Numancia

Numancia is the name of a Celtiberian and then Roman town located next to Garray, a small village near Soria. It is famous because of its epic resistance to the Roman invasion.

After the Punic wars (2nd century B.C.), the Roman Empire conquered the Iberian Peninsula. When villages next to Numancia were attacked, their inhabitants moved to Numancia. The Romans got angry and decided to attack Numancia. For 20 years the Romans performed several campaigns (they even used elephants), but they were not successful.

So, Rome had to send their most important general, Scipio. He decided to besiege the town. He built 7 camps and a wall with towers between them surrounding Numancia. As they were starving, they had to surrender, but, before doing that, some of them committed suicide and burnt the town. The rest of them were made slaves. Numancia’s resistance became a legend.

After all this, the Romans built their own town on the ruins. Maybe the Visigoths maintained the town until the 6th century, when it was abandoned.

Soria’s inhabitants are proud of this story. The football team’s name is Numancia, every summer there is a theatre play about this and one of the most famous souvenirs from Soria is the Celtiberian horse.