the Blue Spaniards

[iberus_generalis]

does anyone knows anything about the infamous Blue Spaniards mencioned in some books, some movies, the last of wich being HBO Rome??
all i know about them is that they were a lot like the Gaesatae, fighting tottaly naked, tottaly painted in blue woad, they were feared by many, and in HBO Rome they appear to be well versed in the art of sneaking.... anyone knows anything about this guys? they would give excelet elite troops for iberia....

[tk-421]

Never heard of them. My knowledge of Iberian soldiers is pretty much limited to Scutari and Caetrati though.

[iberus_generalis]

don't feel bad about it, usually ppl tend to forget about the pre roman culture of my land, even in my own country...many of my friends still think the romans took over Iberia peacefully...little did they know that some of the fiercest peoples, and the ones that caused some of the most shameful defeats to the romans were iberian..take Lusitans from the Herminian hills...so many times they are underestimated, but they were one of the few peoples who ever imposed a peace treat to all mighty rome..they actully defeated rome..if only to wait a year until war broke out again...and even after the genocide rome comitted against them, they from time to time rebeled... thus the quote in my sig..=) and besides the lusitans we can see the celtiberians, that killed so many romans at numantia, and the Asturians, the last of the Iberian societies to be subdued...many ppl talk about the gauls, and the brits, but little talk about the viciousness of the iberian tribes=) a friend who is historian tells me, romans often ran away at the sight of fighting some of the tribes, i don't know if it's true, but i guess i can belive in him...

and in the end the Celtic peoples of Iberia, only allowed to be subdued cuz of the genocides roman governors did with the lusitani and the celtiberians..

[VandalCarthage]

I'm definitely interested to hear this, though to be honest, the first thing that occured to me was Franco's volunteer "Blue Brigade." Hehe, much different bunch

[eadingas]

Probably celtiberians or celtic immigrants from the north... you're lucky Ranika ain't here right now, or he'd give you a 2-page essay on them ;)

[iberus_generalis]

i forgot to tell that...guess they would be gaelic from galicia, or celtiberian....i would like this guy to be around, as im really curious...
knowing that franco was obsessed with the glorious past of spain, i wouldn't find it odd that this blue brigade is by some chance inspired by this ancient warriors

[Obelics]

well, i can say that Mussolini fulfilled the italian cultural and architectonical panorama, with Roman rethorics, that was totally anacronistich, for example Naples (my city, ancient Nea-polis) had to become the magnificent Port of the Empire, etc., so i think those are mechanics common to '900s european dictators, they made only worst think in my opinion and totally anachronistic...(Hitler tryied somethink similar with the german ancien heritage mixed with the irrationalistic philosophic tendency of that period) it is really bad when someone try to rises the ancient heritage of a nation to pursue it's political ends... a totally different matter is when these ancient heritage are used to create a better coesion in the nation, this are good ends... but they are dangerous, cause they can often be used for other ends...

EDIT: i remember for example that our medieval and pre-Rinascimental poets (like Petrarca, Dante etc.) made a real better use of these ancient heritage, they often recalled our ancient past just to raises the people against the divisions followed to the progressive lost of indipendence of the italian multiple states... but you know the poets are just another race of people than politics... this could be a paradox, but often it is better to trust a poet than to trust a politic...

[iberus_generalis]

well i've been looking around the TWC forums, and merextrix left some naked fanatic models, similar to the gaesatae, naked and all, in the downloads area, that are the blue spaniards, so i guess im not the only person who heard of them...i already included them in my Eb install...they look something like this...


they do have swords, covered in woad, but i messed up, in the primary atack and gave them javelins, i'll fix that soon, the unit cards, were absent in the download pack, so i must do them later...all the stats were made similar to the EB Gaesatae, as they likely shared many stats...
but by their look they are far more frightening than the gaesatae, who are already vicious...

if anyone interested in them look for Meretrixs' GaestaePak

[Spectral]

many of my friends still think the romans took over Iberia peacefully...

Huh ?? They never heard 'bout Viriato at school or elsewhere ? That's a bit difficult I'd say Viriato is one of the most easily recognisable persons of our history by the general public...


There are no blue-naked-warriors in ospreys book about the iberian enemies of rome, but I didn't find that one particularly in-depth. IIRC there are some references there you can see where CA took the bull-warrior idea, but I can't be more specific as I don't have the book right here with me...

talking about blue-naked-warriors isn't there some sweboz unit like this ?

[iberus_generalis]

they know who is viriato, who were the lusitani, and where some of their main castra were, the herminian hills, today's Serra da estrela(Mountain(s) of the Star)...but the idea of efective oposition to Rome as in full out war, the guerrila war, and the remaining scenario of the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula is unknown to many of them...it's a problem with our education system...too ocupied in stating facts, and not the relations between them, much less how to think freely without the guidance of a opinion guider...some of them think Viriatho was a hero, but can't exactly know because of what, and who was he enemie of... it's sad to see that in this hero's nation, the younger generation in general is so ignorant toward it's history, but that the fruit of more than 50 years of a dictatorial regime, and of almost 30 years of political incompetence in the matters of economy, education and health....first came Salazar(our most notorious dictator) with his God, Homeland, and Family policie, wich defended ignorance as a measure of controling the masses, education was a joke, washing kids brains with the lies of the regime...in 1963 it was still taught in school that india was still portuguese, and we still owned it, and we all know this was not so for some decades at the time...then with the revolution came comunist ignorants(i am simpathethic with some of the comunist predicats, but this guys were plain hoodlums and ignorants, who could barely write their names), wanting to make our beautiful, into a comunist hell, then several generations of incompetent politics, and the education still not teaching what it should teach..today education in my country is still a joke...and only some free thinking kids(a minority) bother to Learn things as they should be, establishing relations between facts, and everything...and although viriatus is somewhat of a portuguese heroe, only a few really know what he really is about...

