Spain under the Roman empire

QlornrU UninrrBtto Cibrarjj

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

aHenrg W. Sage

1891

6^.^5.Jb..0!ir.c>.o <=t.

H

The original of tliis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92408521 1 138

SPAIN UNDER THE ROMAN EMPIRE

LONDON AGENTS
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO.

SPAIN UNDER THE
ROMAN EMPIRE

BY

E. S. BOUCHIER, M.A.

AUTHOR OF
' LIFE AND LETTERS IN ROMAN AFRICA '

WITH A MAP

B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET

1914

— ^M

'^.ZUa Sc

NOTE

In the footnotes a number without any prefix
refers to the inscriptions in the second volume
of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum and its
supplement, both edited by Htibner ; /. H. C.
denotes the Inscriptioncs Hispanice Christians, by
the same editor ; B.A.H., the Boletin de la Real
Academia de la Historia, a monthly archceo-
logical magazine published at Madrid.

I wish to thank Mr. W. G. Kendrew, M.A., for
kindly preparing the map.

CONTENTS
PART I.— HISTORY

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY - I

II. FROM AUGUSTUS TO HADRIAN - 21

III. FROM THE ANTONINE AGE TO THE GOTHIC CON-

QUEST - - - 41

IV. BYZANTINE ANDALUSIA 53

PART II.— ANTIQUITIES

V. THE NATIVE RACES . - - Qj

VI. NATURAL PRODUCTS, MINES, AND COMMERCE 77

VII. THE ARTS, ARCHITECTURE, AND COINAGE - 93

VIII. RELIGION - 108

IX. THE CHIEF CITIES OF ROMAN SPAIN 1 26

PART III— LITERATURE

X. SPANISH WRITERS OF THE EARLY EMPIRE 153
XI. CHRISTIANITY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE 1 73

XII. THE LATIN OF SPAIN - - - 1 89

INDEX - - 198

SPAIN UNDER THE ROMAN
EMPIRE

PART I.— HISTORY
CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

' Pueblo siempre uno y multiple, como su estructura geografica,
y cuya particular organizacion hace sobremanera complicada su
historia y no parecida a la de otra nacion alguna.' — Lafuente.

The natural divisions of the Iberian peninsula are more
marked than in almost any country of Europe, and
their effect was to encourage local differences, to hamper
efforts towards national unity, and to render the coast
districts a ready prey to foreign invaders. The Pyre-
nees, besides isolating Spain from the rest of the con-
tinent, continue far to the west under other names,
leaving a strip of coast on the north watered by several
short rivers. This is a rainy district with rich pastures,
backed by mountain-slopes which supply much timber,
and being difficult of access is well suited to be the last
refuge of national mdependence.

From this range an irregular line of mountains ex-
tends south-eastwards to the Mediterranean, throwing
off towards the west three principal ranges, which
divide the basins of the chief rivers of the west — the

2 Geography of Spain — Early Settlements

Douro (Durius), Guadiana (Anas, with the Arabic prefix
Wady), and the Guadalquivir (Bsetis).

The southern portion is of a sub-tropical character,
with little rain, except in the winter, and is cut off from
the rocky and arid tableland of Castile, which rises in
places to 3,000 feet, by the lofty range of the Sierra
Morena (Mons Marianus). The western seaboard has
a plentiful rainfall and luxuriant vegetation, but the soil
of the south-west corner, though rich in metals, is poor
and stony. Almost everywhere the coast district is
bordered by lines of mountains falling away in short
slopes, and, except for the plateau in the interior, the
landscape is diversified by valleys and isolated moun-
tains rising above narrow plains.

The uncivilized character of most of the early in-
habitants, who have left few monumental records, and
the comparatively late period at which Spain became
known to the Greeks and Romans, makes the history
before the Roman conquest obscure.

Several prehistoric settlements have been excavated
in various parts, and a number of dolmens exist,
perhaps the work of the early race known as the Cro-
Magnon peoples, whose descendants are believed to
survive in some peasant famihes in the neighbourhood
of Pdrigord in France, and who were perhaps identical
with the now extinct Guanches of the Canary Islands.
These megalithic monuments, locally called antas, occur
most frequently in Portugal, and were clearly sepulchral.
They consist usually of six or seven upright stones
shghtly inclined inwards, with one or more flat stones
laid across, and occasionally a row of stones or
^ avenue ' leading up to them. Stone implements, or

Prehistoric Cave-Dwellings 3

rudely-carved animals, are occasionally found within.
The cave-dwellings which have been excavated of recent
years, especially in northern Spain, may have been
occupied by people of the same race. One of these,
near Cabeza del Griego (Segobriga), was examined
about twenty years ago, and contained the bones of two
different races, one of a primitive prognathous type,
and one much more civilized. It is conjectured that in
the time of some great flood the latter had taken refuge
in the home of their remote ancestors, and after erect-
ing various barriers of stone and clay, perished by
drowning. A great variety of the bones of oxen, deer,
and other animals were found; bone and flint imple-
ments, with a few of copper ; and several pieces of pot-
tery, mostly of black earth, with a red or grey coating.^
Another famous example is the cave of Altamira, near
Santander, which has not only worked flints and bones
but a remarkable series of animal paintings in red and
black, shown out by white bands, chiefly on the roof of
the galleries. It does not appear that the animals were
yet domesticated; all are such as would be hunted,
including the aurochs, or European bison ; and the
pictures may have been intended to act as talismans
and make those species multiply.^ There are also
human figures, some with animal masks, a disguise not
unfamiliar in savage religious festivals, and one still
resorted to in Spain far into the Christian era. Trog-
lodytes are mentioned as still known in the time of

1 B.A.H. 23,247.

2 Cf. Cartailhac et BreuH, La Caverne d'Aliamirc. Other famous
paintings occur at Cogul in Cataluiia, on a rock in the open air,
representing a variety of animals and a group of women dancing ;
and at Cueva de la Vieja (Albacete). Cf. Bull. Hisp., XIII., i ; xv. 14.

4 Native Peoples — the Tartessians

Sertorius, who, taking advantage of the light dusty soil
in which their caves lay, overcame them by a curious
stratagem.^

At the time of the Roman occupation, in the course
of the second Punic War, Spain was in possession of a
number of different races, native or foreign, the first
split up into small groups or tribes under a government
nominally monarchical, but really controlled by the
general assembly of clan elders or nobles. The south
and south-east parts were occupied by the Tartessians,
or, as they were coming to be called, Turdetes or Tur-
detani, with some kindred peoples. They were highly
civilized, with historical records and a literature, a wide
commerce, and, as recent finds prove, expert in sculp-
ture and metal work. It has been suggested that these
were the Atlantids of Greek fable, the last remnants of
Mycenaean civilization, who had found their way along
the North African coast in the Bronze Age, settled first
in Africa, then in Spain, and at last, losing all warlike
spirit, offered a ready prey to foreign invaders.^ How-
ever this may be, the view that they were merely a
branch of the Iberians, who through favouring cir-
cumstances and Punic influence outstripped their
countrymen, scarcely seems tenable. Earher Greek
authorities carefully distinguish Tartessians and Ibe-
rians. The language of the former, as seen from place-
names, belonged to the labializing class ; the Iberians,
in similar words, introduced a. k ox qu sound. The

1 Plut. Sert. 17.

2 Cf. Plat. Timccus and Diod. III. 54-9, where the Atlanta! are
described as living in a rich country with large towns on the
shore of the Ocean, very civilized, and worshipping the mother
of the gods. This view is put forward by Philipon, Les Iberes

Celtiberians and Basques 5

Tartessians practised inhumation, the Iberians crema-
tion. The former were intrepid mariners ; the latter are
described as imprudentes maris?-

The east and north of Spain were inhabited by
Iberian tribes, more civihzed towards the coast, but in
the north and north-west territory still almost barbarous,
and living by hunting or brigandage. A large part of
the centre, including most of the Castiles, with part of
Murcia and Aragon, was held by a group of Celtiberian
tribes, which had resulted from the fusion of a number
of invaders from Gaul, probably about 500 B.C., with
Iberians previously settled there. In the extreme north-
west, near Cape Nerium (Finisterre), and along the
upper reaches of the Anas, were some Celtic com-
munities believed to be less intermixed with other races
than in Celtiberia. The position of the ancestors of
the present-day Euskarian-speaking peoples (who were
certainly not the Vascones, though their name gave
rise to the modern misnomer Basques) is disputed.
They seem to have been a portion of the population of
Cantabria, playing no part in history, but using a lan-
guage so alien to anything with which the geographers
were familiar, that on reaching this part they refrain
from chronicling their place-names. Lastly, in the
south, were some Phcenician settlements ; on the north-
east, a few small Greek colonies from Massilia.

It would be alien to the present subject to do more
than indicate some of the numerous problems which
have been raised with regard to these various peoples.
The Basques, since Humboldt's identification of them
with the early inhabitants not only of Spain but of
I Liv. 34, 9.

6 Theories as to Origin of Iberians

much of Gaul and Italy, have given rise to endless
speculation. Their language is agglutinative, of a very
primitive type, lacking in literature till comparatively
recent times, and deficient in abstract ideas ; they differ
widely in appearance from surrounding races, and clingy
obstinately to customs of remote antiquity. Theories
based on language, on craniology, or on mere fancies,
describe them as Africans, as Picts, as Medes ; as the
sole survivors of the submerged Atlantis, as identical
with the Finns or the American Indians. There can
be little doubt that they are the remains of a very
ancient Mongoloid race, and the question of real interest
is whether they are an isolated, and, as it were, spe-
cialized tribe of the old Iberians, or preceded the latter
in Spain, and were driven up into the mountains on
their arrival. Ethnologists are here almost equally
divided ; craniology proves an uncertain guide, and till
the inscriptions in the ancient Iberian language have
been deciphered, the resemblance between it and modern
Basque is hard to judge of. The Iberians may accord-
ingly be an Indo-European tribe, who perhaps migrated
from the neighbourhood of the eastern Iberians, with
whom they have some points of contact, and may have
passed through central Europe, where some place-
names seem to recall their journey, and divided into
two groups, one occupying southern Italy and Sicily,
the other southern Gaul and Spain. Or they may be
the pre-Aryan inhabitants of the latter. In either case,
as the ancients recognized, the Iberians extended as far
into Gaul as the mouth of the Rhone,^ were related to
the Sicani of Sicily,^ and to the Silures of South Wales.^
1 Scylax, inii. « Thuc. VI. 2 ; Diod. V. 6. 3 Tac. Agr. XI.

Invasion of the Celts 7

The modern Spanish population, remarkably homoge-
neous as it is, belongs to the dolichocephalic or Medi-
terranean race, marked by long heads and faces, dark
brown hair, somewhat broad nose, and low stature.
These qualities are not inconsistent with the descrip-
tions given of the Iberians by Roman writers,^ and
correspond closely to those of the peoples still inhabit-
ing South Italy, Sicily, Liguria, Provence, and some
parts of North Africa, besides underlying much of the
so-called Celtic population of western Europe.

The invasion of the Celts probably dates from about
500 B.C. They are not known in Spain to the Punic
geographer of a slightly earlier date from whom Avienus,
directly or indirectly, derived his materials, but are
already referred to by Herodotus as established in the
far west by his time. The Celtic empire was then at
its height, extending not only over most of Gaul, but
a large part of Germany and northern Italy. The
Celts no doubt arrived from Gaul ; but as the land on
both sides of the Pyrenees was occupied by tribes of
Iberian race, they more probably came by sea, and
began by occupying the north-western districts and the
coast down to the mouth of the Douro. They then
marched south-eastwards, occupying part of Lusitania
and of the Anas valley, and, after a long series of wars,
amalgamated with the Iberian tribes of the centre.-
The Celts were chiefly a pastoral people, preferring
villages to large towns, and were too much scattered
to preserve many of their national traits. The Iberian

^ Cf. Tac, \oc. cit., ' Colorati vultus torti plerumque crines,'
and Mart. X. 65, ' Hispanis ego contumax capillis."
» Diod. V. 33.

8 Early PhcEnician Settlements

element gradually reasserted itself; the Lusitanians
and Gallsecians pressed the Celts westwards, the
Iberian Cynetes were iirmly established in the extreme
south-west. By the Roman Age traces of Celtic in-
fluence, except for a few place-names, especially those
ending in -briga and -dunum, some worships, particu-
larly that of the infernal goddess Adsegina of Turo-
briga, and some slight differences of language, had
disappeared.

Even before their first settlements the Phoenicians had
familiarized themselves to the inhabitants of southern
Spain as purchasers of the precious metals, and the
difficulty of identifying most of their colonies seems
to result from the fact that they usually estabhshed
themselves as a trading guild in pre-existing Tartessian
or Iberian townships. The first purely Tyrian settle-
ment was Gades, probably before iioo B.C. ; further
east were Abdera and Malaca. Other towns, sometimes
described as Punic, as Belus, Lascuta, Iptuci, Vesci
and Oba, and other places in the fertile alluvial plain
round the two great rivers, the Anas and the Bsetis,
were more probably Tartessian, but the frequent resort
of Punic merchants, through whom the Phcenician
alphabet, and, later, the coin types, extended among the
natives.^ From the period of the subjection of Phoenicia,
first to the Babylonian, then to the Persian monarchies,

1 The two chief passages, Strab. III. 2, 13, 'Most of the
towns of Turdetania and neighbourhood are still inhabited by
Phoenicians,' and Pliny's quotation from Agrippa that most of
the coast between the Anas and Murgi had belonged to the
Phoenicians, are very vague, and hardly justify Berlanga's theory
of repeated streams of Asiatic settlers in both the west and
south.

Spain Occupied by Carthaginians 9

the fortunes of the settlers in Spain declined ; the Greeks
planted themselves firmly on the east coast, and even
set up some small stations in the south ; the Celts
were pressing them on the west, and neighbouring
princes combined against Gades, the head of the loose
confederation in which the Phoenicians were united
(circa 500 B.C.). The Gaditans resorted to the desperate
expedient of calling in their powerful kinsmen from
Africa.^ The admixture of Lib3'an blood had modified
the racial characteristics of the Tyrians of Carthage.
A fierce and warlike people were put in possession
of southern Spain ; the fortifications of Gades were
destroyed, the other Punic settlements, and even for
a time those of the Greeks, were subjected. Even
before the first Punic war the Carthaginians are said^
to have been in possession of a large part of Spain.
Natives were drafted into their armies, and the mines
systematically exploited. This policy was most clearly
marked in the period between the first and second
Punic wars, when the loss of Sicily compelled Carthage
to depend more than ever on the resources of Spain.
The whole of central Spain, almost to the Douro, was
subjected ; the eastern ports were closed to foreign
commerce, imports being onl}' admitted from Carthage,
which drew from Spain soldiers, horses, and money .^
The great arsenal of New Carthage was founded on
the south-east, and stations also planted on the Balearic
islands and the Album Promontorium.* The result of
the HannibaJic war wgf that by 206 B.C. all Carthaginian
garrisons had been dispossessed, and the Punic towns,

' Just. 44, 5. Cf. Vitruv. 272-3. " Polyb. I. lo, 5.

3 Cf. Nepos, Haiiiil. 4. * Diod. 25, 10.

lo Arrival of the Greeks in Spain

often readily enough, accepted the overlordship of
Rome, which guaranteed protection against the natives,
and left them to manage their internal affairs.

Coins with Punic religious types are not uncommon,
but architectural or epigraphic monuments are few, and
the actual number of settlers, as apart from travelling
merchants, has probably been much exaggerated.

The first Spanish port which became known to the
Greeks was the capital of the Tartessians, situated, it
appears, on the mainland not far from Gades, and at the
time of the visit of the Phocasans under the rule of King
Arganthonius {circa 700 B.C.). This friendly chief, though
unable to persuade the Greeks to settle in his domain,
supplied them with money to help in fortifying Phocaea
against the Medes. A later visit was that of a Samian
ship commanded by Colseus, which was carried out of
its course to Egypt, and touched at Tartessus, where
a rich cargo was taken on board from a district as
yet untouched by Greek trade.^ As the power of the
Phoenicians and Etruscans began to fail before the
growing strength of the naval forces of Magna Grsecia,
intercourse between the Greeks and Tartessians became
frequent, extending not only to trade but to the arts,
for later Tartessian works of art are strongly influenced
by Greek models. The Phocasans of Massilia also
found it safe to expand in the same direction, and
perhaps about the end of the sixth century planted,
close to the east end of the Pyrenees, the colony of
Emporiae (Ampurias), at first on an island, but the
settlement later extended to the mainland. This town
included both a native and a Greek quarter, separated

» Hdt 1. 163, IV. 152.

Extent of Greek Colonization 1 1

by a wall, each using their own language and laws
until the races fused about the time of Augustus. The
chief industry was the production of linen, and some
fertile tracts reaching to the slopes of the Pyrenees
were occupied by the citizens. Like other offshoots
of Massilia, Emporise was a centre of Artemis worship.
Another body of settlers established themselves in the
Iberian town of Rhode, which, owing to the similarity
of name, was often regarded as of Rhodian foundation
(now Rosas), ^ and the Massiliots also planted a few small
trading stations down the east coast, as Hemeroscopeum,
near which stood the famous Temple of Artemis, called
by the Romans Dianium, Chersonesus, near Saguntum,
Alonas, and far to the south in the vicinity of the Bastican
mines the little ports of Masnaca (Almufieca), near
Malaga, and Portus Menestheos, near Gades. These
towns were mainly commercial, and all included a con-
siderable Iberian element, which finally amalgamated
with the Greeks, who had really cast in their lot with
their adopted country and lived under very similar
institutions. No special artistic or literary activity is
recorded of them ; their coins are late and not of the
finest type, and they are principally of interest as
having civilized part of the eastern seaboard and pro-
vided the Romans with a starting-point from which to
proceed to the expulsion of the Punic power.

After the Carthaginian occupation the Greek settle-
ments were for a time overrun ; the two Bsetican colonies
disappear altogether, and even at Massilia Suffetes were

^ Cf. Strab. XIV. 210 : rifv 'Pd8ov exTia-av fjv varepov MacraaKiSn-ai
Koria-xov. Recent archaeological discoveries at Emporias are
described by P. Pais in Bull. Hisp., XV., 129, including some fine
specimens of statuary.

12 Possible Settlements on West Coast

temporarily set up. The Ebro convention with Rome
in the third century secured the independence of the
greater number, and the attempt of Carthage to subject
the sturdy Iberians of Saguntum, which, like Rhode, may
have included a small Greek element in the population,
though certainly not a colony from Zacynthus, was the
immediate cause of the war which ended the Cartha-
ginian Empire in Spain.

Another district very generally believed by the
ancients to have been the seat of Greek settlements,
was the strip of Gallsecian coast extending to the north
of the river Durius. This was the view of Asclepiades,
a Greek schoolmaster, who lived in Spain in the time
of Cffisar ; ^ and the same idea appears in Trogus,^
Pomponius Mela, and Silius Italicus.^ Though the
heroes whom these writers mention, such as Tydeus
and Teucer, have no claims to an historical character,
and the name of the tribe Gravii or Grovii is probably
not identical with Graii, there seems no sufficient
reason for rejecting the testimony of a number of
writers because the Greeks of the Roman Age gave
fanciful explanations of a few names. It is not un-
likely that a small Greek settlement occupied the coast
below the Celts of Gallascia, and carried on some
coasting trade, in particular exporting the tin from
the mountains of the interior. There was a Greek
colony, Corbilo, at the mouth of the Loire, and this
district must have been passed by the Massiliot ex-
plorer Pytheas in his voyage to Britain, and could
also be reached from the north-east coast by the
Ebro for a large part of the way. Greek names and
1 Strab. III. 4, 3. 2 ju^j, ^_ ^^ 3 ^^^ ^^ ^g

Geographical Knowledge among the Greeks 1 3

inflections are not uncommon in inscriptions found
in the neighbourhood of Valenfa da Minho and Tuy.^

The spread among the Greeks of knowledge concern-
ing Spain is a matter of some importance. Hecatseus,
the sixth-century historian, mentions several names on
the south and east, doubtless derived from Massiliot
sources; but little, except the Mediterranean coast,
seems to have been known before the voyage of Pytheas
{circa 320). Eratosthenes, a writer of the third cen-
tury B.C., has an accurate knowledge of the south and
east ; and though his information about the west was
due chiefly to Pytheas, he seems to have been superior
to any geographer before the time of Strabo. Polybius
himself visited Spain in the train of his patron Scipio,
and while his object was not primarily geographical, he
has left many valuable details, such as the account of
the topography of Carthago. The fragments of Bk. 34
also contain references to the civilized character of the
Turdetani and adjoining Celtic peoples, to the curiosities
of Gades, and the productiveness of Lusitania, where
flowers bloom through nine months of the year, a bushel
of wheat costs nine obols, a sheep two drachmae, and
a plough-ox ten. From his time onwards travellers
were numerous. Artemidorus and Posidonius are much
quoted by later writers. Artemidorus of Ephesus, an
author of the early part of the first century B.C., cor-
rected some of the errors of Eratosthenes, and paid
attention to the customs of the peoples, as well as to
geography. Posidonius also had a wider scope than
his predecessors, and something of the scientific spirit,

* Cf. Fita, Viaje a Santiago, p. 23, and B. A. H. 40, 539, a view
also upheld by the Belgian explorer Siict.

14 Strabo Myths Ascribed to Spain

himself residing for some time at Gades and other
places in Spain (ob. circa 50 B.C.). The Bsetica de-
scribed by Strabo has been thought to be much more
that of Posidonius than that of the early empire.
Strabo, though his account of ancient Spain is the
fullest that has been preserved, is a mere compiler,
who never travelled farther west than Italy, and only
knows thoroughly Bsetica and the east coast. Dio-
dorus Siculus, a contemporary of Strabo, is also a
compiler, but he seems to represent indirectly some
Punic authorities, as well as Posidonius, and gives
many curious details, especially about mining works,
and the best account of the Balearic Islands to be
found in any ancient writer.

In addition to geographical details, Greek authors
provide a number of legends which were not un-
naturally attributed to the farthest limit of the known
world. Besides the myths of Archelaus, the son of
Phoenix, who founded Gades, as mentioned by Chrysip-
pus, and of Heracles and Geryon, which were, perhaps,
due to Punic sources, we read of the conquest of Spain
by Bacchus, when Pan guarded his flocks there, and
gave his name to the country.^ Lycurgus,^ Homer,^
and Jason all visited it ; Teucer, Diomede, and the
Athenian Menestheus, when their toils were over on
the Trojan plain, took up their abode on its shores.
Ulysses founded the future capital Olisipo,* a citizen
of which in historical times bore the name of Tele-
machus.^ The tendency to attribute fabulous events
to Spain continues to a late date. The Alexandrine

1 [Plut.] Deflum. 16. 2 Plut. Vii. Lycurg. ^ Hdt. Vit. 7.
* Solin. 23, 6 ; Isid. EL 15, i. 6 b. A. H. 38, 238.

State of Spain at Roman Conquest 15

Lycophron relieves the gloom of his obscure poem by
a fanciful account of the life of Balearic peasants;^
even Philostratus, writing early in the third century a.d.,
after carrying his hero over most of the known world,
brings him to Gades and Hispalis to examine the
alleged marvels of the district.^ -

On the withdrawal of the Carthaginians in 206 B.C.,
the Romans found themselves masters of southern and
eastern Spain, on good terms with the Greek and
Phoenician colonies, and in alliance with several native
kings and peoples of the interior. The south had long
possessed a high civilization and a wide commerce,
both within and without the Mediterranean ; agriculture
was well developed ; corn, flax, vines, and the esparto
grass were widely cultivated, and the gold and silver
mines still productive. Coins — Punic, Greek, or native
— circulated ; writing was generally known ; and some-
thing of a municipal system had replaced the loose
confederations under weak monarchies which prevailed
in other parts. The Iberians of the east also had
considerable maritime commerce. The interior, though
mines had here and there been opened by the Car-
thaginians, was still but little civilized, and being on
the whole unfertile, was long neglected by the Romans,
who contented themselves with occasional inroads and
the nominal submission of the chief Celtiberian tribes.
The north and west were wholly barbarous ; except for
a few coast districts, the working of metals was un-
known, and agriculture little studied, the inhabitants
subsisting on their flocks and herds, by hunting, or by
pillaging their more settled neighbours.

» Alex. 633 d seq. ^ yit. Afoll. V.

1 6 Roman Rule in Second Century b.c.

