tion itself wasn’t very deep. Many disturbances happened against the occupation.
For example a lot of time after the occupation of Cantabria by the Romans the cantabrian kept and maintaining its beliefs and its old pagan religion. In fact , it was discovered an ”Ara” dedicated to some Cantabrian Gods in the Mount Dobra in the 399 A.C. The Cantabrian they practiced worships of naturalistic type: venerated to the mounts, forests, lakes, rivers, some animals ... The solar representations of the numerous gigantic rock wakes that have been found, they cause they suppose that also the worship to a solar God would exist. They had a Gods Council and this Solar God could be one of –or the- the principals. This gigantic rock wake have been found in Zurita de Piélagos, Barros y Lombera en Buelna y San Vicente de Toranzo.
It seems that the cremation with the deceased was practiced, except with the ones that died in the battlefield, that should remain lying down there until the vultures to open their bowels to transport their souls to the sky (this it is a custom that has remained reflected in one of the faces of the wake of Zurita). The Cantabrian they used as strategy the guerrilla warfare and were skillful riders (some Cantabrian strategies of cavalry were adopted by the Roman army). They had hymns of battle that intoned even when they were crucified. Of brutal, self-sacrificing, and heroic character at the same time, illustrative anecdotes of the war arrive that maintained with the Romans.
When Roman Empire collapses Cantabria recover Independence with the same territory than before the Roman occupation. This was from III-IV century till VI century when the Visigoths started attacking Cantabria.
Cantabrian do not give samples of roman influence, therefore they conserve their preroman language in great measure and are pagans. Thus, Cantabria remains alien to the Visigoth kingdom to Leovigildo that was proposed to submit to the towns that still they escaped to their control in the middle of the century VI B.C. It penetrated in Cantabria and took Amaya in the year 574 destroying and burning it. Amaya, located in the south of the country was the historical capital of the Cantabrian Country. And the headquarters of Cantabrian Senate. This “senate” was the Council where all the tribes were represented and was the head of the nation. The Visigoth killed most of the members of it and then started to try to occupied the rest of the territory. But it wasn’t easy and they weren’t available to finish it. Many deep valleys, high mountains, lost villages didn’t see never Visigoth presence and the revolts and the resistance against them was high and bloody.
The real expansion of Catholicism started with them. For example the Catholic Church of that age give the Visigoth knights the right of attacked and killed all the Cantabrian people (including women) that they were been saw or were belief to keep the old worship and pagan cult.
But worship of naturalistic type and bits of pagan essences survive quite strongly till the early XX century. When the Moorish tribes attacked the Visigoth kingdoms they defeat them and many of them come to Cantabria to find refuge. After the Covadonga Battle, the Moorish army was defeated by Cantabrian and Asturian troops. They never reach Cantabria. But unfortunately for the Cantabrian People the Visigoth, Catholic fanatics and Landlords that escape from the south and came to find refuge started to build their power, expand their influence and religion (catholic). Here began the Dark ages for Cantabria. Even the name was forgotten by the cantabrian people. The territory was divided by foreign kingdoms: the Asturias de Santillana and Castilla mainly. But in villages and cities the basic form of govern was the council, usually under the biggest and oldest, near the churches or sacred places. But Cantabrian national identity was near forgotten by the people. Even some priests take out theories that the Cantabrian were the ascendants of the Basques. Or that ist was situated in La Rioja.
During the middle ages the power 