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CADIZ (Town) ANDALUCIA
Gades (-ium; also Gadis, and Gaddis), the Latin form of the name which,
in the original Phoenician, was Gadir (or Gaddir), and in the Greek Gadeira (ta
Gadeipa; Ion. Gedeira, Herod.; and, rarely, he Gadeira, Eratosth. ap. Steph. B.
s. v.), and which is preserved in the form Cadiz or Cadix, denotes a celebrated
city, as well as the island on which it stood (or rather the islands, and hence
the plural form), upon the SW. coast of Hispania Baetica, between the straits
and the mouth of the Baetis. (Eth. Gadeireus, fem. Gadeiris, also, rarely, Gadeirites,
Gadeiraios and Gadeiranos, Steph. B.; Adj. Gadeirikos, e. g. with chora, Plat.
Crit. p. 114, b: Lat. Adj. and Eth. Gaditanus). The fanciful etymologies of the
name invented by the Greek and Roman writers, are barely worthy of a passing mention.
(Plat. Critias, p. 114, Steph. B. s. v.; Etym. M.; Suid.; Hesych.; Eustath. ad
Dion. Perieg. 64.) The later geographers rightly stated that it was a Phoenician
word (Dion. Per. 456; Avien. Ora Marit. 267-269: Gaddir hic est oppidum: Nam Punicorum
lingua conseptum locum Gaddir vocabat.
It was the chief Phoenician colony outside the Pillars of Hercules,
having been established by them long before the beginning of classical history.
(Strab. iii. pp. 148, 168; Diod. Sic. v. 20; Scymn. Ch. 160; Mela, iii. 6. § 1;
Plin. v. 19. s. 17; Vell. Paterc. i. 2; Arrian. and Aelian. ap. Eustath. ad Dion.
Perieg. 454.) To the Greeks and Romans it was long the westernmost point of the
known world; and the island on which it stood (Isla de Leon) was identified with
that of Erytheia, where king; Geryon fed the oxen which were carried off by Hercules;
or, according to some, Erytheia was near Gadeira. (Hesiod. Theog. 287, et seq.,
979, et seq.; Herod. iv. 8; Strab. iii. pp. 118, 169; Plin. iv. 21. s. 36; and
many others: for a full discussion of the question, see Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1,
pp. 240, 241.) The island was also called Aphrodisias, and Cotinussa, and by some
both the city and the island were identified with the celebrated Tartessus.
The early writers give us brief notices of Gades. Herodotus (l. c.)
places Gadeira on the ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and near it the island
of Erytheia. Scylax states that, among the Iberi, the first people of Europe (on
the W.), there are two islands, named Gadeira, of which the one has a city, a
day's journey from the Pillars of Hercules. (Scylax, pp. 5, 120, ed. Gronov.,
pp. 1, 51, ed. Hudson.) Eratosthenes mentioned the city of Gadeira (ap. Steph.
B. s. v.), and the happy island of Erytheia, in the land of Tartessis, near Calpe
(ap. Strab. iii. p. 148, who refers also to the views of Artemidorus). In the
period of the Carthaginian empire, therefore, the situation of the place was tolerably
well known to the Greeks; but it is not till after the Punic Wars had given Spain
to the Romans, that we find it more particularly described. The fullest description
is that of Strabo (iii. pp. 140, 168), who places it at a distance of less than
2000 stadia from the Sacred Headland (C. S. Vincent), and 70 from the mouth of
the Baetis (Guadalquivir) on the one side, and about 750 from Calpe (Gibraltar)
on the other, or, as some said, 800. Mela (ii. 7) transfers it to the entrance
of the Straits, which he makes to begin at Junonis Pr. (C. Trafalgar). Pliny,
who makes the entrance of the Straits at Mellaria, places Gades 45 M. P. outside
(iv. 22. s. 36, with Ukert's emendation: the MSS. vary between 25 and 75). The
island is described as divided from the mainland of Baetica by a narrow strait,
like a river (Mela, iii. 6), the least breadth of which is given by Strabo as
only 1 stadium (606 ft.), and as barely 700 ft. by Pliny, who makes the greatest
breadth 7 1/2 M. P. (ii. 108. s. 112): it is now called the River of St. Peter,
and the bridge which spanned it (Itin. Ant. p. 409) is called the Puente de Zuazo,
from Juan Sanchez de Zuazo, who restored it in the 15th century. The length of
the island was estimated at about 100 stadia (Strab. l. c.), or 12 M. P. (Polyb.
ap. Plin. l. c.: Pliny himself says 15): its breadth varied from one stadium to
3 Roman miles (Strab., Plin., ll. cc.). The city stood on the W. side of the island,
and was from the first very small in comparison with its maritime importance.
Even after it was enlarged by the building of the New City, under the Romans,
by its wealthy and celebrated citizen, the younger Balbus, the Double City (he
Didume), as it was called, was still of very moderate dimensions, not exceeding
20 stadia in circuit: and even this space was not densely peopled, since a large
part of the citizens were always absent at sea. In fact, the city proper seems
to have consisted merely of the public buildings and the habitations of those
immediately connected with the business of the port, while the upper classes dwelt
in villas outside the city, chiefly on the shore of the mainland, and on a smaller
island opposite to the city, which was a very favourite resort (Trocadero or S.
Sebastian). The territory of the city on the mainland was very small; its wealth
being derived entirely from its commerce, as the great western emporium of the
known world. Of the wealth and consequence of its citizens Strabo records it as
a striking proof, that in the census taken under Augustus, the number of Equites
was found to be 500, a number greater than in any town, even in Italy, except
Patavium; while the citizens were second in: number only to those of Rome. Their
first alliance with Rome was said to have been formed through the centurion L.
Marcius, in the very crisis of the war in Spain, after the deaths of the two Scipios
(B.C. 212): another instance of the disaffection of the old Phoenician cities
towards Carthage; a feeling all the stronger in the case of Gades, as she had
only submitted to Carthage during Hamilcar's conquest of Spain after the First
Punic War. The alliance was confirmed (or, as some said, first made) in the consulship
of M. Lepidus and Q. Catulus, B.C. 78. (Cic. pro Balbo, 15; comp. Liv. xxxii.
2.) C. Julius Caesar, on his visit to the city during the Civil War in Spain,
B.C. 49, conferred the civitas of Rome on all the citizens of Gades. (Dion Cass.
xli. 24; Columella, viii. 16.) Under the empire, as settled by Augusta, Gades
was a municipium, with the title of Augusta Urbs Julia Gaditana, and the seat
of one of the four conventus juridici of Baetica. (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3, iv. 22.
s. 36; Inscr. ap. Gruter, p. 358, no. 4; Coins ap. Florez, Med. vol. ii. p. 430,
vol. iii. p. 68, who contends that the city was a colony; Mionnet, vol. i. p.
12, Suppl. vol. i. p. 25; Sestini, p. 49; Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 19-22.) There are
extant coins of the old Phoenician period, as well as of the Roman city; the former
are, with one exception, of copper, and generally bear the head of the Tyrian
Hercules (Melcarth), the tutelary deity of the city, on the obverse, and on the
reverse one or two fish, with a Phoenician epigraph, in two lines, of which the
upper has not been satisfactorily explained, while the lower consists of the four
letters which answer to the Hebrew characters HEBREW or HEBREW,
Agadir or Hagadir, that is, the genuine Phoenician form of the city's name, with
the prosthetic breathing or article, the omission of which gives GADIR, the form
recognised by the Greek and Roman writers. (Eckhel, l. c. and vol. iii. p. 422.)
The coins of the Roman period are very remarkable for the absence of the name
of the city, which occurs only on one of them, a very ancient medal, having an
ear of corn, with the epigraph MUN (i. e. Municipium) on the obverse,
and on the reverse GADES with a fish. The remaining medals bear, for
the most part, the insignia of Hercules, and naval symbols, with the names of
the successive patrons of the city, namely, Balbus, Augustus, M. Agrippa, and
his sons Caius and Lucius, and the emperor Tiberius. (Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 20-22.)