the general ignorance of the youth in my country is so great that kids don't even know the name of the founder of Portugal, our first king, don't know he was a grandchildren of the king of castille, and that he rebeled against his mother and his family, that he was a puppet of sorts for the Portucalense noble families, that he was a sanguinary bastard, that he ordered the complete extermination of entire cities, even provinces...and yet he is portaid as a person full of virtues, and little vices...but nonetheless we must give him credit, cuz he was a military genius the night raids of his were revolutionary, and that he founded our small country=)

[Simmons]

Probably celtiberians or celtic immigrants from the north... you're lucky Ranika ain't here right now, or he'd give you a 2-page essay on them ;)

No thats bad luck

[Spectral]

aw c'mon bericus_generalis, that's not a problem exclusive to Portugal, or even of history itself nowadays...

About D.Afonso Henriques, once again I disagree with you, everybody knows who he was. And I think you're being to harsh on him, he wasn't that bloody or controlled by others, at least for medieval standards. He achieved what countless other nobles tried without success through out Europe at those times: he took his county and transformed it in a fully fledged kingdom, which lasts for +800 years, fighting continuously powers much greater than his own.

[iberus_generalis]

i think he was not the great guy, every mainstream source affirms...e believe he was exactly what i said before, i've read much about him, and almost everything points that way...

[Obelics]

well, Iberus General, sorry for being off-topic, but your posts has reminded me of an hystory-trasmission i saw sometime ago on TV, there were a famous italian historian who was speaking of Giulio Cesare (the trasmission was talking about him and the story of the triunvirate till the death of Kaesar), well, at the end of the trasmission the famous historian sayd: (sorry for the strange traslation) "walking through the italian places, i often see 'giulio cesare streets', well my dream is to walk along "Brutus street" and take a coffy in "Kassius plaza"...

this was just to say sometime the Time make we to forget somethink and make we to mithycize some others... the same could be sayd for Costantinus the Great...

[iberus_generalis]

yep..let's get back to the topic then...i looked around the net, and this guys are like phantoms...referenced here and there, but no real substantial information...man i feel frustrated

[Spectral]

yep..let's get back to the topic then...i looked around the net, and this guys are like phantoms...referenced here and there, but no real substantial information...man i feel frustrated

well, what were you expecting, stuff like conspiracy theories ( now the fake moon landing has lost its throne to the 9/11 one) is so much more sexy

[The Unknown Guy]

I think they might be Açuitanians. The Romans considered them spaniards

[J.Alco]

Ah! A spaniard on the forum! Menos mal, empezaba a pensar que yo era el único.

Yo, personalmente, nunca he oído hablar sobre los fánaticos azules, aunque tampoco me sorprendería demasiado el hecho de que existieran y que no han quedado pruebas de ello. Despues de todo, las tribus 'bárbaras' no tenían tanta costumbre de dejar una historia escrita, a diferencia de los romanos o los griegos, y cuando los romanos conquistaban algo, generalmente no dejaban mucho que se pudiera recobrar. Ademas, como ya ha dicho otro miembro en este foro, es posible que viniesen de una tribu de Aquitania que se había expandido a traves de los pirineos, y que los romanos los confundieran con una tribu ibera.

You are right though. If definite proof is found that they did exist, they would make for an interesting Lusotannan unit (though myself I've always preferred playing as the Romani and I always have a BALL subjugating my homeland Es que soy un traidor, que se le va a hacer? )

An interesting post to be sure, and here's to hoping the blue fanatics might one day be included in EB!

[Spendios]

whoah ! thread necromancy

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

whoah ! thread necromancy

More than a year old...
I thought it was odd iberus_generalis was back...

[Watchman]

Major bad juju, man.

Mind you, EB can never have too many naked men with sharp implements of grievous bodily harm...

[Megas Methuselah]

We should bring back the oldest-known thread...

[The Unknown Guy]

Yo, personalmente, nunca he oído hablar sobre los fánaticos azules, aunque tampoco me sorprendería demasiado el hecho de que existieran y que no han quedado pruebas de ello.

Creo çue Suetonio o alguno por el estilo hizo un listado de las tribus prerromanas en la península. A los Açuitanos les incluían porçue por lo visto eran bastante parecidos a las tribus vasconas (así çue sospecho çue con Açuitanos se refieren más concretamente a Iparralde)

Despues de todo, las tribus 'bárbaras' no tenían tanta costumbre de dejar una historia escrita, a diferencia de los romanos o los griegos, y cuando los romanos conquistaban algo, generalmente no dejaban mucho que se pudiera recobrar.

Pero muchas tribus bárbaras sí tenían escritura rúnica. Y en la península, de hecho casi todas. Y muchas no eran estrictamente "bárbaras", más çue nada porçue llevaban siglos comerciando con griegos y fenicios. No es çue haya çuedado mucho, pero hace tiempo leí en alguna revista çue estaban investigando unas lápidas en nosedonde.

[Jolt]

does anyone knows anything about the infamous Blue Spaniards mencioned in some books, some movies, the last of wich being HBO Rome??
all i know about them is that they were a lot like the Gaesatae, fighting tottaly naked, tottaly painted in blue woad, they were feared by many, and in HBO Rome they appear to be well versed in the art of sneaking.... anyone knows anything about this guys? they would give excelet elite troops for iberia....

Yes, they exist... But only in the head of some people. Just like geometrically rectangular roman shields.

[Mr Kaplan]

What does Iberus generalis mean? Iberian general? Wouldnt it be Legatus iberii or something similar?
I am just asking.