Hispania

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, first as Hispania Nova, later renamed "Callaecia" (or

Gallaecia

, whence modern Galicia). From Diocletian's Tetrarchy (AD 284) 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

.

The modern place names

Spain

and Hispaniola are both derived from ''Hispania''.

Etymology

The origin of the word ''Hispania'' is much disputed. The evidence for the various speculations is based merely upon what are at best mere resemblances, likely to be accidental, and suspect supporting evidence. The most commonly held theory holds it to be of Punic origin, from the Phoenician language of colonizing

Carthage

. Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate ''ī shāpān'' (𐤀𐤉 𐤔𐤐𐤍) of Hebrew ''ī shāfān'' (אׅי שָׁפָן) meaning "island of the

hyrax

", referring to the European rabbit (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew are both Canaanite languages and therefore closely related to each other). Some Roman coins of the Emperor Hadrian, born in Hispania, depict Hispania and a rabbit. Others derive the word from Phoenician ''span'', meaning "hidden", and make it indicate "a hidden", that is, "a remote", or "far-distant land".

Other far-fetched theories have been proposed. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania of Iberian origin and derived it from the pre-Roman name for

Seville

, ''Hispalis''. This was revived for instance by the etymologist Eric Partridge (in his work ''Origins'') who felt that this might strongly hint at an ancient name for the country of ''*Hispa'', presumably an Iberian or Celtic root whose meaning is now lost. ''Hispalis'' may alternatively derive from '' Heliopolis'' (Greek for "city of the sun"). However, according to modern research by Manuel Pellicer Catalán, the name derives from Phoenician ''spal'' "lowland", rendering the above explanations of ''Hispania'' highly unlikely. Occasionally Hispania was called ''Hesperia ultima'' "farthest western land" by Roman writers since the name ''Hesperia'' "western land" had already been used by the Greeks to refer to the Italian peninsula.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Jesuits scholars like Larramendi and José Francisco de Isla tied the name to the Basque word ''ezpain'' ‘lip’, but also ‘border, edge’, thus meaning the farthest area or place.

During Antiquity and Middle Ages, the literary texts derive the term Hispania from an eponymous hero named Hispan, who is mentioned for the first time in the work of the Roman historian Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus, in the 1st century BC.

Although "Hispania" is the

Latin

root for the modern name "

Spain

", the words ''Spanish'' for ''Hispanicus'' or ''Hispanic'', or ''Spain'' for ''Hispania'', are not easily interchangeable, depending on context. The Estoria de España ("The History of Spain") written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile "El Sabio" ("the Wise"), between 1260 and 1274, during the ''

Reconquista

'' ('reconquest') of Spain, is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish using the words "España" ("Spain") and "Españoles"("Spaniards") to refer to Medieval Hispania. The use of Latin "Hispania", Castilian "España", Catalan "Espanya" and French "Espaigne", among others, to refer to Roman Hispania or Visigothic Hispania was common throughout all the Late Middle Ages. A document dated 1292 mentions the names of foreigners from Medieval Spain as "Gracien d'Espaigne". Latin expressions using "Hispania" or "Hispaniae" (e.g. "omnes reges Hispaniae") were often used in the Middle Ages, while the Spain Romance languages of the ''Reconquista'' use the

Romance

version interchangeably. In the James Ist Chronicle ''Llibre dels fets'', written between 1208 and 1276, there are many instances of this. The borders of modern Spain do not coincide with those of the Roman province of Hispania or of the

Visigothic Kingdom

, and thus medieval Spain and modern Spain exist in separate contexts. The Latin term ''Hispania'', often used during Antiquity and the Low Middle Ages as a

geographical

name, started to be used also with political connotations, as shown in the expression ''laus Hispaniae'', "Praise to Hispania", to describe the history of the peoples of the

Iberian Peninsula

of Isidore of Seville's ''Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum'':

You are, O

Spain

, holy and always happy mother of princes and peoples, the most beautiful of all the lands that extend far from the West to

India

. You, by right, are now the queen of all provinces, from whom the lights are given not only the sunset, but also the East. You are the honor and ornament of the orb and the most illustrious portion of the Earth ... And for this reason, long ago, the golden

Rome

desired you

In modern history, ''Spain'' and ''Spanish'' have become increasingly associated with the Kingdom of Spain alone, although this process took several centuries. After the union of the central peninsular Kingdom of Castile with the eastern peninsular Kingdom of Aragon in the 15th century under the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, only Navarra and Portugal were left to complete the whole peninsula under one monarchy. Navarre followed soon after in 1512, and Portugal, after over 400 years as an independent and sovereign nation, in 1580. During this time, the concept of

Spain

was still unchanged. It was after the restoration of Portugal's independence in 1640 when the concept of

Spain

started to shift and be applied to all the Peninsula except Portugal.