The first of these names refers to two eminent citizens of Gades,
who are distinguished by the names of Major and Minor. L. Cornelius Balbus Major,
who is generally surnamed Gaditanus, or, as Cicero writes jestingly, Tartesius
(ad Att. vii. 3), served against Sertorius, first under Q. Metellus, and then
under Pompey, whom he accompanied to Rome, B.C. 71, and who conferred upon him
the Roman citizenship, his right to which was defended by Cicero in an extant
oration. With both he lived in terms of intimacy, as well as with Crassus and
Caesar, and afterwards with Octavian. He was the first native of any country out
of Italy who attained to the consulship. But his nephew, L. Cornelius Balbus Minor,
who, as proconsul of Africa, triumphed over the Garamantes in B.C. 19, and who
attained to the dignity of Pontifex (Veil. Paterc. ii. 51, and coins), is probably
the one to whom the coins refer, as he was the builder of the New City of Gades.
He undertook this work when he was quaestor to Asinius Pollio in Further Spain,
B.C. 43. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 32.) Balbus also constructed the harbour of Gades,-Portus
Gaditanus,-on the mainland (Strab., Mela, ll. cc.; Itin. Ant. p. 409; Ptol. ii.
4: now Puerto Real), and the bridge already mentioned, which was so constructed
as to form also an aqueduct. The Antonine Itinerary places the bridge 12 M. P.
from Gades, and the harbour 14 M. P. further, on the road to Corduba. Of the other
public buildings the most remarkable were the temples of the deities whom the
Romans identified with Saturn and Hercules. The former was in the city itself,
opposite to the little island already mentioned; the latter stood some distance
S. of the city, 12 M. P. on the road to Malaca, in the Itinerary, and still further
according to Strabo, who has a long discussion of a theory by which this temple
was identified with the Columns of Hercules (iii. pp. 169, 170, 172, 174, 175;
Plin ii. 39. s. 100; Liv. xxi. 21; Dion Cass. xliii. 40, lxxvii. 20). The temple
had a famous oracle connected with it, and was immensely rich. It was also remarkable
for a spring, which rose and fell with the tide. Its site is supposed to have
been on the I. S. Petri or S. Pedro (St. Peter's Isle), a little islet lying off
the S. point of the main island of Leon. The city had one drawback to its unrivalled
advantages as a port: the water was very bad. (Strab. iii. p. 173.) Besides the
general articles of its commerce, its salt-fish was particularly esteemed. (Athen.
vii. p. 315; Pollux, vi. 49; Hesych. s. v. Gadeira.) The immense wealth which
its inhabitants enjoyed led naturally to luxury, and luxury to great immorality.
(Juv. xi. 162; Mart. i. 61, foil., v. 78, vi. 71, xiv. 203.) The modern city of
Cadiz stands just upon the site of Gades, that is, on the NW. point of the island
of Leon, together with the island of Trocadero. (The following are the authorities
for the antiquities of Cadiz cited by Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 6: J. B. Suarez
de Salazar, Grandezas, &c., Cadiz, 1610, 4to.; Geronimo de la Concepcion, Emporio
de el Orbe, Amst. 1690, folio; Ms. de Mondejar, Cadiz Phenicia, Madrid, 1805,
3 vols. 4to.; Historia de Cadiz, Orosco, 1845, 4to.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CORDOBA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Corduba (Korduba, Kordube, Kordouba: Eth. and Adj. Cordubensis: Cordoba
or Cordova), one of the chief cities of Hispania, in the territory of the Turduli.
It stood on the right bank of the Baetis (Guadalquivir), a little below the spot
where the navigation of the river commenced, at the distance of 1200 stadia from
the sea. Its foundation was ascribed to Marcellus, whom we find making it his
headquarters in the Celtiberian War. (Strab. iii. p. 141; Polyb. xxxv. 2.) It
was occupied from the first by a chosen mixt population of Romans and natives
of the surrounding country; and it was the first colony of the Romans in those
parts. Strabo's language implies that it was a colony from its very foundation,
that is, from B.C. 152. It was regarded as the capital of the extensive and fertile
district of Baeturia, comprising the country between the Anas and the Baetis,
the richness of which combined with its position on a great navigable river, and
on the great high road connecting the E. and NE. parts of the peninsula with the
S., to raise it to a position only second to Gades as a commercial city. (Strab.
l. c., and p. 160 )
In the great Civil War Corduba suffered severely on several occasions,
and was at last taken by Caesar, soon after the battle of Munda, when 22,000 of
its inhabitants were put to the sword, B.C. 45. (Caes. B.C. ii. 19; Hirt. Bell.
Alex. 49, 57, 59, 60, Bell. Hisp. 32-34; Appian, B.C. ii. 104, 105; Dion Cass.
xliii. 32.)
Corduba was the seat of one of the four convents juridici of the province
of Baetica, and the usual residence of the praetor; hence it was generally regarded
as the capital of the province. (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3; Appian, Hisp. 65.) It bore
the surname of Patricia (Plin. l. c.; Mela, ii. 6. § 4), on account, as is said,
of the number of patricians who were among the colonists; and, to the present
day, Cordova is so conspicuous, even among Spanish cities, for the pride of its
nobles in their azure blood that the Great Captain, Gonzalo de Cordova, used to
say that other towns might be better to live in, but none was better to be born
in. (Ford, Handbook, p. 73.)
In the annals of Roman literature Corduba is conspicuous as the birthplace
of Lucan and the two Senecas, besides others, whose works justified the epithet
of facunda, applied to it by Martial (Ep. i. 62. 8):
Duosque Senecas, unicumque Lucanum Facunda loquitur Corduba. (Comp. ix.
61, and the beautiful epigram of Seneca, ap. Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. v.
pt. 3, p. 1364.)
Numerous coins of the city are extant, bearing the names of Corduba,
Patricia, and Colonia Patricia. (Florez, Med. de Esp. vol. i. p. 373, vol. ii.
p. 536; Mionnet, vol. i. p. 11, Suppl. vol. i. p. 23; Sestini, p. 46; Eckhel,
vol, i. p. 18.) There are now scarcely any remains of the Roman city, except a
ruined building, which the people dignify with the title of Seneca's House. (Florez,
Esp. Sagr. vol. x. p. 132; Minano, Diccion. vol. iii. p. 170.) The city is one
of Ptolemy's places of recorded astronomical observations, having 14 hrs. 25 min.
for its longest day, and being distant 3 2/5 hrs. W. of Alexandria. (Ptol. ii.
4. § 11, viii. 4. § 4.)
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ELVIRA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Illiberis (Ptol. ii. 4.11), or Illiberi Liberini (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3), one of the chief cities of the Turduli, in Hispania Baetica, between the Baetis and the coast, is identified by inscriptions with Granada. It is probably the Elibyrge (Eliburge) of Stephanus Byzantinus.
TARTISSOS (Ancient city) SPAIN
Tartessus (Tartessos, Herod. i. 163; Tartessos and Tartesos, Diodor.
Siculus, Frag. lib. xxv.), a district in the south of Spain, lying to the west
of the Columns of Hercules. It is now the prevailing opinion among biblical critics
that the Tarshish of Scripture indicates certain localities in the south of Spain,
and that its name is equivalent to the Tartessus of the Greek and Roman writers.
The connection in which the name of Tarshish occurs in the Old Testament with
those of other places, points to the most western limits of the world, as known
to the Hebrews (Genes. x. 4; 1 Chron. i. 7; Psalms, lxxii. 10; Isaiah, lxvi. 19);
[p. 1107] and in like manner the word Tartessus, and its derlivative adjectives,
are employed by Latin writers as synonymous with the West (Ovid, Met. xiv. 416;
Sil. Ital. iii. 399; Claud. Epist. iii. v. 14). Tarshish appears in Scripture
as a celebrated emporium, rich in iron, tin, lead, silver, and other commodities;
and the Phoenicians are represented as sailing thither in large ships (Ezek. xxvii.
12, xxviii 13; Jerem. x. 9). Isaiah speaks of it as one of the finest colonies
of Tyre, and describes the Tyrians as bringing its products to their market (xxiii.
1, 6, 10). Among profane writers the antiquity of Tartessus is indicated by the
myths connected with it (Strab. iii. p. 149; Justin, xliv. 4). But the name is
used by them in a very loose and indefinite way. Sometimes it stands for the whole
of Spain, and the Tagus is represented as belonging to it (Rutilius, Itin. i.
