The Development of <i>Hispanitas</i> in Spanish Sixteenth-Century Versions of the Fall of Numancia

Abstract

The story of the Celtiberian town of Numancia and its fall in 133 B.C., as seen in the writings of Livy, Plutarch and others, was a well established topos in sixteenth-century Spain. The accounts of the bravery of the Numantians in defending their besieged city formed the basis for hispanitas, the gradual construction of a Spanish national identity. This paper examines the circulation of the tale of Numancia in four writers of the period: Antonio Guevara, Ambrosio de Morales, Fernando de Herrera, and Miguel de Cervantes.