Pre-Roman history

The Iberian peninsula has long been inhabited, first by early hominids such as ''

Homo erectus

'', ''

Homo heidelbergensis

'' and ''

Homo antecessor

''. In the Paleolithic period, the Neanderthals entered Iberia and eventually took refuge from the advancing migrations of

modern humans

. In the 40th millennium BC, during the Upper Paleolithic and the last ice age, the first large settlement of

Europe

by modern humans occurred. These were

nomadic

hunter-gatherers originating on the steppes of

Central Asia

. When the last

Ice Age

reached its maximum extent, during the 30th millennium BC, these modern humans took refuge in

Southern Europe

, namely in

Iberia

, after retreating through Southern France. In the millennia that followed, the Neanderthals became extinct and local modern human cultures thrived, producing pre-historic art such as that found in L'Arbreda Cave and in the Côa Valley.

In the

Mesolithic

period, beginning in the 10th millennium BC, the Allerød Oscillation occurred. This was an interstadial deglaciation that lessened the harsh conditions of the Ice Age. The populations sheltered in

Iberian Peninsula

(descendants of the

Cro-Magnon

) migrated and recolonized all of

Western Europe

. In this period one finds the Azilian culture in Southern France and

Northern Iberia

(to the mouth of the

Douro

river), as well as the Muge Culture in the

Tagus

valley.

The Neolithic brought changes to the human landscape of Iberia (from the 5th millennium BC onwards), with the development of

agriculture

and the beginning of the

European Megalith Culture

. This spread to most of

Europe

and had one of its oldest and main centres in the territory of modern

Portugal

, as well as the

Chalcolithic

and

Beaker

cultures.

During the 1st millennium BC, in the Bronze Age, the first wave of migrations into Iberia of speakers of Indo-European languages occurred. These were later (7th and 5th centuries BC) followed by others that can be identified as

Celt

s. Eventually urban cultures developed in southern Iberia, such as

Tartessos

, influenced by the Phoenician colonization of coastal

Mediterranean

Iberia, with strong competition from the Greek colonization. These two processes defined Iberia's cultural landscape – Mediterranean towards the southeast and Continental in the northwest.

Languages

Latin was the official language of Hispania during the

Roman Empire

's rule, which exceeded 600 years. By the empire's end in Hispania around 460 AD, all the original Iberian languages, except the ancestor of modern Basque, were extinct. Even after the fall of Rome and the invasion of the

Germanic

Visigoths and Suebi, Latin was spoken by nearly all of the population, but in its common form known as Vulgar Latin, and the regional changes which led to the modern Iberian Romance languages had already begun.

Carthaginian Hispania

After its defeat by the Romans in the First Punic War (264 BC–241 BC),

Carthage

compensated for its loss of

Sicily

by rebuilding a commercial empire in Hispania.

The major part of the Punic Wars, fought between the Punic Carthaginians and the Romans, was fought on the Iberian Peninsula. Carthage gave control of the Iberian Peninsula and much of its empire to Rome in 201 BC as part of the peace treaty after its defeat in the

Second Punic War

, and Rome completed its replacement of

Carthage

as the dominant power in the

Mediterranean

area. By then the Romans had adopted the Carthaginian name, romanized first as ''Ispania''. The term later received an ''H'', much like what happened with ''Hibernia'', and was pluralized as ''Hispaniae'', as had been done with the

Three Gauls

.

Roman conquest

Roman armies invaded the Iberian peninsula in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against the

Carthaginians

, the Iberians, the Lusitanians, the

Gallaecia

ns and other

Celts

. It was not until 19 BC that the Roman emperor

Augustus

(r. 27 BC–AD 14) was able to complete the conquest (see Cantabrian Wars). Until then, much of Hispania remained autonomous.

Romanization proceeded quickly in some regions where there are references to the togati, and very slowly in others, after the time of

Augustus

, and Hispania was divided into three separately governed provinces, and nine provinces by the 4th century. More importantly, Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the

Roman road

. But the impact of Hispania in the newcomers was also substantial.

