View source for Bletonesii

[[File:Iberia_300BC-en.svg|thumb|right|350px|Main language areas in Iberia c. 300 BC]]
The '''Bletonesii''' were one of the pre-[[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Celt]]ic peoples of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] (the Roman [[Hispania]], modern [[Spain]] and [[Portugal]]), dwelling around the city of ''Bletisa'' or ''Bletisama'', located in modern [[Ledesma, Salamanca|Ledesma]] in the [[province of Salamanca]], Spain.<ref>[[Conrad Cichorius]], ''Römische Studien'' (Berlin, 1922)</ref>  If the placement in Bletisa is correct, they lived near (or they were part of) the [[Vettones]].{{cn|date=August 2024}} A hospitality token dated to AD 27 mentions the "senate and people of Bletisama," and the name ''Bletonesii'' as found in [[Plutarch]] may be equivalent to the Bletisamenses found in inscriptions.<ref>Andrew C. Johnston, ''The Sons of Remus: Identity in Roman Gaul and Spain'' (Harvard University Press, 2017), p. 305 on the ''tessera hospitalis'' and p. 298, n. 110, citing ''[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum|CIL]]'' 2. 857 and 859.</ref>

==Religious practice==
According to Plutarch,<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/Roman_Questions*/D.html#ref187 ''Quaestiones Romanes''], question 83</ref> the governing Romans learned that the Bletonesii had sacrificed a human to the gods, and called their leaders to account for this action. The leaders explained that the sacrifice was carried out in accordance with the law and custom of their people, a concept for which Plutarch uses the Greek word ''nomos'', equivalent to Roman ''[[mos maiorum|mos]]''. This explanation was accepted, since the Romans themselves had carried out human sacrifices in the earlier [[Roman Republic|Republic]], but the practice was forbidden for the future. The incident may have occurred shortly before the Roman senate formally banned human sacrifice in 97 BC, and had some influence on deliberations.<ref>Celia E. Schultz, "The Romans and Ritual Murder," ''Journal of the American Academy of Religion'' 78.2 (2010), pp. 533–534.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Vettones]]
*[[Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula]]
[[Category:Celtic tribes of the Iberian Peninsula]]
[[Category:Ancient peoples of Spain]]

{{Pre-Roman peoples in Spain}}

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