356; Claud. in Rufin. i. 101; Sil. Ital. xiii. 674, &c.). But in general it appears,
either as the name of the river Baetis, or of a town situated near its mouth,
or thirdly of the country south of the middle and lower course of the Baetis,
which, in the time of Strabo, was inhabited by the Turduli. The Baetis is called
Tartessus by Stesichorus, quoted by Strabo (iii. p. 148) and by Avienus (Ora Marit.
i. 224), as well as the town situated between two of its mouths; and Miot (ad
Herod. iv. 152) is of opinion that the modern town of S. Lucar de Barameda stands
on its site. The country near the lower course of the Baetis was called Tartessis
or Tartesia, either from the river or from the town; and this district, as well
as others in Spain, was occupied by Phoenician settlements, which in Strabo's
time, and even later, preserved their national customs. (Strab. iii. p. 149, vii.
p. 832; Arr. Exp. Alex. ii. 16; App. Hisp. 2; Const. Porphyrog. de Them. i. p.
107, ed. Bonn.) There was a temple of Hercules, the Phoenician Melcarth, at Tartessus,
whose worship was also spread amongst the neighbouring Iberians. (Arr. l.c.) About
the middle of the seventh century B.C. some Samiot sailors were driven thither
by stress of weather; and this is the first account we have of the intercourse
of the Greeks with this distant Phoenician colony (Herod. iv. 152). About a century
later, some Greeks from Phocaea likewise visited it, and formed an alliance with
Arganthonius, king of the Tartessians, renowned in antiquity for the great age
which he attained. (Herod. i. 163; Strab. iii. p. 151.) These connections and
the vast commerce of Tartessus, raised it to a great pitch of prosperity. It traded
not only with the mother country, but also with Africa and the distant Cassiterides,
and bartered the manufactures of Phoenicia for the productions of these countries
(Strab. i. p. 33; Herod. iv. 196; cf. Heeren, Ideen, i. 2. § § 2, 3). Its riches
and prosperity had become proverbial, and we find them alluded to in the verses
of Anacreon (ap. Strab. iii. p. 151). The neighbouring sea (Fretum Tartessium,
Avien. Or. Mar. 64) yielded the lamprey, one of the delicacies of the Roman table
(Gell. vii. 16); and on a coin of Tartessus are represented a fish and an ear
of grain (Mionnet. Med. Ant. i. p. 26). We are unacquainted with the circumstances
which led to the fall of Tartessus; but it may probably have been by the hand
of Hamilcar, the Carthaginian general. It must at all events have disappeared
at an early period, since Strabo (iii. pp. 148, 151), Pliny (iii. I, iv. 22, vii.
48), Mela (ii. 6), Sallust (Hist. Fr. ii.), and others, confounded it with more
recent Phoenician colonies, or took its name to be an ancient appellation of them.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
CORDOBA (Province) ANDALUCIA
The modern Cordova; one of the largest cities in Spain, and the capital of Baetica, on the right bank of the Baetis. It became a Roman colony B.C. 152, and was the birthplace of the two Senecas and of Lucan.
SEVILLE (Town) ANDALUCIA
more rarely Hispal. The modern Seville, a town of the Turdetani
in Hispania Baetica, founded by the Ph?nicians, and situated on the left bank
of the Baetis, and in reality a seaport, for, although 500 stadia from the sea,
the river is navigable for the largest vessels up to the town. Under the Romans
it was an important place, with the name Iulia Romula or Romulensis, and was surpassed
in size by Corduba (Cordova) and Gades alone. Under the Goths and Vandals it was
the chief town in the south of Spain; and under the Arabs the capital of a separate
kingdom.
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TARTISSOS (Ancient city) SPAIN
An ancient town in Spain, and one of the chief settlements of the Ph?nicians, probably the samearshish of Scripture. The whole country west of Gibraltar was called Tartessis.
ERYTHIA (Mythical lands) SPAIN
ANTEQUERA (Town) MALAGA
Anticaria (Antequera) Malaga, Spain.
Town 62 km N of Malaga, built over a megalithic cultural center. The Roman town
is documented in the Antonine Itinerary, 412.2, and by the Ravenna Cosmographer,
316.1 and 18. The nucleus of Roman Anticaria was probably under the mediaeval
castle.
A building E of the present city, beyond the megalithic caves, has
a wall of blind arches 54 m long, 2.8 m high, and ca. 1.5 m thick, closely connected
to a rectangular enclosure of the same length and 8 m wide by 2.8 m deep. This
was probably a villa rather than a bath because of its distance from the urban
center; mosaic fragments have been found. Sculptural and epigraphic material and
metal work found in the area is in the municipal museum, notably a portrait of
Drusus Maior and two busts, of a man and a woman, of the Antonine period.
L.G. Iglesias, ed.
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BAZA (Town) GRANADA
Basti (Baza) Granada, Spain.
Town ca. 50 km NE of Guadix, mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary (401.8), on several occasions by Strabo, and in Livy (37.46.7) in connection with a Roman defeat by the Bastetani. it was an episcopal see during the Early Christian and Visigoth periods. The iberian cemetery has yielded a large number of Greek vases, indicating that it was used during the 5th and 3d c. B.C. Recent finds inchide the so-called Lady of Baza, a seated Iberian figure still bearing traces of polychrome and dating from the 4th c. B.C.
BOLONIA (Village) ANDALUCIA
Baelo (Bolonia) Caidiz, Spain.
Town near Tarifa which in Roman times belongzd to the juridical district of Gades.
Pliny (3.7; 5.2) refers to it as the oppidum of S Baetica nearest Tingi (Tangier).
Its name appears variously in the sources (Mela 2.96; Strab. 3.140. 153; Ptol.
2.4.5; Plin. loc.cit.; Solinus 24.1; Ant. It. 407.3; Livy 33.21.8) and as Bailo
on its own bilingual coinage. For this the Libyo-Phoenician alphabet was employed,
with types of a standing bull on the obverse and an ear of grain on the reverse,
and occasionally the head of Hercules. During the main period of romanization
it also coined other types on asses, semisses, and quadrantes with the names of
magistrates. Under Claudius it was declared a municipium, as shown by the designation
Belone Claudia in the Ravenna Cosmographer 305.12 and 344.9, and confirmed by
a coin and a recently discovered inscription.
As a community of the Turdetani devoted to the fishing industry, it
was noted for its production of garum and other fish sauces. Some salting vats
may still be seen. Excavations have revealed the fortified enceinte with its gates,
the forum, theater, a nymphaeum, remains of the aqueduct, houses, and Roman, Christian,
Visigothic, and Mohammendan cemeteries. Many Latin inscriptions have also been
found, sculptures of divinities and humans, a sun-dial, fragments of Arretine
ware, terra sigillata (S Gallic and Hispanic) and plain ware. In view of the Libyo-Phoenician
characters on its coins, the town was probably founded before the Roman period,
but this has not been established. The oldest ceramic finds, however, are of Campanian
B and C, with a single example of decorated Iberian.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
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CADIZ (Town) ANDALUCIA
Gadir (Cadiz) Caidiz, Spain.
Originally a small island, long since much enlarged by silting and joined to the
mainland by a bridge (the Isla de Leon), and a larger long island now the peninsula.
Gadir was founded, according to tradition, by Phoenicians from Tyre in 1100 B.C.
(Strab. 3.5.5; Vell. Pat., Historia Romana 1.2.3). To the Phoenicians Gadir meant
a fortress or walled area, but Pliny (4.120) and Silinus (23.12) wrote that the
Carthaginians called it Gadir, meaning redoubt, as did Avienus (268) and St. Isidorus
(Etym. 45.6.7). Martial (1.61.9, 5.78.26) employs the plural in referring to Gades,
perhaps in imitation of the Greek (Hdt. 4.8). Pliny (4.119) states that, according
to Polybios, it was 12,000 paces long and 3000 wide; the part closest to the mainland
was less than 213 m from it, but the remainder was more than 2135 m away. Strabo
(3.5.3) says that the city was on the W part of the island, and that the Temple
of Moloch was on the end that projected toward the smaller island. The temple
of Hercules was on the other side, Sancti Petri, where the island was separated
from the mainland by a channel only one stadium wide; the sanctuary was ca. 19
km from the city.
The most ancient Greek material is a proto-Attic oinochoe, in the
Copenhagen Museum, which is thought to have been found in the city and dates from
the 7th c. B.C. Parts of Carthaginian necropoleis, ca. 150 hypogea from the 5th-3d
c. B.C., have been discovered; many gold jewels were found in the tombs, and Etruscan
bucchero of the 6th c. B.C. On the other hand, there are few terracottas, coarse
ceramics, ostrich eggs, lamps, and necklaces, as in Ibiza, and no Greek vases
or Campanian ceramics. A gold masked figurine is now in the National Archaeological
Museum in Madrid, and an anthropoid sarcophagus of the 4th c. B.C. in the Cadiz
Museum. The graves are impersonal and independent, made of huge stone blocks.
