Hispania

Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar) and to two provinces created there in the period of the Roman Republic: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. In the period of the Roman Empire, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two other provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed to Tarraconensis.

Roman Hispania

The major part of the Punic Wars, fought between the Punic Carthaginians and the Romans, was fought on Iberian lands. Rome gained control of the Iberian Peninsula in 201 BC after the defeat of Carthage in the Second Punic War. 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 Hispanias, as had been done with the three Gauls.

Related Topics:
Punic Wars - Carthaginian - 201 BC - Carthage - Hibernia - Three Gauls

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Roman armies invaded Hispania in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against the Carthaginians and the nations of Hispania, such as the Iberians, the Lusitanians, the Celtiberians and the Gallaecians. Iberian resistance was fierce and prolonged, however, and it wasn't until 19 BC that the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC-14 AD) was able to complete the conquest.

Related Topics:
218 BC - Iberians - Lusitanians - Celtiberians - Gallaecians - 19 BC - Augustus - 27 BC - 14 AD

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Romanization of the Iberians peoples proceeded quickly after their conquest. Hispania wasn't one political entity but was divided into three separately governed provinces (nine provinces by the 4th century). More importantly, Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road.

Related Topics:
Romanization - 4th century

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Iberian tribal leaders and urban oligarchs were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class and they participated in governing Hispania and the empire. The latifundios (sing., latifundio), large estates controlled by the aristocracy, were superimposed on the existing Iberian landholding system.

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The Romans improved existing cities, such as Lisbon (Olissipo), established Zaragoza, Merida, and Valencia, and provided amenities throughout the empire. The peninsula's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. Hispania, along with North Africa, served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbors exported gold, wool, olive oil, and wine. Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use. The Hispano-Romans - 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. 117-38), and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-80) were born in Hispania.

Related Topics:
Lisbon - Zaragoza - Merida - Valencia - North Africa - Gold - Wool - Olive oil - Wine - 1st century - Trajan - 98 - 117 - Hadrian - 38 - Marcus Aurelius - 161 - 80

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The Hispanias were at first separated into two provinces (in 197 BC), each ruled by a praetor: Hispania Citerior ("Nearer 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. With this conquest, the indigenous Iberian, Celtiberian, Lusitanian and Gallaecians civilizations (amongst other cultural groups) were slowly replaced by the Greek-Latin one. Many conflicts arose during those two centuries, namely:

Related Topics:
197 BC - Praetor - Hispania Citerior - Hispania Ulterior - Augustus - Rome - Iberian - Celtiberian - Lusitanian - Gallaecians

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• Wars for independence, where different Iberian nations and tribes were slowly defeated, in spite of fierce resistance by the city of Numantia, the Lusitanian chieftain Viriato, amongst many others.
• A war led by Quintus Sertorius, praetor of Hispania Citerior, from where he successfully challenged Rome.
• The civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey, which was fought mostly in Hispanian territory.
• Julius and Augustus Caesar's campaigns to subdue the Gallaecians, Asturians, and Cantabrians, for example the Cantabrian Wars
• Finally, with Augustus' Pax Romana, Hispania was divided into three provinces in the 1st century BC.

Two writers of the time - geographer Strabo (in his Geographia book III) and universal historian G. Pompeus Trogus - devote several chapters of their works to the Hispanias.

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Strabo says:

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:Some say that the designations Iberia and Hispania are synonymous, that the Romans have designated the whole peninsula disinterestedly with the names of Iberia and Hispania, and called Ulterior and Citerior to its parts.

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Pompeus Trogus sets the picture of its inhabitants:

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:The Hispanics (from Hispania) are accustomed to abstinence and fatigue, and the mind set for death: a hard and austere soberness for all (dura omnibus et adstricta parsimonia). with so many centuries of wars with Rome they haven't had any captain but Viriato, a man of such high virtue and continence that, after beating the consular armies for 10 years, he would never want to be distinguished in any way from any private individual.

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Livy (59 BC to 17 AD), another Roman historian, also writes about his perception of the character of the Hispanic person:

Related Topics:
Livy - 59 BC - 17 AD

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:Agile, bellicose, anxious. Hispania is different from Italica in that it is more than ready for war because of the rough land and its man's nature.

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Lucius Anneus Florus (1st and 2nd century centuries), who was a historian and friend of the emperor Hadrian, also makes some observations:

Related Topics:
Lucius Anneus Florus - 1st - 2nd century - Hadrian

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:The Hispanic Nation, or the Hispania Universa, didn't manage to unite against Rome. Protected by the Pyrenees and the sea it would have been inaccessible. Its people were always worthy, but they lacked hierarchy.

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Valerius Maximus called Celtiberian fidelity fides celtiberica. According to this fides, the Iberian man sanctified his chieftain's soul and didn't believe it to be right and just to outlast him in battle. This was known from the time of the beginning of the Roman Empire as devotio or Iberian dedication. (In the Middle Ages they kept this fidelity in mind, which they themselves called Hispanic Loyalty.)

Related Topics:
Valerius Maximus - Middle Ages

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Much later, in the 4th century, another writer arises, a Gallic rhetor named Drepanius Pacatus, who dedicates part of his work to the depiction of the peninsula, Hispania: its geography, climate, inhabitants, soldiers, and so forth, all with praise and admiration:

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

Related Topics:
Trajan - Hadrian - Theodosius

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In his time, Expositio totius mundi is published in which Hispania is described as: Spania, terra lata et maxima, et dives viris doctis ("Hispania, a wide and vast land, and with numerous wise men"). By now the name of Hispania is already used interchangeably with Spania.

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Paulus Orosius (390-418), a historian, disciple of Saint Augustine, and author of Historiae adversus paganus ("Histories Countering the Pagans"), the first Christian universal history, makes this remark when discussing a blameworthy action taken by a praetor:

Related Topics:
Paulus Orosius - Saint Augustine - Christian

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:Universae Hispaniae propter Romanorum perditiam causa maximi tumultus fuit.

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To Orosio Hispania is a land with a collective life and its own values.

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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.

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