Celtici

Iberian Peninsula at about 200 BC [1]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)

The Celtici were a Celtic tribe of the Iberian peninsula, akin either to the Lusitanians and Gallaecians or the Celtiberians, living in what today are the provinces of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal, though some migrated north alongside the Turduli. Their presence was the result of a third or even fourth wave of migrations of Celts (or other speakers of Indo-European languages) into Iberia. Their migration most likely occurred in the 4th century BC.

Their main cities were Lacobriga (probably Lagos in the Algarve), Caepiana (in Alentejo), Braetolaeum, Miróbriga (near Santiago do Cacém), Arcobriga, Meribriga, Catraleucus, Turres, Albae and Arandis (near Ourique).

Map of the main pre-Roman tribes in Portugal and their migrations. Turduli movement in red, Celtici in brown and Lusitanian in blue.

They appear to be the main group responsible for the "celticization" of the Conii, in the Algarve.

The origin of the Baeturian Celts was, according to Pliny, from the Celtici of Lusitania: Celticos a Celtiberis ex Lusitania advenisse manifestum est sacris, lingua, oppidorum vocabulis, quae cognominibus in Baetica distinguntur.

References

Mattoso, José (dir.), História de Portugal. Primeiro Volume: Antes de Portugal, Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 1992. (in Portuguese)
Berrocal-Rangel, Luis (2005). "The Celts of the Southwestern Iberian Peninsula". e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies 6: 481–96. http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol6/index.html.
Pliny the Elder, III, 13-14