The Cantabri were an ancient confederacy of eleven Celtic tribesKruta 2000 gives the Avarigines, Blendii (or Plentusii), Camarici, Concani, Coniaci, Moroecani, Noegi, Orgenomesci, Salaeni, Vadinienses and the Velliques. that inhabited the north coast of Hispania near modern Santander and Bilbao and the mountains behind, a district known as Cantabria to this day. Savage and untamable mountaineers, they long defied the Roman arms and made themselves a name for wild freedom. They were first attacked by the Romans about 150 BC. In his Gallic Wariii.26. Julius Caesar describes how Crassus scored a victory over combined forces of Cantabri and Aquitanians. They were not subdued till Agrippa and Augustus—present in person on this campaign— had carried out a series of campaigns known as the Cantabrian Wars (29-19 BC) which ended in their partial annihilation Suetonius, Augustus, 21 Tiberius saw his first military experience in the campaign against the Cantabri of 25 BC, as a tribune of the soldiers. Tiberius, 9. Thenceforward their land was part of the province Hispania Tarraconensis with some measure of local self-government. The remaining population of the region became slowly Romanized in their material culture, but developed little town life and are rarely mentioned in history. They provided recruits for the Roman auxilia, like their neighbors to the west the Astures.

Cantabria contained lead mines, of which, however, little is known.

In French texts this tribe is known as the les Cantabres.

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