What was the condition of the country after ten
years of Republican rule ? All Spain north of the
Ebro lost, serious risings in the centre, even the helpless
Tartessians hiring thousands of Celtiberian mercenaries
to fight against their new oppressors. There is no
space here to follow out the wearisome catalogue of
Celtiberian revolts, of the defeats of huge Roman armies
by light-armed guerrillas, of perfidious or extortionate
generals, and brave but disunited Spaniards. The
task which lay before the Republic was to complete the
conquest of the peninsula : in the south to add the idea
of a state to that of a number of isolated towns by
providing common magistrates, an official religion,
priesthood, language, and code of laws ; in the centre
to develop the natural resources of a not very productive
district ; in the north to bring down the fierce highland
clans to the plains, to overawe them with military
colonies, and encourage them to pursue the peaceful
occupations of mining and agriculture, or else to take
service as legionaries or auxiliaries. This task the
Republic failed to carry out with any thoroughness ;
but some of the wiser governors, like Tiberius Gracchus
(179-8 B.C.), realized that a rule of force could seldom
succeed for long. The natives, proud and vindictive,
like their descendants, were yet peculiarly accessible to
kindness. The laying-out of roads, the opening of new
sources of wealth in mines, the union of Spaniards and
Italians in agricultural colonies, were found to be the
most successful methods. Local affairs were thus left
to the discretion of the provincials more than under the
empire. Native communities collected their quota of
the tribute as they thought fit, and handed it over to

Wars of Republican Period — Sertorius 17

the quaestors, being exempt from the odious tithe
system. Italian colonies were few, and a local coinage,
with Iberian legends, hitherto checked by the jealousy
of the Carthaginians, became abundant.

A permanent garrison of about 40,000 men was kept
up, chiefly at Tarraco, Gades, and Valentia, and
certain settlements were planted under official sanc-
tion — Italica and Corduba for Romans, Carteia for
half-caste children of Roman soldiers, Valentia for
defeated Lusitanians whom it was desirable to keep
under observation by transplanting them to the east
coast.

The fall of Viriathus involved the conquest of this
latter tribe (140 B.C.), one of the most formidable enemies
that the Romans ever met, and some attempt was
subsequently made by Junius Brutus to deal with the
uncivilized peoples of the north-west, a district which
was finally reduced by Caesar and Augustus. The
capture of Numantia (133) by Scipio the younger
completed the subjugation of Celtiberia, and from this
time, though some tribesmen remained active as
banditti, resistance to the Roman advance sensibly
weakens. So far indeed did Spain adopt Roman
manners that it came to play a leading part in the
civil conflicts of the next century. Thus the exiled
Marian leader Sertorius aimed at setting up a new
Roman empire resting on the support of the warlike
Lusitanians and Celtiberians, officered by Romans.
His two provinces, and their capitals Ebora and Osca,
the senate, the university for teaching Latin and
Greek, the mines, arsenals, and fleet, all provided a
striking object-lesson for the Spaniards of the interior.

1 8 Csesar's Conquests and Settlements

Latin was rapidly adopted, and the familiarity with
Roman methods of government induced the two
peoples, after the fall of their brilliant leader, to enter
without much reluctance into the ordinary provincial
system. His conciliatory policy was maintained both
by Caesar and Augustus, but owing to the constant
outbreaks of civil war it was not till the latter had been
several years on the throne that Spain could be
thoroughly pacified and organized.

Cassar fought in four Spanish campaigns, two indeed
against his own countrymen ; yet he had done much
to reduce the Celts and Gallascians of the north-west,
and to open up these remote districts to access both by
sea and land. He also made serious attempts to
develop the colonial system by planting veteran and
citizen settlements. This was done principally in
Bsetica where much expropriation of territory had
followed on the close of the civil war, in which the
Baeticans had inclined to the senatorial side. Wide
grants of citizenship in one of its various degrees were
made to the more settled and loyal communities, and
his arrangements where not yet completed were
ratified under the influence of Antony after his death.
Hispalis (Seville), destined later to be the chief
city of Spain, was refounded as Colonia JuUa Romula
Csesariana, but the chief document bearing on Caesar's
municipal organization is the charter of Urso (Osuna),
a small towu in the same neighbourhood, which is
preserved in an inscription.^ It had probably sided
with the Pompeian faction in the Munda campaign,

^ S439 (' Colonia Julia Genetiva Urbanorum '), Bruns, Font.Jur.
Rom., 123.

Laws of Urso — Provincial Divisions 19

and about 44 B.C. its territory was confiscated and
a body of Roman civilians sent to occupy it. Elabor-
ate regulations are laid down as to the duties of the
duoviri or chief magistrates, the legislative powers of
the Curia, the electoral rights of the comitia or general
meeting of the citizens, and the whole body of officials,
down to heralds, flute-players, and soothsayers. One
provision points to the fact that Spain was not yet
considered a thoroughly safe province. A bare majority
of the local senate could empower the magistrates to
arm all citizens or resident aliens to resist an attack.
This would naturally be done only with the sanction of
the governor, and when under Augustus Bsetica was
placed under an unarmed senatorial proconsul the
provision would cease to be of importance. It, how-
ever, doubtless found a place in the regulations of
more northerly colonies where sudden attacks were not
unlikely.

The formation of the Spanish provinces dates from
197 B.C., before which extraordinary magistrates, two
proconsuls annually, were sent out. Spain was then
divided into the Hither and Further provinces, each
under a praetor, with the seats of government at
Carthago and Corduba respectively. The boundaries
varied at different times, but the Hither province had
a tendency to increase, and by Caesar's time included
everything but Baetica and Lusitania. Though these
last were only formally separated by Augustus their
inherent difference was recognized by Pompey in his
division of Spain among his three legates, Varro,
Afranius, and Petreius.^

1 Cks. B. C. I. 38.

20 Some Authorities for Early Spain

Ripley : Races of Europe (origin of Basques and Spaniards from
the anthropological standpoint).

Garofalo : Iberi nella Gallia (B. A. H. 33, 298), and Sui Celii
nella penisola Iberica {B. A. H. 34).

FiTA : Viaje a Santiago (Celts and Greeks in Galicia).

Berlanga : Hispanice anteromana Syniagma (a long Spanish
work, the first part chiefly on Iberian and Phoenician settle-
ments, largely conjectural ; the second on Iberian letters and
coins, with some important early Roman inscriptions).

SiRET : Tyriens et Celtes en Espagne {B. A. H. 54).

Feliciani : L'Espagne a la fin du troisieme siecle av. J.-C
(B. A. H. 46), and Lefonti per la secunda guerra Punica nella
Spagna (B. A. H. 54).

O Archeologo Portugues (periodical, with several articles on mega-
lithic remains of Portugal).

CHAPTER II

FROM AUGUSTUS TO HADRIAN

' Nec prius iugum Hispani accipere potuerunt quam Cassar
Augustus perdomito orbi victricia ad eos arrna transtulit, popu-
lumque barbarum ac ferum legibus ad cultiorem vitee usuin
traductum in formam provincire redegit.' — Justinus.

The western peoples having been reduced by Caesar,
the only Spaniards still independent were the tribes of
the remote north-west, the Cantabrians and Asturians,
and those who bordered on the southern slopes of the
Pyrenees and who had recently fought side by side with
the southern Gauls against Caesar.^ Between 36 B.C.
and 26 B.C. six Roman generals claimed triumphs for
victories in the latter district, and during the same
period the Iberian Aquitani beyond the mountains were
compelled to submit. A succession of severe campaigns,
partly under the direction of Augustus, later under that
of Agrippa, was needed before the spirit of the last
tribes of mountaineers could be crushed. Numbers
of the Cantabri and Astures were massacred or en-
slaved, others were removed to level districts in which
they could be readily supervised by Roman garrisons
or colonies, and a ring of veteran settlements was
planted, often indeed on the site of some small Iberian
township, to act as a permanent garrison and aid in the

• B. G. III. 23 and 27.
21

22 Foundation of Augustan Colonies

exploitation and civilization of the country. In the
extreme north-west arose Lucus Augusti (Lugo),
Asturica Augusta (Astorga), and Juliobriga (Reynosa).
In a wild country not far from the Atlantic and the
mouth of the Douro was built Bracara Augusta (Braga),
which was soon surrounded by country seats and became
a centre for the extension of Roman manners, and later
in the empire, one of the chief towns of Spain. On the
upper waters of the Anas was Emerita Augusta (Merida),
and in the neighbourhood of the same river Pax Augusta
(Badajoz) and Pax Julia (Beja). In the north-east a
little native town — Salduba on the Ebro — became, as
Csesaraugusta, a judicial centre, and later the famous
Aragonese capital Zaragoza, excelling, as Isidore says,
in the charm of its surroundings.^ In Bsetica, Astigi
became Colonia Augusta Firma (Ecija), which is men-
tioned by a geographer of Claudius' reign as the next
in importance to Corduba and Hispalis.

Even if the independence of allied towns were form-
ally respected, the Romans inclined to plant in the
neighbourhood small military stations, which drew off
both the population and trade. Thus, on the west
coast near Calem (Castello de Gaya), was planted the
nucleus of the famous Oporto, to which many of the
richer inhabitants removed. From the conjoined names
of Portus and Cale sprang the name of the present re-
public of Portugal. Many other towns, such as Sal-
mantica, decayed from being left off the main roads,
which were now so widely extended. Colonies were
now nearly all military, citizen settlements like Urso
ceasing under the empire.

' Isid. Ei. IS, I.

Provincial System of the Empire 23

A new system of division into provinces originates
with Augustus. The republican Further province was
divided, after the Cantabrian War, into Bsetica and
Lusitania, the former senatorial and retaining Corduba
as its capital, the latter imperial with Emerita as the
seat of government. Both had a wider area than later
in the empire, Bsetica extending almost to Carthago,
and Lusitania reaching the Bay of Biscay. The
northern district, Gallsecia, was however cut off, prob-
ably before the death of Augustus, and restored to the
Hither province, for the sake of uniting the chief
military posts under the control of the legate of that
province. Even in the early empire, however, there
was a prefect of Asturia and another of Gallsecia, and
this points to some kind of separate military organiza-
tion, which was fully carried out in the third century
by the union of these two parts as an independent
province.^

The proconsul of Baetica was assisted by a quaestor
in the collection of money due to the cBvarium, and by
a legatus who resided at Hispalis, the second capital
of the province. The praetorian legate of Lusitania
had one legate, probably stationed at Olisipo (Lisbon),
but few, if any, regular troops. The consular legate
of the immense imperial Hither province henceforth
fixed his headquarters at Tarraco, from which the title
Tarraconensis came to be applied to the whole province.
He still occasionally wintered at the original capital,
Carthago, but this, though suitable when Spain was

' Probably between a.d. 212-216 (C. /. L. II. 2661, XIV. 2613).
It was called at first Hispaiiia nova cHcrior, later Gall.T2cia, with
the capital Brigantium.

24 Military Organization

ruled from Africa, was farther from Rome and less
well placed for resisting inroads from the north and
west. He was assisted by three legates, and had
three legions under his command. One of the former,
with two cohorts, kept the north-western region
beyond the Douro ; another, with one legion, the
mountainous district south of the Pyrenees ; the third
administered the interior, towards the Ebro and
Celtiberia.

From early in the empire the legions stationed here
were recruited almost entirely in Spain, chiefly in the
garrison districts, Baetica, like contemporary Italy, pro-
viding few soldiers. Numbers of auxiliary cohorts were
also raised among the more warlike tribes. Some were
used in other parts, especially in the Illyrian and Ger-
man armies, and at a later date still more in Britain,
where both cavalry and infantry detachments are often
mentioned in inscriptions. In Spain a body of local
militia [tirones) protected the east coast against the
attacks of African pirates, their prefect residing at
Tarraco. The cohortes colonicce employed by Caesar at
Corduba may have been of a similar kind, and others
existed at Castulo in the south-east. For some time
also Augustus used Spanish troops to form part of his
bodyguard at Rome.^

In general, military service was accepted as an
equivalent for tribute in the case of poorer and more
remote tribes, from whom it was difficult to levy regular
taxes, and the Romans made it their aim to crush out
opposition and enlist the flower of the population on
their own side. So long as the empire was able to
' Suet. Aug. 49.

Names and Stations of the Legions 25

protect its boundaries this policy proved successful.
The warlike Spaniards of the north were drafted off
to other countries, and when leaving the service were
usually allotted lands at a distance. Those who en-
listed in the home legions became subject to the strong
esprit de corps which long restrained from revolt legions
of almost entirely non-Italian origin. The fidelity of
Spain was secured for centuries, but when the empire
fell there were no means of organizing any national
defence, and the provinces yielded to the barbarous
hordes with little resistance.

Of the three legions stationed in Spain in the time of
Augustus (IV. Macedonica, VI. Victrix, X. Gemina),
two occupied Asturia and one Cantabria, with a few
detachments in other parts, Tarraconensis being thus
the only province not having a foreign frontier which
needed the defence of regular troops. One of the three
was transferred to the Rhine by Claudius ; the others,
with a fresh legion, I. Adiutrix, were still in Spain in
the time of Vespasian. In the Flavian age the garrison
was reduced, first to two legions, then to one, the
VII. Gemina, with some auxiliaries, which lasted till
the time of Diocletian. The headquarters of the
Asturian troops were between Lancia and Asturica,
not far from the later camp which eventually grew
into the city of Leon. The Cantabrian legion was
stationed at Pisoraca (Herrera, near Santander).

There are few references to any services performed by
these troops, and they were sometimes temporarily
removed elsewhere. They succeeded, however, in sup-
pressing brigandage, and while at the beginning of the
Augustan age Varro dwells on the dangers of farming

26 Growth of an Urban System

in Lusitania.i a historian of fifty years later remarks
that the provinces which had never been free from vi?ar
were untroubled now even by bandits.^ The govern-
ment, however, found it desirable to enlist the sympa-
thies of the more settled communities, and an inscription
of A.D. 37 preserves a solemn oath of the citizens of
Lusitanian Aritium to hold Csesar' s enemies as their
own,'

In spite of the example set by Csesar in the Gal-
Isecian campaign, no war fleet was maintained, and the
want of it was felt in the second century, when the
shores of Baetica began to be assailed by predatory
Moors.

The abstract of the census taken under Agrippa's
direction and contained in Pliny's Natural History
is of great value, as showing the rapidity with which
the urban system spread throughout Spain in the
early empire, superseding the loose federations, whose
nominal kings pass out of existence with hardly a
mention.* Of the 293 communities attributed to the
Hither province, 179 had some definite urban consti-
tution, being colonies, municipia, Latin or federate
towns, or merely tributary. The rest, though lacking
an urban centre, had a definite territory and some kind
of local autonomy. Their names often coincide with
those of old tribes, and they seem to represent an
attempt to reorganize the original units more on the
plan of a Roman pagus or vicus, which, when sufficiently
civilized, might be promoted to full municipal rights.

1 R. R. I. 16. 2 Veil. II. 90. 3 J72.

* One of the last, Indo, was killed in the Munda campaign
while fighting on the side of Cresar {Bell. Hisp. X.).

Spread of Civilization 27

In the more advanced Bsetica, though a fourth of the
size of Tarraconensis, were 175 towns, including nine
colonies, and twenty-seven with Latin rights. Lusi-
tania had forty-five communities, five being colonies,
and three Latin towns.

There were naturally many remote peoples who had
to be omitted from the system altogether ; others were
so much scattered in villages as to be attached to some
central town for their local government, taxation, and
jurisdiction. Others were placed under transitional
forms of administration, as that of a Consul, Decem-
viri,-' Magister or headman,^ or even, as it appears in
the case of a very uncivilized district, of Italian freed-
men.^ Remnants of old leagues still subsisted in
places, such as corporations of landed proprietors
called Hundreds.* Yet the presence of scattered
communities, with varying degrees of citizen rights,
and frequently an Italian element in the population,
soon accustomed the provincials to the use of Roman
law, and the municipal instincts which characterized
the more settled Iberian tribes were skilfully developed.
Not only were the tribes split up into a number of dis-
tinct societies, but the Conveutus or judicial districts
which grew up in the later Republic,^ and were re-
organized by Augustus, were also used to override
racial divisions, and group smaller towns round some
centre from which individual citizens took their title."

1 1953, 5068. 2 2633.

^ 2958-2960 (Pompaelo, an inference from the aristocratic names
borne by the local magistrates).

* Hj'g. Agr., p. 122. Cf. 1064 and Hijbncr's note.

» Suet./u/. 7 ; Cass. B. C. II. 19.

' E.g., 4233 : ' Amocensis Cluniensis ex gente Cantabrorum.'

28 Spanish Municipalities — Benefactions

Seven of these existed in Hither Spain under Augustus,
four in Baetica, and three in Lusitania.
t^ The periods at which grants of citizenship or Latinity
were made are not always clear, but it is certain that
Augustus resumed the work left unfinished by Sertorius
of civilizing the central and northern districts and
raising them to the level of Baetica and the east coast.

Municipal arrangements corresponded closely to
those of Italy, with locally elected duoviri, a senate,
popular assembly, and some substitute for the censors
to fix the quota of taxation to be paid by each citizen.
Local taxation was not heavy, but the magistracies were
invested with such dignity that their holders were will-
ing to go to considerable expense for the benefit or
amusement of their fellow citizens ; and even the
freedmen who, owing to the dislike often felt by freeborn
Romans for trade, concentrated much of the wealth
in their own hands were encouraged by the creation
of the important order of Augustales, with all its privi-
leges and duties, to contribute to the public needs of
their municipality. Inscriptions are full of the gener-
osity of individual citizens in the earlier period, and
never does wealth seem to have involved such responsi-
bilities. Thus at Dianium a citizen is commemorated
who had introduced a water supply to the town through
most difficult country, and organized a corn distribution
when prices were very high.^ A centurion of Barcino
left 7,500 denarii to be invested at 6 per cent., to provide
an annual boxing-match, as well as oil for the public
baths, on condition that his freedmen should be exempt
from municipal burdens ; failing this the legacy was to

^ 3586.

The Provincial Councils 29

lapse to Tarraco.^ Another benefactor of Barcino left
100,000 sesterces to be invested at 5 per cent., the
interest to be distributed among the citizens according
to their dignity on the testator's birthdaj'.^ Another at
Hispalis left an annual dole for the alimentarii or poor
children who were being reared at the public expense.^
An institution which might, if fostered with more
care, have developed into a regular federal system was
the provincial assembly, meeting annually to celebrate
the imperial cult in the chief town, under the presi-
dency of the Sacerdos provincias. In Spain there is no
reference, as in the east of the empire, to any earlier
religious gathering, and these assemblies probably re-
sulted from a direct official invitation. The earliest
was that which met at Tarraco in a.d. 15 at the shrine
of the deified Augustus, and this was followed in the
course of the century by others at Corduba and
Emerita. Colonies, Roman municipia, and Latin
towns could all send deputies chosen from and by the
local senate, their expenses being paid out of the
municipal funds. These persons, presided over by the
priest of the imperial worships whom they elected,
chose the provincial patron, sent deputations to the
Emperor, thanked or arranged for the prosecution of
retiring governors, and celebrated festivals ; but their
powers were not very clearly defined, and they formed
technically a private body meeting under official sanc-
tion. In Spain they had no rights of coinage, but
could set up statues or strike medallions. They could
receive advice as a body from the emperor, as we see
from a letter addressed to the Bastic council by Hadrian
1 4514. 2 451 1. ^ 1 174.

30 Councils of Later Empire — Taxation

relative to the punishment of cattle-stealers. Proceed-
ings against oppressive governors originated with in-
structions from individual cities to their deputies in the
council, which might empower delegates to undertake
the prosecution and choose a patronus at Rome. The
trial usually took place before the senate in the earlier
period, occasionally before the imperial council, the
usual course in the Antonine age as the senate de-
clined. During the period of anarchy which covers
most of the second half of the third century provincial
assemblies disappear, but they revive after Constantine
as entirely secular bodies, the Sacerdos having only
civil duties, such as the celebration of festivals, to per-
form, and being occasionally, though rarely, a Christian.
There are also references to other assemblies for the
Spanish provinces of later formation, and to a council
for the whole diocese, the functions of which appear to
have been very slight.^

The irregular exactions which had characterized the
republican administration gave way under Augustus to
a financial system differing little from that of other
provinces, which, when equitably administered, seems
to have caused no great discontent. The majority of
the towns were stipendiary, paying a fixed tribute raised
by local officials according to the property of each
citizen as assessed by official censors,^ and paid over to
the qusestor of Bffitica or the imperial procurators of the
other provinces. Among the dues were the land tax,
the tax on auctions, that on inheritances payable only
by Roman citizens, as well as the custom dues of 2 per

' Cf. 1729 and Cod. Theod. XII. 12, g.
* Marquardt, II. 209.

Development of a Road System 31

cent, raised at the frontiers on goods entering or leaving.
All Spain formed one district for this purpose, and as
the rate was lower than in other provinces commerce
was encouraged. Much was done in this direction also
by the extension of the road system under Augustus.
An important state road, the only one of its kind in
a province, already existed in the time of Polybius,
probably Iberian or Punic in part, but measured and
marked with milestones by the Romans.^ It led from
the passage of the Rhone past Tarraco to Carthago
Nova. Augustus had this improved, diverting one
portion to pass nearer the sea,'* and continued it, by
a branch diverging near the mouth of the Sucro, to
Corduba and Gades, incorporating some portions laid
down near the Bsetis by Caesar. Another very impor-
tant route started from Tarraco and extended to the
north-western districts, where Bracara and Asturica
becajne important centres. An alternative entry to
Spain was provided across the western Pyrenees,
joining Burdigala (Bordeaux) and Pompaslo (Pampe-
luna), and both Emerita, which communicated with
all the principal towns of Lusitania, and Castulo^
in the south-east in the middle of a rich mining district,
were the meeting points of numerous routes. Main
roads were thus laid out by the government, both for
military and commercial purposes, secondary by the
municipalities, sometimes by several in conjunction.
Neighbouring communities were bound to keep both
classes in repair, and to supply the imperial posts.
Many villages sprang up along the course of the
principal thoroughfares through grants of public land,
1 Polyb. III. 39. * Strab. III. 4, 10. ^ q/. 4936 ct seq.

32 Results of Augustus' Reforms

designed to enhance the safety and frequency of internal
trade.

Throughout the first century of the empire a slow-
but steady change was taking place in the relative
importance of Spanish towns and districts. Popula-
tion tended to gather in a few larger centres, mostly
in the south and west. Old towns, especially those
in the Ebro valley like Numantia, Ilerda, Cala-
gurris, Osca, Saguntum, dwindle, a process perhaps
furthered by the grant of Latin rights under Vespasian,
which raised the position of the South, already rich in
towns.

The effect of Augustus' policy was a universal peace,
and a certain uniformity in local organization ; but no
attempt was made, as under the cast-iron system of the
later empire, to obliterate all local peculiarities. The
use of the city state as the basis of administration was
in harmony with the natural sentiments of the Iberiansj
with whom the tribe or canton was of far less im-
portance than the individual township. Then as now
the pueblo, with its elected alcalde and council, its village
granary and communal tillage ground, was the natural
unit. The narrow patriotism of the Iberians and their
carelessness of national unity harmonized with the
dividing regime which the Romans practised in the
subject communities. In Gaul, where the tribal spirit
was much stronger, the Romans were forced to defer to
it, and the chief towns were in name and fact the head-
quarters of some canton or people.

Latin came to be spoken over the south and centre
of Spain, the toga was widely adopted in Celtiberia
even by non-citizens, a common mark of loyalty among

Persistence of National Characteristics 33

barbarous peoples ; ^ the ruder worships and customs in
many parts gave place to a high civilization. Yet the
pairius sermo,^ as Tacitus calls it, was not forgotten ;
disused for public business and inscriptions, it lasted
among the common people for many generations, and
supplied a considerable element to the three chief
languages — Castilian, Portuguese, and Catalan — now
spoken in the peninsula. In other respects also the
native element asserted itself. The literary tendencies
evolved in Spain were strong enough to spread to the
capital and inaugurate a new era ; hardy Spanish
soldiers, armed with weapons superior to any previously
known to the Romans, could be found on every
frontier ; Spaniards filled places of trust at court.
Within fifty years from the death of Augustus one acted
as regent of the empire, within a hundred another
proved himself the most worthy of Augustus's successors.
As Italy became more degraded, and filled with parasites
of the court or Oriental slaves and freedmen, Spain
became more and more the mainstay of the imperial
authority; and it was only the gross misgovernment
which wrecked the splendid municipal system and filled
the provinces with slaves, outlaws, and paupers, that
at last caused the provincials to welcome barbarian
peoples as deliverers.

The national character remained throughout sub-
stantially unchanged. Primitive tribes, as better
acclimatized and having a larger proportion of women
than invaders, tend to reassert themselves in a few
generations ; nor could it be expected that some
hundreds of thousands of speculators, merchants, and
» Strab. III. 4, 20. Cf. Tac. Agr 21. " Ann. IV. 45.

3

34 Spain Under Tiberius

veterans from Italy should have a very lasting effect on
a nation which was thought to excel the Romans in
numbers,^ which, too, was destined to absorb utterly
powerful German tribes, and to assimilate or cast out an
extensive African and Asiatic population.

The external history of the eighty years between the
Augustan settlement and the accession of Vespasian
offers little of interest. The citizenship was not widely
extended, owing to the difficulty of recruiting for the
legions and the few opportunities of doing this in
citizen communities.

