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Posted by Webmaster on November 6 2004, 11:49 PM
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This article is dedicated to the memory of Ken Wood, a friend of 0 AD.
Hello and welcome to the Iberians section of 0 AD. We hope you enrich your knowledge of these people through our articles.
The Iberians were the original inhabitants of the peninsula that bears their name. The original Iberians may have been the first inhabitants of Europe before the coming of the Celts in what is called the Great Migration. However the Celts did not penetrate Iberia in any meaningful way until the 6th century B.C. It is viewed as being quite remarkable by many historians that the Celtic culture and the Iberian were able to mesh so easily and peacefully. What makes it even more remarkable is that the Iberians were not a warlike people; they did hire out mercenaries to other peoples but they rarely themselves went to war. The Celts on the other hand were famous for just how warlike they were. The cultural mesh of the mostly peaceful Iberians with the war loving Celts created the Celt-Iberian people. The Celt-Iberians fused the qualities of both cultures to create an advanced warrior people. The presence of foreigners in Iberia was nothing unusual, but when Carthage attempted to conquer Iberia following the First Punic War it was something new entirely. However the Carthaginians would find that Iberia would not be conquered, not even the great Hannibal could accomplish the task. Part of this has to do with two distinct features of the way that the Iberians waged war. One was the guerilla war style of fighting they employed; in fact the Iberians invented guerilla warfare. The second was the strong fortifications they built, the oppidum and the castro. In fact in some cases it would take eight months to crack an Iberian fort, a testament to the defensive capabilities of the Iberians. Later came the Romans. The Iberians would put up a spirited defense and before long Rome would find Iberia to be a meat grinder. Eventually superior numbers on the part of the Romans prevailed, but as a tribute to the Iberian spirit, weaponry, and leadership it took two hundred years to accomplish.
In 0 AD the Iberians have many bonuses to match to their historic strengths. These bonuses are:
Elite Warriors: Capability of causing great damage with few in numbers.
Cavalry Cost: Because of the large horse herds and some of the finest horses in all of the western empire, the Iberians their cavalry will cost less.
Flaming Javelins: There was a frequent practice among some Iberian tribes of dousing their javelins in pitch. Some javelin-using units will throw flaming javelins after researching this unique technology.
Iberia, like every other civilization in the game has its fair share of heroes, they are:
Viriato the most famous Iberian of all, the Vercingetorix of the Iberians, was never defeated by the Romans.
Caros A chief of the Belli, most famous for inflicting such a massive defeat on the Romans that they never fought on August 23rd again.
Indibil A chief of the Ilegetes, the first Iberian to rise up against Rome.
In conclusion the Iberians are an important people in the time frame of 0 AD. To this day the Iberians are still topic of much study, from their beautiful metalwork to the remains of their once imposing fortresses.
2nd-1st Century BC
The Numantine War
The Arevaci
The Vaccaei
The Lusotannan
Miscellanea
The Celt-Iberians
Western Steel - Iberian Weapons
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