Nothing is known of the plan of the city, whose inhabitants were primarily
interested in trade and fishing. In the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. they controlled
tin mining and the tin trade (Strab. 3.5.11). Strabo (3.5.3) also writes that
Cadiz had the most sailors and the best ships, both in the Mediterranean and the
Atlantic. However, up to 500 horsemen were counted in a census. When the city
became crowded Galbus the Younger built a second one, and from both cities Didyme
arose (Strab. 3.5.3). Towards the end of the Republic, it had a theater, perhaps
of wood, of which no trace remains (Cic. Ad fam. 10.32.1). An underground tomb
from this period yielded many ceramic vases, a polychrome plate, and two engraved
gold rings, all now in the Cadiz Museum.
The city also minted coins at an early date and bronzes without inscriptions,
of Greek type. It initiated its series of coins with the Phoenician Hercules on
the obverse and the tuna, symbol of its fishing wealth, on the reverse. The silver
coins came somewhat later, a result of the Barcine domination, mining operations,
and military necessity. The obverse, bearing a head of Hercules with a club on
his shoulders, is taken from Greek coins. Drachmas and half-drachmas were minted.
With the Roman conquest appear asses of Roman metrology bearing a Phoenician inscription.
Infrequently, the reverse bears the caduceus and the trident. The smaller units
continue the same series, with tuna fish and dolphins. Other mintings do not follow
the Roman pattern, but are of barbaric design with neo-Carthaginian inscriptions.
Under Augustus, great commemorative medals appear, reminted coins characteristic
of the coinage of Cadiz, which continued until the time of Claudius, and always
had a Phoenician, never a Roman, inscription. On the obverse they bore the Hercules
of Gadir and priestly attributes in honor of Balbus, the builder of the new city,
as Pontifex. Others have Augustus on the obverse and Caius and Lucius on the reverse,
or Agrippa represented as praefectus classis. These medals were rapidly demonetized.
The city also had an arsenal.
In 49 B.C. Caesar bestowed Roman citizenship on the city (Livy Per.
110). Many inscriptions of the 1st c. have been found. Discoveries, including
a heroic statue of an emperor from the first half of the 2d c., are in the Archaeological
Museum of Cadiz. The city also had a statue of Alexander (Dion. Cass. 37.52).
The most important personages during the change in era in Cadiz were the Balbi.
The oldest was Caesar's banker; the nephew triumphed over the Garamantes and was
the first consul from the provinces possessed by Rome and the first provincial
who earned the honors of a triumph. During the 1st c. the puellae gaditanae, variety
hall artists, were famous and were mentioned by Strabo (2.3.5) and others (Mart.
3.63; 5.78; 14.203; Juv. Sat. 11.162; Pliny, Ep. 1.15).
The Temple of Hercules, one of the most famous sanctuaries of the
ancient world, was visited by Hannibal (Sil. 3.1), Fabius Maximus (App. Hisp.
65), Caesar (Dio. Cass. 37.52), whose future power was foretold by the priests,
and Apollonius of Tiana (Philostr. VA 5.5). Its ritual was always typically Semitic.
There was no image of the god, and only the priests were permitted to enter the
sanctuary. On the doors, which can be no earlier than 500 B.C. (Sil. 3.32-44),
were represented the labors of Hercules. The temple contained fabulous riches,
stolen by Mago in 206 B.C. (Livy 28.36.2). In 49 B.C. Varro ordered that the treasure
and decorations of the temple be transported to Cadiz (Caes. BCiv. 2.18,2). There
was still, in 60 B.C., a Temple to Moloch where human sacrifices were made, a
custom which Caesar abolished (Cic. Balb. 43), and altars to poverty and the arts,
services to Menestheus, veneration for Themistocles and other heroes and demigods.
There were services and an altar to old age, and a special worship of death, and
it was said that while the ocean tides were high the souls of the sick did not
expire (Philostr., VA 5.2-4). Towards the end of the 4th c. B.C., when Avienus
visited it, the city was in ruins, except for the Temple of Hercules.
J.M. Blazquez, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
CARMONA (Town) SEVILLE
Carmo (Carmona) Sevilla, Spain.
Town in Hispania Ulterior 33 km E of Seville. It belonged to the territory of
the Turduli and appears to have been a municipium, appearing in Agrippa's account
as oppidum civium romanorum or latinorum. Variants of the name Carmo appear (Caes.
BCiv. 2.19.4; Strab. 3.141; Ptol. 2.4.10; App. Hisp. 58; Bello Alexandr. 57.2;
64.1; Ant. It. 414.2; Ravenna Cosmographer 315.5).
Carmo began to mint coins before 133 B.C., the obverse of the ass
bearing the head of Mercury and of Mars or Roma, and the reverse, the name of
the mint between two ears of corn; on later issues, smaller in size, the reverse
type is the same but the obverse bears the head of Herakles. Surprisingly, while
Caesar called it one of the most important towns in Baetica, it is not mentioned
by Mela and Pliny. Its early remains are buried in the area extending from the
present Ayuntamiento to the Plaza de Abastos, where there is a large dolmen. Some
graves from the Carthaginian period (ca. 5th c. with rich grave goods, have been
discovered. The name of a certain Urbanibal, of Carthaginian descent, who lived
during the Roman period, is preserved on a funeral urn discovered in the Roman
cemetery and today in the Carmona museum.
Remains of the Roman period include part of the wall (the gates of
Seville and Cordoba were modified in the Arab and mediaeval periods), a large
temple, the Roman cemetery containing underground tombs such as those of Servilia,
Prepusa, Postumius, and the Elephant, and the amphitheater, which is partly cut
out of the rock and dates from the last quarter of the 1st c. B.C. Portraits,
sculptures, and inscriptions have also been found in the town and in the necropolis.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 5 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
CAZLONA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Castulo (Cazlona) Jaen, Spain.
An Ibero-Roman city of Baetica in the environs of Linares, inhabited from the
end of the Neolithic Age on and famous for the nearby silver mines of Sierra Morena.
It has produced fragments of Greek black-figure vases from the end of the 6th
c. B.C., red-figure vases from the first half of the 4th c. B.C., and some kraters
of the same date from Italy. It was the largest city in Oretania (Strab. 3.156)
and closely tied to the Carthaginian party (Livy 24.41). Nearby was the Baebelo
mine, which paid Hannibal 300 pounds of silver per day (Plin. 33.96).
Castulo played a large part in the beginning of the Roman conquest
(App. Iberia 16; Livy 26.19). The inscriptions on its coins were in native alphabets.
It has contributed a few good Roman portraits, one in a toga of the Flavian period,
many Hispanic sigillata and Roman gems, architectural fragments, Roman glass,
and animalistic sculpture such as Iberian and Roman lions, all now in the Archeological
Museum of Linares. Stelai with human figures in relief are in the Archaeological
Museum of Madrid. Many inscriptions have been found there, one of them a fragment
of an olive oil law of Hadrian. Iberian, Roman, and Visigothic necropoleis are
well documented. Castulo was surrounded by walls and had several temples, a theater,
and a circus.
J.M. Blazquez, ed.
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Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
CHIPIONA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Chipiona Cadiz, Spain.
Town NW of Cadiz, near the mouth of the Guadalguivir. The Coepionis monumentum corresponds to the Kaipionis Pyrgos of Poseidonius, according to Strabo (3.140) and, better still, to the Salmedina rock on which the monument or pharos must have stood. Appian (Hisp. 70) states that the pharos was built by Q. Servilius Caepio, hence its name. P. Mela (3.4) also mentions it. The town appears to have belonged to the Turduli and most of its ruins are probably under the sea. Coins, jewels, and terra sigillata vases have been found, and rock-cut pits as well as graves and their grave goods near the beach.
ELVIRA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Iliberris (Elvira) Granada, Spain. The exact location of this Baetic town W of Granada is not known and there is no archaeological evidence. About A.D. 309 19 bishops and 24 presbyters met here in a Council which promulgated 81 canons, notably no. 36, prohibiting images and paintings in the churches.
ESPEJO (Town) ANDALUCIA
Ucubi or Ucubis (Espejo) Cordoba, Spain.