Caesar

wrote on the Civil Wars that the soldiers from the Second Legion had become Hispanicized and regarded themselves as ''hispanici''.

Some of the peninsula's population were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class and they participated in governing Hispania and the Roman Empire, although there was a native aristocracy class who ruled each local tribe. The ''latifundia'' (sing., ''latifundium''), large estates controlled by the aristocracy, were superimposed on the existing Iberian landholding system.

The Romans improved existing cities, such as

Lisbon

(''Olissipo'') and

Tarragona

(''Tarraco''), established

Zaragoza

(''Caesaraugusta''), Mérida (''Augusta Emerita''), and Valencia (''Valentia''), and reduced other native cities to mere villages. The peninsula's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. Hispania served as a granary and a major source of metals for the Roman market, and its harbors exported

gold

,

tin

,

silver

,

lead

, wool,

wheat

,

olive oil

,

wine

,

fish

, and garum. Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use today. The Romanized Iberian populations and the Iberian-born descendants of Roman soldiers and colonists had all achieved the status of full Roman citizenship by the end of the 1st century. The emperors

Trajan

(r. 98–117),

Hadrian

(r. 117–138), and

Theodosius

(r. 379–395) were of Hispanic origin. The Iberian denarii, also called ''argentum oscense'' by Roman soldiers, circulated until the 1st century BC, after which it was replaced by Roman coins.

Hispania was separated into two provinces (in 197 BC), each ruled by a praetor: ''Hispania Citerior'' ("Hither Hispania") and ''Hispania Ulterior'' ("Farther Hispania"). The long wars of conquest lasted two centuries, and only by the time of

Augustus

did Ancient Rome, Rome managed to control Hispania Ulterior. Hispania was divided into three provinces in the 1st century BC.

In the 4th century, Latinius Pacatus Drepanius, a Gallic rhetorician, dedicated part of his work to the depiction of the geography, climate and inhabitants of the peninsula, writing:

This Hispania produces tough soldiers, very skilled captains, prolific speakers, luminous bards. It is a mother of judges and princes; it has given

Trajan

,

Hadrian

, and Theodosius I, Theodosius to the Empire.

With time, the name Hispania was used to describe the collective names of the Iberian Peninsula kingdoms of the Middle Ages, which came to designate all of the Iberian Peninsula plus the Balearic Islands.

The Hispaniae

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

''Hispania Ulterior'' comprised what are now Andalusia,

Portugal

, Extremadura, León (province), León, a great portion of the former Castilla la Vieja, Galicia, Asturias, and the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country.

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

In 27 BC, 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 (historical territory), Basque Country to Hispania Citerior.

The emperor

Augustus

in that same year returned to make a new division leaving the provinces as follows:
*''Provincia Hispania Ulterior Baetica'' (or ''Hispania Baetica''), whose capital was Córdoba, Spain, Corduba, presently Córdoba. It included a little less territory than present-day Andalusia—since modern Almería (province), Almería and a great portion of what today is Granada (province), Granada and Jaén (Spanish province), Jaén were left outside—plus the southern zone of present-day Badajoz (province), Badajoz. The river ''Anas'' or ''Annas'' (Guadiana, from Wadi-Anas) separated Hispania Baetica from Lusitania.
*''Provincia Hispania Ulterior Lusitania'' (''

Lusitania

''), whose capital was Emerita Augusta (now Mérida) and without

Gallaecia

and Asturias.
*''Provincia Hispania Citerior'' (or ''Tarraconensis''), 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.

By the 3rd century the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antonius Caracalla, 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''. In the year 238 the unified province ''Tarraconensis'' or ''Hispania Citerior'' was re-established.

In the 3rd century, under the Soldier Emperors, Hispania Nova (the northwestern corner of Spain) was split off from Tarraconensis, as a small province but the home of the only permanent legion in Hispania, Legio VII Gemina. After Diocletian's Tetrarchy reform in AD 293, the new ''Diocese of Hispania'' became one of the four Roman diocese, dioceses—governed by a ''vicarius''—of the praetorian prefecture of Gaul (also comprising the provinces of Gaul, Germania and Roman Britain, Britannia), after the abolition of the imperial Tetrarchs under the Western Emperor (in Rome itself, later Ravenna). The diocese, with its capital at Emerita Augusta (modern Mérida), comprised the five peninsular Iberian provinces (Baetica, Gallaecia and Lusitania, each under a governor styled ''consularis''; and Carthaginiensis, Tarraconensis, each under a ''praeses''), the Hispania Balearica, Insulae Baleares, which were detached from Tarraconensis in the 4th century, and the North African province of Mauretania Tingitana.

Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century and it became popular in the cities in the 2nd century. Little headway was made in the countryside, however, until the late 4th century, by which time Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire. Some Christian heresy, heretical sects emerged in Hispania, most notably Priscillianism, but overall the local bishops remained subordinate to the Bishop of Rome, Pope. Bishops who had official civil as well as ecclesiastical status in the late empire continued to exercise their authority to maintain order when civil governments broke down there in the 5th century. The Council of Bishops became an important instrument of stability during the ascendancy of the Visigoths. The last vestiges of (Western·classical) Roman rule ended in 472.

Germanic conquest

The undoing of (Western·classical) Roman Spain was the result of four tribes crossing the Rhine New Year's Eve 407. After three years of depredation and wandering about northern and western Gaul, the Germanic tribes, Germanic Buri (Germanic tribe), Buri, Suevi and Vandals, together with the Sarmatian Alans moved into Iberia in September or October 409 at the request of Gerontius, a Roman usurper. Thus began the history of the end of (Western·classical) Roman Spain which came in 472. The Suevi established a kingdom in Gallaecia in what is today modern Galicia and northern

Portugal

. The Alans' allies, the Hasdingi Vandals, also established a kingdom in another part of Gallaecia. The Alans established a kingdom in

Lusitania

– modern Alentejo and Algarve, in

Portugal

. The Silingi Vandals briefly occupied parts of South Iberia in the province of

Baetica

. In an effort to retrieve the region the western Roman emperor, Honorius (emperor), Honorius (r. 395–423), promised the Visigoths a home in southwest Gaul if they destroyed the invaders in Spain. They all but wiped out the Silingi and Alans. The remnant joined the Asding Vandals who had settled first in the northwest with the Sueves but south to Baetica. It is a mystery why the Visigoths were recalled by patrician Constantius (who in 418 married Honorius' sister who had been married briefly to the Visigothic king Ataulf). The Visigoths, the remnants of the two tribes who joined them and the Sueves were confined to a small area in the northwest of the peninsula. The diocese may even have been re-established with its capital at Mérida in 418. The Roman attempt under General Castorius to dislodge the Vandals from Cordoba failed in 422. The Vandals and Alans crossed over to North Africa in 429, an event which is considered to have been decisive in hastening the decline of the Western Empire. However their departure allowed the Romans to recover 90% of the Iberian peninsula until 439. After the departure of the Vandals only the Sueves remained in a northwest corner of the peninsula. Roman rule which had survived in the eastern quadrant was restored over most of Iberia until the Sueves occupied Mérida in 439, a move which coincides to the Vandal Battle of Carthage (439), occupation of Carthage late the same year. Rome made attempts to restore control in 446 and 458. Success was temporary. After the death of emperor Majorian in 461 Roman authority collapsed except in Tarraconensis the northeastern quadrant of the peninsular. The Visigoths, a Germanic tribes, Germanic people, whose kingdom was located in southwest Gaul, took the province when they occupied Tarragona in 472. They also confined the Sueves who had ruled most of the region to Galicia and northern Portugal. In 484 the Visigoths established Toledo, Spain, Toledo as the capital of their kingdom. Successive Visigothic kings ruled Hispania as patricians who held imperial commissions to govern in the name of the Roman emperor. In 585 the Visigoths conquered the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia, and thus controlled almost all of Hispania.

A century later, taking advantage of a struggle for the throne between the Visigothic kings Agila and Athanagild, the Byzantine Empire, eastern emperor Justinian I sent an army under the command of Liberius (praetorian prefect), Liberius to take back the peninsula from the Visigoths. This short-lived reconquest recovered only a small strip of land along the Mediterranean coast roughly corresponding to the ancient province of Hispania Baetica, Baetica, known as Spania.

