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The economy of Hispania, or Roman Iberia, experienced a strong revolution during and after the conquest of the peninsular territory by Rome, in such a way that, from an unknown but promising land, it came to be one of the most valuable acquisitions of both the Republic and Empire and a basic pillar that sustained the rise of Rome.
Before the entrance of Rome into Iberia, almost all of the peninsula was based on a rural subsistence economy with little or very limited trade, with the exception of the largest cities, located mainly on the Mediterranean coast, which had regular contact with Greek and Phoenician commerce.
Phoenician legends had traditionally circulated throughout the Mediterranean about the infinite riches of the Tartessos and how commercial expeditions returned from the coast of Hispania loaded with cargoes of silver. Undoubtedly, these stories contributed to the increase in interest of the Mediterranean powers in the Iberian peninsula.
After their defeat in the First Punic War, Carthage was overwhelmed by the loss of important markets and by the tribute it had to pay Rome as compensation for the war. With the goal of alleviating this situation, the Carthagenians decided to expand along the coast of Iberia, which had until then been outside the area of Roman influence. Carthage, interested above all in getting quick profit, exploited the silver mines along the coastline of Andalusia and Levante, extracting large amounts of this metal with which it financed a great part of the Second Punic War and Hannibal's Italian campaign.
With this purpose and others, one of the first strategic objectives of Rome when invading the peninsula was to take the mines near New Carthage. In part due to the loss of these resources, and in greater part due to the isolation he found himself in, Hannibal had to renounce the war in Italy in 206 BC.
After the expulsion of Carthage, part of the indigenous peoples of Hispania were forced to pay tribute to Rome through an intricate web of alliances and allegiances. Despite this, throughout the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Rome took the unconquered lands of Hispania as an opportunity to pillage and plunder, frequently breaking peace treaties, like the accords from the times of Graccus Sempronius, which had allowed long periods of peace. The uprising of the Celtiberian and Lusitanian peoples only served to increase revenues from Rome via the immense spoils of war from the campaigns of Cato the Elder.
This policy of obtaining riches by force had its continuation in the campaigns of Pompey and later Julius Caesar, whom the histories say undertook not only to fight Pompey, but to profit from the conquest in order pay his creditors.
Meanwhile, the Spanish Mediterranean coast, which had been conquered during the war against Carthage and rapidly Romanized, began its economic and commercial expansion that would soon make it famous in the Roman world.
Besides the exploitation of mineral resources, Rome obtained with the conquest of Hispania access to what were probably the best agricultural lands in all of Romanized territory. Therefore, it became necessary to use those lands as soon as possible. During the Roman domination of the area, the economy of Hispania experienced a major production expansion, fueled further by roads and trade routes that opened the markets of the rest of the Empire.
One of the most obvious symbols of civilization that foreign cultures brought to Hispania was the minting of coins to facilitate commercial transactions. Beforehand, the peninsular economy was based on the barter system, exchanging products rather than currency, but beginning in the 3rd century BC, Greek colonies like Ampurias began minting coins, but with no influence beyond its boundaries.
Later, Carthage would introduce a more general use of the coins as payment for its troops, before and during the Roman invasion; but it would be the Romans who would impose the use of currency throughout the Spanish territory, and not just that currency whose value was based on the metal contained in the coin, but others of lower value than the alloy that comprised them, and were endorsed by the Roman treasury. From the abundance of coins found, especially those of lower value, one can draw the conclusion that the money was used widely in everyday life. During expansion of Rome in Spain, many peoples of the Peninsula minted their own coins in order to facilitate payment of tribute and trade with the area under Roman rule.
Throughout the Republican period, it was the Roman Senate that completely controlled the issuance of coinage through the monetary courts, but later, with the rise of the dictators, its control was reduced to lower valued coins, later passing many of the mints to imperial control.
Once Roman power in Hispania was consolidated, there were many mints that coined money, such as Tarraco (the first of the Roman mints in Hispania), Italica, Barcino, Caesaraugusta, Emerita Augusta, etc. And throughout the Empire, more than 400 mints provided coinage to most of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Undoubtedly, the first interest of Rome in Iberia was to take advantage of its legendary mineral wealth, besides that taken from Carthage. After the Second Punic War, the administration of was entrusted to Publius Scipio 'Africanus', who paid special attention to the mines. Rome would continue the extraction practices that the Iberian peoples began and that the Carthaginians would improve by importing the techniques used in Ptolemaic Egypt.
