Hispania Citerior Research Articles

The Roman Conquest of Hispania Citerior. Strategies and Archaeological Evidence in the North-Eastern Peninsular Area. (II-I BCE): the Examples of Puig Castellar of Biosca and Can Tacó (Catalonia, Spain)

The aim of this paper is to provide data for the knowledge of the strategies followed by Rome to take effective control of the Citerior Province of Hispania during the 2nd century BC. We will analyse two settlements of the north-eastern region, namely Puig Castellar de Biosca (Province of Lleida) and Can Tacó (Province of Barcelona), that will serve to gauge the degree of Roman territorial implementation and under what forms this power will be consolidated. The period that interests us ranges from the end of the second Punic-Roman conflict to the first decades of the 1st century BC. It was a slow process in which Rome did not have a pre-established plan of action but was adapting its strategy to the different circumstances and stages of the conquest. The end of all this was the final control and pacification of the country. While all the researchers have a common understanding that during the first phase of control of the Hispanic territories the army played the most important role, the main discrepancies are related to the nature and characteristics of this occupation. The main focus in this discussion has its centre in the need to define how the Roman Army embodied his presence in Hispania during the first century of conquest and to characterise the different settlements in order to identify and determine with precision their military character or their connection with the process of conquest without a strictly military function. Funding: This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (De la consolidación del poder militar romana a la fundación de ciudades (mediados del siglo II a.C.-principios del siglo I d.C). en la Cuenca del rio Segre: Iesso y Iulia Libica DGYCIT PID2019-104120GB-I00-2023-2021), and the Department of Culture of the Catalan Autonomous Government (La conquesta romana a la Catalunya interior: l’exemple de Puig Castellar (Biosca), CLT009/18/00014).

The Roman Republican castellum of Puig Castellar (Biosca): the earliest evidence for military headquarters in Hispania Citerior (180–120 BCE)

AbstractThis paper illustrates the results of research carried out at the archaeological site of Puig Castellar de Biosca (Catalonia, Spain), located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. This Republican military fortress, a castellum, is exceptional due both to its early chronology, which ranges between 180 and 120 BCE, and to the fact that it acted as a long-lasting military installation situated in a pacified area on the periphery of the Celtiberian conflict zone. Work at the site has uncovered a central building on the top of a hill, which due to its Italian features has been identified as the headquarters of the military fortress. If this interpretation is correct, this might be one of the first examples of a Republican military headquarters building documented to date. It could then be considered a predecessor of later praetoria and principia, which have been recorded in the Numantine camps and on the Roman western limes.

The Commemoration of Children in the Funerary Epigraphy of the Conventus Cluniensis (Hispania Citerior)

This article examines the funerary inscriptions dedicated to children in the Roman period in the Conventus Cluniensis. The rate of infant mortality was high in this period but only a low percentage of inscriptions were dedicated to children. This underrepresentation of infant mortality has been analyzed from different perspectives, including the emotional attachment of the parents or archaeological funerary remains connected to non-adults. The aim of this article is to contextualize the epitaphs dedicated to children within the general analysis of funerary epigraphy, comparing the representation of children with other social groups and the use of Latin epigraphy in the provinces.

Arse-Saguntum, la ciudad de los dos nombres

One of the most notable features of ancient Sagunto (Valencia) is its toponymic duality, especially remarkable in coin legends from the 130s BCE onwards, which is an exceptional fact for Hispania Citerior, in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Both toponyms, Arse and Saguntum, are not simultaneously attested in other sources: they are virtually absent in Republican epigraphy and literature only mentions the second one, in diverse variants. This paper analyses the data relative to this double toponymy in order to historically contextualize this phenomenon, linking it with the Latinization of the city and its explicit movements towards Rome during the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, a process that we propose to articulate in four main milestones, according to the preserved documents. Besides, this paper offers an explanation to the prevalence of the toponym Saguntum (of local origin and possibly referred to the port) regarding Arse (also local and referred to the city), independent from the elaboration of the foundational myth that links the Iberian settlement with the Ionian island of Zacynthos, since it is very likely that this legend was not created until the 1st century BCE

Nueva hipótesis en torno a la presencia de élites locales de Barcino en la producción del vino layetano: el caso de Lucius Minicius Natalis

This paper intends to clarify the role played by the Roman elites in the production and distribution of wine produced in the Provincia Hispania Citerior. We propose the interpretation of stamps l·m·n, and l·m·n o, documented in Dressel 2-4 Laietanian amphorae, in relation to a Lucius Minicius Natalis. Given the chronology of these vessels –c. ad 30-40– this individual might have been a direct ancestor of the consuls from Barcino who bore this name and whose cursus honorum underwent during the time of emperors Trajan and Hadrian. To raise this hypothesis we have carried out an extensive review of the epigraphic evidence on amphorae, as well as the prosopographical study of the gens Minicia and fundi that would control the ager of Barcino. After such an analysis, we conclude that the most plausible option is to understand these epigraphic stamps on amphora as Lucius Minicius Natalis and Lucius Minicius Natalis Opus or Officina, respectively. Therefore, this interpretation of the epigraphic evidence allows us to conclude that most probably, the richness of the well-known Minicii Natales, who developed a consular career, must have had its origin in the wine production of their ancestors in the ager of Barcino.

