Celtici
Strabo (3, 1, 6) echoed Poseidonius when he mentioned the Keltikoi as the main inhabitants of the region located between the rivers Tagus and Guadiana, approximately where the Alentejo (Portugal) stands today.
[1] 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 Castro Verde and Ourique).
...[Pliny considers the Celtici who extend into Baetica] to have migrated from Lusitania which he appears to regard as the original seat of the whole Celtic population of the Iberian peninsula including the Celtiberians, on the ground of an identity of sacred rites, language, and names of cities.
[4]These migratory patterns have persisted on the same axis until modern times, supporting a centuries-old traditional and seasonal farming and animal husbandry transhumance along the ancient Roman or Carthaginian Silver road that served for its rich mines production transport, and for the Astorga region peddlers and wagoneers, the Maragatos.
confirms that the material culture of the southwestern Celtici was deeply influenced by the Arevaci of Celtiberia and beyond, as their metalwork shows strong parallels with south-central Gaul, Liguria, Etruria, and central Italy.
Submitted to Carthaginian rule just prior to the Second Punic War, the Celtici of Alentejo and Beturia recovered their independence in 206 BC whereas their Baetic counterparts simply shifted their allegiance from Carthage to the Roman Republic.
They proved to be the most reliable allies of the Lusitani – whose chieftain Viriathus used western Beturia as a rear base for its military operations on the south – in deep contrast to the Celtici city-states of Baetica, who frequently changed sides according to circumstances.
[17] When the tide turned against the Lusitani in 141 BC, the Beturian Celtici were subjected to the punitive campaigns conducted in the Iberian southwest by Consul Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus, who invaded eastern Beturia and plundered five towns allied with Viriathus.
