Romanization of Hispania
Roman wolf in Segovia

The Hispania is the name given by the Romans to the Iberian Peninsula. Since the ^fifteenth century Hispania is the host of modern states Spanish and Portuguese.

Dates:

• -501 To -202 (Carthaginian period)
• - 202 to 409 (Roman period), ending with the arrival of the Vandals , Swabians , and Alans , and the Visigoths .

Carthaginian Period

At first the Carthaginians install trading posts along the coast, without pushing deeper inside of Hispania. In 501, they captured Gades ( Cadiz ), a former Phoenician colony. After the first Punic War , the Carthaginians are rapidly expanding in the South, led by the Barcids. They exploit the gold mines at Carthage and restore its economic and commercial power. In 230, they founded Cartagena , New Carthage (Cartago Nova).

In 218, Hannibal form a powerful army, which includes a contingent of Iberians , and starts the second Punic War , taking Sagunto , then walking to Italy. The Romans can not intercept it in Gaul, and direct some of their forces in Hispania, which becomes a theater of war. After several clashes, Scipio Africanus took Cartagena in 209, and 207, Hasdrubal led the Carthaginian forces last of Hispania to Italy. In 202, the book officially surrender of Carthage Carthaginian Hispania in Rome.

Roman Conquest

In 197, the Romans divided Hispania into two provinces : Hispania Hither , overlooking the Mediterranean, and later Hispania (because furthest from Rome), including the South and turned toward the ocean. The Roman conquest of the Iberian peninsula was long, for several reasons:

• in Part II of the ^century, the Roman Senate had no expansionist vision, he was content to keep its territorial achievements and weaken potential adversaries
• local people often opposed a desperate resistance, and inflicted several defeats on the Roman armies.

Chronology summarized as follows:

• 191 to 189, revolt Celtiberians , submission of the Interior of Hispania
• at 154, land of the Lusitania
• 147 to 139, the Lusitanian shepherd Viriathus organize an effective resistance, and beat several Roman armies. The Romans were unable to overcome that by doing murdered by his supporters.
• 142 to 133, war against Numancia between the Ebro and Duero. In 137, the consul Gaius Hostilius Mancinus surrendered with his army before Numantines.
• in 137, campaigns against GALEC (Galleacia)
• in 134, arrived in the peninsula the consul Scipio Aemilianus accompanied by his staff, among which are the auxiliary Numidian Jugurtha , Caius Gracchus , and by the historian Polybius. Scipio attacked the natives and destroyed their crops to prevent their help Numantines. He began the siege of Numancia building imposing structures circumvallation.
• in 133, the city was taken by Scipio and start campaigning against the Basques (Basque)

The conquest of the peninsula following a break for a century because the East is a field that much more attractive conquest of Hispania, while Hispanics have shown their resilience. The north-west of Hispania remains rebellious.

• 80 to 72, revolt Sertorius , a supporter of Marius. He enlists many Hispanics in his legions, agrees with local elites and contributes to the Romanization of the country from the city of Clunia. Pompey managed to reduce the revolt.
• at 61 and 60, Julius Caesar is propraetor Later in Hispania
• at 49 and 45, blitzes of Julius Caesar against the Pompeian defeat at the Battle of Munda.
• 29 to 19, Augustus and Agrippa with 5 legions submit hardly mountaineers Asturias and Cantabria. Their heads were subjected relegated to a foundation north of the Pyrenees, Lugdunum Convenarum.

The Roman Hispania

The Roman conquest of the peninsula has been completed, Augustus into three provinces: Hispania later is divided into Betic , conquest former romanized well that becomes a senatorial province and Lusitania. The Hispania Hither becomes Tarraconaise. Tarraconaise and Lusitania are still occupied by legions (6 legions in the year 6), and have the status of imperial provinces.

Of colonies Roman based at strategic locations:

• Bracara Asturica Augusta and Augusta, watching Asturias
• Emeritta Augusta ( Merida ) in Lusitania
• Caesaraugusta ( Zaragoza )

La via Augusta just Narbonne Gaul by Perthus and crosses the country from Tarraco, Valentia, Corduba, Hispalis and Gades. The three provinces experienced a long period of peace, and the number of legions present was gradually reduced to one, the Seventh Gemina stationed in Len.

Political integration in the Roman Empire

The Romans were often accused in the history books to be the cause of "radiation" of Aboriginal culture, Spanish and Portuguese. But watching all the progress of these seven centuries under Roman rule it is questionable if it did not make the Spanish and Portuguese culture richer, more plural. Ages participation of Hispania into the Roman Empire were marked by a "romanization" in many areas.

The Romans were not only built the aqueducts, bridges, baths, amphitheaters, ... but they have also endowed the nation of institutions, a hierarchy. They established social classes: the aristocracy, the middle class (comprising bureaucrats, intellectuals, soldiers, traders, industrialists and small landowners), and the people who comprised free men belonging to neither previous categories, they were miners, farmers, soldiers, fishermen, and finally the slaves without rights.

Although the policy of Hispania was under the control of the government of Rome, elections took place every year to appoint the government of cities and regions. Rome establishes laws and constitutions to hold the territory, founded numerous Roman colonies and granted more and more the Roman citizenship to the indigenous and the Emperor Vespasian, the generalization to all cities of the peninsula. For this romanization, Spain was the birthplace of Roman writers ( Martial , Quintilian , Seneca , Lucan ...) and several emperors ( Trajan , Hadrian , Theodosius I ). ^{The religious and cultural contributions}

The greatest cultural contribution is probably the Latin language which will give the dialects of Peninsular Spanish ( Castilian , Catalan , Galician , Aragonese , Portuguese ). The emergence of trade and the beginnings of individualism with private property have upset the Hispania is urbanized.

Agriculture was the wealth of Hispania, causing it to interact with other parts of the Roman Empire. The Romans developed the trade in Hispania allowing it to trade with other parts of Europe. Peninsula exported mining products (silver, lead, gold), cereals, oil and wine.

However, it is legendary as St. Paul has traveled in Hispania. Evangelism is progressing, especially from the ^second century. The development of Christianity took place rapidly, coast to inland, through the Roman presence in the country. The Hispania was quickly loaded with Christianity than ^the fourth century AD, and provides a bishop of Rome ( Damasus I 366 to 384) and in 385 the first bishop of history executed for heresy, the ascetic Priscillian.

See also

Internal Links

• For the period from the ^first century to the ^fifth century , see the following provinces:
  • Betic
  • Lusitania
  • Tarraconaise
  • Carthaginian

• For the ^fifth century , see
  • Western Roman Empire
  • Visigothic kingdom

• Generic Articles
  • History of Spain
  • History of Portugal

External Links

• Iberian Peninsula Roman by Patrick Le Roux, a professor at the University of Paris XIII.

• Portal of the Phoenicians and the Punic world
• Ancient Rome portal
• Spain portal
• Portugal portal

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