Hispania

Coordinates: 40°13′N 4°21′W / 40.21°N 4.35°W / 40.21; -4.35
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Roman Spain
)
For other uses, see Hispania (disambiguation).
Hispania
Hispānia (
Ancient Greek)
218 BC–472
Timeline of the Roman conquest of Hispania (220 BC–19 BC), with Roman provincial boundaries shown
Timeline of the Roman conquest of Hispania (220 BC–19 BC), with Roman provincial boundaries shown
Capital

40°13′N 4°21′W / 40.21°N 4.35°W / 40.21; -4.35
Common languages
Emperor
 
• AD 98 – AD 117
Trajan
• AD 117 – AD 138
Hadrian
• AD 379 – AD 395
Theodosius I
LegislatureRoman Senate
Historical eraClassical antiquity
• Established
218 BC
• Disestablished
472
Population
• 
5,000,000 or more
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Carthaginian Iberia
Visigothic Kingdom
Kingdom of the Suebi
Spania

Hispania (

Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, initially as Hispania Nova, which was later renamed "Callaecia" (or Gallaecia, whence modern Galicia). From Diocletian's Tetrarchy (AD 293) onwards, the south of the remainder of Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis, and all of the mainland Hispanic provinces, along with the Balearic Islands and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana, were later grouped into a civil diocese headed by a vicarius. The name Hispania was also used in the period of Visigothic rule
.

The modern place names Spain and Hispaniola are both derived from Hispania.

Etymology

The origin of the word Hispania is very disputed. The evidence for the various speculations is based merely upon what are at best mere resemblances, likely to be accidental, and suspect supporting evidence. The most commonly held theory holds it to be of Punic origin, from the Phoenician language of colonizing Carthage.[1] Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate ʾī šāpān (𐤀𐤉 𐤔𐤐𐤍) of Hebrew ʾī šāfān (Hebrew: אִי שָׁפָן) meaning 'island of the hyrax', referring to the European rabbit (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew are both Canaanite languages and therefore closely related to each other).[2][3] Some Roman coins of the Emperor Hadrian, born in Hispania, depict Hispania and a rabbit. Others derive the word from Phoenician span, meaning 'hidden', and make it indicate "a hidden", that is, "a remote", or "far-distant land".[4]

Other far-fetched theories have been proposed.

Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania of Iberian origin and derived it from the pre-Roman name for Seville, Hispalis.[5] This was revived for instance by the etymologist Eric Partridge (in his work Origins) who felt that this might strongly hint at an ancient name for the country of *Hispa, presumably an Iberian or Celtic root whose meaning is now lost. Hispalis may alternatively derive from Heliopolis (Greek for 'city of the sun'). However, according to modern research by Manuel Pellicer Catalán, the name derives from Phoenician spal 'lowland',[6][7]
rendering the above explanations of Hispania highly unlikely. Occasionally Hispania was called Hesperia ultima 'farthest western land' by Roman writers since the name Hesperia 'western land' had already been used by the Greeks to refer to the Italian peninsula.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Jesuits scholars like Larramendi and José Francisco de Isla tied the name to the Basque word ezpain 'lip', but also 'border, edge', thus meaning the farthest area or place.[8][9]

During Antiquity and Middle Ages, the literary texts derive the term Hispania from an eponymous hero named Hispan, who is mentioned for the first time in the work of the Roman historian Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus, in the 1st century BC.

Archaeological Roman Ensemble of Mérida
(Emerita Augusta), Extremadura, Spain.
The Roman Tower of Hercules in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain, is the oldest lighthouse in the world that is still in use.[10]
The Roman Aqueduct of Segovia, Castile, Spain.
The Roman Temple of Évora (Liberatias Iulia), Alentejo, Portugal.

Although Hispania is the

Low Middle Ages, like with Roman Hispania, as a geographical and political name, continued to be used geographically and politically in the Visigothic Spania, as shown in the expression laus Hispaniae, 'Praise to Hispania', to describe the history of the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula of Isidore of Seville's Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum
:

You are, O Spain, holy and always happy mother of princes and peoples, the most beautiful of all the lands that extend far from the West to India. You, by right, are now the queen of all provinces, from whom the lights are given not only the sunset, but also the East. You are the honor and ornament of the orb and the most illustrious portion of the Earth ... And for this reason, long ago, the golden Rome desired you

In modern history, Spain and Spanish have become increasingly associated with the Kingdom of Spain alone, although this process took several centuries. After the union of the central peninsular

Catholic Monarchs in 1492, only Navarra and Portugal were left to complete the whole peninsula under one monarchy. Navarre followed soon after in 1512, and Portugal, after over 400 years as an independent and sovereign nation, in 1580. During this time, the concept of Spain was still unchanged. It was after the restoration of Portugal's independence in 1640 when the concept of Spain
started to shift and be applied to all the Peninsula except Portugal.