Under the Visigoths, culture was not as highly developed as it had been under Roman rule, when a goal of higher education had been to prepare gentlemen to take their places in municipal and imperial administration. With the collapse of the imperial administrative super-structure above the provincial level (which was practically moribund) the task of maintaining formal education and government shifted to the Church from the old ruling class of educated aristocrats and gentry. The clergy, for the most part, emerged as the qualified personnel to manage higher administration in concert with local powerful notables who gradually displaced the old town councils. As elsewhere in early medieval Europe, the church in Hispania stood as society's most cohesive institution. The Visigoths are also responsible for the introduction of mainstream Christianity to the Iberian peninsula; the earliest representation of Christ in Spanish religious art can be found in a Visigothic hermitage, Santa Maria de Lara. It also embodied the continuity of Roman order. Native Hispano-Romans continued to run the civil administration and

Latin

continued to be the language of government and of commerce on behalf of the Visigoths.

Religion was the most persistent source of friction between the Chalcedonian (Roman Catholic Church, Catholic) native Hispano-Romans and their Arianism, Arian Visigothic overlords, whom the former considered heretical. At times this tension invited open rebellion, and restive factions within the Visigothic aristocracy exploited it to weaken the monarchy. In 589, Recared, a Visigothic ruler, renounced his Arianism before the Council of Bishops at Toledo and accepted Chalcedonian Christianity (Catholic Church), thus assuring an alliance between the Visigothic monarchy and the native Hispano-Romans. This alliance would not mark the last time in the history of the peninsula that political unity would be sought through religious unity.

Court ceremonials – from Constantinople – that proclaimed the imperial sovereignty and unity of the Visigothic state were introduced at Toledo. Still, civil war, royal assassinations, and usurpation were commonplace, and warlords and great landholders assumed wide discretionary powers. Bloody family feuds went unchecked. The Visigoths had acquired and cultivated the apparatus of the Roman state but not the ability to make it operate to their advantage. In the absence of a well-defined hereditary system of succession to the throne, rival factions encouraged foreign intervention by the Greeks, the Franks, and finally the Muslims in internal disputes and in royal elections.

According to Isidore of Seville, it is with the Visigoths, Visigothic domination of the zone that the idea of a peninsular unity is sought after, and the phrase ''Mother Hispania'' is first spoken. Up to that date, ''Hispania'' designated all of the peninsula's lands. In ''Historia Gothorum'', the Visigoth Suinthila appears as the first monarch where Hispania is dealt with as a Goths, Gothic nation.

Umayyad conquest

The Umayyad governor Tariq ibn Ziyad led a raiding force of approximately 1,700 men from North Africa to southern Hispania in April 711. They defeated the Visigothic army, in a decisive Battle of Guadalete, battle at Guadalete in 712. Tariq's forces were then reinforced and within a few years they took control of more than two-thirds of the

Iberian Peninsula

. The second invasion of the Umayyads comprised 18 thousand mostly Arab troops, who rapidly captured

Seville

and then defeated Roderick's supporters at Mérida and met up with Tariq's troops at Talavera de la Reina, Talavera. The following year the combined forces continued into Galicia and the northeast, capturing León, Spain, Léon, Astorga, Spain, Astorga and

Zaragoza

.

The Umayyads called the area they controlled 'Al-Andalus' ( ar, الأندلس). Al-Andalus, then at its greatest extent, was divided into five administrative units.

In the chronicles and documents of the High Middle Ages the terms derived from Hispania, ''Spania'', ''España'' or ''Espanha'', continued to be used by the Christians but only in reference to Muslim controlled areas.

Catholic reconquest

From the mid 13th to the late 15th century, the only remaining domain of Al-Andalus was the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula. Then there was a war of Granada which resulted with the defeat of Emirate of Granada and its annexation by Castile, ending Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula.

In the last years of the 12th century the whole Iberian Peninsula, Muslim and Christian, became known as "Spain" (''España'', ''Espanya'' or ''Espanha'') and the denomination "the Five Kingdoms of Spain" became used to refer to the Muslim Kingdom of Granada and the Christian kingdoms of Crown of Aragon, Aragon, Kingdom of Castile, Castile,

Portugal

, and Kingdom of Navarre, Navarre.

Economy

Before the Punic Wars, Hispania was a land with much untapped mineral and agricultural wealth, limited by the primitive subsistence economies of her native peoples outside of a few trading ports along the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean. Occupations by the Carthaginians and then by the Romans for her abundant

silver

deposits developed Hispania into a thriving multifaceted economy. Several metals, olives, oil from Baetica, salted fish and garum, and wines were some of the goods produced in Hispania and traded throughout the Empire. Gold mining was the most important activity in the north-west parts of the peninsula. This activity is attested in archaeological sites as Las Médulas (Spain) and Casais (Ponte de Lima, Portugal).

