The hill known as Cerro de la Muela rises above the modern municipality of Garray in Soria, Spain. This Iron Age settlement controlled a vital crossing of the river Duero during ancient times. Pliny the Elder classified it as a city belonging to the Pellendones tribe. Other authors like Strabo and Ptolemy placed it among the Arevaci people instead. The Arevaci were a Celtiberian group formed by the mingling of Iberians and migrating Celts in the 6th century BC. They inhabited an area near Numantia and Uxama. Archaeologists describe this fortified town as an oppidum in Roman terminology. It stood as a strategic stronghold for the local tribes.
The First Roman Conflicts
In 153 BC Quintus Fulvius Nobilior served as consul when hostilities began. Numantia took in fugitives from Segeda who belonged to another tribe called the Belli. Carus of Segeda led his people against the Romans and managed to defeat their army. The Romans then laid siege to Numantia but deployed only a small number of war elephants. Their attempt failed to break the Celtiberian resistance. Twenty years later in 137 BC twenty thousand Romans surrendered to the defenders. The population of Numantia numbered between four thousand and eight thousand souls at that time. Tiberius Gracchus acted as quaestor during this crisis. He saved the Roman army from destruction by signing a peace treaty usually reserved for a legate.Scipio Aemilianus Final Siege
The final siege began in 134 BC under the command of Scipio Aemilianus. An army of thirty thousand soldiers surrounded the city with a nine kilometer barrier. This fortification included towers, moats, and impaling rods designed to prevent escape. Famine spread quickly through the starving city after eight months of blockade. Most inhabitants chose suicide rather than become slaves to Rome. A few hundred survivors burned the city before surrendering after thirteen months total. The Roman Senate had given Scipio Aemilianus Africanus the task of destroying Numantia in 133 BC. The destruction marked the end of serious resistance in the region.