Pre-Roman history

Main articles:
Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian peninsula has long been inhabited, first by

Côa Valley
.

In the

Northern Iberia (to the mouth of the Douro river), as well as the Muge Culture in the Tagus
valley.

The

Beaker
cultures.

During the 1st millennium BC, in the

Mediterranean Iberia, with strong competition from the Greek
colonization. These two processes defined Iberia's cultural landscape – Mediterranean towards the southeast and Continental in the northwest.

Languages

Linguistic map: This shows the Linguistic variation of the Iberian Peninsula at about 200 BC (at the end of the Second Punic War).
Main article:
Languages of Iberia

Latin was the official language of Hispania during Roman rule, which exceeded 600 years. By the empire's end in Hispania around 460 AD, all the original Iberian languages, except the ancestor of modern Basque, were extinct.[citation needed] Even after the fall of Rome and the invasion of the Germanic Visigoths and Suebi, Latin was spoken by nearly all of the population,[citation needed] but in its common form known as Vulgar Latin, and the regional changes which led to the modern Iberian Romance languages had already begun.

Carthaginian Hispania

Carthaginian influence sphere before the First Punic War.
Further information: Second Punic War and Carthaginian Iberia

After its defeat by the Romans in the First Punic War (264 BC–241 BC), Carthage compensated for its loss of Sicily by rebuilding a commercial empire in Hispania.

The major part of the

Mediterranean area. By then the Romans had adopted the Carthaginian name, romanized first as Ispania. The term later received an H, much like what happened with Hibernia, and was pluralized as Hispaniae, as had been done with the Three Gauls
.

Roman conquest

Further information: Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and Romanization of Hispania
Hispania under Caesar Augustus's rule after the Cantabrian Wars in 29 BC

Roman armies invaded the Iberian peninsula in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against the Carthaginians, the Iberians, the Lusitanians, the Gallaecians and other Celts.[citation needed] It was not until 19 BC that the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC–AD 14) was able to complete the conquest (see Cantabrian Wars). Until then, much of Hispania remained autonomous.

Caesar wrote that the soldiers from the Second Legion had become Hispanicized and regarded themselves as hispanici.[citation needed
]

Some of the peninsula's population were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class and they participated in governing Hispania and the Roman Empire, although there was a native aristocracy class who ruled each local tribe. The

latifundia
(sing., latifundium), large estates controlled by the aristocracy, were superimposed on the existing Iberian landholding system.

The Romans improved existing cities, such as

Valencia (Valentia), and reduced other native cities to mere villages. The peninsula's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. Hispania served as a granary and a major source of metals for the Roman market, and its harbors exported gold, tin, silver, lead, wool, wheat, olive oil, wine, fish, and garum. Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use today. The Romanized Iberian populations and the Iberian-born descendants of Roman soldiers and colonists had all achieved the status of full Roman citizenship by the end of the 1st century. The emperors Trajan (r. 98–117), Hadrian (r. 117–138), and Theodosius
(r. 379–395) were of Hispanic origin. The Iberian denarii, also called argentum oscense by Roman soldiers, circulated until the 1st century BC, after which it was replaced by Roman coins.

Hispania was separated into two provinces (in 197 BC), each ruled by a praetor: Hispania Citerior ("Hither Hispania") and Hispania Ulterior ("Farther Hispania"). The long wars of conquest lasted two centuries, and only by the time of Augustus did Rome managed to control Hispania Ulterior. Hispania was divided into three provinces in the 1st century BC.

In the 4th century, Latinius Pacatus Drepanius, a Gallic rhetorician, dedicated part of his work to the depiction of the geography, climate and inhabitants of the peninsula, writing:

This Hispania produces tough soldiers, very skilled captains, prolific speakers, luminous bards. It is a mother of judges and princes; it has given Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius to the Empire.

With time, the name Hispania was used to describe the collective names of the Iberian Peninsula kingdoms of the Middle Ages, which came to designate all of the Iberian Peninsula plus the Balearic Islands.

