2. FIRST APPROACH TO THE HISTORY OF THE PRE-ROMAN GALICIAN PEOPLE, IN THE HISTORICAL PERIOD FROM THE END OF 1st, CENTURY B.C. TO THE BEGINNING OF 1st. CENTURY A.D..

Let us try to make a draft of the pre-Roman "Galician" Country History, in the period between the end of 1st. century B.C. and the beginning of the 1st. century A.D..

We will use, for this purpose, the viewpoint that we enjoy at present, in the intention of to establish the analytical basis to be used for getting a best detail in the interpretation of the historical sources that have arrived up to us.

2.1 But, What do The Historical Sources Say to Us About The Pre-Roman "Galician" Country?

The historical sources say to us that it was the last occidental european country conquered by Rome (Strabo). And that it was the most powerful iberian people (Strabo). That is to say, the pre-Roman "Galician" country was very wealthy, populated, and with a fearsome military power (Julius Caesar). An authentic threat for the Roman Imperium.

Rome only dared to face a confrontation with it in the Augustus' reign –who declares the war to the galician country in 29 B.C. (Paulus Orosius)–, once the Roman Empire was politically consolidated. That is to say, when Rome could rely on the necessary stability for tackling a conquer war foreseen difficult and lengthy. A very expensive war, of draining on resources, for which Rome relied on the human and economical resources of the countries dominated by it, in addition to its own resources.

The first years of the war would be disastrous for Rome. The war goes so bad that the own Augustus, in our opinion the best Roman general in all the times –he was the best student in the Julius Caesar's School–, comes to the Iberian Peninsula to personally manage the military operations (Paulus Orosius, Dio Cassius). But, in spite of the roman propaganda, it is intuited that he suffers setbacks too.

That retreat of an "ill" Augustus to Tarragon, has the bad smell to a defeat with the possibility that he could be wounded in fight (Dio Cassius). Of course, the roman propaganda only admits that the "divine" Augustus became "ill", it is the limit!. In the beginning of the 1^st. century A.D.  both countries are in war yet (Strabo).

Rome looses battles, but at the end wins the war. The war lasted tens of years.

2.2 Rome Take Revenge From the Country What Was Its Worst Enemy, In a Way Never Seen Up to That Time.

And, after the bitter victory, begins the revenge. But we are not in front of a typical revenge. It is the revenge of the "divine" megalomaniac Augustus, who manages the Roman Empire with iron fist.

As up to then the Roman Empire has always done after a country conquer, all the galician country inhabitants are enslaved. And the country is fully sacked, which destroys its material culture.

But in this ocassion, Augustus is not happy only with that, and decides that the galician country be erased from the History. According to this order, all the classical works written before Agustus, which spoke about the History or the Geography of this country are destroyed, distorted, or amputated.

2.3 Very Few Classical Authors Have Hardly Arrived Up to Us, Whether Their Have Written About the "Kantabrian Wars", or About the Pre-Roman Galicia.

It powerfully draws our attention that, curiously, from a so large war (it lasted more than 40 years) we hardly have historical records. The few classical authors who provide the best information, and they give very few data –the Empire Censorship is vigilant– are:

● Paulus Orosius –a Bracarian who wish inform to us, but that have arrived to us amputated by the Roman censorship– very closed to the Roman Empire fallen.

● Strabo, a rebellius greek contemporary of Augustus, thanks to his courage and great skill in rethoric. His Geography, which has miraculously arrived to us, has equally been manipulated.

● We can cleary see how the Apian texts have been amputated when he was going to speak about this matter also. And the Roman historians lie in a propagandistic way: any of them do that by patriotism, others because do not want to loose their head as traitors.

2.4 How Rome Fulfils Its Revenge Against the Pre-Roman Galician Country?

Augustus maintains under his direct control the conquered country. He wants to manage directly the revenge. And the galician country romanization has a special treatment. The historians have noted that it was different to the other Iberian Peninsula people.

The fact of the major part of the galician country inhabitants have been comdemned to perpetual slavery is shown, surprisingly, by a Roman author: Plinius the Elder.

This author, in spite of the prohibition decreed by Augustus –and maintained in the meantime the Roman Empire lasted–, wanting to be meticulous is careless. Something amazed, perhaps due to what he personally saw, he ingenuously informs to us about the number of "free men" that inhabit the Lucus, Asturica, and Braga Conventus.

This information provided by Plinius the Elder allows to us to make probabilistic calculations of the millionaire number of slaves that inhabit the Roman Gallaecia in his time. And we are talking about a population decimated by the war!

2.5 How Was The Treatment Given by Rome to Its Galician Slaves?

With regard to the treatment given by Rome to its galician slaves, they have found mortal remains of women and children buried in the galleries of the "Las Médulas" gold mines. Even there are colaborationists who cooperated with Rome in the "Kantabrian Wars" –as some of the Susarros, who lived in the banks of the Duero, more or less–, that in payment for his help in the war they can conserve his lives, but they are deprived of their lands, and probably enslaved (Revista del Instituto de Estudios Bercianos, Nº 25).

The possibilty of improvement of these people is so vain that threre are risings –the last documented rising was in the Nero’s reign– which are crushed by manu military.

This millionaire slave number, without other horizon that the slavery, conserve the pre-Roman galician; transmit it orally; and evolve it in such oppression conditions. The cult pre-Roman language picks up loanwords from the latin for neologisms, in the meantime the Roman occupation lasts. But it is maintained alive and wiht good health, different from the latin.

— "If they understantd our orders and obbey them, what does it matter the language spoken by the stingy galician slaves?"

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