Buildings of faith: Early Christianity in the countryside of the Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands lie not far off the E coast of the Iberian Peninsula in a strategic position for navigation and trade routes (fig. 1 below). Classical writers considered them two groups of islands: Mallorca and Menorca (with adjacent islands and islets), forming the Baliarides, and Ibiza and Formentera (with other islets), considered the Pityussae.1 In 123 B.C., the Balearides were conquered by the Romans and included first in Hispania Citerior and in Tarraconensis later. The unified archipelago became an independent province at the end of the 4th c., probably due to the re-organization by Theodosius.2 In A.D. 455, the Balearics were conquered by the Vandals, while in 534, Apollinarius, sent by Belisarius, conquered the islands for the Byzantine empire. Theoretically, Byzantine rule lasted until the Islamic conquest of Isam-al-Jalawni in 902-3,3 but it is difficult to draw a precise line for the end of late antiquity on the islands. The Muslim occupation at the very start of the 10th c. witnessed a clear shift. In this paper, we will consider the period from the 5th to the start of the 10th c., even if information for the 8th and 9th c. is scarce.

Renewed work at the Roman camps at Renieblas near Numantia (2nd-1st c. B.C.)

Iberia was one of the first overseas territories to fall under Roman control when the provinces of Hispania Citerior and Ulterior were established in 197 B.C., preceded only by Sicilia (241) and Sardinia et Corsica (227).1 Renieblas and the sites surrounding Numantia are among the first camps of Rome‘s earliest overseas expansion to be confidently identified archaeologically. They are central in analyses of the Republican army and Roman siegeworks,2 the conquest of Hispania,3 and the effects of the war on local communities.4

Africani en las colonias romanas de la Hispania Citerior (Siglos I-II d.C.)

The main objective of this work is to study the inscriptions related to the presence of Africani in the Roman colonies of the province Hispania Citerior in centuries I and II d.C. The analysis of the causes that motivated their mobility and also other aspects such as their onomastics, professional occupations and the development of their public careers are the fundamental axes of this contribution.

Reclutamiento y unidades militares en las colonias romanas de la <em>Hispania Citerior</em>

La participación de tropas de origen hispano en el ejército romano fue frecuente a lo largo del Alto Imperio. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo el estudio de aquellos militares reclutados en las colonias romanas de la Hispania Citerior que fallecieron lejos de las mismas durante su periodo de servicio activo o bien tras recibir la honesta missio y decidir instalarse como veterani en su lugar de destino.

Painted marks at El Mèdol quarry near Tarragona: observations on the logistics and organisation of a Roman limestone quarry

This paper aims to present a set of painted marks and inscriptions on stone blocks from El Mèdol quarry (Tarragona), the limestone quarry which supplied the stone used to build most of the public edifices, including what is known as the Provincial Forum, in the nearby town of Tarraco, capital of Hispania Citerior. There are 16 marks in red paint and 3 written in charcoal, all linked to the phases of extracting and shaping the stone.

<em>Equites</em> del <em>ala Tauriana</em> al servicio de Roma: los <em>Sempronii</em> del <em>oppidum</em> de los bañales <em>(Hispania Citerior)</em>

Analizamos, desde una perspectiva prosopográfica, la carrera militar desarrollada a comienzos de época imperial en el ala Tauriana y en la cohors Germanorum por Q. Sempronius Vitulus, oriundo de la ciudad hispanorromana de Los Bañales de Uncastillo (Hispania Citerior). Él y su padre, L. Sempronius, constituyen ejemplos palpables del papel del ejército en el proceso de integración de las élites indígenas en la sociedad romana y del protagonismo de éstas en las transformaciones urbanísticas y la monumentalización de sus ciudades de origen.

Alfareros indígenas de la Hispania Citerior. Un catálogo de sellos con antropónimos vernáculos

El objetivo de este trabajo es recopilar los ejemplos de productores con nombre vernáculo que aparecen en los sellos inscritos sobre cerámica producida en el interior de la provincia de Hispania Citerior. Los sellos aparecen sobre dolia, cerámicas engobadas, tegulae, lateres y terra sigillata.