The Hispaniae

Roman Hispania in 125

During the first stages of Romanization, the peninsula was divided in two by the Romans for administrative purposes. The closest one to Rome was called Citerior and the more remote one Ulterior. The frontier between both was a sinuous line which ran from Cartago Nova (now Cartagena) to the Cantabrian Sea.

Castilla la Vieja, Galicia, Asturias, and the Basque Country
.

Castilla la Nueva
.

In 27 BC, the general and politician

Basque Country
to Hispania Citerior.

The emperor Augustus in that same year returned to make a new division leaving the provinces as follows:

By the 3rd century the emperor

Caracalla
made a new division which lasted only a short time. He split Hispania Citerior again into two parts, creating the new provinces Provincia Hispania Nova Citerior and Asturiae-Calleciae. In the year 238 the unified province Tarraconensis or Hispania Citerior was re-established.

Provinces of Hispania under the Tetrarchy

In the 3rd century, under the Soldier Emperors, Hispania Nova (the northwestern corner of Spain) was split off from Tarraconensis, as a small province but the home of the only permanent legion in Hispania, Legio VII Gemina. After Diocletian's Tetrarchy reform in AD 293, the new Diocese of Hispania became one of the four dioceses—governed by a vicarius—of the praetorian prefecture of Gaul (also comprising the provinces of Gaul, Germania and Britannia), after the abolition of the imperial Tetrarchs under the Western Emperor (in Rome itself, later Ravenna). The diocese, with its capital at Emerita Augusta (modern Mérida), comprised the five peninsular Iberian provinces (Baetica, Gallaecia and Lusitania, each under a governor styled consularis; and Carthaginiensis, Tarraconensis, each under a praeses), the Insulae Baleares, which were detached from Tarraconensis during Diocletian's reign, and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana.

Pope. Bishops who had official civil as well as ecclesiastical status in the late empire continued to exercise their authority to maintain order when civil governments broke down there in the 5th century. The Council of Bishops became an important instrument of stability during the ascendancy of the Visigoths
. The last vestiges of (Western·classical) Roman rule ended in 472.

Germanic conquest

Further information: Visigoths, Suebi, Alans, and Vandals
Iberian Peninsula (AD 530–AD 570)
The Iberian Peninsula in the year 560 AD

The undoing of Roman Spain was the result of four tribes

Baetica. In an effort to retrieve the region, the Western Roman emperor, Honorius (r. 395–423), promised the Visigoths a home in southwest Gaul if they destroyed the invaders in Spain. They all but wiped out the Silingi and Alans. The remnant joined the Asding Vandals who had settled first in the northwest with the Sueves but south to Baetica. It is a mystery why the Visigoths were recalled by patrician Constantius (who in 418 married Honorius' sister who had been married briefly to the Visigothic king Ataulf). The Visigoths, the remnants of the two tribes who joined them and the Sueves were confined to a small area in the northwest of the peninsula. The diocese may even have been re-established with its capital at Mérida in 418.[13]
The Roman attempt under General Castorius to dislodge the Vandals from Cordoba failed in 422.

The Vandals and

Suebic Kingdom of Galicia
, and thus controlled almost all of Hispania.

A century later, taking advantage of a struggle for the throne between the Visigothic kings Agila and Athanagild, the Byzantine emperor Justinian I sent an army under the command of Liberius to take back the peninsula from the Visigoths. This short-lived reconquest recovered only a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast roughly corresponding to the ancient province of Baetica, known as Spania.

Under the Visigoths, culture was not as highly developed as it had been under Roman rule, when a goal of higher education had been to prepare gentlemen to take their places in municipal and imperial administration. With the collapse of the imperial administrative super-structure above the provincial level (which was practically moribund) the task of maintaining formal education and government shifted to the Church from the old ruling class of educated aristocrats and gentry. The clergy, for the most part, emerged as the qualified personnel to manage higher administration in concert with local powerful notables who gradually displaced the old town councils. As elsewhere in early medieval Europe, the church in Hispania stood as society's most cohesive institution. The Visigoths are also responsible for the introduction of mainstream Christianity to the Iberian peninsula; the earliest representation of

Santa Maria de Lara. It also embodied the continuity of Roman order. Native Hispano-Romans continued to run the civil administration and Latin continued to be the language of government and of commerce on behalf of the Visigoths.[14]

Religion was the most persistent source of friction between the

Recared, a Visigothic ruler, renounced his Arianism before the Council of Bishops at Toledo and accepted Chalcedonian Christianity (Catholic Church), thus assuring an alliance between the Visigothic monarchy
and the native Hispano-Romans. This alliance would not mark the last time in the history of the peninsula that political unity would be sought through religious unity.

