The demographics of Iberian Peninsula in 200 BC
The Celtiberians were a group of Celts and Celticized peoples who inhabited the central-eastern Iberian Peninsula from the 6th century BC until the final Roman conquest of Spain in 72 BC. Celtiberia was located at a cultural estuary dividing the Iberians in the south from the Celtic Gauls in the north, and, after a period of continuous warfare, the Celts and Iberians began to intermarry and thus forged a new "Celtiberian" (Celtic-Iberian) identity. By 300 BC, the Celtic peoples in Hispania included the Vaccaei, Cantabri, Carpetani, Astures, Carpetani, Arevaci, and Celtici, and they held out against Carthaginian invasions before the Roman Republic conquered part of Celtiberia in 195 BC in the aftermath of the Second Punic War. The Celtiberians unsuccessfully fought against Roman occupation from 195 to 193 BC, 181 to 179 BC, 153 to 151 BC, and 143 to 133 BC. By the end of the Sertorian War in 72 BC, the entire region had become part of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior. The Roman culture submerged the Celtiberian culture, but Celtiberian placenames survived in Iberia, and a Celtiberian auxiliary unit was in existence in the Roman Army during the 2nd centruy AD.