The list of extortionate governors receives additions
in the reign of Tiberius. Vibius Serenus, who had ex-
cited a revolt by his cruelties in Bsetica, was banished
by the senate to Amorgos, and in his place was sent
Julius Bessus from Africa, who succeeded in appeasing
the provincials. L. Piso, the imperial legate of Hither
Spain, was also guilty^of great oppression ; but Tiberius
would give no redress, and Piso was at last murdered
by a labourer, one of the numerous examples of
political assassination which occur in Spanish history.*
Possibly in revenge for these outbreaks a charge was
trumped up against Sext. Marius, a rich Spaniard
domiciled at Rome; he was flung from the Tarpeian
rock, and his gold mines >;passed to the fiscus.^ Others
also were persecuted,^ as Junius Gallic of Corduba,
who was imprisoned on the charge of wishing to attach

1 E.g., Veget. Mil. I.ii.' The figures given in Plin., III. 28,
have led modern authorities to estimate the population of Spain
under Augustus at about six millions.

2 Tac. Ann. IV. 45. 3 76,d._ vi, lo.
* Suet. Tib. 49.

Caligula, Claudius and Nero 35

the praetorian guards rather to the state than the
emperor's person.^

Under Caligula, a native of Corduba, jEmilius
Regulus, conspired against the emperor, but was de-
tected and put to death." A concession, valued by the
provincials, was made by Claudius,^ in whose honour
many statues were set up in Spain. A year's interval
was to elapse between the tenure of two governorships
by the same person, that any complaints made against
him might be investigated. Owing, however, to cor-
ruption and personal influence, the effect seems to
have been slight. A main road was opened in Lusitania
about this time.

In this reign the active study of Latin letters in
southern Spain was having its effect, and several of
the chief Roman writers and orators, as the Senecas,
Turanius Gracilis, Sextilius Hena, and Porcius Latro,
belonged here. One of the chief historians of the
age, Cluvius Rufus, was a governor in Spain under
Nero.

The reign of Nero was attended by more extortion
on the part of imperial procurators, and by the revolt
of the Asturians, who had been cowed into submission
under Augustus rather than really incorporated. A
special officer, prcsfectits pro legato, is now found among
the Baleares, who may also have been disaffected.

Galba's governorship of Tarraconensis had been char-
acterized by stern justice; he refused to countenance
extortionate procurators, and checked dishonesty both
on the part of officials and of guardians or accountants.

1 Tac. Ann. VI. 3 ; Dion C. 58, 18.

3 Cf. Jos. Aid. 19, I. ^ Dion C. 60, 25.

36 Changes in the Flavian Age

It was at Clunia (Coruna del Conde) that he was in-
formed of Nero's death, and after convening a senate
of local notables, the first example of such a gathering,
resolved to march on Italy and assume the crown,
which the great military force at the disposal of the
Tarraconensian legate enabled him to do. Yet his
short reign was attended by the exaction of heavy
imposts and by numerous death sentences in Spain,^

Otho, once the legate of Lusitania, conferred several
benefits, granting the citizenship freely, enlarging the
communities of Hispalis and Emerita, and annexing
to the Bsetic province the revenues of a number of
Moorish towns on the opposite coast.^ This last
measure does not seem to have been permanent, but
it shows the recognition of a principle fully applied in
the reorganization of the third century, that western
Mauritania had more in common with Spain than with
Caesariensis or Numidia.

The Flavian age saw a general extension of Latin
rights, but the newly enfranchised communities seem
to have remained inferior to the old, receiving only
the Latium minus, which gave fewer opportunities of
advancing to full citizenship. A number of towns were
thus definitely organized on municipal lines, and took
the surname Flavia ; and non-urban communities prob-
ably received similar rights in a modified form. Many
roads, especially in the Emerita and Asturica districts,
were constructed, as well as bridges and other buildings,
perhaps including the famous aqueduct of Segovia, one
of the finest relics of Roman occupation, which some
attribute to Trajan's reign. Two well-known ofiicials
1 Suet. Galb. 20. = Tac. H. I. 78.

Inscriptions of Sabora, Salpensa and Malaca 37

of the period were Pliny the Elder, an Imperial pro-
curator^ who was on terms of friendly correspondence
with several distinguished Spaniards, and Herennius
Senecio, a Baetican orator of some eminence, who was
conjoined with the younger Pliny in the prosecution
under Domitian of the extortionate governor, Bsebius
Massa.

Three valuable inscriptions date from the Flavian
period. One found near Malaga in the sixteenth cen-
tury relates to the Bsetic town of Sabora^ (Canete la
real), and is a rescript from Vespasian to the magis-
trates, allowing them to rebuild the town on a new site
in the plain, with the title Flavia, and to continue
receiving the dues payable in the time of Augustus.
For other dues which they might claim they were to
apply to the proconsul. This proves that certain
minor places had to pay commercial imposts to a
central town, but that no fresh dues could be imposed
without objections being heard.

The two others are the leges datce,^ published by
Domitian to fix the constitution of the towns Salpensa
(Facialcazar) and Malaca, of which the former had
been a stipendiary community, the latter an allied
town. Both had received the minor Latin right from
Vespasian. Members of the local senate were not
necessarily admitted to the full franchise ; but this was
open to all duoviri, quaestors, and asdiles, if not already
citizens. Latins from elsewhere, as well as resident
Romans, could vote in the assembly, the latter enjo3dng
no special local privileges.

Pliny the younger, who was on friendly terms with

1 Plin. Ep. III. 5, 17. 2 1423 (now lost). ' 1963-4.

38 Prosecution of Classicus — Trajan's Reign

many Spaniards, including the poet Martial, besides
prosecuting Basbius Massa, at a later date took part
in the proceedings against Cascilius Classicus, also a
governor of Bastica, and his corrupt provincial subor-
dinates. Classicus was manifestly guilty, and only
escaped punishment by death, vi'hether natural or
voluntary was uncertain, while two of his accomplices
were banished for five years. The prosecution was
not, however, scrupulous as to the evidence produced,
for one of the documents was a letter from Classicus to
his mistress at Rome, boasting of having gained four
million sesterces and sold many Baeticans into slavery.'
It was noted at the time that another extortionate
governor, Marius Prisons, proconsul of Africa, was a
native of Bsetica, whereas Classicus was an African ;
and the jest was bandied about in Spain, ' illud malum
et dedi et accepi.' Both these provinces were senatorial,
and in general those which were left to the feeble rule
of the senate were worse treated than those where
the emperor had a personal interest in securing just
administration.

The reign of Trajan of Italica, the first native to
occupy the throne, probably marks the climax in the
prosperity of Roman Spain. The population, it is
estimated, doubled between the age of Caesar and the
middle of the second century.^ Mines, though less
productive, were still worked at a profit. Spanish
products were exported throughout the Mediterranean,
and the municipal system was now in its most efficient
state, local honours being eagerly sought for, and their
conferment rewarded by the erection of fine public
* Plin. Ep. III. 4 and 9. * Jung Rom. Landsch. 42.

Signs of Decline under Hadrian 39

buildings, by largesses, or permanent charities. It was
the age when the most magnificent monuments were
raised, whether due to imperial liberality or to the
contributions of individuals or communities ; and the
foundations of one of the most famous cities of mediaeval
Spain were laid, as a result of the transference of the
Asturian legion from their original settlement to the
city called after it, Legio, or Leon.

In Hadrian's reign there is a slight foreshadowing of
decline. The brilliant school of Spanish writers which
had lasted over a century ended with Martial and
Quintilian, and the literary primacy of the west was
allowed to cross the Straits to Africa. Hadrian was
probably born at Italica,^ his mother being a native of
Gades. He not only beautified and enriched Italica,'^
but showed great solicitude for the welfare of all Spain,
being called on coins Restitutor HispanicB.^ He had
several roads constructed, and rebuilt the temple of
Augustus at Tarraco ; and the adulator}' inhabitants
of that city, who had always taken the lead in emperor
worship, erected so many statues in his honour that
the province had to appoint a special official to look
after them.* What, however, is ominous of coming
decadence was the need for remitting large sums due
for the last sixteen years from the Spanish and other
imperial provinces to the fiscus (a.d. 118), and the
beginnings of a national spirit displayed at a conven-
tion of the notables of the three provinces held at
Tarraco in 120. From the proceedings of this assembly,

* Gell. 16, 13 ; Eutr. 8, 6. There is probably a gap in Spar-
tianus here.

» Dion C. 69, 10. 3 Eckhel, VI. 495. ' 4230.

40 Provincial Gathering at Tarraco

to which Hadrian proposed to fill up the militia by-
conscription instead of voluntary service, we can see
to what an extent the most warlike province was being
drained of the flower of its inhabitants to fill the legions
in place of the luxurious and effeminate Italians.-^ Nor
was there any corresponding immigration ; the legions
stationed in Spain were almost entirely local levies, and
colonies ceased to be sent out after the Flavian age.
Two great causes which led to the break up of the
Roman dominion, impoverishment and depopulation,
are already discernible.

HtJBNER : Introduction to Supplement of C. I. L. II.

REm : Municipal System of the Roman Empire.

Arnold : Studies in Roman Imperialism.

Lafuente : Hist. General de Espana, I. and II.

Burke : History of Spain, I.

Masdeu : Hist. Critica de Espana, VII. and VIII,

Hume : History of the Spanish People.

Hardy : Three Spanish Charters (translation, with commentary,

of the laws of Urso, Salpensa, and Malaca) .
GuiRAUD : Les assemblies provinciates dans I'emp. remain.
Jung : Die ronianischen Landschaften.
Detlefsen, in Philologus, 30 and 32 (on Plinys geographica

account of Spain).

1 Cf. also Herodian, II. 11, 5.

CHAPTER III

FROM THE ANTONINE AGE TO THE GOTHIC CONQUEST

' Fundat ab extremo flavos Aquilone Suevos
Albis, et indomitum Rheni caput.'

LUCAN.

Like two of his predecessors, M. Aurelius, though not
himself born in the province, came of a Bsetican family.
In his reign the growing weakness of the empire on the
frontiers was displayed in the first invasion of Spain by
the barbarians. About A.D. 170 a large body of pre-
datory Africans crossed the Straits, eluding the vigilance
of the African legion and fleet, and invaded Bsetica.
They did much damage at Malaca, destroying the
citadel, and laid siege to Singilis (Antequera la Vieja).
The siege was raised by Maximinus, governor of Lusi-
tania, who is celebrated in an inscription as haying
restored peace to Baetica ; and another officer, V^fus
Clemens, collecting a fleet, sailed as far as Tingitana,
so that the Moors, fearing lest their retreat should be
cut off, were compelled to retire.' Probably as a result
of this Bsetica became temporarily imperial, and a
detachment of the seventh legion was stationed at
Italica. Disturbances also took place in Lusitania.
The growing impoverishment and the burdens to

1 1 120. C/. 2015 ; B. A. H. 46, 427.
41

42 End of the Antonine Age

which the richer citizens were subjected, are strikingly
exhibited by the inscription found near Seville in 1888,
containing a senatorial decree passed, probably at the
initiative of Aurelius himself, reducing the sums payable
to gladiators and the amount which private citizens
could be called on to contribute for such shows. It
also abolished the disgraceful partnership with the
state, according to which the trainers had been obliged
to pay to the fiscus a third or fourth of the sums re-
ceived by them. This decree applied to the whole
empire, but only this copy has survived.^

The reign of Commodus produced an incident which
indicates the paralysis creeping over the central
authority, already weakened by constant wars in the
north and by a devastating plague. In 187 Maternus,
a common Italian soldier, had sufficient influence to
collect in Italy an army of freebooters, who marched
plundering through Gaul into Spain, and remained
there for some time, besieging cities, burning, and
pillaging, undisturbed by the governors.^

The end of the Antonine dynasty was the signal for
the appearance of the first of a long series of usurpers,
or tyranni, who sprang up at intervals through the next
two centuries, detaching one or more provinces for the
time. The effect of these usurpations was less than
might be expected. The imperial system of govern-
ment was so deeply ingrained in the more settled pro-
vinces that new and transitory rulers adopted it as a
matter of course. The same governors acted, the same
taxes were paid, the old municipal organization con-

' Eph. Epigr. VII. 385 (originally at Italica).
* Herodian, I. 10.

Appearance of Usurpers in the West 43

tinued. The tyrants themselves, however small their
actual territory, always professed themselves Roman
emperors, and while in no sense champions of national
independence, often showed much ability in repelling
barbarian attacks. Few originated in Spain, which
proved itself one of the most loyal provinces, though
sometimes obliged to admit the claims of usurpers who
had established themselves in Gaul. Such were Clodius
Albinus (the support of whom was punished with severe
confiscations under Severus), Postumus, and Victorinus.
These temporary western empires were closely modelled
on that of Rome ; for example, both Albinus and Pos-
tumus held senates, with some Spanish deputies added
to the main body from Gaul.

In the time of Caracalla the north-western districts
received a separate provincial organization, and later in
the century the western part of Mauritania was annexed
under the title of Nova Hispania ulterior Tingitana}
The celebrated edict of Caracalla, which abolished
separate grades of privileges, and declared all free in-
habitants of the empire to be full citizens, is usually
explained as intended to subject all provincials to the
taxes hitherto confined to citizens. It was perhaps
also felt that a more united front might be offered to
barbarian attacks if the inhabitants of the whole civilized
world possessed equal rights.

The period of chaos known as the reign of Gallienus
(260-68) witnessed the most formidable omen of coming
dissolution in the invasion of the Suevi and Franks,
who succeeded in capturing the capital of the eastern
province, Tarraco, and inflicted damage which was still

» Eph. Epigr. VIII. 807.

44 Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine

visible in the fifth century. The old Greek colony of
Dianium also fell into ruins about this period, and
was perhaps similarly devastated. The barbarians'
advance was checked by the able Gallic emperor
Postumus, and they were altogether expelled by Claudius,
after continuing their depredations for nearly twelve
years.^

The revolutionizing of the imperial system by Dio-
cletian, and its transformation into an Oriental despot-
ism ruling through a carefully graded hierarchy of
officials, great though its ultimate effects proved, did
not involve many regulations specially applicable to
Spain. Since the addition of Tingitana it already
included five provinces, and though much subdivision
took place in other parts, the only change due to Dio-
cletian seems to have been the partition of the still
unwieldy Tarraconensian province, the southern half
being now known as Carthaginiensis, from its new
capital. Late in the fourth century the Baleares were
erected into a separate province, the totaJ reaching
seven, which number was never exceeded. They were
all now imperial, the last trace of the senate's authority
having been abrogated, and their rulers all had the
title of praeses except in Bastica, where sometimes a
proconsul, sometimes a consularis, appear. All were
under the authority of a vicar who ruled the Spanish
diocese from Hispalis, now the greatest and most
populous city, ' before which,' as Ausonius sang, ' all
Spain lowers the fasces.' The diocese was in turn
placed under one of the four praetorian prefects, that of
Gaul, who represented the emperor in these parts. The

> Oros. VII. 2 ; Eutr. IX. 8.

Decay in Municipal Life and Commerce 45

full introduction of the official hierarchy dates from the
time of Constantine.

Besides the expense involved in the immense army
of new officials, the constant interference with local
magistrates and privileges led to the crushing out of
municipal life and the production of a blank uniformity
of grasping officials, persecuted taxpayers, and slaves.
In Spain the centre of gravity was now shifting from
the Mediterranean districts to the south and west, which
were less exposed to barbarian attack, and retained
more commercial prosperity ; but even here municipal
life decayed. The members of local senates {decuriones)
were the worst used class. Burdened with the respon-
sibility of advancing the tribute which it was impossible
to recover from their fellow-townsmen, they were fre-
quently reduced to beggary, and fled the country. All
semblance of the popular election of magistrates
vanished ; instead of being chosen freely by the citizens
they were nominated from the decurio class by the
senate, and such offices were far from being sought for.
Even a petty post under the imperial government
afforded greater opportunities for advancement. Their
powers, too, were lessened by the appointment of a
mayor or burgomaster {curator or defensor), practically
an imperial official.

As trade decayed towns became depopulated, but
yet were taxed as units, the amount due from the re-
maining inhabitants rising as the number of payers
decreased. The once flourishing trade corporations
were seized on by the state, and made instruments of
further exactions. The members were imprisoned in
their guilds, and could never change their trade, which

46 Distresses in the Fourth Century

became hereditary for their descendants ; while the
guild property, which was liable for the satisfaction
of official exactions, could only be shared in by one
actually exercising the trade. Even if he succeeded in
breaking away, he forfeited all rights to it. Similarly
free tenant farmers sank to a corporation of serfs, on
whom the principal burden of taxation fell. Thus in
towns free craftsmen disappear, either voluntarily
enslaving themselves, or taking refuge among the
barbarians. Agricultural land, so far as it was worked
at all, was owned chiefly by officials and cultivated by
slaves. The natural source of recruits was dried up.
Spain, always jealous of foreign garrisons, was left
practically unguarded in the fourth century. The
governors were exclusively civil officials, and no
military dux was thought necessary.

The one great name, apart from theologians in this
depressing period, is Theodosius, the last great emperor
of the west. He was a native of Cauca in Gallascia,
but came of a family which originated in Italica, and
was said to be connected with that of Trajan.

In the reign of his son Honorius, a series of events
happened which finally led to the separation of Spain
from the empire. The first movements began in two
other provinces. Bands of Vandals, Alans, and Sueves
defeated the Frankish allies of Rome, and occupied the
centre of Gaul, plundering, but not making any regular
settlement ; and a tyrant, of a type now familiar, named
Constantine, appeared in Britain. Unwilling to await
attack, the latter crossed to Gaul, and gained pos-
session of a wide strip of territory from the Channel
to the Alps, defeating the Roman generals, and prob-

Invasion of the Vandals and Sueves 47

ably having some understanding with the three
barbarian tribes. He advanced into Spain, which
momentarily submitted ; but certain members of the
Theodosian house who had much influence in Lusitania
raised forces on behalf of the empire. Constantine,
who had returned to Gaul, sent his son Constans to
suppress the revolt, supported by a British lieutenant,
Gerontius, and a body of barbarian auxiliaries, the
Honoriani. The Theodosians were crushed, and Con-
stans, after establishing his court at Cassaraugusta,
went back to Gaul, leaving Gerontius in charge. The
latter revolted, and proclaimed his son, or adherent,
Maximus, as emperor. Either Gerontius or his sup-
porters invited the three German tribes to cross into
Spain to aid them, and Gerontius himself marched
into Gaul against Constantine. The imperial authori-
ties at last bestirred themselves. Gaul was recovered,
Gerontius's army deserted him, and the various pre-
tenders were banished or executed ; but the harm had
now been done. The Vandals, Alans, and Sueves were
securely established in Spain, and only the north-
eastern portion was left to the empire (409). A time of
fearful distress ensued. The barbarians marched about
plundering and levying blackmail ; few towns were in a
position to resist long, and many garrisons were starved
out or reduced to cannibalism.^ Widespread pillage
and slaughter prevailed, not only at the hands of the
Germans, but of the native Bagaudae, or ruined
peasants, who gathered together as brigands. Some
of the old Iberian tribes reasserted their indepen-

» Cf. Oh-mpiod. in Fr. Hist. Gr. IV. 30; Isid. Hist. Vand.
(M. H. G. XI. 295).

48 Division of Spain among the Barbarians

dence, as the Astures and Vascones in the north, the
Orospedani in the south. The last, secure in the fast-
nesses of the Sierra Morena, were only subdued a
century and a half later by the Gothic king Leovigild.^
Even the richer landowners, unprotected by the govern-
ment, turned their villas into castles, and gathered
troops of armed slaves, after the fashion of mediaeval
barons. At last the invaders, still largely heathen,
came to some kind of understanding with the helpless
imperial authorities, and settled down in Spain. The
Sueves, with one division of the Vandals, the Asdingi,
occupied the north - western districts ; the Alans, a
people of Scythian origin, Lusitania and central Spain ;
the SiHngian Vandals settled in Bsetica, which from them
derived its modern name of Andalusia. Agriculture
was already beginning to revive somewhat, when a
fresh series of troubles ensued from the extension into
Spain of the Visigothic power.

Though several chroniclers, including the contem-
porary Zosimus and Orosius, relate the events of the
early part of the fifth century, they are none of them
historians, and as inscriptions have by this time
become scarce, it is difficult to disentangle the real
condition of Spain from long lists of marches, battles,
pillagings, and constant changes of lordship. Christian
writers denounce the profligacy and luxury of the. age,
which they contrast with the purity of life among the
barbarians^ ; they even admit that many provincials,
though not actually joining the enemy, had abjured
the name of Romans.^ Yet the terrors of the German

1 Joh. Bid. (M. H. G. XI. 215).

2 Salv, Gub. D. VI. 8. 3 lbid.,Y. 5.

Character of Fifth Century Society 49

invasions were compensated for by the conversion of
large bodies of heathen.^

The charge of profligacy is hardly consistent with
the lurid description of the miseries of the time. A
society in the last stages of dissolution, with the free-
men sinking into slavery, the magistrates fleeing from
the crushing burdens of their office, and qtksrentes apud
barbaros Romanam human it atem, as Salvian says, is not
the one to indulge in any extravagance of luxury.
Moreover, Spain was essentially a country of small
towns ; there was no great centre of idleness and
corruption like Carthage, Antioch, or Alexandria.
When we come to examine the vague denunciations of
the moralists, the chief charges seem to be that some
towns kept up the games in the circus and theatrical
exhibitions, which were often of a demoralizing
character, until they were suppressed by the bar-
barians,^ and that certain heathen practices lasted on.
Such were the Cervula festivities on New Year's eve,
when people, dressed up in the skins of stags or other
animals, pursued each other about the streets — the sub-
ject of a lost treatise by Pacianus, bishop of Barcino.'
It cannot, however, be denied that the changes of
masters were looked on with indiiference by the
Spaniards, and that many, in the words of a native
chronicler, preferred ' inter barbaros pauperem liber-
tatem quam inter Romanes tributoriam soUicitudinem.'
The history of the foundation and growth of the
Visigothic monarchy in Spain is imperfectly known.
From the first invasion of Ataulf in 415 to the final

1 Oros. VII. 41. =" Salv. VI. 8.

3 Cf. Migne, Patr. Lat. IV. ii6.

4

50 Establishment of the Gothic Kingdom

renunciation of all allegiance to the empire by Euric,
there is a space of sixty years, during most of which
the Goths were on more or less friendly terms with
Rome, fighting on its behalf against the barbarian
tribes previously established in Spain, in consideration
of being left in possession of the rich Gallic kingdom
of Tolosa. In the earlier period the Vandals were the
leading tribe in Spain, and their ravages extended over
all the south and central districts. After their departure
for Africa in 429, accompanied by the remains of the
Alans, who had been heavily defeated by the Goths,
the Sueves, now firmly established in the north-west,
with their capital at Bracara, overran a great part of
the country, defeating the Roman armies, but making
no permanent settlements. Throughout this period a
few important stations remained in the hands of the
Goths, but with the exception of the Suevic kingdom,
the rest of Spain was still nominally an imperial pos-
session, which meant in practice that, except for the
occasional despatch of a mercenary army, the towns
were left to manage their own affairs. The Gothic
king Theodoric II. at last captured Bracara and sub-
jected the Sueves, who however remained as a separate
kingdom for over a century more; and his brother
Euric (466-484) drove out the remaining Roman gar-
risons, and, after crushing the local levies raised to
oppose him in the Tarraconensian province, added the
whole of Spain, except the Suevic kingdom and the
Balearic islands, an appanage of the African Vandals,
to his French dominions. Thirty years later the
Goths, in a great battle near Poitiers, lost almost
the whole of the latter to the Franks, and the seat

Results of the Roman Dominion 51

of government was now moved from Toulouse to
Toledo (508).

The western empire had fallen and drawn down Spain
in its fall. It remains to see what were the effect of its
six hundred years' dominion. A fully developed mu-
nicipal system was left, weakened and impoverished
by recent misgovernment but capable of revival, and
in thorough harmony with the national spirit. Latin
was spoken throughout the peninsula except in the
Basque province ; the arts and architecture had been
brought to a high degree of perfection, but were now
declining ; an admirable legal system was in existence.
Lastly, the one hope of any real national unity, the
Christian religion, had been strongly organized under
bishops, who for some generations had practically
superseded the civil magistrates as true leaders of the
people. The value of this legacy is displayed by the
history of the following years. Under Gothic rule
municipal government revived, even though the agri-
cultural element in the population was now more im-
portant than the urban. The deairiones were relieved
of their unendurable burdens, and the collection of taxes
was entrusted to special officials appointed by the Gothic
counts. The local senates were strengthened by being
made criminal courts of first instance, and Roman law,
with certain Gothic modifications, was maintained, to
become a model for mediaeval legislators.

A feudal aristocracy under a weak elective king found
itself faced with a vast federation of townships and an
ecclesiastical hierarchy strongly supported by the mass
of the people; and everywhere the Roman ideals
triumphed. The Goths lost their language and ab-

52 Gothic Influences Obliterated

jured their Arian errors. Their king gained in power
at the expense of the landowners, only to come more
and more under the influence of ecclesiastical councils.
The municipalities lasted on unchanged. Finally, the
Goths, having lost their identity, disappeared before
the inrush of Berbers and Moors, and it was left to the
Spaniards and the Catholic Church to unite the country
in a crusade which lasted for centuries, to drive out the
unbelievers, and to raise Spain to the position of the
most powerful country in Europe,

Seeck : GescliicMe des Untergangs der antiken Welt.

