Battle of Vellica
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| Battle of Vellica | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Cantabrian Wars | |||||||
 The Monte Cildá site where historians believe the battle took place. (Mave is the location that can be seen in the centre) | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Roman Empire | Cantabri | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Augustus | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Vellica was a battle of the Cantabrian Wars fought in the year 25 BC by the emperor Augustus and his Roman legions against the Cantabri forces who resided in the area. The most generally accepted location for the battle is the area around Monte Cildá, Olleros de Pisuerga, Palencia.
Cildá was populated by the Cantabri people. Claudius Ptolemy (II,6,51) mentions Vellika first amongst the Cantabrian towns.[1]
Certain authors such as Adolf Schulten, Miguel Ángel García Guinea and Iglesias Gil have placed the battle and the town of Vellica in an area near Monte Cildá.[2] According to Joaquín González Echegaray, this town corresponded with the fortifications built on Monte Cildá (where there appeared an inscription that cites the clan of the Vellicum), and that had to be taken by the Romans from the south, after capture of Amaya but before the battle at Castro de Monte Bernorio.[3]
It has likewise been inferred that Vellica and Bergida refer to the same city in different chronicles.[4] Another widely accepted belief is that the town could be on the adjacent plain of Mave and that the hill fort was merely a complementary defensive position.[5]