Court ceremonials – from

elections
.

According to

Suinthila appears as the first monarch where Hispania is dealt with as a Gothic
nation.

Umayyad conquest

Main article: Al-Andalus
Umayyad Hispania at its greatest extent 719 AD

The Umayyad governor Tariq ibn Ziyad led a raiding force of approximately 1,700 men from North Africa to southern Hispania in April 711.[15] They defeated the Visigothic army, in a decisive battle at Guadalete in 712. Tariq's forces were then reinforced and within a few years they took control of more than two-thirds of the Iberian Peninsula. The second invasion of the Umayyads comprised 18 thousand mostly Arab troops, who rapidly captured Seville and then defeated Roderick's supporters at Mérida and met up with Tariq's troops at Talavera. The following year the combined forces continued into Galicia and the northeast, capturing Léon, Astorga and Zaragoza.[16][17]

The Umayyads called the area they controlled '

Arabic: الأندلس). Al-Andalus, then at its greatest extent, was divided into five administrative units.[18]

In the chronicles and documents of the High Middle Ages the terms derived from Hispania, Spania, España or Espanha, continued to be used by the Christians but only in reference to Muslim controlled areas.

Christian reconquest

From the mid 13th to the late 15th century, the only remaining domain of Al-Andalus was the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula. Then there was a war of Granada which resulted with the defeat of Emirate of Granada and its annexation by Castile, ending Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula.

In the last years of the 12th century the whole Iberian Peninsula, Muslim and Christian, became known as "Spain" (España, Espanya or Espanha) and the denomination "the Five Kingdoms of Spain" became used to refer to the Muslim

Kingdom of Granada and the Christian kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Portugal, and Navarre
.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Hispania

Before the Punic Wars, Hispania was a land with much untapped mineral and agricultural wealth, limited by the primitive subsistence economies of its native peoples outside of a few trading ports along the Mediterranean. Occupation by the Carthaginians and then by the Romans for its abundant silver deposits developed Hispania into a thriving multifaceted economy. Several metals, olives, oil from Baetica, salted fish and garum, and wines were some of the goods produced in Hispania and traded throughout the Empire. Gold mining was the most important activity in the north-west parts of the peninsula. This activity is attested in archaeological sites as Las Médulas (Spain) and Casais (Ponte de Lima, Portugal).[19]

Climate

See also:
Climate of Ancient Rome

Precipitation levels were unusually high during the so-called Iberian–Roman Humid Period. Roman Spain experienced its three phases: the most humid interval in 550–190 BC, an arid interval in 190 BC–150 AD and another humid period in 150–350.[20] In 134 BC the army of Scipio Aemilianus in Spain had to march at night due to extreme heat, when some of its horses and mules died of thirst[21] (even though earlier, in 181 BC, heavy spring rains prevented the Celtiberians from relieving the Roman siege of Contrebia).[21] Through the 2nd century AD warm temperatures dominated particularly in the mountains along the north coast, punctuated by further cool spells from c. 155 to 180.[22] After about 200 the temperatures fluctuated, trending toward cool.[22]

Sources and references

Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Country Studies. Federal Research Division.

Modern sources in Spanish and Portuguese

  • Alarcão, Jorge, O Domínio Romano em Portugal, Publicações Europa-América, 1988. (In Portuguese.)
  • Altamira y Crevea, Rafael Historia de España y de la civilización española. Tomo I. Barcelona, 1900. Altamira was a professor at the University of Oviedo, a member of the Royal Academy of History, of the Geographic Society of Lisbon and of the Instituto de Coimbra. (In Spanish.)
  • Aznar, José Camón, Las artes y los pueblos de la España primitiva. Editorial Espasa Calpe, S.A. Madrid, 1954. Camón was a professor at the University of Madrid. (In Spanish.)
  • Bosch Gimpera, Pedro; Aguado Bleye, Pedro; and Ferrandis, José. Historia de España. España romana, I, created under the direction of Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Editorial Espasa-Calpe S.A., Madrid 1935. (In Spanish.)
  • García y Bellido, Antonio, España y los españoles hace dos mil años (según la Geografía de Estrabón). Colección Austral de Espasa Calpe S.A., Madrid 1945 (first edition 8-XI-1945). García y Bellido was an archeologist and a professor at the University of Madrid. (In Spanish.)
  • Mattoso, José (dir.), História de Portugal. Primeiro Volume: Antes de Portugal, Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 1992. (in Portuguese)
  • Melón, Amando, Geografía histórica española Editorial Volvntad, S.A., Tomo primero, Vol. I Serie E. Madrid 1928. Melón was a member of the Royal Geographical Society of Madrid and a professor of geography at the Universities of Valladolid and Madrid. (In Spanish.)
  • Pellón, José R., Diccionario Espasa Íberos. Espasa Calpe S.A. Madrid 2001. (In Spanish.)
  • Urbieto Arteta, Antonio, Historia ilustrada de España, Volumen II. Editorial Debate, Madrid 1994. (In Spanish.)
  • El Housin Helal Ouriachen, 2009, La ciudad bética durante la Antigüedad Tardía. Persistencias y mutaciones locales en relación con la realidad urbana del Mediterraneo y del Atlántico, Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Granada, Granada.

