To make a deal in others’ world: Hispanian actors and their influence in the Iber treaty on 226 BCE

Abstract

This paper explores the weight that pre-Roman local communities likely had in the shaping of the Iber Treaty and why this river was chosen as landmark, in the light of the developments that can be traced in the literary sources and the material culture. In the complex ethnic and political scene that characterized the basin of the Ebro and its neighbourhood, it is possible to identify some emerging political powers, like the Illergetes and, maybe, the Celtiberians. Their own dynamics and the vast networks of alliances intertwined between the various actors, as in the Southeast or in the Guadalquivir valley, makes it unlikely that the well-known treaty only reflected the interest of Romans and Carthaginians.