To the SE of Cordoba, W of Castro del Rio. A colony exempt from the jurisdiction
of the Conventus Iuridicus Astigitanus, known as Claritas Julia according to Pliny
(NH 3.12), and mentioned by Sallust (1.123) in a passage that must refer to the
entry of Sertorius into Baetica after having defeated Metelus in Lusitania in
79-78 B.C. The cache of 700 Roman denarii found near Ucubi must have been hidden
on that occasion. Bellum Hispaniense contains several references to Ucubi during
the struggle between Caesar and the sons of Pompey in 45-44 B.C. Pompey camped
between Ategua and Ucubi when besieged by Caesar; the latter finally occupied
the site, but not until Pompey had ordered the execution of all those he suspected
of being Caesar's partisans (Bell.Hisp. 20.1; 24.2).
Remains apparently from that period include the amphitheater N of
the town, partly hewn out of a hillside. Only the walls of the substructure remain,
but the diameter of the arena must have been ca. 35 m. There is a Roman bridge
nearby. Inscriptions and the remains of houses and fortifications have been found
in Ategua vetus and Ucubi, and ceramic fragments in Ategua which date from the
1st c. B.C. and even earlier. The town is reputed to have been the birthplace
of Annius Verus, grandfather of Marcus Aurelius, and this accounts for the alleged
Cordovan origin of the emperor.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
ESTEPA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Astapa or Ostippo (Estepa) Sevilla, Spain.
Situated between Osuna and Puente Genil and mentioned by Pliny (NH 3.12). The
modern town surrounds the hill on which Astapa must have stood; but excavation
has produced no traces. Livy (28.22; 28.23.5) and Appian (Iber. 33) recount the
capture of Astapa by Marcius while Scipio retired to Carthago Nova after taking
Castulo and Iliturgi in 206 B.C. Famous for its defense by its inhabitants who,
after firing the town and consigning its valuables to the flames, slew their wives
and children and one another. Rome gained nothing by its capture. Livy writes
of it "ingenia incolarum latrocinio laeta". Its final fate reminds us
of Numantia.
GALERA (Town) GRANADA
Tutugi (Galera) Granada, Spain.
An Iberian city near Huescar in NE Granada. The burial chambers in its necropoleis have yielded eight Greek kraters belonging to the group of Polygnotos, of the Munich Painter, of the Painter of the Battle of the Griffins of Oxford, and the Painter of the Black Thyrsos; also three kylikes, two of them Attic (two from the 5th c. B.C., the other from the 4th), and two pelikes from the beginning of the 4th c. in the Kertch style. There are also two rectangular urns with animals lying on the covers and scenes on the sides, one of which shows Greek influence. Most of the finds are in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid.
GUADIX (Town) ANDALUCIA
Acci (Guadix) Granada, Spain.
Town 59 km NE of Granada, whose modern name comes from the Arabic Wadi-Aci. Pliny
refers to it as Colonia Accitana Gemellensis (3.25), adding that it possessed
Italic law from the time of its founding. Ptolemy (2.6) calls it Akkiand locates
it among the Bastetani. The Antonine Itinerary (402.1; 404.6) calls it Acci. On
the inscriptions (CIL II, 3391, 3393-94) it appears as Colonia Iulia Gemella Accis,
and on coins as Col(onia) Iul(ia) Gem(ella) Acci; the abbreviations L I II refer
to Legions I and II, whose veterans were settled there. The name Gemella comes
from these two legions. It was founded to guard the mountainous area in which
it was located. Until the reform of Augustus (7-2 B.C.) it was part of Baetica,
but was then transferred to Tarraconensis.
Its establishment as a colony has been attributed to Caesar or Octavius
because of the name Iulia and the fact that it lacked an epithet referring to
Augustus. However, not all the places founded by Augustus bear a name referring
to him and, moreover, the name Iulia was employed by Augustus before 27. Most
likely it was founded by Lepidus in 42 B.C. in the name of Octavius. It has not
been excavated.
R. Teja, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MALAGA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Malaca (Malaga) Malaga, Spain.
Roman city of Baetica on the S coast founded by the Carthaginians, perhaps in
the early 5th c. B.C. The classical authors call the inhabitants of the area Libyphoenicians
(probably the Carthaginian colonists). The Roman name preserves the Punic Malaka,
which meant trading post or commercial settlement. The first documentation of
the city comes from its minting of Carthaginian coins, the earliest of which date
from 200 B.C. The first literary reference is in Strabo (3.4.2), who states that
its plan is of the Phoenician (Carthaginian) type and that it had an important
salt, meat and fish industry. Mela (2.6.94) describes it as an unimportant city,
and Pliny (HN 3.8) states that it was federated with Rome. However, the principal
written document, the Lex Malacitana, is a bronze tablet, discovered in 1851 near
the city, containing chapters 51-69 of the city's law after it was made a Latin
municipium by Vespasian (Municipium Flavium Malacitanum). It is written on five
columns dating from 81-84, and is in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.
A bishop of Mlilaga first appears in the Council of Elvira.
The theater has features similar to those of the Merida and Djemilla
theaters. It is well preserved but has not been completely excavated. The Augustan
character of the inscriptions found date it from this period. The theater must
have been abandoned in the 3d c. since it was covered with a dump, rich in small
finds, of the 3d-4th c. The upper part of the stage was not covered, and its material
was reused by the Arabs in the Alcazaba. Many finds have come from the slopes
of this fortress: the oldest is a bronze handle of a Greek oinochoi showing an
ephebos leaning on a palm tree and two sirens carrying on their shoulders a creature
with a bull's head. It dates from the beginning of the 5th c. B.C. and is probably
the work of a Peloponnesian studio.
From the theater have come two statues of Attis, and a large silver
patera. From the vicinity of the city comes a bust of Antoninus Pius. All these
finds are in the Archaeological Museum of Malaga, which also houses the collection
of the Marqueses de Casa-Loring, much of which probably come from Malaga.
R. Teja, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MARBELLA (Town) MALAGA
Marbella Malaga, Spain.
On the Mediterranean coasts SW of Malaga. Not mentioned in literary sources. Some
6.4 km W of the town are the remains of a Roman villa. Among its mosaics is one
with representations of culinary themes: a simpulum (small ladle), a batillum
(chafing dish), a tripod, oinochoai, a hearth; also spits, onions, rabbits, game,
and fish. The mosaic dates from the first half of the 2d c. (J. Arce, ed.)
Caesar Aaugusta or Salduba (Zaragoza) Spain.
A Roman tribute-exempt colony on the right bank of the Ebro, where the oppidum
of Salduie (Salluie, Salduba of Pliny) formerly stood, in Sedetania (Plin. HN
3.24) and not in Edetania, a mistake arising from a misreading of the Leyden Codex.
It was founded by veterans of legiones IV Macedonica, VI Victrix, and X Gemina,
discharged after the wars against the Cantabri, ca. 24 B.C., as is shown by the
coins. It was the chief town of an extensive Conventus luridicus and was of great
importance during the time of Pomponius Mela, who stated (3.88) that the most
important towns of the interior were Palantia and Numantia in Tarraconensis and,
in its time, Caesaraugusta; Strabo (3.4.10, 13) adds that it was on the banks
of the Ebro, about 800 stadia from Numantia. Ptolemy calls it Kaisareia Augusta.
The colony was founded as a bridgehead and remains of the stone bridge
are preserved in the mediaeval and modern one. The town stood at the intersection
of the roads of the Ebro (Hiberus), Gallego (Gallicus, through which passed the
C. Benearnum road), Huerva (Orbia), and Salo (Jalon), 20 km away. It was also
a river port, as is confirmed by finds of amphorae near the confluence of the
Huerva and the Ebro. Its foundation date is controversial: 25, 19, or 15 B.C.
The oppidum has also been located at Zaragoza la Vieja (El Burgo, 10 km away)
and at Juslibol, on the left bank of the Ebro, but these claims are not soundly
based.
The town minted Iberian bronze coins, patterned on Roman coins, and
gave its name to a cavalry unit which served under Cn. Pompeius Strabo, son of
Sextus and father of the triumvir. Members of the unit were granted Roman citizenship
in 89 B.C. during the siege of Ascoli. Their names and the award are preserved
on a copper tablet; four of them were from the town.