Other modern sources

Classical sources

Other classical sources have been accessed second-hand (see references above):

Neo-modern references

  • E. Hübner, La Arqueologia de España (Barcelona, 1888)
  • E. S. Bouchier, Spain under the Roman Empire (Oxford, 1914)

Further reading

See also

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References

Footnotes

  1. ^ When it talks about the different Kings, "los V regnes de Espanya" ("The 5 Kingdoms of Spain"); when it talks about a military fort built by the Christians saying that it is "de los meylors de Espanya" ("from the best of Spain"); when it declared that Catalonia, one of the integral parts of the Crown of Aragon, is "lo meylor Regne Despanya, el pus honrat, el pus noble" ("the best kingdom of Spain, the most honest, the most noble"); when it talks about the conflict that has existed for long "entre los sarrains e los chrestians, en Espanya" ("between Saracens and Christians, in Spain").[12]

Citations

  1. ISBN 9781443740548
    – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Zvi Herman, קרתגו המעצמה הימית [= “Carthage, the Maritime Empire”] (Massadah Ltd, 1963), 105.
  3. ^ Living floors: The animal world in the mosaics of Israel and its surroundings / Ami Tamir,(Tel-Aviv, 2019),131;רצפות חיות: עולם החי בפסיפסי ארץ ישראל וסביבתה
  4. ^ Conrad Malte-Brun, Précis de la géographie universelle, vol. 4 (Paris: Buisson, 1810–29), 318.
  5. ^ "pg 292".[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ SPAL: Revista de prehistoria y arqueología de la Universidad de Sevilla. Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla. 1998. p. 93. Retrieved 8 February 2013. La presencia de fenicios en la antigua Sevilla parece constatada por el topónimo Spal que en diversas lenguas semíticas significa "zona baja", "llanura verde" o "valle profundo"
  7. ^ "La Emergencia de Sevilla" (PDF). Universidad de Sevilla. Retrieved 2011-05-11.
  8. ^ Charles Anthon, A System of Ancient and Mediæval Geography for the Use of Schools and Colleges (New York, 1849), 14.
  9. ^ Charnock, Richard Stephen (March 17, 1859). "Local Etymology: A Derivative Dictionary of Geographical Names". Houlston and Wright – via Google Books.
  10. Google Book Search
  11. ^ Monfrin, Jacques (March 17, 1946). "Paul Lebel, Les noms de personnes en France, 1946". Romania. 69 (275): 406–408 – via www.persee.fr.
  12. ISBN 9788495983954
    – via Google Books.
  13. ^ Kulikowski, M. The Career of the 'comes Hispanarum' Asterius, Phoenix, 2000a,54: 123-141.
  14. ^ E.A. Thompson, The Visigoths in Spain, 1969 pp. 114–131.
  15. ISBN 0-312-22464-8
    .
  16. ISBN 978-0-19-533403-6
    .
  17. ISBN 978-0-19-988041-6
    .
  18. OCLC 907117391
    .
  19. ^ Encadré 5.2 de Silva, A. J. M. (2012), Vivre au-delà du fleuve de l'Oubli. Portrait de la communauté villageoise du Castro do Vieito au moment de l'intégration du NO de la péninsule ibérique dans l'orbis Romanum (estuaire du Rio Lima, NO du Portugal), Oxford, Archaeopress.
  20. S2CID 67777837
    .
  21. ^
    ISBN 978-1134451128
    .
  22. ^ a b Michael McCormick; et al. (Autumn 2012). "Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence" (PDF). Journal of Interdisciplinary History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-07-14. Retrieved 24 Aug 2014.

External links

Library resources about
Hispania
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roman Hispania.
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