OzANAM : La Civilisation au Cinquihne Steele.

Lembke : Geschichte von Spa7iien, I.

Dahn : Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen Volker

(for Suevic and Visigothic kingdoms).
Freeman, in English Historical Review, I. (the usurpation of

Constantine and its results).
Salvian : De Gubernaiione Dei, V.-VII.

CHAPTER IV

BYZANTINE ANDALUSIA

' Comenciolus patricius sic haec fieri iussit, missus a Mauricio
Augusto contra hostes barbaros, magaus virtute, magister militia
SpaniK.' — Inscription at Cartagena of a.d. 590.

The most striking of the successive revivals which
manifested themselves in the slowly decaying Roman
power in the middle ages begins with the reign of
Leo I., and reaches its highest level with Justinian. A
large part of Italy was reconquered from the Goths,
and the Vandal dominion in Africa utterly destroyed.
Though Mauritania as a whole was never recovered, but
remained in the possession of native tribes, a few out-
lying posts were garrisoned for the empire, among
others the Tomb of the Seven Brethren near Ceuta ;
and the Romans successfully repelled the army sent
from Spain by the Gothic king Teudu to recover it.^
Impelled partly by the desire of regaining something
of their old position in the Mediterranean, partly by that
of safeguarding their African possessions, from which a
considerable revenue was still derived, the Romans
again undertook the work of the elder Scipio, and after
nearly eight centuries addressed themselves to the con-
quest of Spain and its delivery from an alien yoke.
Nor was the enterprise altogether hopeless. The Goths

» Isid. Hist. Goth. (M. H. G. XI. 284).
S3

54 Byzantine Troops Occupy Southern Spain

were still heretics, the Spaniards impassioned devotees
of the Catholic faith ; the bishops were enthusiastic for
the imperial cause, and the cities of Andalusia felt more
likely to preserve independence under the sway of a
distant prince like Justinian than when ruled directly
by the court of Toledo.

The proud city of patrician Cordova supplied the
occasion for interference. The Arian king Agila had
earned the hatred of the citizens by profaning the
shrine of their revered martyr Acisclus,^ and a popular
revolt forced him to retire to Merida. A Gothic
noble, Athanagild, who secretly aspired to the crown,
put himself at the head of the rising of Catholics,
and made overtures to the Romans, which were readily
accepted. He offered to cede Andalusia and much of
Murcia in return for military assistance. An army
under the patrician Liberius crossed the Straits, and
co-operating with the rebels defeated at Seville the
royal troops sent against them. Agila was murdered
by some of his own followers, who feared that the civil
discords would enable the Romans to recover all
Spain (554) ; and Athanagild, who succeeded, dismissed
his own troops, and sought to restore harmony, leaving
the Romans in possession of the towns already ceded.
Presuming on their friendship they tried to occupy
other places. Seville they were soon obliged to aban-
don, but Cordova held out successfully,'^ and they were
able, in the confusion which followed Athanagild's death,
to extend their territory, which eventually reached from

1 Isid. Hist. Goth. {M. H. G. XI. 285).

^ Chron. Cccsaraug. (ibid., 223). Cf. Isid., loc. cit. : ' Milites
submovere a finibus regni molitus non potuit.'

Organization of the Province 55

Cape St. Vincent on the west, to beyond Cartagena on
the east. It also included the Balearic islands, formerly
an appanage of the Vandal kingdom, which reverted to
the empire about 533. The island sees had, during
Vandal rule, been subject to the metropolitan of Carales
in Sardinia, and this arrangement subsisted during the
Roman occupation, only ending when Christianity in
the islands disappeared before the Moors.

Cordova, Cartagena, Malaga, an important emporium
for trade with Italy, and the place anciently known as
Asido,^ were the chief Roman towns. The old municipal
constitution seems to have been preserved, and the
effects of the re-incorporation in the empire were not
very marked. Garrisons were established in the princi-
pal places under a magister militice Spaniel stationed at
Cordova, or later at Cartagena, having various dicces,
such as the dux of Malaga, under his command.

Soon after 590 a new province, Mauritania Secunda,
was formed, embracing the fragments of Mauritania
still in possession of the empire, the Spanish depen-
dencies, and the Balearic islands, of which the two
chief were now beginning to be called Majorica and
Minorica. Spain was probably annexed to Africa for
both military and civil affairs, the Spanish duces acting
under the general direction of the prefect of African
Carthage.

Out of jealousy of the Goths the Suevic kingdom in
Galicia, which lasted till 585, and the Franks, both
Catholic powers, were usually on good terms with the
Romans, but yet the dominions of the latter never

^ This is variously identified as Medina Sidonia and Jerez de la
Frontera.

56 Success of the Goths under Leovigild

extended far inland. The memory of past oppressive
taxation would discourage the Spaniards from sub-
mitting willingly, and the medley of Asiatics and
Thracians, known to the chroniclers of the period
simply as milites, who were employed for garrison duty,
had little in common with Andalusian citizens or
peasants.

The accession of the powerful king Leovigild resulted
in a diminution of territory. In 569 the imperial forces
were defeated, and several towns recaptured in Murcia,
but the Goths apparently failed before the fortifications
of Malaga.^ In 571 Asido was betrayed to them, and
the next year the Roman capital of Cordova was
besieged. In spite of the efforts of the Andalusian
peasants to relieve it, the city was surprised by night,
the garrison put to the sword, and smaller places
garrisoned by local levies were also recovered by the
king. The seat of the imperial government was now
removed to Cartagena.

Further discord among the enemy postponed the
inevitable fall of the Roman power. Leovigild's son
Hermenigild, who was married to a Prankish princess,
and was himself a Catholic, revolted against his father,
and set up as an independent sovereign in southern
Spain in alliance both with the Sueves and the empire.
Seville, Cordova, and other places seceded to him.
The new king's court was established at the first,*

' Cf. Joh. Bid., ad ami. : ' Loca Bastetaniae et Malacitanse urbis.
repulsis militibus vastat, et victor solio reddit.'

' Cf. I. H. C. 76 : ' Anno secundo regni domini nostri Ermini-
gildi regis, quern persequetur genetor sus dom. Liuvigildus rex in
cibitate Hispa.'

He Suppresses Hermenigild's Revolt 57

Cordova invited and received an imperialist garrison.
The emperor, however, was unable to send any adequate
support. Hermenigild was blockaded by the Gothic
troops in Seville, and the Suevic army which came to
its relief under king Miro was defeated (583). The city
was reduced to the utmost distress by famine, and by
the blocking of the course of the Guadalquivir as well
as by the fortification of the neighbouring ruins of
Italica. The prince succeeded in escaping to Cordova
before Seville surrendered, but there he was betrayed
with the city to his father, and was banished to Valentia.
Leander, the Catholic bishop of Seville and a writer of
some note, was banished from Spain, and appealed
to the emperor Maurice to interfere on behalf of the
unfortunate Hermenigild, a near kinsman of Leander's.
Before the imperial representative, the patrician
Comenciolus, who had previously been employed against
the Slavs, could interfere on his behalf, or, as others
say, owing to his remissness or corruption, the young
prince had been murdered at Tarragona (585). Centuries
later Hermenigild received the honours of canonization
as a Catholic martyr.

Leovigild had now effectually severed the Roman
possessions into two groups — south-eastern and south-
western. Seville and Cordova, besides some neigh-
bouring towns, such as S. Juande Alfarache (Ossetum),
were permanently in the hands of the Goths; the
Suevic kingdom of Galicia, after the usurper Audeca
had been deposed and relegated to a monastery (585),
was also incorporated, and the insurgent tribe of Iberian
Orospedani reduced to obedience. As an external sign
of his wide authority, Leovigild discarded the emperor's

58 Roman Losses in the South-East

name on his coins, some of which bear the curious
legend : Cum D. oUinuit Spli (Hispalim).

The next king, Reccared, in whose reign the Goths
definitely renounced their Arian errors, was of a pacific
disposition, and tried to regularize the state of affairs
by a formal treaty with the empire, but Pope Gregory
refused to intervene. To this period belong the
buildings and works undertaken by the patrician
Comenciolus at Cartagena. He is accused by Church
historians of having deposed one bishop in his province
and instigated the removal of others, on a charge of
appropriating Church property and acting independently
of the government. On the other hand, a laudatory
inscription at Cartagena prays that ' Spain may rejoice
in such a ruler while the heavens revolve and the sun
goes round the world.' Probably, as the Goths in-
clined to Catholicism, the bishops of the Roman parts
faltered in their allegiance to the empire, and were
unwilling to separate themselves longer from the
national councils.

King Witterich (603-10), after several campaigns,
recovered from the Romans only the fortified town of
Sigonza on the Straits, but the end was not now far
distant. The active king Sisebut came to the throne
in 612, when the empire was already hard pressed by
Avars and Persians. All cities to the east of the Straits
were captured and their fortifications destroyed,^ the
Romans everywhere being reduced to great distress, as
revealed in an interesting correspondence between the

* Cf. Fredegarius {Script. Merov. II. 133) : ' Plures civitates ab
imperio Romano litore maris abstulit et usque fundamentum
destruxit.'

End of the Roman Empire in Spain 59

king and the patrician Csesarius, first published by
Florez.^ The emperor Heraclius, feehng the cause
hopeless, agreed to cede all his Spanish dominions,
except a few outposts in Algarve, the chief being Lagos
(Lacobriga) and Faro (Ossonoba). A curious con-
dition is referred to by certain chroniclers. The super-
stitious Roman had received a prophecy of the ruin of
the empire at the hands of a circumcized people, an
utterance destined to be terribly fulfilled within a few
years. Applying this to the Jews, he is said to have
called on the Gothic king to banish from Spain all Jews
who would not submit to baptism. The Gothic govern-
ment, whether for this or other reasons, being now
wholly under the influence of the Catholic priesthood,
initiated a persecution. Ninety thousand Hebrews
were baptized, and yet these formed the minority.
Others, sacrificing their property, fled to France or
Africa, where their descendants did much to provoke
the Moslem invasion of a century later.

Sisebut also expelled the Franks from Cantabria,
and was thus lord of all Spain except the fragment still
in possession of Heraclius. The conquest was com-
pleted by King Suinthila in 624, when one patrician
was won over to his cause, another defeated in battle,
and the remnant of the Roman garrisons set sail for
Constantinople. The Romans were long in forgetting
their lost possessions in the west. As late as the reign
of Justinian II. {circa a.d. 700), when Syria, Egypt, and
Africa were gone for ever, two naval expeditions were
sent against the Goths of Spain, but were repelled bj'
their general, Theudimer.^ Yet the kingdom of the

• Esp. Sagr. VII. 320. ' Isid. Pac. 301.

6o Authorities for the Period

Visigoths was then decaying, and a few years later a
more formidable antagonist destroyed all traces of it.

Thus excluded from the imperial realms, Spain was
destined to re-enter them only for the space of a single
reign. The election of Charles, King of Castile and
Aragon, to the imperial throne (1519) revived the ancient
connection, but the association with the principalities
of central Europe, and the consequent entanglement in
wars from which Spain derived no benefit, was un-
popular. In the war of the Spanish Succession the
majority of the people declared strongly against the
imperialist candidate, and the ultimate victory of
Philip V. removed any chance of a reunion with that
shadow of a long past age, the Holy Roman Empire.

Bury, in Eng. Hist. Review, 1894.

Gelzer : Prcef. ad Georg. Cyprium (Teubner).

Damn : Urgeschichte, I.

IsiD. Hisp. : Hist. Gothorum and Chronica.

Greg. Turon. : Hist. Francorum (revolt of Hermenigild).

Johannes Biclarensis, and Fredegarius.

PART II.— ANTIQUITIES
CHAPTER V

THE NATIVE RACES

' Venere et Celtas sociati nomen Iberis ;
His pugna cecidisse decus, corpusque cremari
Tale nefas. Casio credunt superisque referri
Impastus carpat si membra iacentia vultur.'

SiLius Italicus.

Information regarding the Spanish peoples while still
free from Roman influence is somewhat meagre and
untrustworthy. Strabo and Diodorus, in his fifth book,
are the principal authorities, but both are mere com-
pilers, embodying the experiences of Greek travellers,
or reports current in Greek colonies a century or more
earlier. Another author, who gives many picturesque
details from sources now unknown, is Silius Italicus,
who is compelled by Homeric precedent to include
a gathering of the tribes in his epic poem on the Punic
war ; and accordingly runs through a catalogue of the
principal Spanish peoples, with a few appropriate
remarks on each, representing quite unlikely com-
munities as contributing men to Hannibal's army.

A modern French writer, Ozanam, points out that
the qualities which impressed both Greeks and Romans
have curiously reproduced themselves in the Spaniards
of more recent times. The Iberians were a grave race,

6i

62 Fearlessness and Devotion of Natives

sober, but obstinate ; they seldom walked, except to a
battle or for hunting ; they fought in isolated groups ;
their women wore black mantillas. Even then they
possessed a vivid imagination, a gift for florid and
rhetorical language, a wealth of imagery, and a ten-
dency to subtlety and over-refinement. Other qualities
referred to by the Romans are the natives' restlessness
and desire for novelty,^ their disregard of death, and
their devotion to their leaders. The Celtiberians, we
are told, rejoice in the prospect of falling in battle; to
die of old age or disease is disgraceful, and often avoided
by suicide.^ ' The gods,' says the greatest of ancient
Spanish poets,^ who himself carried out his own precept,
' conceal from such as are destined to live that death
is the happier lot ' — an attitude strongly reflected in
the widespread cult of the Christian martyrs, and the
insistence of many Spanish victims on defying the
authorities, and so provoking their own destruction.
The remark of St. Laurence in the hymn of Prudentius :
' Libenter mortem oppetam, votiva mors est martyris,'
is a characteristic one. Duels were prevalent.* Like
the Gauls who invaded Italy, the Celtiberians would
challenge the general of the enemy to single combat,^
and even at a very early date provided volunteer
gladiators.^ Some of the primitive tribes would supply a
body of picked men, closely attached to their chief, and
bound under oath not to survive him.'' In Gaul such

1 Liv. 22, 21.

2 Strab. III. 4, i8 ; Val. Max. II. i ; Sil. I. 225, III. 326 ;
Just. 44, 2.

3 Luc. IV. 519. * Flor. I. 33 ; Sil. 16, 537.
^ Polyb. 35, 5. " Liv. 28, 21.

' Plut. Sert. 14. Cf. Dion C. 53, 20.

Strong Individualism a Characteristic 63

persons were called Ambacti, and the name Ambatus,
probably of similar origin, occurs in the inscriptions of
northern Spain.-^

Throughout there is revealed a feeling of exaltation
at the sacrifice of self, a desire for individual distinction
by means of devotion to some person or abstraction, a
spirit like that afterwards displayed both by the In-
quisition and its victims, according as it led to perse-
cuting zeal or to a ready endurance of persecution.
Stoicism, which exalted the importance of the in-
dividual, and enabled him to retain his personal dignity
and self-esteem under a despotism or in the face of any
external misfortune or oppression, was adopted by the
greatest intellects. Similarly Arianism, the views of
which on predestination diminished the importance
of the individual, was emphatically rejected, in spite
of the strong inducements held out by the Gothic
aristocracy, in favour of Catholicism and free-will. The
mystical and devotional religion of mediaeval chivalry
was even then influencing the believers of Spain.

In the more civilized parts of pre-Roman Spain
aristocratic governments were established, deciding
questions of peace and war through a senate or con-
silium.- Some had a president (praetor), as Saguntum.
Elsewhere there was a chief or king ruling according to
a modified hereditary system, under which the power
passed in turn to the sons of a deceased ruler.^ He
had a council of nobles attached, or the people under
the king's presidency might decide grave matters.* He

1 B.A.H. 26,47; 47. 304-

' Liv. 21, 12 and 19.

3 hi., 28, 21. * Id., 29,3.

64 Early Governments — Local Patriotism

usually ruled over a group of cities,^ and seems to have
been little more than a leader in v/a.T.

In the east of Spain the names of peoples were often
borrowed from towns, which were rich and powerful,
and had certain minor towns attached, called by the
Romans oppida or castra. They were defended by thick
walls with towers, and usually had a citadel, a forum,
and an open space between the houses and ramparts.^
Even the Celts, naturally a pastoral or agricultural
people, in Spain mostly adopted town life, as is in-
ferred from the lists of towns, often of Iberian origin,
mentioned by Ptolemy and other geographers as occu-
pied by Celtici.

Patriotism was a real force ; but it related less to the
nation, or, as in Gaul, to the tribe, than to the individual
township. There was no religious hierarchy and no
efficient military organization ; no one community pre-
dominated sufficiently to weld the rest into a single
whole, and conversely there was no definite centre at
which to strike in order to compel submission. National
unity was thus long in coming, and is even now very
imperfectly attained. This tendency to split up into
small groups, indifferent or hostile to one another, was
strikingly displayed in the gradual break up of the
powerful western caliphate, when once the Arabs or
Moors who sustained it had become influenced by the
geographical conditions of Spain, and mingled with its
old inhabitants.

Yet while seldom able to combine against an invader,
and liable to be conquered in detail, when they had been

1 Liv. 28, 13 ; Polyb. III. 76, 7.
^ Liv. 21, 12 ; 28, 22 ; 21, 8.

Warlike Spirit of the Iberians 65

cut off in their native stronghold, the Spaniards were
capable of extraordinary heroism and perseverance.
The examples of Saguntum, Numantia, Astapa,^ or
Mons Medullus^ were constantly repeated in their
history, down even to the defence of Zaragoza in 1808.
Spanish warfare is referred to by a Greek historian as
■7rvpivo<; 7roXe/A09, ever liable to burst out fresh like a
prairie fire.^ The wilder peoples would have recourse
to cannibalism when their supplies were exhausted, and
be ready to burn themselves and their belongings in a
general holocaust rather than fall into the enemies'
hands. Captives were known to maintain their defiant
attitude to the end, singing paeans of triumph in the
midst of the sufferings of crucifixion.^ Yet in war they
were less cruel than the Gauls. Defeated armies were
often released unharmed, and the chief cruelties of the
long wars of the later republic were, even according to
their own account, committed by the Romans.

Hardy and athletic, good horsemen, and capable of
enduring great hardships, the Iberians were well quali-
fied for guerrilla warfare. The women shared in the
same qualities. They often fought by their husbands'
side in battle;^ they and their children joined in the
defence of towns ; ^ and in some parts they carried on
most of the agriculture. Polygamy seems to have been
unknown. The women instructed the children, and
when the young men went out to war, their mothers
recited to them the exploits of their ancestors.^ They

' App. lb. ^5. » Flor. II. 33.

3 Polyb. -,5, I. • Strab. III. 4, 18.

« Flor. IlY. 8 ; App. lb. 74. " Liv. 28, 19.
7 Sail. Hist., Bk. VI.

66 Native Habits and Costumes

had been known to kill their own children rather than
let them fall into the hands of the enemy.^ There are
slight traces of an original matriarchal system. Among
some north-western tribes men gave their brides a
dowry, daughters were left as heirs, and brothers re-
ceived marriage portions from their sisters.^ There are
also allusions to the curious custom of the Couvade,
which, whatever its origin, held its ground in the re-
moter parts of Europe within living memory. In some
parts more feminine accomplishments were encouraged,
as by the tribes who annually elected judges to examine
each woman's output of woven work for the year, and
reward the most industrious.^ Slaves were few in pre-
Roman times, except in the large towns, even at
Carthago only numbering a sixth of the free population.
The characteristic dress was a thick, shaggy woollen
cloak (sagum), fastened with buckles. It was usually
dark or black, and sometimes had a hood attached.
The central tribes wore caps with feathers or crest, a
neck-chain, and a kind of narrow trousers, but by the
Augustan age had mostly adopted Roman dress. Chiefs
were distinguished by bracelets and gold or silver collars
{torques or virice, whence the name Viriathus).* Some
of the latter, adorned with embossed work or shaped
like twisted ropes, are occasionally found in western
Spain and Portugal.^ Women in many districts wore
bright robes with" /black hanging veils, sometimes iron

1 Strab. III. 4, i6.

2 Ibid. III. 3, 7. The modern Basques also in places give
women equal rights, and the eldest daughter takes precedence
over the sons in inheritance.

3 Nic. Dam. (f . H. G. III. 456).

* Liv. 24, 42 ; Plin. 33, 13. « B. A. H. XII. 237.

Arms and Military Methods 67

necklets, and curious head-dresses surmounted by
curved rods like a crow's head. According to Nicolaus
of Damascus they prided themselves on the tightness of
their waist-belts. Skins were worn by the remoter
tribes, as by the Baleares, whose usual costume was a
cloak of skin with the hair on. Elsewhere Appian
mentions a wolf-skin as part of the herald's insignia.^

All the tribes except the commercial Turdetani were
acknowledged to excel in war, especially in guerrilla
fighting, both on horse and foot. Aided by the natural
strength of the country such irregulars have repeatedly
defied trained troops, from the days of Viriathus and
Don Pelayo to the persecuted Moriscoes of the
Alpujarra or the Carlist insurgents of the last century.
Both their tactics and their weapons were readily
imitated by the Romans. In pitched battle the
Celtiberi, with their triangular or wedge-shaped forma-
tion, were the most dreaded. They bore long lances
with iron points, such lancers being a common emblem
on native coins ; and even the word lancea was said to
be of Spanish origin.^ They were also armed with
short two-edged swords with a sharp point (adopted by
the Romans in the Hannibalic war), and with a great
Celtic buckler. Another variety of sword (gladius
falcatus) had a curved blade, narrowing rapidly to the
point, and cutting only on the inner curve. This is
probably the machcera Hispana mentioned by Seneca."
The powerfully built Cantabri^ wielded battle-axes,
but these northerly tribes were seldom armed for
regular fighting, and carried basket-work shields often

» App. lb. 48. '^ Van-, ap. GeU. XV. 30.

3 Benef. V. 24. * Sil. 16, 48.

68 Excellence of Spanish Cavalry-

covered with hide, javelins, slings, or bows and arrows ;
whence perhaps the epithet ' quiver-bearing Iberians '
applied to them by the SibylHne Oracles.^ Coarsely
worked earthenware figures of Gallsecian auxiliaries,
wearing a torque round their necks, and small round
shields, are occasionally discovered; the annexed
names are Roman, and they clearly belong to the
early imperial age.^

Cavalry was best among the Lusitani, Cantabri,
Gallseci, and Astures, all of whose countries produced
excellent breeds of horses. The small jennets from
Asturia (Asturcones) were in use at Rome for riding
purposes as early as the time of Cicero.^ The charge
of the Cantabrian cavalry was especially famous, and
Arrian* describes at length one manoeuvre adopted by
the Romans, in which the horsemen wheeled rapidly
past the opposing ranks, each man singling out an
antagonist, and endeavouring to transfix his shield
with a light spear as he passed. A cavalry standard,
cantahrum, was perhaps adopted from the same people.^
Horsemen often fought mixed with foot, or two men
might ride on horseback to battle, one then dis-
mounting to fight. Horses were carefully trained, and
taught to climb steep slopes, or to drop on their knees
when required.® The Lusitani would rush furiously on
the enemy waving their long hair, but would retire
equally readily, and could seldom be induced to keep
their ranks for long together. Experts in ambushes

1 14, 175. Cf. 12, 151.

2 Archceol. Zeit., 1861, p. 185.

3 [Cic] Herenn. IV. 50 ; Sen. Ep. 87. * Tad. 40.

s Min Fel. 29 ; Tert. ApoL 16. <! Strab. III. 4, 14.

High Civilization of the Tartessians 69

and stratagems, they were swift and active both in
flight and pursuit, but had less power of endurance
than the Celtiberi. They wore small shields 2 feet
across, hollow in front and hanging from thongs,
greaves and helmets of sinew, besides breastplates of
chainwork, or more usually of linen ; and their offensive
weapons were barbed javelins, iron spears, or slings.
At times they would advance rhythmically, singing
pseans ; and in peace practised a dance which involved
much suppleness of limb. Purple-edged tunics of
linen were sometimes worn on a campaign by Iberian
soldiers, and the richer had bronze helmets with a
triple crest, also of purple.^

Turning to the individual peoples we find a general
agreement that the Tartessians, later called Turdetani
and Turduli, were by far the most civilized. In
Strabo's time most of their communities had Latin
rights ; they spoke Latin, and had almost forgotten
their native language. They were the most unwarlike
of the Spaniards,^ but possessed a literature, including
historical records, poems, and metrical laws, pro-
fessedly 6,000 years old. As among some early peoples
a year is only three months long, this date of about
1400 B.C. would coincide curiously with the " My-
cenaean " character of much of their art. Younger
men among them were forbidden to bear testimony
against an older.^ Sun and moon worship were greatly
developed among them, two of the chief religious
centres being the shrine of the solar god Neton at
Acci, and of the Dawn at Ebura on the Baetis. Their

1 Strab. III. 3, 6 ; Diod. V. 33 ; Polyb. 3, 114.

2 Liv. 34, 17. 3 Nic. Dam. {F. H. G. III. 457).

70 Characteristics of Celts and Lusitani

art and extensive commerce are referred to elsewhere,
and they provide one of the numerous examples of
a rich commercial people of ancient civilization unable
to offer resistance to active invaders. There were
native kings here as in other parts of Spain,'^ in the
earlier period.

