Cynetes

[3][4] They are often mentioned in the ancient sources under various designations, mostly Greek or Latin derivatives of their two tribal names: ‘Cynetas’/’Cynetum’;[5] ‘Kunetes’, ‘Kunetas’, and ‘Kunesioi'[6] or ‘Cuneus’,[7] followed by ‘Konioi’,[8] ‘Kouneon’[9] and ‘Kouneous’/‘Kouneoi’.

Prior to the Celtic-Turduli migrations of the 5th to 4th centuries BC, the original Conii territories also included upper Alentejo and the Portuguese coastal Estremadura region stretching up to the Munda (Mondego) river valley.

[12] Their presence in these regions is attested archeologically by the elaborated cremation burial-mounds of their ruling elite, whose rich grave-goods and the inscribed slabs in ‘Tartessian alphabet’ – also referred to as ‘Southwest script’ – that mark the graves, evidence contact with North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean since the 9th century BC.

[19] A powerful urban aristocracy of Phoenician and Turdetanian or Turduli colonists dominated all the trade, fishing, and shipbuilding in these same coastal settlements since the 4th century BC, until the Carthaginians occupied the Cyneticum and founded the Punic colonies of Portus Hannibalis (near Portimão?)

[20] The Conii seemed to have played no significant role in the Second Punic War and subsequent conflicts, even though they were constantly under the pressure from the northernly Celtic tribes throughout the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, which may explain their willingness to place themselves under the protection of foreign powers such as Carthage and later Rome.