rhetogenes muster any support from the young warriors. But the city’s Assembly of Elders got wind of the intended rebellion and tipped off Scipio, trying to head off the dreaded reprisals. But the Roman general sped to Loutia and occupied the city. He then ordered the elders to hand over all the young warriors, about 400 in all, cruelly cutting off their right hands as punishment.

Scipio was well aware that cutting off the right hand of a Celtiberian meant subjecting him to an undignified death; he could no longer wield a sword and was therefore unable to die in battle to reach the Great Beyond in company with the gods. After the Rhetogenes fiasco in Loutia the Numantines sued for peace. A five-man commission headed by the Numantine leader Avarus pleaded with Scipio “to pardon this brave, lion-hearted people, offering them lenient terms”. Scipio rejoined “that they hand over first their arms and then themselves with their city”. The Numantines were furious upon hearing this answer, killing Avarus and his companions on suspicion that they had struck a deal with Scipio to save their own skins. The worst thing was not the hunger but not being able to die fighting.

Gallery of chapter images

go on to chapter VI >>>Who Reoccupied the Cerro de La Muela After Scipio’s Destruction of Numantia?

Bibliographical references