The region of Bastica round the upper Anas was
occupied by Celts, immigrants from Lusitania, still in
Pliny's time distinguishable from neighbouring tribes
by their religion (in which, as we learn from inscrip-
tions, the worship of the infernal goddess of Turobriga
predominated), by their language, and place-names.
They were less civilized than the Turdetani, and lived
chiefly in villages.^ North-west of these came the
Lusitani, a people of unknown origin, but apparently
the representatives of the Kempsi, who are mentioned
by Avienus as occupying much of western Spain before
the Celtic invasion. They are referred to as among
the most warlike of the Spaniards, who, despite the
fertility and mineral wealth of the west, preferred to
live mainly by brigandage. The Romans only sup-
pressed this by settling them in the plains and breaking
up their towns into villages, or by drafting in alien
settlers to help in the preservation of order. They
were liable to invade the settled districts to the south
of the Tagus, and even the agricultural peoples, weary
of continual inroads, often turned to warfare like the
mountaineers. The mountain fastnesses in which these
robbers took refuge were inaccessible to the legionaries,
and the government was obliged to transport some

1 Hdt. I. 163 ; Liv. 28, 15.

2 Plin. III. 2 ; Strab. III. 2, 15.-

Peoples of the North- West 71

more restive communities to the south of the Tagus.^
In many parts the Lusitanians practised a Spartan
regimen, with simple diet and cold baths. A kind of
vapour bath produced with red-hot stones is also referred
to by Strabo.

The north-westerly tribes were still in a very primi-
tive condition at the time to which our notices refer,
though in a few parts they were induced by the Romans
to take to mining. The Gallseci were noted for their
skill in augury, and practised an armed dance, beating
bucklers at the same time. The Vascones, though
serving with distinction in the Roman ranks, had been
looked on as among the most savage of the ancient
inhabitants of Spain. Examples of cannibalism are
mentioned,^ and Prudentius,^ who calls them ' Bruta
quondam Vasconum gentilitas,' implies that human
sacrifices had been common among them. They were
warlike, but ignorant of the arts, being designated by
Silius imueti galecs, as incapable of forging metal.

Many other characteristics of the western and
northern tribes are recorded, often without any special
period or district being mentioned. Eustathius pre-
serves the statement that the Iberians took only one
meal a day, and were water-drinkers, in spite of the
richness of their costumes. Beer and cider were, how-
ever, much used, as well as distillations from various
herbs. Acorns were pounded to make flour, and butter
was substituted for oil, as both olives and vines were
seldom met with far from the Mediterranean coasts.
Many Iberians slept in their saga on the ground, or

1 Strab. III. 3, 5. 2 juv. 15, 93 ; Val. Max. VII. 6, ext. 3.

3 Perisieph. I. 94.

72 Habits of the Celtiberians

used beds of straw. At meals the guests were seated
round the walls in order of age or dignity, the food
being carried round to them. Gymnastic competitions,
boxing, racing, and equestrian sports, were popular.
At carousals the natives would dance to the flute and
trumpet, or leap into the air, bending the knees to give
force to the spring.

Where coinage was unknown, either barter prevailed
or pieces of silver plate were cut up and used as money.
Condemned criminals were hurled from rocks, parri-
cides stoned outside the boundaries of the township.
Sick persons are said to have been put out into the
road to ask the advice of some passer-by who might
have been similarly afflicted — probably an example of
the Greek traveller's habit of generalizing from one or
two instances. Along the estuaries and marshes of the
west coast coracles of hide or rough canoes cut from
a single trunk might be met with.^

The Celtiberi of central Spain are described as
among the most self-confident and isolated of all the
tribes. Brave, active, and sober, they were hospitable
to strangers, but fierce to malefactors and enemies.
They had some dealings with foreign merchants, buy-
ing from them the wine from which their national drink
of mead was compounded. Their special industry was
the forging of arms, an art in which they were un-
surpassed in the ancient world, the chief seats being
Bilbilis and Toletum. As among the Celts, it was
thought honourable to have a large following of ad-
herents. In war the Celtiberi used a wedge-shaped
formation to break the enemy's line at a single point,

^ Avien. Or. Mar. 103 ; Strab. III. 3, 7 ; Dion. Perieg. 744.

Redistribution of Land — The Baleares 73

and their onset was almost irresistible, unless met by
a cavalry charge.^ Akin, according to Appian, to the
Celtiberians were the Vaccasi, a tribe living on the
upper Douro. These had the custom, which is not
uncommon among Celts and other half - civilized
peoples, who acknowledge property only in movables,^
of redistributing land yearly. Diodorus is probably
wrong in adding that the crops were also equally
divided, with death as the penalty for misappropriation,
as this would obviously penalize the industrious worker;
but some portions may have been set aside as common
property, the rest falling to the holder of the field for
the time being.^

The Baleares appear to have been an Iberian people,
but from prehistoric remains found in the islands, an
earlier civilization must have preceded. These are
especially numerous in Menorca, and consist princi-
pally of towers over 40 feet high, with a lofty door
or window reached by steps, huts of large rough blocks
of stone, and tombs of upright monoliths or flat stones
one upon another.

The Greeks made some slight settlements in the
islands, but, as elsewhere in Spain, they were largely
mingled with the natives. Ebusus, where the habits of
the people differed from those of the other islanders, seems
to have had a Greek element in the population. Though
not suitable for corn-growing, it was free from noxious
animals and rich in timber,* whence the name Ebusus
(Ibiza), a corruption of the Punic Ibusm, or ' island of

1 Liv. 40, 40. ' Polyb. II. 17. ^ Djod. V. 34.

* Mela. II. 7. C/. Fita, Antigiiedades Ebusitanas {B. A. H. 51,
321)-

74 Greek and Punic Settlements

pines.' This the Greeks, including the neighbouring
Formentera, translated as Pityusae. Pantaleu in Mal-
lorca is thought to be a corruption of the name of some
little Greek pentapolis {irivTe Xeai).

The islands were conquered by the Carthaginians,
who first occupied Ebusus, and then planted two
colonies in Menorca named from generals of their own,
lamno (Ciudadela) and Portus Magonis (Mahon), be-
sides settlements in the Pityuss. The Punic popula-
tion, at least on the coast, seem to have been
considerable, with most of the trade in their hands.
The coinage has Punic inscriptions, with the obverse
design of a god, probably one of the Cabiri, holding
a knobbed stick and serpent. In the early empire this
design is relegated to the reverse, the obverse having
the emperor's head with a Latin legend.

A number of miscellaneous facts are recorded by
Strabo, Diodorus, and Florus about the natives. The
islands were fertile, with good harbours, but difficult to
approach, and had a population of about 30,000. Many
domestic animals were indigenous, especially strong
mules. In the Roman period agriculture was much
injured by a plague of rabbits, all sprung from one
pair, which grew to such dimensions that the islanders,
finding trees and houses overthrown, were obliged to
petition Augustus for auxilium militare. The rabbit,
which is often represented on Spanish coins, and
according to some gave its name to the whole country
(Phoen. pahan), was numerous everywhere, and African
ferrets were kept to drive them out of their holes.^

No wine was produced, and but little olive oil, for
1 Plin VIII. 55 ; Strab. III. 5, 2 ; Cat. 37, 18.

Habits of the Islanders y^

which was substituted oil made from mastich and
mixed with lard for anointing. The islanders showed
great devotion to women, ramsoming one woman from
pirates by the surrender of three or four men. Some
dwelt in hollow rocks or made pits by the side of crags,
and preferred underground dwellings. The possession
of gold and silver was said to be forbidden to avoid
encouraging attacks, an explanation which was probably
due to the imagination of some philosophic Greek.
Some of their habits, such as the licentious rites at
weddings which Diodorus mentions, or their custom
of cutting up the dead and placing them in tubs under
stones, were altogether barbarous. They went to
battle ungirded, with a shield and small javeHn
sharpened in the fire and having a small iron tip.
Three slings were ordinarily carried, round the body,
the neck, and in the hands, made of plaited rushes,
hair, or sinews. With these they could sling stones
as accurately as from a catapult, shooting down
defenders on the walls of a city, or crushing shields
and helmets in battle. A corps of Balearic slingsmen
was constantly employed both in Punic and Roman
armies, and boys were carefully trained in the art.
The Greeks had somehow gained the idea that Balearic
mothers would refuse their children their daily bread
until they had succeeded in hitting the appointed mark.
Several allusions to this story occur, and Lycophron^
with grim humour imagines the wheaten cake, at which
the young Mallorquines are slinging their stones,
balanced on a stake stuck in the ground.
The islanders accepted the Roman alliance even
' Alex. 640.

76 Romans Conquer the Baleares

before the second Punic war, but for many years
remained independent, and were accused of attacking
passing voyagers in their rude piratical galleys.
Accordingly in 121 B.C. Q. Ca;cilius Metellus under-
took their reduction. The rostra of the Roman vessels
easily dispersed their fleet, nor did the slings prove a
match for the legionaries' pila. Scattering among the
hills they were subdued in detail, and 3,000 settlers
were brought over from Spain to help in the process of
civilizing the islanders. Two towns, Palma and
Pollentia, were founded on the Roman model in the
largest island. These were municipia in Pliny's list,
which also includes two Latin communities and a
federate town Bocchori, evidently of Punic origin.
Probably all Balearic communities, which had shown
some signs of disaffection under Nero, received Latin
rights from Vespasian. Under Roman rule the
islanders adopted the laticlave tunic in place of their
rough skin cloaks, developed a considerable trade, and
soon became as civilized as the Spaniards of the opposite
coast.

E. Philipon : Les Iberes (Paris, 1909).

D'Arbois de Jubainville : Les Celtes en Espagne (Rev. Celt.,

1893-94).
Leite de Vasconcellos : Les Celtes de la Lusitanie {Rev. Celt.,

1902).
AviENUS : Ora Marithna.
Strabo III. ; DiOD. Sic. V. ; SiL. Ital. III. ; Florus, I. 34 and 43.

CHAPTER VI

NATURAL PRODUCTS, MINES, AND COMMERCE

' Glaucis turn prima Minervae
Nexa comam foliis, fulvaque intexta micantem
Veste Tagum, tales profert Hispania voces.'

Claudian.

' Los senores del mundo vieron en ella el granero del imperio,
los soldados mas aguerridos de sus legiones, los ricos mineros que
alimentaban su codicia, sus triunfos y espetaculos.' — Caveda.

From the early days when the Phoenicians exported
gold and silver to Tyre in return for manufactured
goods, Spain had been looked on as the Peru of the
ancients. Its precious metals helped to build up the
Carthaginian empire, and to bring the Roman republic
through the long struggles which established its do-
minion over the Mediterranean world.

' Now Judas,' says a Jewash historian, ' had heard
of the fame of the Romans, that they were mighty and
valiant men, and what they had done in Spain for the
winning of the mines of silver and of gold that are
there.' ^ 'First of all,' cries the Gallic orator in an
apostrophe to Theodosius, ' thy mother is Spain, a land
more blest than any, one which the mighty Creator has
indulged more liberally than any other peoples, and
enriched with equable climate, protected position, fine
' I Mace. 8, I and 3.
77

yS Fertility of the South — the Wool Trade

cities, fruits, flocks, the wealth of auriferous streams,
the mines of sparkhng gems.'^ These eulogies are
borne out by the statements of more reliable authori-
ties — Varro and Pliny, who both held official positions
in Spain, Columella of Gades, Strabo, and Isidore^ in
his glowing De laude Spanics. The southern and eastern
districts could be made extremely fertile with careful
agriculture, and provided excellent pasture for the flocks
of sheep, whose wool was one of the most profitable
exports. The coasts of the same parts were frequented
by shoals of tunnies and congers, which were pickled
and exported by regular companies. Even the less
fertile interior produced esparto grass and flax, was in
parts rich in timber, and, above all, in mines of gold,
silver, copper, lead, and jewels or stones in great
variety.

The best sheep were found in the Bsetic province and
among the Vettones (Spanish Estremadura). As they
were sheared twice a year, their wool was fine and
plentiful. The best time for shearing was thought to
be towards midday, that the wool might be soft from
the heat and of a good colour. Many animals were
kept covered in a kind of coat {oves tectcB) to improve
the shade of their fleeces, to which the Spaniards
attached extraordinary importance. Sometimes it had
a natural yellow tinge,^ sometimes it was grey or black,
and ewes might be dyed a particular colour in the hope
that it would be transmitted. A ram of the finest sort
would fetch a talent, and Columella gives a curious
account of experiments made by his grandfather with

1 Pacatus, Pan. Theod. IV. 2 j^g„_ jji^t. Germ. XI. 267.

3 Cf. Mart. IX. 61.

Fauna of Spain 79

some fierce African rams, shaggy, but of excellent colour,
which had been brought over for exhibition to Gades,
and greatly improved the Andalusian breed. At first
woollen garments were largely exported to Italy by the
colleges of Centonarii ; later, unwrought wool. In some
parts of Baetica, as in Corsica, mouflons existed, with
coats of hair rather than wool ; and in southern Lusi-
tania were herds of wild goats, whose hair was woven
to make garments for soldiers and sailors.^ Troops
of wild horses ranged over the central and western
plains, the Lusitanian, like the steeds of Greek myth,
being the offspring of the wind. These were found
chiefly in the neighbourhood of Olisipo, and as became
animals favoured with a divine parentage, died at the
early age of three years. The Asturian were much
sought after, and were used for the swift-going cars
(esseda) which conveyed travellers from the coast towns
to the interior.^ The forests of the north contained
many deer and huge hogs, the hams from which
brought in great profit to the Cerretani on the slope
of the Pyrenees. The boar and boar-spears are com-
mon symbols on the coins of the northern tribes, and
both military ensigns aud religious monuments some-
times bear the figure of this animal.^ Hare and venison
were among the chief articles of diet among the natives
of the interior, and we read of the health of a Roman

1 Avien. Or. Mar. 218.

2 Mart. X. 104. The poet's home at Bilbilis could be reached
from Tarraco in five days. Cf. Sil. III. 335.

^ For granite figures of pigs found at Cabanas de Baixo,
cf. O Archcol. Port. I. 127. The base of the Endovellicus statue
at Terena also has one in relief [ibid., 43) ; perhaps a survival of
Celtic totemisra.

7^8o Sea-Fisheries and Hunting

ci' army being seriously affected by this carnivorous diet,
t'' accustomed as it was principally to cereals.^

The Ebro and the Tagus supplied abundance of fish.
The chief sea-fisheries were on the southern and eastern
coasts, and fish symbols are frequent on the coins of
this part ; such as the example from Ossonoba, in which
a fisherman has a pot of bait beside him and a fish
hanging from his line.^ The intrepid Gaditani went
fishing expeditions down the shores of West Africa or
/far out into the Atlantic.^ Purple fish was found in
/ the Tagus and some other parts, but many roots were
V considered to produce almost as good a dye. Mullets
and oysters are mentioned by Martial as plentiful,* and
at Carteia and still more at Carthago were huge tanks or
reservoirs to preserve the tunnies and mackerel in-
tended for pickling and export to Italy. In the rivers
of Gallsecia were many beavers, from which a drug
(castoreum) was obtained; the lake districts were fre-
quented by swans and bustards. Lastly the ass,
Columella says, needing as it did but little care, was
used for draught, and where the soil was light, as in
Bsetica, for ploughing. The pleasures of hunting are
more than once held out by Martial as among the
recommendations of the country districts, where hares,
deer, or boars could be found ; while near Rome the
' noisome fox ' has to be driven into the nets, biting
the hounds in the process, and the hunter prides him-
self on the capture of a marten.^ The goodness of the
horses and the plentifulness of wood and uncultivated

1 App. lb. 54. 2 Mionnet, I. 9.

3 [Ai-ist.] De Mirab. Cf. Strab. II. 3, 4.

* X. 37. 5 Mart. I. 49 ; X. 37.

Corn-Trade with Italy 8i

country evidently made this sport less of a battue than
on the slave-worked estates of Italy.

Of the vegetable products, corn was throughout far
the most important, being cultivated widely not only
in Bastica but on the great Celtiberian plain. One-
twentieth of the crop was exacted by the Roman
government by way of tribute, and much more was
exported by merchants or companies, or procured by
Roman officials for the Italian market. One of these
officials resided at Hispalis, and an inscription on a
monument set up to him by the company of Scapharii,
or shippers, records that he was charged with super-
intending the carriage of both corn and oil to Italy.^

In man}- parts corn was preserved in subterranean
brick chambers, or merely in trenches dug in dry
ground, while still in ear. Similar silos, where the
grain is said to keep good for fifty years, still occur in
Castile. Vessels laden with corn passed constantly
between the chief export towns — Malaca, Gades or
Carthago, and Puteoli or Ostia ; and the rich Spanish
merchant who went up to the capital for pleasure or
intrigue was familiar at Rome even in the time of
Horace.^ From grain was made the favourite beverage
CtsUa. It was parched, soaked, and dried, and then
reduced to flour. This was mixed with a juice which
gave it a bitterness combined with a certain warmth.^

Wine was not much used by the native peoples, and
in the interesting tariff of Lusitanian produce preserved

' 1 1 80, belonging to the Antonine age.

2 Od. III. 6: 'Xa\-is Hispanic magister Dedecorum pretiosus
emptor.'

3 Oros. V. 5.

82 Vines, Olives, and Flax

by Polybius it is comparatively dear.^ Vines grew low-
on the ground without props, so as not to overshadow
each other, and in great heat were covered with palm
leaves. Over 2,000 clusters might grow on one plant,
and the grapes or must were preserved in jars of clay
covered with pitch. As Italian agriculture decayed,
Columella^ points out, Spanish and Gallic wines were
largely imported. The chief districts were Bastica and
Tarraco, with other parts of north-eastern Spain, the
produce of which last. Martial hints, was not always of
the finest quality.^

Pliny highly praises the Baetic olives, and oil was an
important article of export. It was prepared in iron
vessels into which warm water was poured; and then
skimmed, and flavoured with a bitter extract from olive
leaves, whence perhaps Galen recommends Spanish oil
for use in medicine.

Both flax and esparto grass proved very profitable to
the growers. Flax came from Tarraconensis, Asturia,
and Gallaecia, the most famous centre for its manu-
facture being Sastabis in the south-east, from which
handkerchiefs and napkins of the finest quality took
their name. It was used for linen veils, bolters, sieves,
and nets, and, as Pliny says, sails of Spanish flax
brought Spain within four days of Italy. The water of
the river at Tarraco was thought to lend it a peculiar
lustre.*

The esparto trade flourished, especially round Car-

1 Polyb. 34, 8. M. I.

^ I. 26, 9. Yet in XIII. 11 he says : ' Tarraco Campano tantuni
cessura LyjEO.' Cf. Ov. A. A. 3, 645.

* Plin. XIX. 2. Cf. Cat. XII. 14 ; Sil, III. 374.

Esparto, Timber, and Purple Dyes 83

thago, ever since the Punic occupation.^ The grass
supplied the bedding, clothes, shoes, and torches of the
peasants, and it was used all over the Mediterranean
for ropes and rigging. It grew mostly on hill-sides,
ripened by the end of May, and was laboriously gathered
by workers protected by gaiters and thick gloves, using
bone or wooden instruments. It was put into bundles,
left two days, dried in the sun, macerated in salt water,
and again dried, before the ropes could be satisfactorily
wound. Many native tribes cultivated medicinal plants ;
among the best known were betony (Vettonica from the
\'ettones), used both as a drug and in cookery, and the
Cantabrian convolvulus.^

The northern districts abounded in timber, as beech,
oak, holly, laurel, and birch. Planes and junipers were
plentiful, logs of the latter being sometimes laid across
the roofs of houses instead of tiles ; and Ebusus (Ibiza)
was famous for pines. In the south-east districts figs
were dried and exported, but perhaps the most valued
tree was the ilex, the parasitic growth on which pro-
duced a brilliant red dye (coccus or kermes) which held
its own till the introduction of cochineal from America.
Dyers {purpurarii or infectores) are frequently referred
to in inscriptions, especially among the Turduli north
of Corduba.^

This immense export greatly enriched the country,
despite the exactions of governors and procurators, and
provided means for the numerous private liberalities of
which we find mention in inscriptions, and for con-
structing the splendid architectural monuments which

1 Liv. 2::, 20. - PUn. XXV. 46.

^ Cf. B. A. H. 37, 431, and references.

84 Wide Expansion of Spanish Commerce

were so common down to the Antonine age. The
growth of luxury at Rome served to stimulate produc-
tion, and all the chief towns of Bsetica had export
conipanies, each possessing at Rome its ware- and
counting-houses, and patrons among the more illus-
trious citizens. Some trades were in the hands of Roman
companies, which maintained correspondents in many
parts of Spain. The Oriental merchants, ever on the
look-out for openings, were not slow to establish them-
selves in the same districts. Jews were numerous from
early in the empire, Syrian traders are found settled
at Malaca,^ and the sodalicium urbanum at Bracara^ was
probably a similar association of foreign merchants.
Pliny alludes to the constant passing of merchantmen
in his own day, not only in the Mediterranean, -but
along the west coasts of Spain, Gaul, and Mauritania.
Important dockyards existed at Hispalis and Gades, and
Spanish vessels were sometimes requisitioned by the
government in war time. A decline begins in the
Antonine age, partly owing to the exhaustion of
the sources of supply, partly to the burden of taxation,
and to the unsafe conditions of transit resulting from
the revival of barbarian tribes.

The extensive commerce of early Tartessian and
Phoenician traders familiarized the Greeks with the
mineral wealth of Spain. Even if the Homeric
' Alybe, whence is the source of silver ' be not rightly
placed here,^ the seventh-century poet Stesichorus

1 C. /. L. IL, p. 251.

2 2428. At Bracara there was also a college ' civium Romanorum
qui negotiantur. '

=" //. II. 857. Cf. Reinach in Rev. Celt., 1894, p. 209.

Gold and Silver Plentiful in Early Times 85

describes the river Tartessus or Bsetis as issuing
' from silver-lined roots ' in the mountains.^ Native
princes were believed to use silver mangers and jars,
and to possess palaces as splendid as that of Alcinous,
with gold and silver cups full of the favourite barley-
brew.^ Modern excavations help to confirm the belief
in an abundance of precious metals at an early date.
Gold and silver ornaments are found among the settle-
ments of tribes which had hardly passed out of the
Neolithic age, and must have been ignorant of the
art of smelting. In several parts native deposits are
known in an almost pure state, small nuggets, especially
of silver, occurring on the surface, and admitting of
being roughly worked with flint instruments. These
seem to have been used as articles of commerce with
early Phoenician traders. The cause assigned by the
Greeks for this rare phenomenon was that a vast
fire had consumed the forests of the Pyrenees, and
fusing the ore in the mountains had carried it down
in rivers and deposited it on the plains ; the fire,
though not the result, being probably historical.
Later the ore was obtained by digging galleries ; but it
was perhaps not before the Phoenician settlement that
the natives learned how to extract the precious metals
from lead and quartz. Gold and silver ornaments
occur chiefly in the parts once occupied by the wealthy
Tartessians, but the immense spoils brought back
by the rapacious Roman generals of the republic show
that Celtiberian tribes must have had large stores in
their possession, as might be inferred from the plenti-
fulness of their coinage.

« Strab. III. 2, II. 2 polyb. ap. Athen. I. 28.

86 Control of Mines in Roman Period

Nearly all the mines known to the Romans seem to
have been at one time worked by or for the Cartha-
ginians, and for some years after the conquest they
were left in the hands of the natives. Cato the censor
first levied a tribute on the produce, thus virtually
declaring them state property.-^ They were, however,
till the Augustan age, mostly leased by the censors to
individuals or municipalities, which paid a fixed rent
to the state ; or again companies might be formed
for their exploitation under similar conditions. Only
gold mines and any mines which were newly discovered
were retained by the state. The early emperors con-
trived to gain possession of a large proportion, whether
by confiscation, cession, or inheritance, the chief
exceptions being the silver mines, which were no
longer very productive and were left to private owners,
and the famous cinnabar mine of Sisapo, which was
worked by a company paying rent to the cerarium.
The proceeds of the imperial mines contributed largely
to filling up the fiscus, and many were to be found even
in senatorial Bastica. The emperor would ordinarily
lease a mine to a conductor or to a company, employing
a procurator to superintend the operations in a whole
district.

An interesting record of the system is contained in
the lex^ dealing with the large lead mine, metallum
Vipascense, now Aljustrel in South Portugal. Such
fiscal mines were often in remote parts, and the town-
ship adjoining, with its floating population of workers,
tradesmen, and soldiers, was unable to supply the
machinery for municipal government ; but was classed
1 Liv. 34, 21. 2 Efh. Epigr. III. 167.

