Hispania Baetica

Provincia Hispania Baetica
Province of the Roman Empire
14 BC–5th century
The Roman province of Hispania Baetica, c. 125 AD
Capital	Corduba
Historical era	Antiquity
• Established	14 BC
• Visigothic conquest	5th century
Preceded by Succeeded by Hispania Ulterior Visigothic Kingdom

Hispania Baetica, often abbreviated Baetica, was one of three Roman provinces created in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula) on 27 BC. Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Tarraconensis. Baetica remained one of the basic divisions of Hispania under the Visigoths. Its territory approximately corresponds to modern Andalusia.

Name

In

History

Before

Some of the Iberian cities retained their pre-Indo-European names in Baetica throughout the Roman era. Granada was called Eliberri, Illiberis and Illiber by the Romans; in Basque, "iri-berri" or "ili-berri", still signifies "new town".^{[citation needed]}

The south of the Iberian peninsula was agriculturally rich, providing for export of

Baetica was divided into four

put to death a number of leading Baetians— including women — the elite in Baetica remained a stable class for centuries.

Western Roman empire. It was to keep Roman legions supplied by sea routes that the Empire needed to control the distant coasts of Lusitania and the northern Atlantic coast

of Hispania.

Baetica was rich and strongly Romanized, attracting colonists and merchants from Italy. Since the 1st century BC it produced outstanding figures like the aforementioned Columella, the rethorician

latinitas

Baetica also gave Rome two emperors. Trajan, the first emperor since Claudius to be of provincial birth, though of Italic stock, was born in Itálica (Baetica), a colony established in 206 BC by Scipio Africanus for Roman veterans of the Second Punic War.^[1] Trajan's kinsman and successor Hadrian also came from Itálica. Marcus Aurelius, though born in Rome, had ancestors born in the town of Ucubi (modern day Espejo), a Roman colony not far from Córdoba.

Baetica enjoyed Pax Romana for most of imperial history, though it faced a permanent threat stemming from Africa from the 2nd century AD. On 171 groups of mauri (natives of Mauretania Tingitana, roughly modern day Morocco) crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and looted rural towns for months until they were expelled. A century later, in 296-297, Emperor Maximian built a massive palace nearby Córdoba from where to command the campaign against piracy in the Strait and Berber incursions in Mauritania.

Baetica was Roman until the brief invasion of the

Proconsuls

The Province was governed by a proconsul who had formerly been a praetor.

See also

• Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
• Romanization of Hispania
• Spania

References

Citations