Since the mines were state owned, Rome created companies, 'public societies', which were public businesses administrated by publicans for mining. These publicans, generally members of the equestrian order, enriched themselves rapidly and abundantly, but Sulla snatched the mines from the publicans during his dictatorship in the 80s and 70s BC, putting them in the hands of private individuals and obtaining with it great economic and political benefits. In the times of Strabo (1st century BC - 1st century AD, during the transition from the Republic to the dictators and the Empire), they were granted as concessions to private exploitation. This system permitted the rapid enriching of certain families who, coming from Italy, had settled in Hispania for this purpose. In other cases, the mines could belong to a city (generally to a colony). The profits from the mines were huge and remained so throughout the period of seven centuries of Roman rule, which converted Hispania into an economic mainstay of the Empire. The records show with sufficient accuracy mine production figures, that in the 2nd century BC were more than nine million denarii annually, while the spoils of war during the same period, were never more than a little more than a third of this amount.
With regards to minerals, Rome extracted with greater interest silver, copper, and iron. Hannibal had given a great vitality to the silver mines of New Carthage. In those on the outskirts of Cartagena and Mazarron, Rome continued extracting silver, lead, iron, zinc, and other minerals in great quantities, making about 40,000 slaves labor in them. Even today in the region of Ilipa (the same place where Scipio inflicted a major defeat on the Carthaginians on the west bank of the river Betis) there are significant mineral deposits such as Almaden de la Plata or Aznalcollar in Sevilla, and the Almaden mercury that depended on Sisapo (Valle de Alcudia, Ciudad Real). This production, besides the remains of the same mineral deposits, is demonstrated by the many underwater wrecks in which silver ingots have been found, and lead and copper bars with the seals of Hispanic smelters.
Another important mineral extracted in Hispania was lapis specularis, a type of translucent gypsum, much appreciated as a mineral for the making, as crystal, windows in Rome. Its principal areas of extraction were the current Spanish provinces of Toledo and Cuenca. The city of Segobriga was the administrative center of the mineral's production, and it was the principle economic activity of the city.
Beyond all of this, the work in the mines in the times of Roman Hispania took place under appalling conditions. Millions of slaves were employed in mines in extremely dangerous work without any security and without a schedule that is humanly bearable. For a slave, the fate of the mines was the worst of all fortunes, and with almost complete certainty, a slave was destined to spend the rest of their short lives without seeing the light of the sun again, hauling mineral and stone all day long or swinging a pick in the galleries, always under the threat of cave ins.
As soon as the first conquests obtained them, cultivated lands were divided amongst the professional troops, the land being measured and divided for the colonization of the territory. Traditionally, farming had been idealized by Roman culture as the culmination of the aspirations of the citizen. The Romans pushed legislation on land ownership, guaranteeing property lines through surveying techniques and the "centuriazation" of the fields. This policy would allow a rapid colonization of the land. Subsequently, late in the 2nd century BC, this would produce a crisis for the peasantry throughout the territory under Roman rule, caused by the huge quantity of slaves who were employed in all sectors, with a consequent decline in the competitiveness of small farmers. The crisis, despite the failed agrarian reform attempts of the Tribunes Tiberius and Cayo Sempronio Graco, would favor the strengthening of the great landowners, possessors of large expanses of land dedicated to cultivation of a single crop and worked by slaves. The small farmer in many cases would be doomed to abandon his lands and swell the ranks of the growing number of Roman armies.
Of the agricultural production of Hispania since the 2nd century BC, the cultivation of olives, especially along the Mediterranean coast and Betic Tarragona, stands out. Under the Romans, the province of Bética specialized in the production of olive oil for export to Rome and northern Europe.
The deposits of amphorae from "Mount Testaccio" as much as underwater deposits are evidence of trade with Rome. Mount Testaccio originated as a dumping ground for ceramic packaging of goods that arrived in Rome. From the size that the hill attained, which according to research, 80% of its volume is composed of Betician amphorae for olive oil, one can deduce the magnitude of the trade generated by the oil and hence the importance that olive cultivation had in Hispania. This was undoubtedly the product of Hispania which was marketed in more abundance and for a longer period of time, and indeed is still the foundation of agriculture in southern Iberia.
Amphorae of Betic origin has been found, besides in Mount Testaccio (since most of the oil production was sent to Rome until the middle of the 3rd century AD), in locations as diverse as Alexandria, and even Israel. During the 2nd century AD, shipments of oil were destined for the Roman garrisons of Germania.
Within the oil trade, the quantity of amphorae found, as much in Mount Testaccio as in other places, stands out. The Sevillian town of Lora del Rio, where one of largest exporters of this product was located, is studied today in the archeological remains of La Catria. However through the history of Roman Hispania, a multitude of potteries and producers of oil existed in Betica itself as much as in the area to the east of it.