Nature of the Excavations 87

as a Vicus, having Latin rights, but no political organi-
zation, and was attached for most purposes to some
neighbouring centre. Few tradesmen would seek out
these distant and often barren parts, and some of the
chief businesses were sold by auction as monopolies by
the procurator to the highest bidder. Barbers (whose
shops were even then a kind of club or public lounge),
tax-collectors, teachers, etc., were thus appointed; and
the management of the baths was let to a contractor
who was obliged to give free admission to imperial slaves
and freedmen, as well as soldiers and children, a definite
tariff being fixed for other persons. Miners would fall
into three categories : poor freemen who voluntarily
undertook the labour, slaves, and criminals. The two
latter classes were kept in chains, and for fear of mutiny
a body of soldiers usually resided near large mines. ^

Round shafts were opened in hill-sides, sometimes
owing to the ignorance of blasting at an enormous ex-
penditure of labour, and they might extend for several
furlongs, straight, oblique, or winding. At times pillars
of earth or stone were left as temporary props in a long
gallery,- and then let to fall, that the side of the hill
might collapse and leave the ore accessible. Shafts
were occasionally vertical, as in modern times. Miners
often met underground rivers, which had to be diverted,
or drained by special engines said to have been invented
by Archimedes. The walls of the galleries were coated
with bitumen to prevent falls of earth. Diodorus dwells
on the cruelty of the overseers, who allowed no remis-
sion of labour, and there is no doubt that there was
great sacrifice of life in days when sanitation was
' Marquardt, II. 257. ^ Plin. 33, 4.

88 Gold of Bastica and the North

unknown and slave labour easily procurable. Con-
demnation to the mines, as the Digests say, was next
in severity to death, but some of the convicts, if they
had any special skill, seem to have been allowed to
manufacture and sell articles outside their working
hours. Thus we may explain the discovery of amphora,
small statues, or bas-reliefs in Roman mines. One
relief found near Castulo represents a gallery through
which eight miners are marching in pairs. One has an
iron pick on his right shoulder, and behind comes the
tall figure of a foreman holding pincers and a lantern.
These men are not shackled, and wear only a short
skirt. 1

The chief sources of gold were the Asturian moun-
tains of the north, and the low sandy districts of Bsetica^
in which wells were sunk or streams diverted over the
sand in order to collect it. It occurred usually in grains
or beads, occasionally in nuggets of several pounds
weight. A number of methods are recorded of separat-
ing the grains from the sand, such as drying and burning
the ooze, and washing the ashes over turf for the metal
to sink. Ashes of the herb Ulex were thought to have
a like effect, or the sand might be merely shaken in a
sieve. Twenty thousand pounds a year are said to have
been at one time raised in Asturia, Gallaecia, and Lusi-
tania, chiefly in the first ; but the mines, with the appli-
ances then known, ceased to be very productive after
the Flavian age, and later in the empire most of the gold
came from Dacia.

The accounts of the richness of silver mines under
the republic are almost incredible. They were chiefly

* Reproduced in Berlanga's Hispanics anieromance Syntagma.

Silver and Copper Mines 89

in the south, especially the Mons Argenteus in Baetica,
and those near Carthago, which in the time of Polybius
employed 40,000 workers, who were forced to bore the
sides of the mountain with iron tools. Others were in
the Pyrenees district, their first opening being attri-
buted to Hannibal, whose name survives in the present
designation Pozos de Anibal. One of them, Bsebelo,
was in Pliny's time worked by Gallic slaves from Aqui-
taine. Electrum occurred in several parts in the vicinity
of the silver mines, the proportion of gold being often
unusually large. Copper and bronze are known from
excavations to have been familiar from a very early
date. Thus in the copper mines of Mount Aramo, near
Oviedo, stone hammers, horn picks, etc., have been
come upon, as well as skeletons of two different races
who worked the mine in succession. Neither could
reduce the ore, merely selecting nodules of pure copper.
In Roman times the chief districts were the Mons
Marianus and the vicinity of Corduba. Under the
empire copper was the most worked of all Spanish
metals, and great quantities were exported to Italy.
That dug near Corduba was shipped at Ilipa, where
was an imperial agent, and conveyed to another agent
at Ostia. Much of the ore produced one-fourth of
pure copper, and this was united with cadmea from
Gaul, and used to strike the bright yellow sesterces and
two-as pieces, the as, Pliny says, remaining content
with its copper alone.^ Lead came from the Asturian
country, from southern Lusitania, and from near Cas-

» N. H. 34, 2 : ' Hoc a Liviano cadmcam maxime sorbet et
aurichalci boiiitatem iinitatur in sestertiis dupondiisque, cypro
sue assibus cdntentis.'

90 Lead, Tin, and Vermilion

tulo (Linares), and was both of the black and white
variety. Lands were sometimes granted to munici-
palities on condition of their working lead mines for the
state.

Tin, used from early times to form bronze, was found
in Lusitania and Gallaecia, and in the mysterious Cas-
siterides, which the geographers place off the west coast
of Spain, and modern authorities incline to identify
with the Scilly islands (where tin is not found) or with
Cornwall. Tin from this source is constantly connected
with Tartessus, which the Greeks usually identified
with Gades. A modern explorer, Siret, calls attention
to the language of Scymnus,^ who, quoting from Epho-
rus, says that Tartessus ' brings from the Celtic land tin
washed down by the river,' meaning really the mixture
of tin and river-sand, probably in Brittany, though
wrongly thought to refer to the Bsetis. Such a descrip-
tion would not apply to the Cornish mines, which were
of the ordinary kind, and came to be worked later than
Ephorus. This trade was no doubt in early times
shared by the Tartessians and Phoenicians, and some
may have been taken overland to Massilia, both from
Gaul and north-western Spain.

Cinnabar {minium) from which the highly-prized
vermilion was obtained, was only found at Sisapo
(Almaden, in the west of La Mancha). The company
which leased the mine took elaborate precautions for
the safeguarding of the colour, which was used both
for painting and as a cosmetic. Two thousand pounds
annually were exported, being despatched unworked in

TTOTafloppVTOV KaaO'LTepoV i< TTjS KcXriK^ff,

Iron and Other Mineral Products 91

sealed packets to the central establishment near the
temple of Flora at Rome. Though the legal price was
not more than seventy sesterces a pound, the profits
were increased by frequent adulteration.

Iron was found chiefly in the north and north-central
districts, and was the metal which the natives worked
with the greatest success. The chief foundries were at
Toletum and Bilbilis, the river Salo near the latter
having a peculiar effect in tempering sword-blades,
which were exported to all parts and could resist the
most severe tests. Some of them were made from the
natural steel, hierro harnizado, found in the mines of
Mondragon. In other cases the workers buried iron
plates, and left them till the softer parts had corroded
away, the harder making excellent blades. Guilds of
smiths are mentioned in the inscriptions of several
towns.

Among other products were red ochre, found in the
Baleares, and used for painted panels as well as in
medicine ; alum, borax, the ' looking-glass stone ' or
mica, rock-crystal, rock-salt (of a purple colour in its
natural state), and lapis lazuli. Marble was quarried
in the parts south of the Pyrenees, and red marble,
afterwards used for the famous mosque, was dug at
Cabra near Cordova. The hills north of Carthago
produced jasper (often found in sepulchral or other
inscribed tablets), agates, garnets, and cornelians, which
were much engraved in ancient times. In Lusitania
were found rubies, white sapphires, and jacinths-
Pearls, used in profusion on Spanish statues, and some
corals were obtained on the coast ; and on the banks of
the Douro were found turquoises, especially at Ocelum

92 Some Authorities on Spanish Products

Duri, afterwards the famous town of Zamora, the scene
of the treacherous murder of Don Sancho of Castile,
which had so momentous an effect on the life of the
Cid.

RoMEY : Histoire d'Espagne.

Berlanga : Hisp. anteromanx Syntagma (last part).
Epliemeris Epigraphica, III. (Aljustrel inscription and com-
mentary).
SiRET : Le premier age de metal dans !e sud-est d'Espagne.
Puny.
Strabo.

SOLINUS.

CHAPTER VII

THE ARTS, ARCHITECTURE, AND COINAGE

' Tecta corusca super rutilant
De laquearibus aiireolis,
Saxaque cassa solum variant,
Floribus ut rosulenta putes
Prata rubescere multimodis/

Prudentius.

Native architecture was of a rude but durable char-
acter, which underwent few changes through the whole
of the Roman age. Several prehistoric settlements
have been excavated, some perhaps dating from the end
of the Neolithic or beginning of the Bronze eras. A
good example is that of Ifre in south-east Spain. The
houses were clustered together on a hill defended by
escarpments and a walled enclosure. Some traces of
stairs remain ; the walls are constructed of small irregu-
lar stones joined by mud or clay. Pavements are of
mud, the roofs were flat, of reeds and branches held
together with esparto grass, and supporting a layer
of mud. Jagged flint instruments, millstones, and
ovens are found ; and later bracelets and ivory orna-
ments, which prove that the inhabitants had become
comparatively civilized. Near by are tombs containing
cinerary urns, as well as flint blades, arrow-heads, or
axes. Another settlement at Citania in the north-west

93

94 Early Hill Settlements

shows foundations of forty round or square huts within
concentric walls of massive Cyclopean architecture, on
a hill reached by roads converging from all parts of the
district. Inscriptions, tiles, earthenware, bronze, glass,
and coins of the early empire prove that such acropoleis
remained in use long after the Roman occupation.

Fortified towns have been found in many parts of
Andalusia, Portugal, Galicia, and other provinces, laid
out in streets bordered by houses provided with several
rooms, and often a well. Examples are Castellar de las
Grajas, in the province of Albacete, which runs for nearly
half a mile on the top of a ridge, or the recently identi-
fied Arcobriga, between Madrid and Zaragoza.^ The
latter lies on an undulating slope, and had a double, or
in parts a triple, wall, with three gates, one protected
by towers ; it occupies three different levels or terraces
united by steps, and from the character of some of the
houses is known to have been inhabited still under
the empire. Another Iberian town recently explored
is Numantia, where, in addition, clear traces of Scipio's
circumvallation have been discovered.^

Even when built on the plain, native towns had some
kind of fort or tower in which the inhabitants could
take refuge from brigands, commanding a wide prospect,
and capable of serving as a signal station by the kindhng
Y ! of beacons.^ Occasionally these towers, some of which
/\ were erected by the Carthaginians, were utilized as
lighthouses.

The walls of Spanish houses were chiefly of rubble
and earth compressed between boards, and lined with

1 Bull. Hisp. XIII. 23. 2 jhid,^ XV. 368, illustrated.

^ [Caes.] Bell. Hisp. 8 ; Liv. 40, 47.

Little Architectural Originality 95

mud or brick, a construction which resisted sun and
rain better than lime or stone. Even town walls were
of stones, not strengthened with mortar, but ' smeared
with mud in the ancient way.'^ Examples of such
parictes formacci, still called ' hormazos,' remain in the
Iberian wall retained by Greek settlers at Emporias, and
they seem to have been in ordinary use even in the time
of Isidore of Seville.* Roofs were covered with hard
shingles of oak or juniper.

The Spaniards do not seem to have possessed much
architectural originality. In no province did the Romans
succeed in establishing more thoroughly the style which
they had formed from the union of the Italian and the
Greek, and in none did it last so far into the middle
ages. While circuses, temples, aqueducts, theatres,
amphitheatres, colonnaded squares, town houses, and
villas are numerous, and occasionally in fair preser^'a-
tion, they cannot be called national monuments. The
chief remains belong to the reigns of Trajan and his
immediate successors, for we have few specimens of the
work of the early empire. Besides stone, unbreakable
cement was used for building, and some marble,
chiefly African, for the white marble from the north
of Spain lacked solidity. Smaller monuments, such
as tombs, were sometimes of granite, porphyr}-, or
agate.

The finest relic of Roman architecture is perhaps the
viaduct over the Tagus, called b}- the Moors Alcantara,
or the bridge. It was constructed in the reign of Trajan

1 Liv. 21,9.

3 Elym. 15, 9. Cf. Vitruv.. ed. Rose, p. 34 ; Plin. 16, 40 ;

35. 14-

96 Buildings of Roman Age — Early Sculpture

by the combined efforts of eleven municipalities. Six
arches of cut stones, all of equal size, with square
pilasters, having a circumference of 38 feet, carry a road
wide enough for four carriages to go abreast. An elegiac
inscription, set up by the architect, Lacer, in the temple
which stands on an adjoining rock, contains the proud
couplet, not yet disproved by time :

' Pontem perpetui mansurum in ssecula mundi
Fecit divina nobilis arte Lacer.' ^

Important remains exist of the Circus of Italica, the
Theatre of Saguntum, the Naumachia of Emerita, and
the aqueducts of Segovia and Tarraco. There are also
smaller monuments and arches, as the Torre d'en Barra
in Catalufia, of Trajan's time, with Corinthian decora-
tions ; a monument with arches and columns dedicated
to Trajan at Zalamea (Estremadura), and the Torres
de Este (Turres Augusti) near Padron in Galicia. The
construction of such public buildings would usually fall
to the share of the local sediles, but some of the smaller
monuments were due to private munificence. Several
churches in Spain date from Roman times, being either
heathen temples consecrated, or built after the conver-
sion of the empire.

Discoveries of very ancient statuary of late years in
southern and south-eastern Spain have given rise to
much discussion. The art has certain Greek and Punic
features, but seems to belong to a genuine native school
which flourished about the fifth century B.C., and can
hardly be separated from the accounts we receive of the
high civilization of the Tartessians. The art is not as

1 761.

Examples of Early Spanish Art 97

fine as the best Greek ; it is too much absorbed with
external trappings, pearl necklaces, amulets, veils, and
other head-dresses ; but it is often surprisingly modern,
and at times approximates to the grotesqueness of some
mediaeval figure-work. The largest find was at Cerro
de los Santos in Murcia, where among others a number
of female figures were discovered, either of priestesses
or of women who wished to be consecrated in effigy in
the solar temple, which seems to have adorned that
lofty plateau.^ Some of them hold chalices, in reference
to the drink-offering which often preceded ancient
sacrifices. The best example is, however, the famous
Lady of Elche,^ a sandstone bust of about life-size,
found near the ancient Ilici (Valencia) about 1897, and
now in the Louvre. It is polychrome, wears mitra,
veil, and the representation of a metal diadem adorned
with pellets. Over each side of the face projects a large
pierced disc, resembling a wheel, from which depend
tassels with acorn-shaped pendants. The rich triple
pearl collar also has pendants in the form of urns, and
probably intended as amulets.

A diadem of gold, probably of about the same period,
found at Caceres in Estremadura, is also in the Paris
museum. It is covered with embossed work represent-
ing horse and foot soldiers holding shields, short swords,
or long arrows. Behind them stand servants with
large metal vases, a tortoise, and grotesque human

1 C/. Rada y Delgado in Mus. Esp. de Antig. VI. 249, Heuzey in
Bull. Corr. Helle'n. XV. 608, Albertini in Bull. Hisp. XIV., where
some recently added heads are illustrated.

=* Cf. P. Paris in Mon. et MM. Plot. IV. (illustrated), and
Melida, B. A. H. 31, 428.

7

98 Statues of Gods and Warriors

figures with birds' heads.^ Of somewhat similar form
is the gold collar found in an earthenware pot at Estel-
lar near Varzin,^ covered with small bosses, and having
at intervals hollow cones, from which hang small
pendants.

Early statues of warriors are come upon, both in
Portugal and eastern Spain, wearing large armlets and
necklets. One mutilated example wears a short tunic
covered with a network of lozenges, a triple cincture,
short sabre, and large round buckler with interlaced
lines.^ Native statues, though occasionally of bronze,
are most frequently of rather soft sandstone, easily cut,
but producing rough and irregular outlines ; and idols of
the earlier period are often nearly shapeless, with stumps
for arms, some indeed being merely made of clay.
Figures of deities do not, however, seem to have been
common among the native tribes before they came
under Greek or Roman influence. A few mentioned by
Hubner, some of which are androgynous, are clearly of
comparatively late date. One is a seated figure, its
smooth hair fastened up by a fillet, a torque round the
neck, and fruit in the right hand. Another specimen
is an earthenware relief of a local god found near Braga,
wearing a toga and grasping a cornucopia.*

Statues of Grasco-Roman workmanship are plentiful,
in stone, silver, or bronze, representing gods, emperors,
or local worthies, but they present few peculiarities.
Some of the best belong to Emporiae, the chief centre

1 Illustrated in Cartailhac, Ages PrMsi. 330. Cf. ibid., 300, for
bronze grotesques from Portugal.

« Bull. Hisp. XIII. 126. 3 Ibid., XV.

* Hubner, Die antik. Bildwerke in Madrid, 216, 331.

Stone Relief- Carving 99

of Greek civilization ; such as the figures of ^sculapius
and Aphrodite, or the bronze relief of Castor standing
by his horse.^ Statues were dedicated with feasts and
offerings, and were often gorgeously adorned. An in-
scription^ of Acci (Guadix) records the presentation by
a woman, in memory of her granddaughter, of gold,
silver, and precious stones for an image of Isis. On its
head was a cylindrical crown with varieties of jewels ;
emeralds and pearls were in its ears, and it wore jewelled
rings, necklace, bracelets, anklets, etc. A woman of
Baetica left money for a statue of herself adorned with
similar barbaric splendour, loaded with pearls, and
having silver bracelets full of gems.^

The bodies of the rich were buried equally richly
attired, in tombs of the costliest stones, sometimes in
sarcophagi adorned with bas-reliefs. One of these at
Barcelona has a hunting scene, with riders and dogs
pursuing a wild boar. The custom was continued in
the Christian period, when we find such subjects on
tombstones as the captivity of St. Peter, a figure of the
deceased between two saints, Abraham and Isaac, the
Good Shepherd, or Daniel and the Lions.*

Some stone reliefs are of native art, though already
influenced by Greek and Roman models, such as those
at Clunia, representing Iberian cavalrj' armed with
inverted shields. Another interesting group^ in marble
shows a number of horsemen fighting, the Romans
wearing helmets and shields, the Iberians recognizable
by their short bristly hair.

1 P. Paris in Bull. Hisp. X\'. 129 e{ seq, ' 1,^86.

3 2060. * Cf. I. H. C. 370.

^ B.A.H. 50, 433 (Madrid).

100 Oriental Influence in Sculpture

Oriental art seems to have met with much apprecia-
tion in Roman Spain. It is true that little is left of the
Phoenicians but some inscribed stelae and a few divine
busts, such as those of Baal and Melcarth found at
Cartagena, of ' Grseco-Assyrian ' workmanship ;^ but
the steady influx of Orientalism throughout the first
three centuries of the empire had a considerable effect.
The collection of Egyptian curiosities at Cerro de los
Santos is now thought to contain several modern
forgeries ; but certainly ancient Egyptian figures, espe-
cially scarabs or statues of slaves designed to assist the
dead when needing help in the labours imposed by
Osiris, and other figures in mummy form, have been
found at Tarragona, Cadiz, and in the province of
Jaen.^ At Denia is a sculpture of Ammon in the form
of a ram, surmounting a sepulchral monument ; at
Oleso (Cataluna) the pedestal of a statue with a curious
relief carving of the head of Isis in the form of a
crescent, exhibiting two extra eyes on the cheeks ; on
the reverse is a head with horns and ears, the symbol
of Apis. Mithraic and Gnostic plaques and reliefs are
not uncommon ; one of the former class from Ampurias
is covered with curious symbols, such as a wood-cutteir,
tree, sheep's head, and various human and divine
figures.^

Mosaics, though the subjects are less varied than in
Africa, are numerous and interesting. They are chiefly
allegorical or mythological, but a few deal with con-
temporary life. One found at Italica a century ago'
represents the Circus, in which a chariot race and

1 B. A. H., 42, 296-97. 2 Ibid., 54, 170 ; 57, 45.

3 Bull. Hisp. XV. 144.

Mosaic- Work and Painting loi

b

wrestling match are in progress. The surrounding cir-
cular compartments present the nine muses, animal
and other figures, a centaur, and the four seasons
clothed in the colours of the factiones. At Pampeluna
is a gladiatorial scene, a mirmillo fighting a retiarius.
Of mythological groups may be mentioned a fine picture
of the sacrifice of Iphigenia from Ampurias ; the mosaic
of La Baneza representing Hylas being drawn into the
water by the nymphs, a subject rarely treated in art ;^
and at Murviedro (Saguntum) Bacchus, ivy-crowned,
holding the thyrsus and riding a tiger, the border of the
mosaic being filled with genii and vignettes. A simpler
representation of this last scene belonged to a floor in
a villa at Miacum, the humble predecessor of the
present Spanish capital.

Early in the fourth century, sculpture and mosaic
work declined. The former was limited to mechani-
cally designed bas-reliefs on tombstones, and instead of
mosaics of coloured stones an artificial glass-like con-
cretion, often brilliantly coloured, was put together into
geometrical patterns.^

Wall-painting, however, reached its height in this
centur}', with figures mostly of an allegorical kind,
both scriptural and mythological. Thus the Phoenix,
the Dolphin, or Orpheus, representing the Good
Shepherd, are of constant occurrence, and the walls
of churches were crowded with pictures of saints and
martyrs.

The ceramic art was practised from prehistoric times.
In the early settlements of the south have been found
earthenware cups with black surface, displaying shining
' B.A. H. 36, 423. " Ibid., 20, 95.

I02 Earthenware — Early Weapons

spangles of mica. The long subterranean passages of
the Iberian cemetery of La Hoya de los Muertos are
full of cinerary urns covered with reliefs of twisted
bands arranged in wreaths. In the Tarragona district,
as well as southern Spain, are vases with floral or
animal decorations, somewhat resembling Mycensean
work ; and earthenware figures of cattle, similar to
some of the finds at Hissarlik, have been met with.
At Arcobriga vases of grey earthenware have ivy sprays,
palms under an arch, and figures of cocks of a somewhat
Punic type.^

In Roman times the earthenware mainly followed
Italian or Samian models. Saguntine vases, being solid
and durable, were largely exported to Rome, and are
grey, cream-coloured, yellow, or glazed red, with relief
ornamentation. The last is the most distinctive variety,
and is referred to by a Roman poet as ' Hispanse luteum
rotse toreuma.' Many potters' marks occur on these
vases, such as rabbits, butterflies, or bees.

Though the Spaniards excelled in ironwork, little
remains of an ornamental character. Some very fine
arms found near Cordova in 1867 seem from the
similarity to Mycensean designs to belong to the early
Tartessian civilization. The sword blades are adorned
with a network pattern, the handles with foliage and
palm-leaves, and the end of the pommel bears a horse's
head or a winged dragon. An example of pre-Roman
metal work is the bronze object, whether candelabrum
or religious symbol, found at Ferreres,* consisting of a
disc pierced with six round holes with a bronze horse

1 Bull. Hisp. XIII. 25.

^ Ibid., p. 14 (now in the Louvre).

Embossed Metal-Work 103

at the centre. This supports a twisted column sur-
mounted by a similar disc.

Of the metal work of the Roman age two examples
may be taken. In a hoard found in the province of
Lower Beira in Portugal was included a silver bowl,
probably of the early empire, adorned with pieces of
gold leaf, and fine reliefs. Perseus, wearing a Phrygian
bonnet and chlamys and brandishing a short sword
attacks two gorgons, aided by Hermes holding the
caduceus, while on his right stands Athena under an
olive tree in which an owl is perched.-^ Somewhat
later, perhaps about the age of Hadrian, is the silver
bowl, with embossed work in gold, found in a quarry
at Otanez near Santander.^ From its subject it seems
to have been an ex-voto offering to the presiding deity
of a curative fountain, of which there were several in
north-western Spain. A nymph is pouring water from
an urn over the rocks, a young man gathers it in a
vessel, a third figure gives a cup to a sick man, a fourth
fills a barrel placed on a mule-car. On each side are
altars for sacrifice, and a Latin inscription is added.
' ~ The numismatic output of ancient Spain was con-
siderable, and fell into four classes, Greek, Punic,
Iberian, and Roman, the first three on the whole con-
temporary.

Massiliot coins circulated along the east coast, and
there were besides two Greek mints in Spain, which
apparently began their issues late in the third
century B.C. These are Rhode and Emporiae. The
former coins have the head of Demeter with the
punning reverse emblem of the open rose. The

1 Bull. Hisp. XIII. 124. 2 111. in B. A. H. 52, 553

I04 Greek and Punic Coinage

Emporitan issues have the head either of Demeter or
Artemis, and on the reverse a horse or winged Pegasus.
In spite of its traditionally Greek origin, the type of the
Saguntine coins is Iberian, and they appear to date
from about 226 B.C., being renewed after the rebuilding
of the town in 206. They mostly have a head to the
right, and on the reverse a horseman or seal ; the
legend is Iberian, and they seem to be in imitation of
the Roman Victoriati rather than of the drachmae of
the Greek colonies.