Non-invasive Geophysical Surveys in Search of the Roman Temple of Augustus Under the Cathedral of Tarragona (Catalonia, Spain): A Case Study

An integrated geophysical survey has been conducted at the Tarragona’s Cathedral (Catalonia, NE Spain) with the aim to confirm the potential occurrence of archaeological remains of the Roman Temple dedicated to the Emperor Augustus. Many hypotheses have been proposed about its possible location, the last ones regarding the inner part of the Cathedral, which is one of the most renowned temples of Spain (twelfth century) evolving from Romanesque to Gothic styles. A geophysical project including electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and ground probing radar (GPR) was planned over 1 year considering the administrative and logistic difficulties of such a project inside a cathedral of religious veneration. Finally, both ERT and GPR have been conducted during a week of intensive overnight surveys that provided detailed information on subsurface existing structures. The ERT method has been applied using different techniques and arrays, ranging from standard Wenner–Schlumberger 2D sections to full 3D electrical imaging with the advanced Maximum Yield Grid array. Electrical resistivity data were recorded extensively, making available many thousands of apparent resistivity data to obtain a complete 3D image after a full inversion. In conclusion, some significant buried structures have been revealed providing conclusive information for archaeologists. GPR results provided additional information about shallowest structures. The geophysical results were clear enough to persuade religious authorities and archaeologists to conduct selected excavations in the most promising areas that confirmed the interpretation of geophysical data. In conclusion, the significant buried structures revealed by geophysical methods under the cathedral were confirmed by archaeological digging as the basement of the impressive Roman Temple that headed the Provincial Forum of Tarraco, seat of the Concilium of Hispania Citerior Province.

Urban planning and ritual action in colonia ulpia traiana (Xanten, Germany): Understanding a non-solar orientation pattern

There is increasing evidence to suggest that cosmological factors were applied in the planning and orientation of Roman towns, at least under Augustus. Among others, this is the case of Colonia Augusta Praetoria Salassorum (Aosta) in Italia, Colonia Urbs Iulia Nova Carthago (Cartagena) in Hispania Citerior Tarraconensis, Colonia Copia Claudia Augusta Lugdunum (formerly Colonia Copia Felix Munatia, Lyon) in Gallia Lugdunensis, Colonia Augusta Treverorum (Trier) in Gallia Belgica, and Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (formerly Ara Ubiorum, Cologne) in Germania Inferior. For the sake of strengthening the sample of cities studied, and identifying orientation patterns from a chronological and astronomical perspective, a number of public structures from Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten) in Germania Inferior were measured. This town was a Roman colony, founded in A.D. 98 by Trajan with a contingent of veteran soldiers and a group of Germanic people. The result was the establishment of a typical Roman settlement with an orthogonal urban grid, whose planning and orientation took cosmological factors into account. In this case, in contrast to the previous examples, we propose that the decumanus maximus was not oriented directly according to the solar arc, but that instead it was possibly linked with other celestial bodies. In addition, the Gallo-Roman temple supposedly dedicated in this town to the Matronae or the Matres was oriented according to the major lunar standstill (“lunistice”). Therefore, this study aims to present the first results regarding the urban orientation of Colonia Ulpia Traiana according to a non-solar pattern, and attemps to provide a preliminary explanation for it from a cultural perspective.

The People's Rôle in Allocating Provincial Commands in the Middle Roman Republic

ABSTRACTMommsen — followed more recently by Brennan and Ferrary — proposed that laws were passed in around 228 and in 198 that constitutionally ‘fixed’ Sicily and Sardinia, and later Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, as praetorianprouinciae. This paper challenges that theory. It first examines the ancient evidence, comprising two ambiguous passages from Livy'sAb Vrbe Condita. It then offers a counter-hypothesis that elucidates the people's rôle in forestalling and/or resolving political disputes over the allocation of provincial commands. It will show that this rôle was crucial for mitigating the harmful effects of élite competition and, in turn, maintaining political stability in Rome.

Roman peasant habitats and settlement in central Spain (1st c. B.C.–4th c. A.D.)

The area under study comprises the Autonomous Community of Madrid, a highly urbanized modern region which coincides grosso modo with the N part of what used to be Carpetania. During the Early and Later Empire, it fell within the province of Hispania Citerior Tarraconensis, embracing the N part of the conventus Carthaginensis and the SW part of the conventus Caesaraugustanus. From the early days of municipalisation of the Hispanic provinces rural sites in this region belonged to the ager of three Latin municipia: Complutum, Titulcia, and Mantua Carpetanorum (fig. 1). While it is difficult to identify the precise limits of their agri, it seems probable that Complutum, as the most important urban centre in the region, would have had the largest territorium.

La creación de la red de ciudades del poder en la Hispania Citerior

In this paper, we analyse the network of conven­tus cities of Hispania Citerior, its influence on the structuring of the territory and its adaptation to the political and administrative functions attributed to the cities.

Early Osteologic Evidence of the Use of the Scalpel: Surgical Excision of a Facial Lesion in the Roman Period.