Climate

Precipitation levels were unusually high during the so-called Iberian–Roman Humid Period. Roman Spain experienced its three phases: the most humid interval in 550–190 BC, an arid interval in 190 BC–150 AD and another humid period in 150–350. In 134 BC the army of Scipio Aemilianus in Spain had to march at night due to extreme heat, when some of its horses and mules died of thirst (even though earlier, in 181 BC, heavy spring rains prevented the Celtiberians from relieving the Roman siege of Contrebia). Through the 2nd century AD warm temperatures dominated particularly in the Cantabrian Mountains, mountains along the north coast, punctuated by further cool spells from to 180. After about 200 the temperatures fluctuated, trending toward cool.

Sources and references

Modern sources in Spanish and Portuguese

*Altamira y Crevea, Rafael ''Historia de España y de la civilización española''. Tomo I. Barcelona, 1900. Altamira was a professor at the University of Oviedo, a member of the Royal Academy of History, of the Lisbon Geographic Society, Geographic Society of Lisbon and of the Instituto de Coimbra. (In Spanish.)
*Aznar, José Camón, ''Las artes y los pueblos de la España primitiva''. Editorial Espasa Calpe, S.A. Madrid, 1954. Camón was a professor at the University of Madrid. (In Spanish.)
*Bosch Gimpera, Pedro; Aguado Bleye, Pedro; and Ferrandis, José. ''Historia de España. España romana, I'', created under the direction of Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Editorial Espasa-Calpe S.A., Madrid 1935. (In Spanish.)
*García y Bellido, Antonio, ''España y los españoles hace dos mil años (según la Geografía de Estrabón)''. Colección Austral de Espasa Calpe S.A., Madrid 1945 (first edition 8-XI-1945). García y Bellido was an archeologist and a professor at the University of Madrid. (In Spanish.)
*Mattoso, José (dir.), ''História de Portugal. Primeiro Volume: Antes de Portugal'', Lisboa, Círculo de Leitores, 1992. (in Portuguese)
*Melón, Amando, ''Geografía histórica española'' Editorial Volvntad, S.A., Tomo primero, Vol. I Serie E. Madrid 1928. Melón was a member of the Royal Geographical Society of Madrid and a professor of geography at the Universities of Valladolid and Madrid. (In Spanish.)
*Pellón, José R., ''Diccionario Espasa Íberos''. Espasa Calpe S.A. Madrid 2001. (In Spanish.)
*Urbieto Arteta, Antonio, ''Historia ilustrada de España'', Volumen II. Editorial Debate, Madrid 1994. (In Spanish.)
* El Housin Helal Ouriachen, 2009, La ciudad bética durante la Antigüedad Tardía. Persistencias y mutaciones locales en relación con la realidad urbana del Mediterraneo y del Atlántico, Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Granada, Granada.

Other modern sources

*Westermann ''Grosser Atlas zur Weltgeschichte'' (in German)
Hispania

Classical sources

*The notitia dignitatum (c. AD 400; one edition online is http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0212/_PJ.HTM#1WJ)
Other classical sources have been accessed second-hand (see references above):
*Strabo, ''Geographiká. Book III, Iberia'', written between the years 29 and 7 BC and touched up in AD 18. The most prestigious and widely used edition is Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller, Karl Müller's, published in Paris at the end of the 19th century, one volume, with 2 columns, Greek language, Greek and

Latin

. The most reputed French language, French translation is Tardieu, París 1886. The most reputed English language, English translation (with Greek text) is H.L. Jones, vol. I–VIII, London 1917ff., ND London 1931ff.
*Ptolemy (Greek astronomer of the 2nd century) ''Geographiké Hyphaégesis'', geographic guidebook.
*Pacatus (Gaul, Gallic rhetorician) directed a panegyric on Hispania to the emperor Theodosius I in 389, which he read to the Roman Senate, Senate.
*Paulus Orosius (390–418) historian, follower of Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustine and author of ''Historiae adversus paganos'', the first Christian universal history, and of ''Hispania Universa'', an historical guide translated into Old English language, Anglo-Saxon by Alfred the Great and into Arabic language, Arabic by Abd-ar-Rahman III.
*Lucius Anneus Florus (between 1st and 2nd century). ''Compendium of Roman History'' and ''Epitome of the History of Titus Livius (Livy)''. The relevant texts of Livy have been lost, but we can read them via Florus.
*Trogus Pompeius. Believed to be a Gaul with Roman citizenship. ''Historia universal'' written in Latin in the times of Augustus Caesar.
*Titus Livius (Livy) (59 BC–17 BC). ''Ab urbe condita'', Book CXLII of Livy's surviving work.

