Editing Citadel (section)

===800 BC – 400 AD===
[[File:Bibracte Porte Rebout.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the redoubt of [[Bibracte]], a part of the Gaulish ''[[oppidum]]''. The [[Celts]] utilized these fortified cities in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.]]
In [[Ancient Greece]], the [[Acropolis]], which literally means "high city", placed on a commanding eminence, was important in the life of the people, serving as a lookout, a refuge, and a stronghold in peril, as well as containing military and food supplies, the [[shrine]] of the god and a royal [[palace]]. The most well known is the [[Acropolis of Athens]], but nearly every Greek city-state had one – the [[Acrocorinth]] is famed as a particularly strong fortress. In a much later period, when Greece was ruled by the [[Latin Empire]], the same strong points were used by the new feudal rulers for much the same purpose.

In the first millennium BC, the [[Castro culture]] emerged in northwestern Portugal and Spain in the region extending from the [[Douro]] river up to the [[Minho River|Minho]], but soon expanding north along the coast, and east following the river valleys. It was an autochthonous evolution of [[Atlantic Bronze Age]] communities. In 2008, the origins of the [[Celts]] were attributed to this period by [[John T. Koch]]<ref>{{cite journal | last = Koch | first = John | title = Tartessian: Celtic from the Southwest at the Dawn of History in Acta Palaeohispanica X Palaeohispanica 9 (2009)| journal = Palaeohispánica: Revista Sobre Lenguas y Culturas de la Hispania Antigua | publisher = Palaeohispanica | year = 2009 | pages = 339–351 | url = http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf | issn = 1578-5386 | access-date = 2010-05-17 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100623034727/http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/29/54/26koch.pdf| archive-date= 23 June 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> and supported by [[Barry Cunliffe]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Cunliffe|first=Barry|title=A Race Apart: Insularity and Connectivity in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 75, 2009, pp. 55–64|year=2008| publisher=The Prehistoric Society|page=61}}</ref> The [[Ave River]] Valley in Portugal was the core region of this culture,<ref name="castrejoNWPort">Armando Coelho Ferreira da Silva. ''A Cultura Castreja no Noroeste de Portugal''. Museu Arqueológico da Citânia de Sanfins, 1986</ref> with a large number of small settlements (the ''castros''), but also settlements known as citadels or [[oppida]] by the Roman conquerors. These had several rings of walls and the Roman conquest of the citadels of Abobriga, Lambriaca and Cinania around 138 BC was possible only by prolonged [[siege]].<ref name="galeg">{{cite book|author=Don José de Santiago y Gómez|title=Historia de Vigo y Su comarca |publisher=Imprenta y Lotografía Del Asilo De Huérfanos Del Sagrado Corázon de Jesús|year=1896}}</ref> Ruins of notable citadels still exist, and are known by archaeologists as [[Citânia de Briteiros]], [[Citânia de Sanfins]], [[Cividade de Terroso]] and [[Cividade de Bagunte]].<ref name="castrejoNWPort"/>

====167–160 BC====
Rebels who took power in a city, but with the citadel still held by the former rulers, could by no means regard their tenure of power as secure. One such incident played an important part in the history of the [[Maccabean Revolt]] against the [[Seleucid Empire]]. The [[Hellenistic]] [[garrison]] of [[Jerusalem]] and local supporters of the Seleucids held out for many years in the [[Acra (fortress)|Acra]] citadel, making Maccabean rule in the rest of Jerusalem precarious. When finally gaining possession of the place, the Maccabeans pointedly destroyed and razed the Acra, though they constructed another citadel for their own use in a different part of Jerusalem.