c. numantia, where lucit and his father fight romans until lucit has enough of it and escapes into the pyrenees: When Lucit's father dies a hero's death he begins to realize he has no more heart for this life and longs to live in peace and have a family.
When we arrived at Numantia (Numancia in the local language) the sign at the gate said it was open, but it was not:
Note that the sign says it was a Celtiberian-Roman town. When the Romans won, they did take it over oc course, giving the surrounding territories to the local tribes that had become loyal to the Romans. In fact, through the fence I was able to take a picture of a Roman column in the city, one of the few things now standing:
What is importasnt to the story is realizing how difficult it was to sneak up on this hilltop city. In every direction there were downslopes. To the east:
To the west:
To the north/northwest:
And to the south, in the direction of the River Piedra where Piri lived, perhaps about 120 km away:
The southerly view also shows one of the old accessroads:
Turning around at this same spot shows the view to the north, to the foothills of the Pyrenees on the horizon:
The southeastern view shows a nice collection of golden-leaved trees.
The Numantia area is much drier than the other areas visited in this tour of sites important to my story, but it is not far from a sizable river, the mighty Ebro, and not far from a smaller tributary.
The rivers make agriculture possible in the valley bottoms along their shores, but there is enough rainfall in this area to support grassland and brush, pictured above, as well as dry-land grain production, which was practiced during the time of the story as well as now.
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