The Punic issues, apart from coins imported from
Carthage or struck by Hamilcar and his family at
Carthago Nova, belong principally to the period follow-
ing the Hannibalic war. Some of the coinage of Gades,
which is the finest, may date back to the fourth century,
and it includes some silver ; the copper issues of other
towns, Iberian or Tartessian in the main, but with a
Punic element in the population, such as Sexs, Varna,
Lascuta, and Malaca, last through the Republican era,
and in some cases as late as the reign of Caligula. The
types are mostly religious or astronomical. Thus on
the coins of Malaca is the head of Phthah, the first
of the Cabiri, who had also a temple at Carthago, and
was identified with Hephaestus. He wears a conical
cap with pearls, having behind the symbol of tongs ;
on the reverse is a star with rays, a crescent denoting
Astarte, or a bull. Others have the head of Hercules-
Melcarth, sun or moon emblems, or for coast towns
a galley or dolphin.

Iberian and Celtiberian coins circulated widely over
the east and centre ; the standard and type were
borrowed from the Greeks or Romans, but the legends

Native and Roman Issues 105

are in the native dialect, expressed by Punic symbols,
usually, however, owing to Greek and Latin influence, to
be read from left to right. The town of Obulco in Baetica
uses a Punic alphabet much less modified than other
Iberian towns, where the quasi-vowels aleph, he, vau,yod,
ain, are given a regular vowel sound ; and the lettering
here reads from the right. Native coins bear the name
of a town or tribe, sometimes of two towns united by a
monetary convention ; but each tribe seems to have had
its coins struck in the chief town of the district. As
silver issues have only Iberian legends, copper in some
cases both Iberian and Latin, it is supposed that
silver was only permitted by the Romans in the earlier
period. The commonest types are a bearded head (in
some cases probably that of a native chief or king), on
the obverse, a horseman holding a palm, a galloping
horse, or in the coast towns a galley or dolphin, on the
reverse.

Though Latin lettering gradually came in, Roman
issues before the establishment of the empire were
chiefly confined to the few colonies. Colonial coins,
which are all of copper, frequently have some allusion
to the origin of the town, as the design of the priest
guiding the plough which marked out its original area,
or the legionary standards of the soldiers who peopled
it. After about 39 B.C., the emperor's head with Latin
legends was generally adopted, the mints being under
the supervision of the local aediles. A few towns of
native origin retained for some years the Iberian
symbol of the horse, combined with a Latin or bi-
lingual legend.

Coins of Spain cease under Caligula, who wished

io6 Coins of the Later Empire

to add to the fiscus the profit derived from minting for
the provinces at Rome, or in imperial mints elsewhere,
and suppressed local issues. It thus becomes im-
possible during two centuries to identify coins of
Spanish origin. Large centres like Tarraco no doubt
had mints, and trouvailles of coins of later emperors
have been found in their neighbourhood. Spanish
emblems or allusions occur on many Roman coins,
such as the reverse design of Hispania with ears of
corn, or Spanish buckler and javelins. Some speci-
mens of Hadrian have a figure of Hercules of Gades,
holding a club and an apple ; at his feet are the
river Bsetis and the prow of a vessel. Another
represents Hadrian raising the kneeling figure of
Spain, with the national emblem of the rabbit be-
tween them. As late as the reign of Postumus we
have a bronze coin, with the reverse design of Hercules
killing Geryon, and the legend Herculi Gaditano. Of
the successors of Postumus several issues have been
identified by De Salis and others as of Spanish origin,
probably struck at Tarraco, the type differing from
contemporary Roman issues. Those of Claudius are
of good design, especially on the reverse, where the
two figures are farther apart than elsewhere ; while
here only have copper coins with the legend Providentia
deorum the conjoined figures of Concord and the Sun.
Issues of Aurelian illustrate the Spanish manner of
marking standards with bosses, and other examples
are known of Tacitus, Florianus, Probus, Carus, and
Carinus. Under Diocletian and his successors there
were more issues from Tarraco in all three metals, but
the mint was probably suppressed in favour of Aries

Some Authorities on Spanish Art 107

about the middle of the fourth century, and there are
no more Spanish coins till the establishment of the
Germanic monarchies.

A,

Bulletin Hispaiiique. (Bordeaux, from 1906.)

Caveda : Eiisayii sobre la Arquiiectura Espanola, cap. ii.

RiANO : Spanish Industrial Art.

HiJBNER : Die aniiken BUdwerke in Madrid.

Cartailhac : Lcs Ages Prt'historiques dc TEsp. et du Port.

Musco Esp. de Antiguedades.

Heiss : Description Genirale des Monnaies Anciennes de

rEspagnc.
Hands, Rev. A. W., in Xumisniatic Circular, VII., 1889.

CHAPTER VIII

RELIGION

' Jupiter Capitolino vino a alternar con la Diana Helenica y con
el Hercules Tirio en las fiestas religiosas de los espanoles.' —
Lafuente.

A COMPREHENSIVE treatment of the native religions of
Spain offers peculiar difficulty, due not only to the
uncertainty about the origin and connection of the
tribes, but to the great extent of political subdivision
which prevailed, and reacted on the religious worships.

The names of nearly one hundred divinities have been
preserved, and fresh are being discovered almost yearly;
but most of them were of purely local importance, often
indeed mere variations of some town, mountain or river
name in the district ; and only in three or four cases does
their worship seem to have extended over more than a
few miles of territory. The widespread cult of local
martyrs, in which the bones of some believer who was
supposed to have perished in the persecutions of Decius
or Diocletian were laid up beneath the altar of the
village shrine, is a revival of the same spirit.

It is usually assumed that Roman worships were
readily and completely adopted, but like most generaliza-
tions about Spain, this applies mainly to Bastica and the
east coast. One of the features of Spanish religion under
the empire is the scarcity of dedications to Roman

io8

Evidence as to Native Worships 109

deities outside Colonies, or townships where Italian
soldiers or officials were settled, and where such wor-
ships were looked on as marks of religious loyalism.
Municipalities where Spaniards predominated preferred
to retain their old protectors under some neutral title,
as 'the genius of the town,'-"- the 'guardian god'
{deics tutela),^ local lares or nymphs ; or again, under
some hybrid Romano-Spanish designation, as Proserpina
Atsecina, Mars Cariocecus, Jupiter Ladicus. They
would, however, throw themselves heartily into emperor
worship, looking on Csesar,as an incarnation of the
power of the empire ; while their distance from the court
threw a veil over the less exalted qualities which made
such a cult in and round Rome somewhat perfunctory.

Lastly, the south and east of Spain, where Roman
religion was best established, gave the readiest welcome
to the Oriental rites which from about the time of
Trajan drew away many of the more earnest spirits.
Isiac worship in particular surpassed all others in im-
portance throughout the districts of Valencia and
Murcia.

Evidence as to native worships is of three kinds :
stray allusions in the geographers, mostly relating to
about 100 B.C., when Greek travellers were active ; a
great number of dedications, chiefly of the early empire,
but seldom containing much besides the name of the
god and the worshipper, with a formal expression of
gratitude ; and some statues or other votive offerings,
nearly all of a date when Roman influence was strong.
It is the custom to refer most of the native worships of
which mention is made to Celtic influence, and this

0-

,408. ' 4092-

1 1 o Celtic Influences — Neton

seems true of two or three of the most important, as
Endovellicus, Ataecina, and the water-powers. There
are, however, few analogies with the religions of Gaul
and Britain ; the various moon goddesses who were so
popular in Spain, and under the Romans appear as
Luna Augusta, seem to have no analogies in Celtic
mythology. It also should be remembered that Druid-
ism, which gave to Celtic beliefs their characteristic
form, was unknown in Gaul at the time of the advance
of the Celtic tribes into Spain, about 500 B.C.

It may be convenient to review the literary evidence
first. Sidereal worship is described as strongly preva-
lent among the Tartessians. At Acci, a Roman veteran
colony on a tributary of the Bsetis, the sun-god Neton,^
identified with Mars, was worshipped in the form of an
idol with radiated head. The authority for this fact is
late, and it is possible that the externals of the cult had
been influenced by one of the Oriental sun-worships
which came in under the empire ; especially as, if we
accept the probable restoration of Hiibner, Neton is
associated with Isis in a second-century inscription of
Acci.^ Dedications to Netus occur in the north-west,
as at Conimbriga,^ and others to Neton not far from
Emerita.* Both are usually identified with the Goidelic
war-god, known to the ancient Irish as N6t or Neit ;
but as it is doubtful if this comparatively late cult ever
reached Spain, and still more doubtful if the Celts ever
extended as far south-east as Acci, it is perhaps best
to regard the Spanish divinity as indigenous. Saturn
is also referred to as revered in the south of Spain, no
1 Macrob. I. 19. 2 3386.

' 365- * 5278-

Rites of Celtiberi and Gallasci 1 1 1

doubt, as in Roman Africa, representing some earlier
solar god.^ In the west of Bsetica, at Ebura, was an
important temple dedicated to the goddess of the dawn.
Lux dubia.^ Mercury was also prominent in the south,
representing some native or Punic divinity. A hill near
Carthago was consecrated to him.^ He was the patron
of fishermen,* and occurs on the coins of Carmona
wearing 3.petastis, or represented by a herald's staff.

Among the Celtiberi sacrifices were offered to a name-
less deity before the gates of the town, the natives per-
forming religious dances by households in the light of
the full moon; the deity probably again being a solar or
lunar power .^ Dances of men armed and clashing their
bucklers are referred to among the Gallasci;® and the
ecstatic feeling which impels the worshipper to rapid
movement combined with loud, continuous sounds has
throughout been characteristic of the Spanish tempera-
ment. Modern travellers may recall the dance of the
ten Castanet players before the high-altar of Seville on
certain great festivals, when the hymn addressed to the
' Candor de la \nz eterna ' is chanted.

The Gallseci are styled atheists by Strabo, which
probably means that the Greek traveller from whom
he derived his facts had not identified their god with
any in his own mythology. They were noted for wail-
ing incantations, and were skilled in divination, both
by examining the viscera of animals and by watching
the flight of birds and the burning of fires.''

The Lusitanians were much given to sacrifices, and

* Avien. Or. Mar. 215-6; Diod. III. 59; Strab. III. i, 4.

2 Strab. III. I, 9. ^ Liv. 26, 44. * 5925.

5 Strab. III. 4, i6. » Sil. III. 347. ' sil., he. cit.

112 Lusitanian and Other Western Tribes

would consult the entrails or the veins of the lungs
without removing them, bodies of captives being so
used; or again the right hands of captives might be
offered to their gods. The war -god ^ was honoured by
the sacriiice of horses, goats, or human beings, cere-
monially arrayed in saga. When their great leader
Viriathus was dead, the natives placed the body on a.
lofty pyre and offered sacrifice. Next both horse
and foot ran round it in a circle celebrating his
praises. They sat about the pyre till the flames died
out, and ended the obsequies with a gladiatorial con-
flict.^ This or another Spanish tribe would erect round
the tombs of warriors as many obelisks as they had
slain enemies.^ The fact is no doubt correct, and such
rows of stones have been found in Sardinia; but the
explanation is more hkely that the upright stones were
sacred symbols, like the Punic stelae. A cairn of stones,
supposed to be under the protection of the sun-god, on
the Sacred Point (Cape St. Vincent), was particularly
holy, and might not be approached at night, when it
was haunted by divine visitants.'* The reverence for
stones may have been inherited both by Celts and
Iberians from their dolmen-building predecessors.

Such scattered and obscure allusions suggest that the
tribes had an impressionable and mystical nature which
would be readily influenced by claims to superior know-
ledge and power. Sertorius, the cunning Roman demo-
cratic leader, found it worth while to keep a pet deer,
through which he professed to receive direct intima-

1 Strab. III. 3, 7. 2 App. lb. 72.

3 Arist. Pol. 13246. C/., however, Schulten in Bull. Hisp. XIV. 196.

1 Strab. III. I, 4.

Superstitious Beliefs and Usages 113

tions of the divine will. The Celtic chief Olyndicus
possessed a silver spear supposed to have fallen straight
from heaven, and therefore substantiating his claims.^
Centuries later a youth 'by many signs' won a con-
siderable following as an incarnation of the Messiah.*

Diviners, soothsayers, and charlatans of all kinds
abounded. The Vascones were specially skilled in
augury from birds.^ Scipio was obliged to clear his
camp before Numantia of the wizards who only served
to demoralize his men.* Caesar,^ Galba,* and Otho^
all found prophets to encourage their designs. At
Tarraco an altar, restored under Caracalla, was dedi-
cated to the enchantress Circe, here entitled Sanc-
tissima.^ These tendencies to magic encouraged the
spread of the mystical Gnostic faith, and the Christian
Church had to struggle to repress such practices as
magical rites or sacrifices to expiate the first-fruits,
offerings to sun and moon, or veneration of beasts and
serpents. All these were rites which would be naturally
alleged against a heretic ; but they are indignantly
repudiated by the ascetic and visionary Priscillian."

Turning next to epigraphic and archaeological evi-
dence of the imperial age, we find signs of a great
advance on the rude rites mentioned by the geographers.
Native deities still subsist, but they have temples and
statues, and are closely assimilated to members of the
Grseco-Roman pantheon. There is only space here for
a few examples.

» Flor. I. 33. " Sulp. Sev. Vil. Mart. 24.

s Lamprid. Alex. Sfv. 27. * App. lb. 27.

« SuLt. yul. 7. " Id., Galb. 5. ^ Tac. H. I. 22

« CT. Florez, 24, 146. * Ed. Schepss, pp. 23-4.

8

114 Endovellicus Shrines in Lusitania

The chief deity of the Lusitani was Endovellicus,
two of the principal seats of whose worship were at
Villa Vifosa and Terena, in the modern province of
Alemtejo in southern Portugal. Though the Lusi-
tanians were a non-Celtic people, they seem in this
part to have had a certain Celtic admixture,^ and the
name Endovellicus is best explained as meaning ' by
far the best,' from two Celtic roots ; while the name of
one of his worshippers, Mogolius, has a common Celtic
prefix.^ The most interesting of the five dedications
at Terena, now in the National Library of Lisbon,
is on a marble pedestal once supporting a statue, and
showing on three of its sides the carving of a wreath,
a palm, and a boar, the last a common Celtic religious
emblem. Various slight indications suggest that the
god was an earth power and was able to confer health ;
and in this case St. Michael, the tutelary saint of the
healing art, was chosen to succeed him, his church
being partly built out of the ruins of the temple. Villa
Vigosa, to the south-west of Badajoz, had a temple
of which the remains have recently been excavated,
and it seems to have retained its importance far into
the imperial age. Inscriptions are fairly numerous, all
in Latin, and some statues and other fragments remain.
One figure, perhaps that of the god himself, represents
a boy holding a bird ; another is a bust only, clothed
in a toga, with a dedicatory inscription on the plinth.

Even more important was the Celtic Persephone, to
whom dedications are found in south-east Lusitania,
west Bastica, and the neighbouring parts of Celtiberia.

1 Strab. III. I, 6.

^ C/. Leite de Vasconcellos in Rev. Celt. 21, 308.

Atscina, Queen of the Lower World 1 1 5

Her original name was Atzecina or Adsegina, perhaps
from the common Indo-European root Atta, 'mother';
but this name is often conjoined to Persephone, and
sometimes the latter only is given, though in the case
of dedications in this district, doubtless referring to the
same power. Turobriga, mentioned by Pliny as a
town of Celtic Bseturia, was the chief seat of the
worship ; and her full title seems to have been ' dea
Ataecina Turobrigensis invicta.'^ Connected with this
cult is one of the few examples of totemism remaining
in Roman Spain. Bronze figures of goats have been
found with their feet drawn together to make a solid
plate, on which are dedications to the goddess ;^ they
may have been designed merely as ex-voto offerings or to
be attached to a spear, as the goat is known from
Strabo to have been sacred to the Lusitanian war-god.
The pig was a sacred animal over much of western
Spain ; figures of it in granite of about life-size are
found, like the group of six at Cabanas de Baixo, and
sometimes they were put over graves.^ ^^'hen the
legionaries celebrated the festival of their eagle, the
Gallsecian auxiliaries offered dedications In honour
of the boar which adorned their standards.* So a
bull seems from the coins to have been the emblem of
Segobriga. Atsecina was a goddess of the lower world,
and had the power of punishing sinners. An example
of this is the inscription now at Merida,^ in which the

I B. A. H. 40, 541.

» 5298-9. Cf. Archeol. Port. I. 296-7 (illustrated).

' Cf. examples in B. ^4. H. 54, 26-7. One is a bronze half -boar,
with native inscription ; perhaps a tessera of friendship between
two Iberian towns.

* Cf. 2552 d scq. = 462.

ii6 Other Native Deities

Queen of Turobriga is asked and entreated by her
sacred majesty to avenge the thefts and wrongs com-
mitted to the detriment of her female devotee, accord-
ing to the schedule annexed, which includes six tunics,
two linen wrappers, and an indusium or woman's under-
garment.

The Lugoves, Lougii, or Lucoves, seem to be a
pluralized form of the Celtic god Lugus or Mercury,
a root which appears in Gallic and Irish personal
names, and several dedications to them occur both
in Gallascia and Celtiberia. One altar near Lugo has
three triangular depressions for incense, suggesting
three gods ; and they were perhaps woodland deities,
their name being formed from the same root as the
Latin lucus}

Other native deities were Aernus,^ probably assimi-
lated to the victorious Mars, since his altars are
adorned with palms; and Trebaruna, a duplication
of Victoria, as the two goddesses have altars side by
side dedicated by the same person. The Celtic
goddess of horses and mangers, Epona or Ebona, who
was also known at Rome, has a few ex-votos, both
in southern Spain and near Csesaraugusta, the altar
in one case being adorned with the figure of a
chariot.^

Another important group of powers were the fairies
and water-nymphs, as well as other personifications of
rivers and healing fountains. The fairies or ' mothers '
were popular throughout the Celtic world ; they are the
banshees of Ireland, and in Spain were revered in

1 Cf. article in B. ^. H. 56, 349, with references. 2 5651.

3 5788 ; B. A. H. 4, II ; Juv. VIII. 187 ; Apul. Met. III. 27.

The Fairies — Oneiromancy 1 1 7

Galljecia and the north of Celtiberia, sometimes with
some local epithet.^ Closely connected with them were
the nymphs, who presided over countless streams in
north-western Spain, and appeared to worshippers in
dreams, commanding the setting up of some simple
monument.^ They are the modern Xanas of the
Asturian mountains, beings of small stature, living in
crystal palaces under solitary fountains, who wash their
white robes at midnight, and reward honest village
maidens who fall in with them, carrying off the bad
beneath the waves' ; or, again, they are the enchanted
Moorish women who haunt remote streams or ancient
ruins in Portugal. Often their worship has been trans-
ferred directly to the Virgin or one of the saints, and a
chapel set up beside the sacred fount.

Not only did divine beings appear in dreams, bidding
some offering to be set up to themselves or to another
deity, but the souls of deceased persons appeared to
their relatives asking for similar honours — a request
duly recorded on the monument.'* These interviews
with dead friends were much valued, and we find
dedications to the two gates of dreams which Virgil
mentions in the sixth ^neid; while another monu-
ment, with the emblem of the serpent and well-head
(Avernus), suggests a similar origin.^ Often, too, an
altar was set up to a god in honour of some deceased
person.

Great varieties of sepulchral monuments occur, from
the rude trench in which the body was huddled up

* 2764 (Dureton), 2766 (Clunia), ' Matribus Galaicis.'

* E.g., B. A. H. ^, 393 ex visii Nymphis.

3 Ibid., 36, 423. * Ibid., 19, 528. « Ibid., 52, 375 and 453.

1 1 8 Sepulchral Accessories — Amulets

under a pile of rough stones^ to the elaborate and
purely Roman Tower of the Scipios. The Iberians
usually burned the dead, but the people of Celtic
extraction as well as the Tartessians of the south
resorted to inhumation, or, even among the wilder
tribes, left the body to be devoured by birds and beasts.

Great numbers of sacred symbols are found carved
on native monuments, frequently with some relation
to sidereal worship, especially the disc and crescent,
sometimes with doves added. Others are the 'Aryan'
swastika in its plain or flamboyant form, the six-
rayed star, trident, anchor, or a bridge on arches,
representing the passage of the soul to the stars.
Tombs were filled with useful or ornamental objects,
from the stone axes and flint knives of primitive tribes
to the gold and silver ornaments, the red or white vases,
and two-handled glass cups of the Roman age. Prayers
for the repose of the dead are almost universal. One of
the fullest runs : ' May the infernal gods grudge thee not
thy place, thy inscription^ nor a light covering of earth.'^

Amulets are frequently come upon, such as the
bronze radiated head of a sun-god, perhaps Neton,
found near Iptuci,^ and statues are represented as wear-
ing this combined with the lunar crescent. Off the
Lusitanian coast was found the ceraunium, a kind of
onyx, considered serviceable against lightning.'* Round
Garray (Numantia, which was perhaps a leading re-
ligious centre in pre -Roman Celtiberia) are found

1 B. A. H. 22, io6 (Piles near Tarragona).

2 Ibid., 27, 504. Cf. Bull. Hisp. XIII. 10, for Iberian tomb-
stations, some having an altar and benches for funeral banquets,
with cavities in the walls to hold cinerary urns.

3 B. A. H. 30, 285. * Solinus, 37, 97.

Dedications to Roman Deities 1 1 9

many pieces of earthenware with the swastika or
fylfote, and animal emblems, probably designed as
talismans; and such articles as inscribed rings and
stones, with emblems connected with the medley of
beliefs called Gnosis, occur frequently in Spain. The
Cross thus naturally came to be looked on as a specific
against demons and ghosts.^

Of purely Roman worship there is little to say.
Capitoline temples existed at Hispalis and Urso,* but
the Roman triad was worshipped chiefly by Roman
officials and soldiers. Jupiter has many dedications,
sometimes with local titles, as Candienus or Can-
damius ; and even when these are lacking the Iberian
names of the dedicators suggest some assimilation to
a native god. Other unfamiliar epithets applied to
Jupiter are depulsor (also found in Africa), and solu-
torius, the deliverer. Mars similarly has local surnames
— Tillenus, Cariocecus, Cososus — while the dedicators
often bear only one or two names, suggesting a native
origin. Minerva has several dedications from artisans
and handicraftsmen. A college of these was under her
patronage at Barcino^; Syntrophus, a marble-worker
of Gades, adorned her chapel with marble plaques,*
and at Tarraco a painter restored the fa9ade of her
temple. The worshippers of Asclepius and \'enus were
frequently Greeks,^ and in one case some curious
words — parergon (the adornment of the statue), and
phiala (for patera) — occur in the dedication.

While the official Roman religion made no great
headway, emperor worship was popular in all the large

1 /. H. C. 10. » 1 194, 5439. 3 4998.

* 1724. ' 1951--. ^123. 2326, 3580, 4500.

1 20 Emperor-Worship — Temple of Dianium

centres. Augustus had lived among the Spaniards for
two years, and did more than any other Roman towards
pacifying and settling the country. Accordingly an
altar was set up to him in his lifetime at Tarraco, and
immediately after his death the provincials were fore-
most in claiming the right of constructing a temple
adjoining, — an example followed by the two other
provinces. The Augustan temples of Corduba and
Emerita thus became the natural seats of the pro-
vincial councils belonging to those provinces. Other
emperors were successively added, and in time most
towns had flamens of the divi, or consecrated emperors,
sometimes conjoined with Rome and the living emperor.
These worships were spontaneous, but were favoured
by the government as enhancing the dignity of the
imperial acts, and recalling to remote peoples the
majesty of the central power.

The Greek and Punic worships under the Romans
became practically limited to one important shrine
each. On the headland adjoining the Massiliot colony
of Hemeroscopeum was the great temple of Ephesian
Artemis, called by the Romans Dianium. This god-
dess, as the patroness of Massilia, was extensively
worshipped throughout the Greek settlements and
adjoining Iberian tribes.^ The temple was used as an
arsenal by the rebels in the time of Sertorius, and re-
mained of importance for some centuries; but the whole
neighbourhood is referred to by Avienus as deserted.

Some Juno shrines, as that on Junonis Promon-
torium (Trafalgar), appear to have been continuations
of Punic centres of Astarte worship, and the same
^ Cf. the college of Cultores Dianas at Saguntum, 3821.

Punic and Other Oriental Cults 121

goddess under the title of Cselestis was reintroduced
from Africa about the second century a.d., as at
Tarraco and Lucus Augusti. The Gaditan shrine of
Hercules-Melcarth long remained a great religious
centre, revered by Romans and natives ahke. Vows
were made here by distinguished Romans, and costly
sacrifices continued to be offered in the Phoenician
fashion, even in the Antonine age.^ As late as the
time of Caracalla, a Roman governor was put to death
for consulting the oracle maintained in the temple.*
The worship of Hercules Gaditanus also prevailed in
other Spanish towns, as Carthago and Valentia.

