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The Titii or Tithii were a small and obscure Celtiberian people,^[1] whose lands were located along the middle Jalón and upper Tajuña valleys, somewhere between Alhama de Aragón in Zaragoza and Molina de Aragón in Guadalajara provinces.

Origins

The extent of the Titii people is shown in light yellow.

The Titii were of Celtic origin, whose ancestors probably migrated to the Iberian Peninsula around the 4th Century BC,^[2]^[3] and part of the Celtiberians.^[1] There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that the ancestors of the Celtiberian groups were installed in the Meseta area of the Iberian Peninsula from at least 1000 BC and probably much earlier.^[4]

Culture

Due to the lack of extensive archaeological surveys, no Iron Age settlements connected with this people were ever found in the area. Nevertheless, analysis of numismatic finds from the Jalón-Tajuña (ancient Tagonius) area has led some archaeologists to relate the mints of three unknown Celtiberian towns – Aratis/Aratikos, Titum, and Titiakos – with the Titii, pointing Titum as their presumed capital.^{[citation needed]}

The town of Aratis/Aratikos was identified in 2016 with the Iron Age site of Castejón I – El Romeral at Aranda de Moncayo in Zaragoza province. Between 1993 and 2013, the five-hectare site was plundered by Ricardo Granada Pérez, a local retiree turned treasure hunter who, by using metal detectors and a GPR, illegally excavated 4,000 archeological artifacts dating from the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, including a set of eighteen celtiberian helmets that were smuggled out of Spain and sold at auctions held in London and Oberhaslach in France. Out of this total, sixteen helmets were bought by the German building contractor and collector of antique weapons Axel Guttmann, being kept in his private collection until his death in 2001.^[5]^[6]^[7]

History

Often mentioned in the ancient sources as allies or clients of the Belli, they were subjected to Turboletae raids in the 3rd century BC and seem to have submitted by Carthage just prior to the Second Punic War, but what role they played in that conflict remains obscure. However, during the Celtiberian Wars of the 2nd century BC they sided with the Belli and Arevaci against Rome, being recorded as one of the signatories of the peace treaty with Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 179 BC.^[8]

In 147 BC they and the Belli initially supported Rome against the Lusitani led by Viriathus, though three years later the Titii switched sides and alongside the Arevaci and Belli, they joined Viriathus' anti-Roman revolt.^[9] The Titii also retained their political autonomy until they were defeated alongside the Belli in 142 BC by Proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus,^[10] being subsequently included into Hispania Citerior province in 134 BC, and thereafter ceased to be mentioned by the sources. After 72 BC however, they merged with the Belli, Uraci and Cratistii tribes to create the Late Celtiberian people of romanized southern Celtiberia, losing their tribal identity in the process.^[11]

Notes

^ ^a ^b Cremin, The Celts in Europe (1992), p. 57.
^ Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, III, 29.
^ Strabo, Geographica, III, 4, 12.
^ Cremin, The Celts in Europe (1992), p. 60.
^ Operation Helmet strikes a blow against Spanish tomb raiders – El PAÍS English.
^ Spain's lost Celtiberian helmets – El PAÍS English.
^ Collector returns stolen Celtic helmets to Spain – THE TIMES.
^ Appian, Iberiké, 44.
^ Appian, Iberiké, 63; 66.
^ Appian, Iberiké, 76.
^ Curchin, The Romanization of Central Spain: Complexity, Diversity and Change in a Provincial Hinterland (2004), pp. 35-36.

References

Ángel Montenegro et alii, Historia de España 2 - colonizaciones y formación de los pueblos prerromanos (1200-218 a.C), Editorial Gredos, Madrid (1989) ISBN 84-249-1386-8
Alberto J. Lorrio, Los Celtíberos, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Murcia (1997) ISBN 84-7908-335-2
Francisco Burillo Mozota, Los Celtíberos, etnias y estados, Crítica, Barcelona (1998, revised edition 2007) ISBN 84-7423-891-9
Leonard A Curchin (5 May 2004). The Romanization of Central Spain: Complexity, Diversity and Change in a Provincial Hinterland. Routledge. pp. 37–. ISBN 978-1-134-45112-8.
Raimon Graells i Fabregat, Alberto José Lorrio Alvarado & Fernando Quesada Sanz, Cascos hispano-calcídicos: Símbolo de las elites guerreras celtibéricas, Katalogue Vor- und Frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer, 46, Mainz, RGZM, Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, Mainz (2014) ISBN 978-3-88467-230-3
Raimon Graells i Fabregat, Alberto José Lorrio Alvarado & Fernando Quesada Sanz, Los cascos protohistóricos de Aranda de Moncayo: Una necesidad científica y patrimonial, VII Simposio sobre los Celtíberos, Nuevos Hallazgos, Nuevas Interpretaciones, Teruel (2014) ISBN 978-84-616-2453-9, pp. 213-221.