BERO´NES
Eth.
BERO´NES or
VERO´NES (
Βήπωνες), a people in the N. of Hispania Tarraconensis, along the upper course of the Iberus (
Ebro), on its right bank, about
Logroño, between the CELTIBERI on the S., and the CANTABRI on the N., SE. of the
AUTRIGONES and on the borders of the CONTESTANT. They were a Celtic people, and are mentioned by Strabo as forming, with the Celtiberi, the chief remnant of the old Celtic population of Spain. (Liv.
Fr. xci., where the common reading is
Virones: Strab. iii. pp. 158, 162;
Ptol. 2.6.55.)
The following were their chief cities:
TRITIUM METALLUM (
Τρίτιον Μέρταλλον, Ptol.:
Tricio, near
Nagera), in the Antonine Itinerary (p. 394) simply Tritium, on the high road from Legio VII. (
Leon) to Caesaraugusta, 36 M.P. SE. of
VIROVESCA and not to be confounded with a place of the same name W. of Virovesca:
VERELA on the same road, 18 M.P. SE. of Tritium, and 28 NW. of
CALAGURRIS (
Calahorra, Itin. p. 393), undoubtedly the VAREIA or
VARIA (
Οὐάρεια, Οὐαρία) of Livy, Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, which was the strongest city of the district (Liv.
l.c.): it stood at a passage of the Iberus (Strab. p. 162), where the river commenced its navigable course of 260 M. P. (
Plin. Nat. 3.3. s. 4): it still bears its ancient name (
Varea, a little below
Logroño, with which some confound it; Florez,
Cantabr. p. 198; Mentelle,
Esp. Med. p. 363):
OLIBA (
Ὀλίβα, Ptol.: some assume a corruption by transposition, and identify it with the
Ὀλβία mentioned by Stephanus Byzantinus as a city of Iberia); CONTREBRIA, also called Leucas, a stronghold of Sertorius, as being the most convenient head-quarters, from which to march out of the territory of the Berones into any of the neighbouring districts (Liv.
Fr. xci. p. 27, where mention is also made of another important city of the same name belonging to the Celtiberi): Ukert takes it for the Cantabria on the
Ebro. which is mentioned in the middle ages, and the ruins of which are seen between
Logrono and
Piana. (Sandoval,
Annot. &c. quoted by D'Anville,
Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscr. vol. xi. p. 771; Ukert, vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 321, 457, 458.)
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