Sir: Mentions of surgical instruments date back several millennia, but actual traces are elusive. Works of Greco-Roman medical writers (e.g., Hippocrates, Celsus, Galen, Aetius, Oribasius, and Soranus) refer to their use. Instruments themselves are preserved in personal graves and collections, such as the one from the so-named Surgeon’s House in Pompeii.1,2 The individual corpse T-127 from the late Roman Ramón y Cajal street necropolis (along one of the west entrances of Tarraco, capital of Hispania Citerior Roman province)3 was buried in an amphora. This site, part of a larger complex, consists of 220 burials dated between the third and fifth centuries ad. The highly conserved, female skeleton was oriented in the craniocaudal direction (west to east). Cranial sutures and costal articular surfaces suggest age approximately 55 ± 10 years. Pubic articular facet was a reference to valorize posthumous alterations. After femoral length (423 mm), height was estimated as 158 cm (Trotter-Gleser) or 154 cm (Pearson). The left maxilla shows an erosive lesion (Fig. 1). Its outer base pierces below the infraorbital foramen. Uneven, slim edges progressively reach the inner sheet (maximum diameter, 12 mm). The outside aspect presents periorificial destructuration with an irregular bone surface. A linear lesion along the upper third of the defect horizontally crosses at a slight angle upward-out and accurately continues from edge to edge (Fig. 2). The patina of the incised area (length, 11 mm) characterizes an old injury. The lower third presents another line at an angle of 35 degrees to the upper line (length, 12 mm). The inner face of the anterior wall of the sinus is a smooth surface. The bottom side of the sinus appears through the top face as a result of a posthumous fracture. The loss of homogeneity and the rough surface on the lower left area suggest sinusitis. The rest of the skeleton features a consolidated right rib fracture.Fig. 1.: Anterior aspect of the left maxillary bone that shows a perforating, erosive defect (after protective coating).Fig. 2.: Detail from the defect in the anterior wall of the maxillary sinus (before protective coating).Radiology shows osteoblastic reaction surrounding the edges of the incisions. The inner side of the maxilla is free of injury. The external injury may have drilled the maxilla, secondarily causing sinusitis. Primary fistulized sinusitis following erosion from the outside was ruled out. Infectious agents such as Mycobacteria (tuberculous lupus) or secondary syphilis may yield bone destruction in regular, excavated lesions. Actinomycosis is usually limited to soft tissue. In spindle cell carcinoma, basocellular carcinoma, and melanoma, bone erosion is very rare. Hemangiosarcoma and dermatofibrosarcoma are even rarer neoplasms. NK/T-cell lymphomas of the so-called nasal type may produce similar erosions. Clearly, therapeutic interventions on earlier Roman remains include the now lost modiolus described by Brothwell4 and extraction of foreign bodies (arrowheads). In this specimen, two incisions clearly follow lines of tension and seem to aim excision. The upper incision delimits the injury and accomplishes eye protection and aesthetics by following tension lines. The second incision has a concave upper mark at its bottom, completing the cut in fusiform, myrtle-leaf shape as recommended by Celsus.5 The anatomical region, Friteau’s trapezoidal area, seldom includes noble elements. Osteoblastic reaction around the incision would be indirect evidence of survival after a procedure. DISCLOSURE The authors have no financial interest to declare in relation to the content of this article. None of the authors has any potential conflict of interest. Joaquim Baxarias Tibau, M.D., Ph.D.Wenceslao M. Calonge, M.D., M.Sc.Daniele Gurrieri, M.D.Permanence Médico-Chirurgicale Vermont-Grand PréGeneva, Switzerland

Termas públicas del "Conventus Carthaginiensis". Primera aproximación a su catalogación y estudio

This paper aims to advance some of the results of my PhD thesis, entitled Thermae Hispaniae Citerioris. Carthago Nova Harbour Baths: an architectonical and typological analysis, and integration of the complex in the context of public thermal architecture in Hispania Citerior. In relation to the context, we introduce an advanced of the systematic catalogue of public baths complexes focusing on the reconstruction of the language of public architecture in the Roman cities of the conventus from their transmission mechanisms and adaptation models from Carthago Nova as the capital of the region.

Consideraciones sobre el papel de los "oppida veteris Latii" como focos de ignición de la romanización cultural y política de las comunidades hispanas en época republicana

In the light of the recent publications on the probable existence of an extensive Latin colonization program in Hispania during the Roman Republic, this paper reviews two communities like Salduie and Contrebia Belaisca which, though they did not enjoy a Roman legal‐administrative statute during the Republican period, show typical institutions, ways and cultural products of a privileged setting. This situation may be explained on the basis of the feasible influence of the likely Latin colonies of Hispania Citerior, in particular those fossilized through their transformation into [municipia] veteris Latii under Augustus.