The plan of the Roman town is preserved in the ancient part of Zaragoza:
the entire perimeter or cursum in the Coso, the decumanus maximus in the Calles
de Manifestacion, Mendez Nunez, and Mayor; the Calle Don Jaime I approximates
the cardo maximus, the forum was at the intersection of the two, and remains of
the cloaca maxima are in the N part of the cardo. The rectangular plan had four
gateways, preserved until the 19th c., the gates of Toledo and Valencia at the
ends of the decumanus, that of El Angel straddling the bridge, and the supposed
Cineraria, on the Coso. The wall, still visible in a few curtains flanked by fortified
towers, must be a 3d c. reconstruction necessitated by the barbarian invasions;
the perimeter of the town was reduced, and many shafts and bases of columns were
probably reused in this wall.
There are no other remains in site; but a number of monuments appear
on coins: a statue of Augustus between Gaius and Lucius (4 B.C.), perhaps Livia
seated (A.D. 15-16), and a fine hexastyle temple dedicated to the cult of Augustus
(28-29), an equestrian statue of Tiberius (31), and another tetrastyle temple
dedicated to the cult of Augustus (33). A number of shafts and Corinthian capitals
are housed in the museum.
The mosaics of the Plaza de Santa Engracia and the Plaza del Pilar
date from the 2d c. and include the triumph of Bacchus and that of Orpheus; there
are also statues, one of a man from the Plaza de la Seo, a group of hetairas making
music, a drunken faun from a suburban villa, and architectural fragments from
the place called Piedras de Coso, almost certainly the site of ancient temples.
Inscriptions are rare and of little importance.
Hispano-Roman coins are not continuous with the Iberian coins from
Salduie and are the most abundant series in the Peninsula; still unknown are the
coins struck when the colony was founded, ca. 24 B.C., on which must have appeared
the legate responsible for the deductio and the duoviri quinquennales who conducted
the census. Coins of the first series bear the head of Augustus, first bare and
later with a laurel wreath, before and after 27 June, 23 B.C., the yoke of oxen
led by a priest (on the asses), and a standard, a type also alluding to the foundation
(on the semisses). They all bear the names of the duoviri and range from the dupondius
to the sextans. The issues continued in the time of Tiberius and Caius Caesar,
but other types were added, bearing the standards of the legions with the numbers
of the founder legions, the bull, the abbreviated name of the town, CCA, and the
statues and temples already mentioned.
Finds are in the Zaragoza Museum, the National Archaeological Museum
in Madrid, and a few private collections.
A. Beltran, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MEDINA SIDONIA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Asido (Medina Sidonia) Cadiz, Spain.
A Roman colony near the S coast of Baetica and belonging to the juridical area of Hispalis (Seville) (Plin. 3.11). It is SE of Cadiz. The name appears to be of Punic origin, as shown by its bilingual coins. The mint employed the Libyo-Phoenician alphabet, and the leading motifs were the bull, the dolphin, and the full-front head of Hercules. Later it coined asses and semisses bearing ears of grain and fish. Variants of the name appear in Ptolemy (2.4.10) and in the Ravenna Cosmographer (317.9).
Remains include portraits, busts, togate figures, statues of divinities,
sarcophagi, inscriptions, columns, cameos, rings, and coins. Among these finds
are the epigram, now in the archaeological museum of Seville, dedicated to the
quattuorvir Quintus Fabius Senica by the Municipes Caesarini (perhaps a relative
of the Fabia Prisca of Asido, who occurs in a Cordova inscription), and the portraits
of Livia and Tiberius now in the archaeological museum of Cadiz. The Roman town
must lie under the modern one, as remains of buildings have been recorded in the
area of the present convents of S. Francisco and S. Cristobal, and the Calle Althaona
Vieja. No Phoenician or Punic remains have been found, but there has been no deep
excavation.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MESAS DE ASTA (Town) CADIZ
Hasta Regia or Asta (Mesas de Asta) Cadiz, Spain.
Town near Jerez de la Frontera, which belonged to the Conventus Hispalensis (Plin.
3.11; Mela 3.4; Ant. It. 409.4) and was a Turdetanian settlement. It was called
Asta in Strabo (3.140), elsewhere Hasta (Livy 39.21; Bellum Hisp. chs. 26, 36;
Ravenna Cosmographer 4.43). In 187 B.C. C. Caius Atinius captured it and it was
conquered by Caesar in 45 B.C.
The city minted coins during the Imperial age; and from a small bronze
coin with the legend P. COL. ASTA RE. F on the reverse, it appears to have been
called Colonia Asta Regia Felix. It was the third stage on the military road from
Cadiz to Cordoba via Seville, and its ruins were known in ancient times. Finds
made during the 19th c., now lost, included a granite lion, a headless togate
statue, a bust, and several inscriptions.
Excavations have uncovered material from phase I of the Mediterranean
Bronze Age which document an Ibero-Saharan culture showing central and E Mediterranean
influences, as evidenced by its incised, burnished, reticulated, painted, and
decorated pottery. Abundant stone objects include knives, sickle blades, scrapers,
bone and even bronze utensils. The existence of an Iberian settlement is confirmed
by Iron Age decorated pottery of the Andalusian type, cinerary urns, Ibero-Roman
coins, fragments of Punic amphorae, glass paste necklace beads, Italo-Greek and
Campanian pottery. Material from the Roman period includes stucco fragments, thin-walled
and Arretine ware, terra sigillata, lamps, coins, and Roman and Early Christian
inscriptions. Finally, sherds of Byzantine, and especially of Caliphat, pottery
as well as dirhems, and the remains of the foundations of a house or perhaps of
a farmhouse have been found. All the finds are in the Jerez de la Frontera Archaeological
Collection.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MUNIGUA (Ancient city) ANDALUCIA
Munigua or Municipium Flavium Muniguensium (Mulva) Sevilla, Spain.
In the district of Villanueva del Rio y Minas, ca. 50 km NE of Seville and 15
km NE of Cantillana. Excavations have revealed that there was an Iberian town
before the Roman settlement: food and material furnishings have been found in
chronological contexts from the 3d to the 1st B.C. During the Romanization of
Baetica Munigua developed rapidly; in the mid 1st c. A.D. it received the Latin
right from the emperor Vespasian and became a municipium (attested by inscriptions).
Wealth derived from local mines made possible a number of monuments,
the most remarkable of which is the terraced sanctuary on the slope of the hill.
Reinforced by buttresses at the rear, it has the appearance of a fortress and
later became known as the castle of Mulva. The main facade faced E towards the
city and access to the sacred precinct was by two separate roadways ascending
to a N and a S gate. Thence two symmetrical ramps led to a terrace, from which
in turn two stairways ascended to a higher terrace carrying the apse, cella, and
dependencies of the sanctuary. The entire construction measures 35.20 by 54.43
m. The plan seems to have been taken from the temple of Fortuna Primigenia at
Praeneste in Italy, or perhaps from a Hellenistic structure. Of its cult nothing
certain is known, though it may have been that of Fortuna Crescens Augusta or
possibly Hercules Augustus, divinities whose names appear on inscriptions from
other parts of the city (now in the archaeological museum of Seville with the
other finds from Munigua).
Other remains of interest include the foundations of a temple at the
base of the hill and a rectangular aedicula with a small exedra in front. Its
altar, still in situ, was consecrated by a certain Ferronius to a divinity whose
name is indecipherable. In front of the temple were found architrave and frieze
blocks, a granite column, two capitals, bits of a base, and part of a dedication
to Mercury. The monument dates from the first half of the 2d c. B.C. There are
also remains of a large portico of the forum, the municipal baths, a large mausoleum,
and the necropolis.
Among the inscriptions on altars, pedestals, cippi, and other blocks
are: 1) a bronze tablet recording agreement concluded between a Sextus Curvius
Silvinus and the Muniguan authorities, from the first quarter of the 1st c.; 2)
a letter from the emperor Titus, on bronze, dictated on the VII Ides of September,
A.D. 79, rescinding a fine of 50,000 sesterces imposed by Sempronius Fuscus in
a lawsuit between the authorities of Munigua and the collector of municipal taxes,
Servilius Pollio. Votive inscriptions, besides those to Fortuna Crescens and Hercules
Augustus, refer to Mercury, Bonus Eventus Augustus, Ceres Augusta, Pantheus Augustus,
and Dis Pater. Honorary inscriptions mention Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva,
and Hadrian; also for accomplishments on behalf of Munigua, Quintia Flaccina,
Lucius Valerius Firmus, and Lucius Aelius Fronto.
