Corocotta
Active member
I come from Cantabria, in northern Spain. This territory has a lot of history,concerning to the Roman Empire era, the conquest of Hispania was a hazardous one. The final chapter was the conquest of the northern part where lived Cantabrians and Asturians peoples. It was a war of 13 years (29-16 B.C)
Silio Italico in his Punica narrate the fighting against the gigant Laro, the Cantabrian leader, and the brother of Scipio.
The Cantabrians´ army were less in number, most of them light infantrymen, and known the roman´s tactics so they avoided pitched battles and frontal asssaults so they used skirmishing and guerrila warfare harassing the romans with ambushes, forcing Augusto to camp. The chieftain Corocotta (“Old Warrior”) presented himself to Augusto to require the reward (250.000 sexterci) that Augusto had put for his head; Augusto paid and let him go free. Antistio advanced into Cantabria and defeated the Cantabrians in a battle in a city, today not found, called Bergidum, Bergida, Uellica o Attica, depending on the classic authors. The survivors took refuge in Vindio mountain in where the Cantabrians said that “the waves of the ocean arrives before to this mountain than the romans´ arms”: romans sieged them and winter and hungry killed the warriors.
In 19 B.C., the Cantabrians who had been enslaved, killed their masters, returned to Cantabria and rose the inhabitants again; fortified some oppidum and attacked the roman´s garrisons, getting several victories like the one over the Legio I Augusta, capturing some standards eventhough the aquila. To be defeated by a people few in number became a shame to the Legion so it was punished by Agrippa and lost the title “Augusta”. It was hard but Agripa recovered the moral of his troops and defeated the Cantabrians with a great cost of losses. Then become the genicide: all the men, who were able of using weapons, that were captured were inmediatly crucified. Strabo wrote some cruel episodes: a group of prisoners that were going to be crucified sang their war cries until they died; a young prisoner threw himself into a bonfire when his guards were drunk; the mothers killed their children before suiciding themselves; an armed child killed his captured family (his father ordered him). Agrippa returned to Rome the lost standards and rejected to celebrate his triumph.
Three years later, in 16 B.C., the Cantabrians rose again for the last time against Rome. In Tiberian´s armies, the Cantabrians fought already as auxiliares. Thre are several tombstones of Cantabrians all around the Roman Empire. In IV-V centuries the Cantabrians regained his freedom but lost it again in VI century against the visigoth king Leovigildo after several risings. In VIII they formed the latest stand agains the arab invasion of Hispania and finally adopted the christianism and the latin as their language.
The celtic simbol above is the simbol of my ancestors.
Silio Italico in his Punica narrate the fighting against the gigant Laro, the Cantabrian leader, and the brother of Scipio.
The Cantabrians´ army were less in number, most of them light infantrymen, and known the roman´s tactics so they avoided pitched battles and frontal asssaults so they used skirmishing and guerrila warfare harassing the romans with ambushes, forcing Augusto to camp. The chieftain Corocotta (“Old Warrior”) presented himself to Augusto to require the reward (250.000 sexterci) that Augusto had put for his head; Augusto paid and let him go free. Antistio advanced into Cantabria and defeated the Cantabrians in a battle in a city, today not found, called Bergidum, Bergida, Uellica o Attica, depending on the classic authors. The survivors took refuge in Vindio mountain in where the Cantabrians said that “the waves of the ocean arrives before to this mountain than the romans´ arms”: romans sieged them and winter and hungry killed the warriors.
In 19 B.C., the Cantabrians who had been enslaved, killed their masters, returned to Cantabria and rose the inhabitants again; fortified some oppidum and attacked the roman´s garrisons, getting several victories like the one over the Legio I Augusta, capturing some standards eventhough the aquila. To be defeated by a people few in number became a shame to the Legion so it was punished by Agrippa and lost the title “Augusta”. It was hard but Agripa recovered the moral of his troops and defeated the Cantabrians with a great cost of losses. Then become the genicide: all the men, who were able of using weapons, that were captured were inmediatly crucified. Strabo wrote some cruel episodes: a group of prisoners that were going to be crucified sang their war cries until they died; a young prisoner threw himself into a bonfire when his guards were drunk; the mothers killed their children before suiciding themselves; an armed child killed his captured family (his father ordered him). Agrippa returned to Rome the lost standards and rejected to celebrate his triumph.
Three years later, in 16 B.C., the Cantabrians rose again for the last time against Rome. In Tiberian´s armies, the Cantabrians fought already as auxiliares. Thre are several tombstones of Cantabrians all around the Roman Empire. In IV-V centuries the Cantabrians regained his freedom but lost it again in VI century against the visigoth king Leovigildo after several risings. In VIII they formed the latest stand agains the arab invasion of Hispania and finally adopted the christianism and the latin as their language.
The celtic simbol above is the simbol of my ancestors.