Cannibalism in Hispania: Roman myth or Celtiberian reality?

Cannibalism in Hispania: propaganda weapon or survival practice?

The historiography of pre-Roman Spain runs into an uncomfortable episode: cannibalism. The classical sources —Strabo, Diodorus, Appian— attribute to the Celtiberians the custom of eating enemies killed in battle or, in extreme cases, prisoners during sieges. The most frequently cited case is the siege of Calagurris (present-day Calahorra) during the Sertorian Wars (1st century BC), where, according to tradition, famine drove the population to resort to anthropophagy. But how much truth is there to it?

Against the Roman narrative, a skeptical current points to the absence of archaeological evidence. There are no bone remains with unequivocal cut marks, no epigraphy, and no artistic depictions confirming the practice as a ritual. Albion, one of the participants in the debate, sums it up: «The classical sources were written by the winning side». The analogy with the Aztecs —whose iconography shows skulls and mass sacrifices— is often invoked to argue that nothing similar existed in Hispania.

The truth is that cannibalism documented in other cultures (the siege of Leningrad, Japanese prisoners in New Guinea) usually responds to situations of extreme necessity, not to institutionalized rituals. In Hispania, if it existed, it was probably limited to those contexts of desperation. The lack of physical evidence and the bias of the Roman sources leave the question open. Ironies of history: the same Romans who «civilized» Hispania also wrote its condemnation.