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.

The Hispanias

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

Related Topics:
Cartagena - Cantabrian Sea

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Hispania Ulterior comprised what are now Andalusia, Portugal, Extremadura, León, a great portion of the former Castilla la Vieja, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country.

Related Topics:
Hispania Ulterior - Andalusia - Portugal - Extremadura - León - Castilla la Vieja - Galicia - Asturias - Cantabria - Basque Country

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Hispania Citerior comprised the eastern part of former Castilla la Vieja, and what are now Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, and a major part of former Castilla la Nueva.

Related Topics:
Hispania Citerior - Aragon - Valencia - Catalonia - Castilla la Nueva

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In the year A.D. 27 the general and politician Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa divided Hispania into three parts, namely dividing Hispania Ulterior into Baetica (basically Andalusia) and Lusitania (including Gallaecia and Asturias) and attaching Cantabria and the Basque Country to Hispania Citerior.

Related Topics:
A.D. 27 - Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa - Baetica - Andalusia - Lusitania - Gallaecia - Asturias - Cantabria - Basque Country

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

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• Provincia Hispania Ulterior Baetica (Hispania Baetica), whose capital was Córdoba. It included a little less territory than present-day Andalusia—since modern Almería and a great portion of what today is Granada y Jaen were left outside—plus the southern zone of present-day Badajoz. The river Anas or Annas (Guadiana, from Wadi-Anas) separated Hispania Baetica from Lusitania.
• Provincia Hispania Ulterior Lusitania, whose capital was Emerita Augusta (now Mérida) and without Gallaecia and Asturias.
• Provincia Hispania Citerior, whose capital was Tarraco (Tarragona). After gaining maximum importance this province was simply known as Tarraconensis and it comprised Gallaecia (modern Galicia and northern Portugal) and Asturias.

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• Provincia Hispania Nova, whose capital was Tingis (Tánger). In A.D. 69 the province of Mauretania Tingititana or Hispania Nova was incorporated into Hispania.

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. Historians cannot explain this strange, short-lived division. And in the year 238 the unified province Tarraconensis or Hispania Citerior was reestablished.

Related Topics:
3rd century - Caracalla - 238

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