The sculptures found in Munigua are of provincial or general Roman
style: 1) a head of Hispania, identified by her resemblance to the Hispania on
the obverse of a denarius of Aulus Postumius Severus of 82 B.C.; 2) a head of
the deity Bonus Eventus and the pedestal for the statue; 3) a headless statue
of the nymph Anchyrrhoe, discovered in a nymphaeum added to the baths. There are
also numerous Greek, Iberian, Roman, and Arab vase fragments.
Munigua flourished under the emperor Hadrian, but declined towards
the close of the 3d c. That the city was in ruins in the 4th c. is attested by
the incursion of burials into the center of the town. There are traces of the
Visigothic period, but none of the Arab phase.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 2 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
OSUMA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Urso or Ursone (Osuna) Sevilla, Spain.
Town 24 km SW of Ecija. Pliny (3.12) calls it Colonia Genetiva Urbanorum, under
the jurisdiction of Astigi (Ecija). The city mint is shown by its coinage, with
the name written Urso or Ursone. In Appian 65 it appears as Orsona. The coin types,
although struck during the Roman period of Baetica, continue Iberian traditions,
with the bear on the oldest and the sphinx, resembling that of Castulo (Caziona)
in Jaen, on the later issues, along with the magistrates' names.
Appian (Hisp. 16) tells us that in 211 B.C. the brothers Scipio spent
the winter between Urso and Castulo, awaiting the outcome of the struggle against
the Carthaginians wintering in Turdetania, and Urso was the concentration place
for the army of Quintus Fabius Maximus Aemilianus in 145-144 B.C. (App. Hisp.
65). In 139 B.C. Audas, Ditalkes, and Minuros or Nikorontes, natives of Urso,
are cited as the most faithful companions of Viriatus, who employed them for peace
negotiations with the Romans and then, under Scipio's influence, put them to death
(Diod. 33.21; App. Hisp. 71). Finally, when Urso sided with Pompey, it was forced
to fight against Caesar, who conquered it in 45 B.C. (Bell. Hisp. 22.1; 26.3;
28.2; 41.2; 42.1). Urso became colonia immunis and appears to have been inscribed
in the Galeria or Sergia tribe. Perhaps related to it was a certain Sergius Paulus,
who was chosen patron of Urso (CIL II, 1406).
Many reliefs survive from buildings constructed after Caesar's conquest,
also statues, inscriptions, and coins. The theater, portions of the Roman burial
ground, remains of villas, mosaics, and parts of the circuit walls (destroyed
in 1932) are also known. In 1870 five bronze sheets, of the original nine, containing
part of the Lex Ursonensis or Lex Coloniae Genetivae Juliae were found (now in
the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid). Although the law was originally
codified in Caesar's time, this definitive text must have been engraved and transmitted
to Urso in the Flavian period. Approximately a third of the law has survived.
It is of extraordinary interest in that it deals with the interior administration
of Urso. The whole text is of interest also for the fuller understanding of Roman
law in the Iberian peninsula.
Among archaeological finds was a mosaic (now lost) in which the river
Acheloos in the center, labeled in Greek, was surrounded by busts of SIRE(ne),
NYMPHE, etc. Roman burials have yielded thin-walled vases, terra sigillata, unguent
jars, glass vessels, coins, and fragments of sculpture. Some of this material
is in the archaeological museum at Osuna, much of the rest in private collections.
There have also been finds from the Early Christian and Visigoth periods, particularly
baked clay bricks from the latter, when the city apparently enjoyed considerable
prosperity: in the 4th c. a certain Natalis was bishop of Urso and participated
in the Council of Iliberri (Granada).
Other relics from the Roman period, a head possibly of Juno, and a
pedestal inscribed with a dedication to the Sacred Tree, are in private collections.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
PEAL DE BECERRO (Town) ANDALUCIA
Tugia or Toya (Peal del Becerno) Jaen, Spain.
Iberian city at the confluence of the Guadiana Menor with the Guadalquivir. In
the necropolis was a large cellar with three stone chambers, burials with chariots,
three Greek kraters by the schools of the Painter of Thebes, the Retorted Painter,
the Painter of the Black Thyrsos, the Painter of Toya, and a lekythos, all in
the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid; and a kylix in the Instituto de
Estudios Giennenses, Jaen. All date from the first half of the 4th c. B.C.
SANTIPONCE (Town) ANDALUCIA
Italica (Santi Ponce) Seville, Spain.
City 8 km NW of Seville, settled by Scipio in 206 B.C. with wounded survivors
of the battle of Ilipa. It had no special status. Between the time of Julius Caesar
and that of Augustus, however, it attained the category of municipium; under Hadrian,
at the request of the city itself, it was raised to the rank of colonia, with
the title Aelia Augusta Italicensium. It was one of the more urban communities
of the Roman world, with a busy port on the Guadalquivir, but the ruins known
today are those of a creation ex novo by Hadrian. Damaged by the invasions of
the third quarter of the 3d c. A.D., the city continued to exist through the Visigothic
period, only to be destroyed during Arab domination in the 9th-lOth c. The village
of Santi Ponce was built on its ruins.
The wall enclosed an area of some 30 ha. The wide streets, intersecting
at right angles, paved with large stone blocks, and lined with porticos, sometimes
reached a total width of 16 m. A surviving sector of the city wall near the amphitheater,
with an entrance gateway and two towers, dates perhaps from the end of the 2d
or the beginning of the 3d c. A.D. The amphitheater was one of the largest in
the Empire, 160 by 197 m. It was built of large blocks of hewn stone and brick
faced with marble and could accommodate some 25,000 spectators. Much of the cavea
is preserved with its corridors and vomitoria still usable, and the underground
service passages of the arena are in perfect condition. The amphitheater took
advantage of a natural slope, although all of it rose above ground. A theater
has also been excavated recently, located like the amphitheater outside the city
wall.
There are two baths, the Baths of the Moorish Queen to the W and The
Palaces to the E. They are roughly equal in size, date from the same general period,
and are very similar in plan. The former includes a swimming pool 21 m long, various
rooms (two of them vaulted), and on the N a large underground chamber with three
aisles. On the S is a porticoed street, onto which one of the entrances to the
baths (presumably the principal one) opens. This entrance had three aisles besides
a columned vestibule. The Palaces had a somewhat smaller swimming pool (15 m),
various rooms and passageways, and an underground section with vaults of medium
size, from which came some of the best sculpture found on the site. Both baths
were built of broken rubble coated with brick and sometimes faced with marble.
The floors are of opus signinum with large twofoot slabs, and mosaics with tesserae
of colored marble.
The drainage system was admirable, a network of drains and catch basins
constructed in accordance with the street plan. Water was brought in by an aqueduct,
portions of which are still visible, from Tucci (Escacena del Campo) some 40 km
to the W. The elevated portions of the aqueduct were carried on piers and low
arches. In addition, 18th c. sources mention a water mill built of rubblework
and hewn stone, now vanished.
Near the cemetery of Santiponce, N of the ancient city, is an interesting
group of spacious houses of the domus type, rectangular and of identical plan.
They lie in a rectangular area formed by four streets, and most of them have porticos.
Axial in plan, they usually have two patios, with a cistern and well, surrounded
by covered ways on which the rooms open. Several patios have fountains, and pools
with mosaics of fish. Construction is of rubble, faced with brick and ornamental
marble or colored stucco. The floors are of mosaic in the main rooms and of opus
signinum in the remainder. Noteworthy examples are the House of the Birds, of
the Labyrinth, of Hylas, and particularly the House of the Exedra, which covers
an area of some 3000 sq. m. It consists of two basic elements: one a mansion or
de luxe residence with a porticoed patio in the center; the other formed by two
adjacent, parallel walk-ways, the more important one terminating in a large apse.
The only burial ground yet excavated lies along the N edge of Santiponce,
where there was a structure with three aisles terminating in a semicircular apse,
perhaps a Christian martyrium. Other monuments include the graves of Antonia Vetia
and of Valeria. A great many lead coffins have been found, some with partially
ornamented lids, and an enormous number of mosaics; some of these are still in
place, the remainder are in the archaeological museum of Seville or in private
hands. They have colorful figured or geometric designs, which have inspired names
such as the mosaic of the Bird, Bacchus, Hylas and Hercules, the pygmies and cranes,
a marine thiasos, Ganymede, and Pan.
There is a superb collection of sculpture from the excavations in
the Archaeological Museum of Seville. Noteworthy are the heads of Alexander the
Great, Augustus, Nero, and Galba (?), there is also a bust of Hadrian, and a colossal
heroized Trajan, beside individual portraits, reliefs of deities, and mythological
themes. The smaller finds, carved gems, glass, and ceramics are dispersed among
various museums and private collections, notably the Archaeological Museum of
Seville, the Lebrija Collection, and the museum of the Hispanic Society in New
York. There is also a new museum m Italica itself, where future finds will be
shown.