With respect to grapevine cultivation, classical sources discuss the quality and quantity of Hispanic stock, some of them highly appreciated in Italy, while the production of others less selective were destined to be consumed by the greater public who had less purchasing power. This crop was produced mostly in the 'fundus' (latifundias), that understood all the processes needed to make wine, occasionally including the manufacture of the pottery needed for the manufacture of the bottle. Because of the number of said 'fundus' and the total production of the same, it was possible to keep the domestic market supplied and to export the considerable excess for consumption of other parts of the Empire.
Inside the chronicles and treatises concerning agriculture in Hispania, the work of Cadizian Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is remarkable. In his dozen books, he presented the characteristics of agriculture in his time (1st century AD), criticizing those defects that, in his understanding, ruined the industry, like the abandoning of the fields and the hoarding of land by the great landholders. In these books, he deals extensively with the cultivation of olives and grapevines.
Thanks to archeological research about the production of amphorae in the southern peninsula, it can be deduced that the commerce of salted fish existed before the control of Carthage. Evidence exists for production and marketing of salted fish as early as the 5th century BC. The Carthaginians extended this trade throughout all of the western Mediterranean, as much Hispanic as North African.
Throughout the Roman period, Hispania stood out for its continuation of the flourishing trade of salted fish from Betica, extending its market throughout western Europe. This activity is reflected in the remains of factories whose product was, in addition to salted fish, the sauce garum, whose fame was extended throughout the Empire. Garum sauce was produced by the process of maceration of fish viscera. As with the wine and oil trade, the production of garum generated an important auxiliary industry of packaging in amphorae, in which were conserved abundant remains, and thanks to which, it is possible to determine the reach of this trade.
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The Lusitanians were a people living in the far west of the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding roughly to Central Portugal and some areas of modern-day Extremadura and Castilla y Leon, in Spain. After its conquest by the Roman Republic the land was subsequently incorporated as a Roman province named after them (Lusitania).
Ataegina was a goddess worshipped by the ancient Iberians, Lusitanians, and Celtiberians of the Iberian Peninsula. She is believed to have ruled the underworld.
The Vettones were an Iron Age pre-Roman people of the Iberian Peninsula of possibly Celtic ethnicity.
Monte Testaccio or Monte Testaceo, also known as Monte dei Cocci, is an artificial mound in Rome composed almost entirely of testae, fragments of broken ancient Roman pottery, nearly all discarded amphorae dating from the time of the Roman Empire, some of which were labelled with tituli picti. It is one of the largest spoil heaps found anywhere in the ancient world, covering an area of 2 hectares at its base and with a volume of approximately 580,000 cubic metres (760,000 cu yd), containing the remains of an estimated 53 million amphorae. It has a circumference of nearly a kilometre (0.6 mi) and stands 35 metres (115 ft) high, though it was probably considerably higher in ancient times. It stands a short distance away from the east bank of the River Tiber, near the Horrea Galbae where the state-controlled reserve of olive oil was stored in the late 2nd century AD. The mound later had both religious and military significance.
The Cantabri or Ancient Cantabrians, were a pre-Roman people and large tribal federation that lived in the northern coastal region of ancient Iberia in the second half of the first millennium BC. These peoples and their territories were incorporated into the Roman Province of Hispania Tarraconensis in 19 BC, following the Cantabrian Wars.
The Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula was a process by which the Roman Republic occupied territories in the Iberian Peninsula that were previously under the control of native Celtic, Iberian, Celtiberian and Aquitanian tribes and the Carthaginian Empire. The Carthaginian territories in the south and east of the peninsula were conquered in 206 BC during the Second Punic War. Control was gradually extended over most of the Iberian Peninsula without annexations. It was completed after the end of the Roman Republic, by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, who annexed the whole of the peninsula to the Roman Empire in 19 BC.
A horreum was a type of public warehouse used during the ancient Roman period. Although the Latin term is often used to refer to granaries. By the end of the imperial period, the city of Rome had nearly 300 horrea to supply its demands. The biggest were enormous, even by modern standards; the Horrea Galbae contained 140 rooms on the ground floor alone, covering an area of some 225,000 square feet. They provided storage for not only the annona publica but also a great variety resources like olive oil and footstuffs. The amount of storage space available in the public horrea can be judged by the fact that when the emperor Septimius Severus died in 211 AD, he is said to have left the city's horrea stocked with enough food to supply Rome's million-strong population for seven years. Smaller horrea were a standard feature of Roman towns, cities and forts throughout the empire; well-preserved examples of military horrea have been excavated on Hadrian's Wall in England, notably at the forts of Housesteads, Corbridge and South Shields.
Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, 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". From Diocletian's Tetrarchy 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.
Italy–Spain relations are the interstate relations between Italy and Spain. Both countries established diplomatic relations some time after the unification of Italy in 1860.
The archaeological site of Libisosa is located in the "Cerro del Castillo" in the municipality of Lezuza. As a result of archaeological excavations, it is now known that the site covers 30 hectares of remains ranging from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Middle Ages, the latter presided over by the watchtower that bears the name of the hill, and to which also corresponds a building of the military orders. From the Roman period, the late Republican wall and the forum of the Roman colony mentioned by Pliny the Elder stand out, while the final phase of the Iberian oppidum assigned to the regio oretana by Ptolemy stands out. The excellent preservation of structures and materials of the Ibero-Roman stage of Libisosa is due to the "burial effect" caused by its hasty and systematic destruction, which has allowed a frozen image of its state prior to the devastation to reach the present day, which constitutes a mine for research on the Final Iberian and Republican Hispania, most of which has yet to be discovered.
The history of ancient Iberian coinage begins as early as the fifth century BC, but widespread minting and circulation in the Iberian peninsula did not begin until late in the third century, during the Second Punic War. Civic coinages - emissions made by individual cities at their own volition - continued under the first two and a half centuries of Roman control until ending in the mid-first century AD. Some non-civic coins were minted on behalf of Roman emperors during this period and continued to be minted after the cessation of the civic coinages. After the cessation of the civic coinages, these Imperial coins were the only coins minted in Iberia until the coins of the Suebi and Visigoths.
Roman villa of Camino de Albalate is a Roman site near Calanda, Teruel, Aragon, Spain. The archaeological site, now dismantled, is located in the Albalate orchard area and is one of the most significant sites in the province of Teruel. The mosaic discovered there stands as the primary example of Roman culture in the aforementioned province.
Cándida Martínez López is a Spanish historian, university professor, expert in women's history and studies, and politician. From 2000 to 2008 she was Councilor of Education of the Regional Government of Andalusia, and from 2008 to 2011 a deputy of the 9th Legislature of Spain. She is co-director of Arenal, Journal of Women's History.
Punicus was a chieftain of the Lusitanians, a proto-Celtic tribe from western Hispania. He became their first military leader during the Lusitanian War, and also led their first major victories against Rome.
Caucenus was a chieftain of the Lusitanians, a proto-Celtic tribe from western Hispania. He was an important military figure during the earlier phase of the Lusitanian War.
Mercenary life is recorded as a custom of Iron Age Spain, particularly in the central area of the Iberian peninsula. Departing from the native tribe and applying to serve in others was a way for economically disadvantaged youth to escape poverty and find an opportunity to use their fighting skills. Starting from 5th century BC, mercenary life would become a true social phenomenon in Hispania, with great numbers of fighters from distant lands coming to join the armies of Carthage, Rome, Sicily and even Greece, as well as other Hispanic peoples.
Human sacrifice in the ancient Iberian Peninsula is recorded in classical sources, which give it as a custom of Lusitanians and other Celtic peoples from the northern area of the peninsula. Its most complete mention comes from the work of Greek chronicler Strabo, in which those ceremonies have a divinatory utility. Modern authors have seen in this phenomenon hints of a possible priestly class among the mentioned peoples, similar to but differentiated from European Celtic druids.
The Iberian revolt was a rebellion of the Iberian peoples of the provinces Citerior and Ulterior, created shortly before in Hispania by the Roman state to regularize the government of these territories, against that Roman domination in the 2nd century BC.
The Tharsis-La Zarza mining basin, colloquially known as the Tharsis mines, is a Spanish mining area located in the province of Huelva. Its main centers are in the municipalities of Alosno, Calañas, Cerro de Andévalo and La Zarza-Perrunal. The basin is part of the Iberian Pyrite Belt.
The item to Laminio, alio itinere Cæsarea Augusta, as it appears in the original document, or Antonine Itinerary A-31, according to the nomenclature adopted by Saavedra to classify the Roman roads of Hispania that appear in that document, is a communication route of Ancient Rome through the current Iberian Peninsula. Of all the Hispanic Itineraries, this is one of the most difficult to reconstruct since most of its points of passage have not yet been fully established, among them Laminio, the city of origin, and there are notable discrepancies within the scientific community.