All these tribes were completely Iberian; but further east we reach IDUBEDA, the mountains of Soria, a ramification of the Pyrenees between the Tagus and Durius on the one hand, and the Iberus on the other, and extending as far as the Sierra Morena, which separates Aragon from Castile as completely as the Pyrenees separate Spain from France. The language of the Aragonese is Provençal and quite foreign to the Castilian. Those mountains were inhabited by four tribes, which are of great celebrity in Roman history under the common name of the CELTIBERIANS. The most important among them are the _Aruaci_ or _Arevaci_ and _Berones_; and their chief town was NUMANTIA, which has acquired imperishable fame in history. The tribe to which Numantia belonged was insignificant, and the town is an instance of a phenomenon which is otherwise of rare occurrence in Spain, namely, it was independent of the tribe to which it belonged. I have already stated, that the Celtiberians must be regarded as Iberians, who subdued the Celts, though the latter maintained themselves in the country. The Iberian character of pride and perseverance shows itself most strikingly in them, because they were the masters there, and in a most favourable situation, living among a subject population upon which they could devolve the burdens of life. However much accurate historical knowledge may be lost, yet it is certain that the Celtiberians are one of the most respectable nations of antiquity, _non sine laude nominandi_. During the Carthaginian period, they preserved their liberty unimpaired; but when the Romans systematically undertook the subjugation of Spain, they first came in contact with the Celtiberians, who had formerly been on terms of friendship with them, and had served in their armies as mercenaries. But when attempts were made upon their liberty, they refused to listen to any terms of submission. They were intelligent enough to look upon the war with the Romans as a great misfortune; when, therefore, Tib. Gracchus, the father of the illustrious tribunes, and a son of the Tib. Gracchus who had fallen at Beneventum in the Hannibalian war, had the supreme command in Spain, the Celtiberians, having confidence in his honesty, concluded peace with him on terms which the weaker people could accept without disgracing itself, and by which their existence was not so far degraded as to make death preferable. They observed the peace conscientiously, but not so the Romans, who, at last, under the second Scipio, succeeded in destroying Numantia: that victory is a degradation to Scipio as much as, in the reign of Tiberius, it was a degradation to the men who were obliged to lend their names to pass disgraceful _senatus consulta_.