J.M. Roldan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 10 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TARIFA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Iulia Traducta (Tarifa) Cadiz, Spain.
Town 22 km SW of Algeciras, which Strabo (3.140) calls Ioulia Ioza, and others Iulia Ioza. Ioza is the Latin equivalent of Transducta or Traducta (Ptol. 2.4.6; Marcianus 2.9; Ravenna Cosmographer 305.12). P. Mela (2.96), however, places Tingentera in this place.
The town was founded in the Augustan period as Colonia Iulia Traducta,
since some of the inhabitants of Zelis (Algiers) and Tingis (Tangiers), in North
Africa, had been transferred to it. However, since Pliny (5.2) states that Tingis
was named Traducta Iulia by the emperor Claudius when he converted it into a colony,
some scholars have concluded that the population that came from the African coast
returned home in the time of Claudius. The town of Iulia Traducta minted coins
only in the Imperial age; the obverse carried the head of Augustus or produce
such as tuna, grapes, or wheat, and the reverse the name of the mint, IVL TRAD.
Fragments of ancient pottery and coins have been found in Tarifa,
but until recently its surroundings have been explored more than the town itself.
Copper Age graves have been found in the Algarbes area, near Tarifa; grave goods,
now in the Seville Archaeological Museum, include handmade pottery in the form
of a tulip; also arrow points and flint knives, polished axes, some bronze pieces,
bone objects used for ornament or as pendants, and a fragment of a gold sword
hilt with checkerboard decoration. Remains from the same period have been found
throughout the course of the Ebro.
Tarifa probably forms part of an ancient tell. Fragments of Campanian
pottery indicate that excavation would be worthwhile
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TARTISSOS (Ancient city) SPAIN
Town on the Cortijo de El Rocadillo near the Guadarrangue area, in
the S Roque district on the bay of Algeciras, the S coast of Hispania Ulterior.
Although it is Phoenician or Punic in origin, as its name indicates, there are
few remains of these cultures. In antiquity it was called Karteia and Herakleia,
since its foundation was attributed to Herakles according to Timosthenes of Rhodes.
Strabo (3.1.7-8) stated that in Timosthenes' time, ca. 280 B.C., its circuit wall
and arsenals were visible.
Part of this wall has been uncovered, as well as Campanian ware A,
B, C, and Hispano-Carthaginian silver coins. However, most of the remains are
Roman, the oldest from the Republican period. The Roman foundation dates from
171 B.C. when it was called Colonia Libertinorum (Livy. 28.30.3). There are frequent
references to the city, some stating that it was the site of the legendary Tartessos
(Strab. 3.151; Paus. 6.19.3; Mela 2.96; Plin. 3.7; and Sil. Pun. 3.396). The port
was of great importance in both the Iberian and the Imperial age according to
Strabo and the author of De Bello Hisp. (26.1-37.1-2), who calls it navale presidium.
In 46 B.C. the squadron of Accius Varo took refuge in Karteia when pursued by
Caesar's ships under Caius Didius, and Cn. Pompeius embarked in the same port
after the defeat at Munda (De Bello Hisp. 26.1-17, 1-2), when the partisans of
Caesar in Karteia compelled him to leave the city. On the death of Cn. Pompeius,
Sextus Pompeius returned to Baetica, and Karteia, which had declared itself for
Pompey, again surrendered to him (Cic. Ep. 15.30.3).
Remains include the Roman wall, the theater, the baths, part of a
monumental building with Corinthian columns and bull protomes (apparently a temple);
the supposed Capitolium; remains of the salting basins for the manufacture of
garum; and finds of sculptures, inscriptions, coins, and pottery.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Tartessos, SW Spain. By Tartessos the literary sources mean a city, a river, and a region.
Avienus (Ora maritima 85.270, 290, 297) calls it a rich city surrounded by walls
and watered by a river. For some authors (Avienus, Ora maritima 85.269-70; Just.
44.4.14; Plin. 4.120, 7.156; Sall. H. 2.5; Val. Max. 8.13.4) Tartessos is identical
with Cadiz. For others (App. Hisp. 63; Plin. 3.7) it is Carteia. It was on an
island (Schol. of Lycophron 643), in the middle of the ocean (Schol. of the Iliad
8.479), or near the Pillars of Hercules (Steph. Byz. voz. Tartessos). Tartessos
is localized at the mouth of the river of the same name (Avienus, Ora maritima
284-90; Steph. Byz. voz Tartessos; Paus. 6.19.3), between the two arms of the
river (Poseidonius in Strab. 3.140, 148). It was two sailing days distant from
Cadiz (Scymn., Ephebos 161-64). The description of Stesichorus (Strab. 3.2.11)
on the sources of the river Tartessos agrees to an astonishing degree with the
origin of the Rio Tinto in the Cueva del Lago (Cave in the Lake) (Avienus, Ora
maritima 291-95). Scymnus (162), in describing the river Tartessos, mentions tin,
but none of the rivers identified with Tartessos contains tin. The only river
that could attract attention because of the peculiar substance contained in it
is the Rio Tinto.
The Tartessos region probably embraced the whole S part of the Iberian
Peninsula S of the Sierra Morena as far as Mastia Tartessiorum, the E border of
the kingdom of Tartessos (Strab. 3.2.11). This entire region was under the cultural
influence of the Phoenicians, and then of the Etruscans and Greeks, beginning
in 1100 B.C. when Cadiz was founded by Phoenician traders. They established a
series of trading posts on the coast of the Straits of Gibraltar: Sexsi (Almunecar),
which contains the oldest Phoenician necropolis in Spain, dating from 700-670
B.C., Los Toscanos (Malaga), dating from the 8th-6th c. B.C., and the necropolis
of Cabezo de la Esperanza (Huelva); both the latter have produced Phoenician material
of the 7th-6th c. B.C. The Phoenicians and Greeks traded with the S of the Iberian
peninsula and established an orientalized culture such as that existing in Etruria,
Carthage, and N Africa. This culture, called Tartessian and of Phoenician origin
with Greek and Etruscan influences added, is known through a great and varied
quantity of archeological material now distributed through a number of museums
in Spain and the U.S.A., and in the British Museum, London, and the Musee St.
Germain, Paris.
About 630 B.C. Kolaios of Samos traveled to Tartessos and took home
riches estimated at 60 talents; the wealth in metals was the attraction behind
the Phoenician and Greek trips to Tartessos. With one tenth of these riches the
Samians made an Argolic style caldron which they placed in the Heraion of Samos
(Hdt. 4.152). Two ivory pieces like those from Carmona, confirming such journeys,
have been found in Samos. Pausanias (6.19.2, 3-4) refers to a chamber from the
treasury of Myron in Olympia weighing 13 tons, made of Tartessian bronze, according
to the Elians. The Phokaians established relations with King Argantonius (670-550
B.C.) of Tartessos, who gave them money to erect a wall around Phokaia (Hdt. 1.163);
later they founded Mainake on the Malaga coast (Strab. 3.4.2). Tartessos was governed
by kings, some of whose names are known, such as Theron (Macrob. Sat. 1.20.12),
Habis (Just. v.4), who taught agriculture, promulgated laws, and finally converted
himself into a god. Other legends, such as the references to the cattle of Gerion
(Strab. 3.148) and the wealth in gold and silver of his father (Diod. 5.17.4),
clearly show the two axes of the economy of Tartessos: metals and cattle. Another
king was Gargoris, mentioned in the myth of Habis. Many poems and laws in Tartessos
were written in verse, and the Tartessians claimed they were 6000 years old. A
syllabic writing with Greek vowels was developed ca. 700 B.C. Tartessian culture
disappeared in the beginning of the 5th c. B.C.
J. M. Blazquez, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TORRE DEL MARE (Town) ANDALUCIA
Mainake Malaga, Spain.
A Greek colony E of Malaga. According to Avienus 425-35, Mainake was located near Cape Barbetium and the Malacha river. Opposite the city was a marshy island dedicated to Noctiluca, with a port. According to a text of Ephorus, preserved in the Pseudo-Skymnos (147-50), it was the most remote Greek colony in the Occident, a Massaliote city near one of the islands that made up the Pillars of Hercules.
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