Neo-modern references

*Emil Hübner, E. Hübner, ''La Arqueologia de España'' (Barcelona, 1888)
*E. S. Bouchier, ''Spain under the Roman Empire'' (Oxford, 1914)

Further reading

* Abad Casal, Lorenzo, Simon Keay, and Sebastián F. Ramallo Asensio, eds. 2006. ''Early Roman Towns in Hispania Tarraconensis.'' Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
* Bowes, Kim, and Michael Kulikowski, eds. and trans. 2005. ''Hispania in Late Antiquity: Current Perspectives.'' Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World 24. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.
* Curchin, Leonard A. 1991. ''Roman Spain: Conquest and Assimilation.'' London and New York: Routledge.
* Curchin, Leonard A. 2003. ''The Romanization of Central Spain: Complexity, Diversity, and Change in a Provincial Hinterland.'' Routledge Classical Monographs. London and New York: Routledge.
* Keay, Simon J. 2001. "Romanization and the Hispaniae." In ''Italy and the West: Comparative Issues in Romanization.'' Edited by Simon Keay and Nicola Terrenato, 117–144. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
* Keay, Simon, ed. 1998. ''The Archaeology of Early Roman Baetica.'' Portsmouth, RI: Journal of Roman Archaeology
* Kulikowski, Michael. 2004. ''Late Roman Spain and its Cities.'' Ancient Society and History. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
* Lowe, Benedict. 2009. ''Roman Iberia: Economy, Society and Culture.'' London: Duckworth.
* Mierse, William E. 1999. ''Temples and Towns of Roman Iberia: The Social and Architectural Dynamics of Sanctuary Designs from the Third century B.C. to the Third century A.D.'' Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
* Richardson, J. S. 1996. ''The Romans in Spain. History of Spain.'' Oxford: Blackwell.

See also

*List of Roman sites in Spain
*Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
*Iberian peninsula
*Carthaginian Iberia
*Iberian languages (all languages spoken, past & present, in Iberia)
*

Tartessos

(Early Iberian civilization)
**Tartessian language
**Southwest script
*Ophiussa
**Oestriminis
*Iberians
**Iberian language
**Iberian scripts
*Lusitanians
**Lusitanian language
**Lusitanian mythology
*Cynetes
*Celtiberians
**Celtiberian language
**Celtiberian script
*Hispania Citerior
*Hispania Ulterior
*Hispania Tarraconensis, Tarraconensis
*

Lusitania

*

Gallaecia

*Hispania Baetica, Baetica
*Suevi, Suevi Gallaecia
*Vandal, Vandals in Hispania
*Alans, Alans in Hispania
*Visigoths, Visigothic Hispania
*Al-Andalus (Muslim Medieval Iberia)
**Umayyad conquest of Hispania
**Timeline of the Muslim Occupation of Spain, Timeline of the Muslim Occupation of the Iberian peninsula
*

Reconquista

*

Portugal

**History of Portugal
**Timeline of Portuguese history
*

Spain

**History of Spain

References

Footnotes

Citations

External links

Detailed map of the Pre-Roman Peoples of Iberia (around 200 BC)HISPANIA
A Map of Roman Spain and Portugal.
Amphorae ex HispaniaHispania EpigraphicaEx Officina Hispana- Ancient Ceramics in Spain

{{Authority control

Hispania,
Ancient history of the Iberian Peninsula
Spain in the Roman era, *
Portugal in the Roman era, *
Former countries on the Iberian Peninsula
New Testament places
States and territories established in the 3rd century BC
States and territories disestablished in the 5th century
218 BC
Pauline churches
210s BC establishments
3rd-century BC establishments in the Roman Republic
5th-century disestablishments in the Roman Empire
3rd-century BC establishments in Spain
5th-century disestablishments