The finest temples were built in the Antonine age,
but several belonging to earlier reigns are represented
on the local coinage, as those of Tarraco, Csesaraugusta,
Emerita, and Gades. Among the more famous ex-
amples were the shrines of Diana, built by an Apuleius
at Clunia, of the Sun and Moon at Mons Lunse (Cintra),
and of Concord at Olisipo. Remains have also been
found of humbler rustic shrines, such as one at
Segobriga, probably dedicated to Diana, and having
on its walls bas-reliefs of hunting scenes. This may be
earlier than the Augustan age.

The Oriental cults, which spread from the Hellenized
Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, over all the Mediterranean
countries in the course of the first two centuries of the
empire, left some marks in Spain ; but with the excep-
tion of the Isiac rites they do not seem to have extended
widely among the natives.

Cybele, the Asiatic earth goddess, whose worship had
been established at Rome long before the end of the
1 App. lb. 2. ' Dion C. 77, 20.

122 Cybele and Isis

republic, has some dedications. A college of Dendro-
phori, a corporation charged with certain secular func-
tions, but united in the worship of Cybele and Attis,
existed at Valentia. At Olisipo a Greek woman, Flavia
Tyche, a Cernephorus, or bearer of the sacred dish in
certain Corybantic rites, makes an offering to the
Idsean mother of the gods.^ There are three allusions
to altars set up to commemorate a iaurobolium, or
solemn sacrifice of a bull to Cybele, when the worshipper
was sprinkled with the blood. A lady of Emerita thus
celebrated her birthday under the direction of the archi-
gallus, or chief priest of the cult. Another bull was
offered at Corduba for the safety of the emperor
Maximinus, who had conferred several benefits on the
city and neighbourhood, the Isiac priestess providing
the ram which was at the same time offered to Attis.^
Cybele and Isis were closely associated; they some-
times had shrines in the same temple, and in one
Spanish inscription Isis receives the title of ' mother of
the gods.'

The Egyptian worship of Isis, with whom were
associated Serapis, Horus, Ammon, and others, was
popular in all large towns, especially with women. Its
splendid ritual, purificatory rites, and solemn morning
and evening prayer, appealed strongly to an imaginative
people. Jupiter is identified with Ammon or Serapis,
the worship of Isis even associated with that of Rome
and Augustus.^ The spread of these rites was, perhaps,

1 179.

2 Cf. Fita in Mus. Esp. Ant. IV. 635, and C. /. L. II. 601 for
another iaurobolium at Galisteo in Estremadura.

^ 2416, Bracara,

The Syrian Moon-Goddess 123

furthered by the close connection between Spain and
Africa, exemplified by the Isiac symbols on the Spanish
coins of Juba of Mauritania, the husband of an Egyptian
princess. Such symbols are common in art, as the
figures of Isis, Osiris, and Anubis on a lamp of
Emerita,^ or the sculpture of Ammon in the form of a
ram surmounting a sepulchral monument at Dianium.
At Tarraco and Valentia Isis was the patroness of a
college of slaves, at Acci she is puellaris, or the protector
of maidens, and a splendid statue of her, bedecked with
jewels, is set up by Fabia Fabiana, in honour of her
dead granddaughter Avita.^

Of the degrading worship of the Syrian moon goddess,
identified with the Babylonian Astarte and the Roman
Venus, there are few traces, popular though it was
in Italy in the third century. One of her surnames, we
are told by Lampridius, was Salambo ; and this deity is
said to have been greatly revered in the Spanish city
of Hispalis, which was likely as a commercial centre to
attract settlers from the east, as we know that Malaca
did.' About a.d. 287 two Christian sisters, Justa and
Rufina, who gained their living by making earthenware
vessels, offended the worshippers of Salambo by refusing
to sell some of their wares for her service. At the
festival late in the summer the idol was carried on
the shoulders of women of high rank through the streets.
As in the days of Ezekiel, wailing for Tammuz still
sounded. When the procession passed the sisters, their
goods were trampled on and broken by the crowd, and
at the same time the image fell and broke. Being
probably suspected of magical practices they were
1 B. A. H. 25, 160. =" 3386. 3 c. I. L. II., p. 251.

124 Mithraism in Spain

arrested and imprisoned. Justa died in captivity,
Rufina was strangled ; but their bones were rescued by
Sabinus, bishop of the city, and they were thought
worthy of ranking among the martyrs.^ The supposed
reference to the Syrian fish goddess Derceto near Clunia
is very doubtful.^

Mithraism, the worship of the Persian principle of
virtue and light, was essentially a soldier's religion, and
was not widespread in Spain, as few legionaries from
elsewhere were stationed here. Dedications to Mithras
under one of his titles, such as deus or dominus invidus,
occur at Emerita, Malaca, Tarraco, Italica, and a few
other places, chiefly emanating from soldiers. Emerita
seems to have had a regular Mithrseum, or cave for
celebrating his mysteries, to the east of the town ; a
pater patrum, or Mithraist chief priest, existed here about
A.D. 155, and one of the dedications is by the purveyor
(Jrumentarius) to the seventh legion, who set up an altar
to celebrate the birthday of the invincible god.^ Trajan's
eastern campaigns had probably helped to spread
Mithraism.

The last of the Asiatic mystery religions to make
itself felt in Spain was the Basilidean form of Gnosticism,
the germ of which came from Babylonia before the
Christian era. Passing through Syria and Egypt, it
received various additions — Oriental, Greek, or Chris-
tian — and spread to Spain, where it was powerful in the
west and north in the third and fourth centuries; as
Jerome says, ' laying waste the whole province between

' Act. Mart. BoUand, July 19; Florez, IX. 99. Cf. Lamprid.
Vit. Elag. 7.
" Cf. B. A. H. 50 39. 3 Ibid., 43, 242-s.

Gnostic Beliefs and Talismans 125

the Pyrenees and the ocean.' The mysteries of the
universe were revealed by intuition to the true philos-
opher, who was a master of the magic formulas which
expressed this knowledge. Present existence is essen-
tially evil, matter is nothing but a deterioration of
spirit, and our end is to return to the parent spirit, who
sends forth a series of emanations, and at times a god-
sent Saviour. There are few literary allusions to the
effect of these fantastic doctrines in Spain, but Gnostic
amulets and other works of art are occasionally found,
especially in the Asturica district. A ring from here
has the phrase, ' Zeus, Serapis, and lao (one of the
Gnostic divine powers) are one ' ; another octagonal ring
has Greek letters equivalent to avOpcoiro'i, the father of
Wisdom. One Gnostic stone has a carving of a cande-
labrum with the sun, moon, and five planets, the sacred
hebdomad of the Chaldeans.^ From this sect sprang
the Priscillianist heresy, which is referred to in another
chapter.

TouTAiN : Culit's Pai'ens dans VEmpire Roniain.
Leite de Vasconcellos : Lcs Religions de la Lusitanie.
D'Arbois de Jobaixville, in Rei\ Celt., 1893-4.

^ B.A.H.10,11; 34,1::; 42,144; 44.278. C/. also C.W.King,
The Gnostics and their Remains, 1887, who points out that such
talismans were really the stock-in-trade of the numerous magicians
of the later empire, many of whom professed one of the forms of
theosophy known as Gnosticism,

CHAPTER IX

the chief cities of roman spain

Carthago Nova

' Urbs colitur Teucro quondam fundata vetusto
Nomine Carthago ; Tyrius tenet incola muros.
Ut Libyas sua, sic terris memorabile Iberis
Haec caput est.'

SiLius Italicus.

New Carthage, one of the latest Punic foundations
in Spain, dated from the governorship of Hasdrubal,
son-in-law of Hamilcar Barca. It lay in a strong
position on a hill, separated by a narrow plain from the
head of a gulf which formed a fine harbour, protected
by an island. To the north were fertile valleys, the
territory of the Iberian Contestani, but the south and
west sides were hemmed in by high mountains. Its
object was mainly military; the strength of the site
made it a suitable arsenal, and lying as it did in the
part nearest to Carthage it was the usual landing-place
of reinforcements from Africa, and the point of
departure for the vegetable and mineral exports bound
for the Punic J capital. After the occupation of the
town by Scipio the elder it became the seat of Roman
government in the Hither province ; and, though later
superseded by Tarraco, it was a frequent winter
residence of the governor, and the head of one of the

126

Commerce, Mines, and Industries 127

judicial conventus, to which sixty-five towns resorted
for legal business. Already in the republic the terminus
of a state highway extending to Gaul and Italy, it had
the best harbour on the Mediterranean coast, and lay
in the vicinity of valuable state silver mines, which in
the time of Polybius produced twenty-five thousand
drachmas daily. Carthago is the only Spanish town
which has yielded any number of republican inscriptions,
and even in the early empire, when the silver mines
were exhausted, it continued an important centre for the
exchange of sea-borne and internal trade.

Colonial rights were only formally conferred by
Cassar, when Carthago was renamed Colonia Victrix
Julia, but it seems to have had a large body of Italian
residents from the era of the second Punic war. A
small Punic element still continued ; dedications to
Hercules Gaditanus occur,^ and some Punic names are
found among the inscriptions.^

The neighbouring hills were covered with esparto
grass, which had been extensively cultivated from the
time of the Punic occupation, and gave to the city the
Roman title Spartaria, and the Arabic Cartadjanah-el-
Half. The other chief industry was the catching and
pickling of fish, especially scombri which were found in
such abundance near the harbour as to give the name
Scombraria to the adjacent island. As at Ostia the
fishers and dealers were united into a college.^

In Polybius we read of a Punic temple of iEsculapius

* E.g. 3410.

* E.g. Ostorianus, the root of which is connected with Astarte
(B. A. H. 30, 190).

' 5929-

128 Buildings and Coinage of Carthago

(Eschmoun) on a high promontory, and on another hill
was the palace or governor's residence built by
Hasdrubal. Under the Romans there were strong
walls, a lake, and a number of fine public buildings, of
which the round amphitheatre with its three tiers of
seats and frescoed walls has been explored in recent
times. A few years ago much of the forum was
excavated at a depth of about three yards, when a
flagged pavement of marble blocks uncemented was
found, and several bas-reliefs, statues, and bases of
columns.^ One of the chief monuments of the earlier
period is the pyramidal tower (called by the inhabitants
torre ciega from the absence of doors and windows)
erected by T. Didius in honour of the younger Scipio.
It consists of black and white stones in checks, and is
over 40 feet high, standing on a large pedestal.

The local coinage begins under Augustus, but was of
short duration. There are some twenty-seven varieties,
usually with the head of Augustus, and on the reverse
a simpulum, an olive-branch, or a tetrastyle temple
referring to the municipal cult of the emperor. Some
specimens bear the names of Juba the Moorish king
and of his son Ptolemy, who were honorary duoviri of
the town.^

Oriental worships seem to have been readily accepted.
An inscription refers to a festival of Cybele, with dances,
celebrated by the local magistrates. Statues of Apis
and other Egyptian deities are found in the neighbour-
hood, and on the local coins there occur Isiac symbols,
such as the globe between two feathers, and ears of
corn between cow's horns.

1 B. A. H. 52, 490. ^ Cf. 3417 ; Head, Hist. Num., p. 889.

Position and Settlement of Corduba 129

Under the empire Carthago dedined ; it was not an
important link in the road system, and few inscriptions
are found of the second or third centuries. After
Diocletian's reorganization it again became the head
of a province, but suffered greatly from the Vandals in
425. Largely rebuilt during the Byzantine occupation,
it was destroyed by the Goths in 625, and only revived
after the Arab conquest.^

Corduba.

' In Tai'tessiacis domus est notissima terris

Qua dives placidum Corduba Bretin amat.
Vellera nativo pallent ibi fla\'a metello,
Et linit Hesperium bractea \-iva pecus '

Martial.

Corduba, the capital of the Further province, and
after Augustus of the subdivision of it called Bastica,
had been a town of the Iberian Turduli. It stood on
a hill on the right bank of the Baetis where this river
first became navigable, at a short distance from the
Mons Marianus. One of the first cities to be thoroughly
Romanized, it was settled in 152 B.C., when a number
of veterans were established there by M. Claudius
Marcellus. It withstood a siege from the Lusitanian
chief Viriathus.^ The title Colonia Patricia, by which
it is designed in Pliny and on coins of Augustus' reign,
does not occur in the memoirs of Caesar's age, when it
was still an Oppidum. Nor can colonial rights have

^ Cf. Isid. Et. XV. I : ' Nunc a Gothis subversa atque in desola-
tionem redacta est.'

' Cf. Sen. Epigr. IX. : ' Lusitanus quateret cum moenia latro
Figeret et portas lancea torta tuas.'

9

130 History of Corduba — Literary Activity

been conferred by Caesar or Augustus, or the title Julia
or Augusta would have been added. It is therefore
conjectured that in the earlier period Corduba was a
Vicus civium Romanorum, raised to colonial rank by
Pompey about 55 B.C.

Its sympathies were aristocratic ; it was the scene of
the absurd rejoicings of the vain Metellus after a trifling
success over Sertorius, when a figure of Victory worked
by a pulley placed a laurel crown upon his head.^ It
sided against Caesar in the civil war, was placed under
the oppressive rule of Cassius Longinus, and after the
expulsion of Sext. Pompeius underwent a massacre at
the hands of the Caesarean faction.

During the first century B.C. it had become the chief
centre of learning and cultivation in Spain. Metellus
had brought from here in his train certain poets, who
are mentioned not very eulogistically by Cicero,^ and
schools of poetry and rhetoric were fully formed by the
Augustan age. Distinguished natives, the two Senecas,
Lucan, Sextilius Hena and Antonius Julianus, orators,
Junius Gallio and his adopted son, the Gallio of the Acts,
form a remarkable assemblage for a provincial town
within a short period ; foreshadowing the time when
Moorish Cordova was to pass on the torch of learning
through the gloomiest period of the Dark Ages, the
most learned, almost the only learned city in Europe.
The citizens were proud and had a strong local
patriotism, which lasted on through the whole period
of the decline, and was exemplified in the heroic
resistance offered by Cordova, when left almost alone,
to the whole forces of the Gothic tyrant Leovigild.

1 Plut. Seri. 24 ; Macrob. 3, 13. ^ Pro. Arch. X. 26.

Buildings of the Roman Age — Coinage 131

Wealthy Romans considered it fashionable to own a
country house in one of its fine suburbs and spend part
of the year there. The most splendid buildings were
in the southern district, Corduba Secunda, under the
Arabs the home of the priests. Several temples were
built of red marble, one of the finest being that of
Janus, the site of which was used for the famous Mez-
quita of the Moors.

Existing remains of the Roman period are not numer-
ous. The town suffered greatly from the Goths, and the
extensive rebuilding of the middle ages resulted in the
demolition of most remaining architectural monuments.
The great mosque incorporated many of the columns of
coloured marble. There is a bridge over the Guadalquivir
with Roman foundations and buttresses, and a Roman
aqueduct communicates with the hills eight miles away.
Parts of the enclosing walls, formed of squared stones
of great size, and of the foss, remain. Portions of the
Palatium, too, once used for legal business, with stairs of
rich red and yellow marble, have been excavated. The
site of the market-place, which adjoined the river, is now
the Campo Santo. Mere traces of the amphitheatre exist,
but numbers of architectural fragments have been found
from time to time, fluted columns, festoons, a puteal of
black marble, and Egyptian bronze figures.

The coins are almost confined to the reign of
Augustus, but are of fine workmanship, equal to many
Greek issues. The usual type is, on the obverse, the
head of Venus ; on the reverse, Cupid, with a torch and
cornucopia. Some specimens have a legionary standard
or priestly emblems, and most bear the legend permissu
Ccesaris A ugusii.

132 Decay under the Later Empire

Corduba was a considerable trading centre, ready of
access both by land and water, and in a fertile country.
A triple route connected it with Italy ; by the river to
Gades, overland to Malaca, or by Acci to Carthago
Nova. Several mines lay in the neighbourhood, and
much trade was done in Bastic wool and in olive oil,
which was reckoned as equal to the best Italian.^

References to Corduba between the time of Martial
and A.D. 300 are few. Hispalis, always the secondary
capital of the province, grew at its expense, perhaps
because the mines near Corduba were exhausted, and
Hispalis was better situated for sea-borne trade. No
bishop is recorded before Hosius, a contemporary of
Constantine, but the church seems to have been an
important one. Traditionally founded next after that
of Acci, it supplied more martyrs than any Spanish
town, except Ccesaraugusta, in the persecution of Dio-
cletian ; and its bishop signed next to that of Acci at
the Council of Illiberis.

Emerita.

' Nunc locus Emerita est tumulo
Clara colonia Vettoniae,
Quam memorabilis amnis Ana
Prasterit, et viridante rapax
Gurgite moenia pulchra lavit.'

Prudentius

The military colony of Emerita Augusta, in the
modern province of Estremadura, was planted by order
of Augustus, probably, as coins suggest, under the

1 Mart. XII. 63, where the poet has reason to complain of
plagiarism from his epigrams by a brother-craftsman of Corduba.

Inhabitants and Trade of Emerita 133

supervision of P. Carisius, in 25 b.c. The site chosen
for the Lusitanian capital was a slight hill on the north
bank of the Anas or Guadiana, which was united by a
vast bridge with Baetica, beyond the river, while the
border of the Hither province was not many leagues
distant. Veterans of the fifth and tenth legions joined
in the settlement ; but the object seems to have been
more to extend Roman customs and develop the re-
sources of a sparsely populated district than to provide
a strongly garrisoned fortress, like some of the north-
western colonies.

Like other military settlements, Emerita had not at
first a very active municipal spirit, and the imperial
officials tended to overshadow the local ; but in time it
became one of the leading commercial centres of Spain.
The descendants of the veterans took readily to trade.
Greeks, Italians, and Africans, all came to settle, and
the architectural monuments are a proof of the great
wealth of the citizens. The inscriptions have records
of a dealer in pearls (margaritarius), Saturninus, a
fellow-townsman of Apuleius of Madaura; a Greek
physician, Symphorus ; a lady doctor, described by her
husband as tnedica optima, her tomb being ornamented
with the carving of a swaddled infant ; besides references
to worships of every kind, native, Roman, and Oriental.
Pliny praises the oHves of the district, and mentions
the red dye from the oaks as highly esteemed ; and it
still produces oil, wine, honey, vegetables, and flocks in
abundance.

A liberal grant of land was made to each settler, far
more than in Italian settlements, and parts on both
sides of the river were left unoccupied or immune, to

134 Emerita under the Empire

be filled up later. Even after a second and third assign-
ment vacant land still remained. Later, the river
district, being unprofitable, as probably liable to floods,
was excluded from the settlement — that is, landowners
whose property had extended in this direction were not
called on to pay anything to the state for it.^

There is no record of previous inhabitants, but as
Strabo refers to the complete Romanizing of this colony
and Caesaraugusta, and Julius Paulus, a third century
jurist, says that the inhabitants possessed the jus italicum,
it is likely that there was an Iberian element in the popu-
lation. Otho, who had been stationed here as governor
of Lusitania, enlarged the settlement, which grew in
importance as a commercial and judicial centre. An
inscription mentions the completion under Domitian of
a road ordered by Vespasian, but neglected nequitia
publicanorum. The richer citizens and the governor
would often pass the summer at Olisipo or Felicitas
Julia (Lisbon), the second town of the province, the
neighbourhood of which was filled with villas and estates.
When the Arab Muza came to besiege Emerita, he
exclaimed: * One would think that from the whole
world men gathered together to found this town ' ;
and the insignificant position held by it in mediaeval
and modern times has resulted in the preservation of
many more Roman monuments than in populous places
requiring larger areas for modern buildings, thus render-
ing Merida a rival to the African Timgad.^ Two Roman
bridges remain, one over a small river, carried by four

1 Florez, XIII., quoting Hyginus, Frontinus, and Aggenus
Urbicus.
^ The most recent excavations are described in B. A. H. 58, 63.

Fine Architectural Remains 135

arches and joining the road to Salamanca; the other,
the great viaduct of Trajan's time across the Guadiana,
with a fortress at the city end, and protected by a
breakwater of earth with a stone parapet. Parts of
two aqueducts of the same period exist, one with three
tiers of arches. The theatre outside the city, built in
16 B.C. by direction of Agrippa,^ after being destroyed
by fire, was restored by Hadrian's orders about 135.
The orchestra is of coloured marble, reached by a
passage built of granite. Behind the stage was a
Corinthian colonnade with monolith shafts of grey
marble 20 feet high, with bases and capitals of white
marble. Marble cornices and marble statues adorned
the stage, the walls of which had a white stucco pattern
on a blue ground as at Pompeii. From the orchestra a
cloaca carries off rain water to the river. The seats
and vomitories for entering and leaving are likewise
well preserved.

The Circus Maximus, also outside the city, 450 yards
long by no yards wide, is in ruins ; but the Naumachia,
where mimic naval battles took place, is one of the
best examples remaining. There are sixteen rows
of seats in three groups ; and the basin in which the
boats were floated, itself nearly 500 yards in length,
was supplied by pipes carried under the seats and
fed by a special aqueduct. There are slighter re-
mains of thermae, the fortress, and the city walls.
Temples are numerous. One is peripteral, with fluted
Corinthian columns ; another, in the same style, dedi-
cated to Diana, is partly built into a private mansion.
Many relief carvings exist, in particular those once in

' 474-

136 Relief Carvings — Coinage

the temple of Mars, whose cult was prominent in
military colonies. Such are figures of captives tied to
a tree from which hang barbarian arms, cuirasses
engraved with Victories or Sirens, a winged horse, and
the boar which killed Adonis. Another group, from a
column which stood before a basilica, has an interesting
series of sacrificial instruments — the axe, a case of
knives, jug, bowl, sprinkler, and various priestly head-
dresses.

The coinage belongs to the reigns of Augustus and
Tiberius, bearing the heads of those emperors or of
Livia ; and a variety of interesting reverses, such as the
priest and plough (in token of the colonial origin), the
fortified city gate, a shield and lance, trophy, captive,
legionary eagle, or Victory. Others have the cross-
handled and two-edged Spanish sword ; or the bipennis,
also a Spanish weapon, consisting of two steel crescents
set on a long handle, which together form a single
blade. It was used chiefly by infantry in meeting
cavalry attacks. Another device is the imperial altar and
temple, the centre of the Lusitanian imperial worship,
the flamen and flaminica of which are commemorated in
inscriptions.

Emerita was a bishopric by the middle of the third
century, and had a church dedicated to St. Cyprian,
who acted as adviser to several Spanish congregations ;
and in a letter, still extant, warned the faithful of this
and other churches against communion with certain
Christians who had relapsed into heathen practices*
these unfortunately including Martialis, the first bishop
of Emerita.

Later it was a great resort of pilgrims, owing to the

St. Eulalia — Legendary History of Gades 1 37

fame of the virgin martyr Eulalia, who perished under
Diocletian, and was honoured in Spain only less than
Vincent of CcEsaraugusta. Before her shrine stood
three trees which burst into leaf in certain years on
the anniversary of the martyrdom in December, this
being a sign that a prosperous season was to follow.
The flowers took the form of a dove, recalling the shape
in which the martyr's soul had ascended, and in which
she appeared to Masona, the banished archbishop
under the Goths, and foretold his speedy return.^
Eulalia thus seems to have taken over some of the
attributes of the heathen Venus, as her fellow-martyr,
Liberata of Ebora, offers analogies to the Graeco-
Phoenician Venus Barbata.^ One real service Eulalia
rendered to the city in that the superstitious Visigoths
were induced by her sanctity to spare the buildings
after conquering it from the Sueves.

Gades.

^)(i T€ Kai p^aXxfiot is ovpavov eBpafie Kiav
rfXi^aros TrvKLVoi<j-L KaXvTTTO^cvos vf<^ee<ro"i.

DioNYSius Periegetes.

In far remote times a number of Tyrians were bidden
by an oracle to go and settle by the pillars of Hercules.
The scouts who were despatched at first landed at
Sexi, east of the Straits, but their sacrifices were not
propitious. A second attempt, on an island outside

* Greg. Turon. Dc glor. Mart. I. 91. Cf. Florez, XIII. 137,
quoting Paul. Diac. The dove, sometimes between stars, appears
often on Christian tombs (/. H. C. 102 and 366).

2 Cf. Florez, XIV. 129 ; Serv. .,'En. II. 632 ; Macrob. III. 8.

138 Gades as a Federate Town

the Straits, was also a failure, probably because the
natives were too strong. Another expedition was des-
patched, and advancing farther westwards, occupied
the long, narrow island (Isla de Leon) not far to the
south of the now dry eastern arm of the Bastis, in the
territory of the Tartessians. This was a few years
before the foundation of Utica, itself a much earlier
settlement than Carthage.^ An attempt of the Etrus-
cans to settle in the district was repelled,^ and the
Gaditans developed a large export trade.

After the Carthaginian conquest, Gades declined for a
time, but perhaps attained its greatest prosperity in the
earlier days of the Roman occupation. In 212 the centurio
primipilus L. Marcius, who took the place of the dead
generals the Scipios, made a treaty of friendship with
Gades ; and at the close of the war the citizens claimed
their freedom as never having been conquered by Rome,
a claim admitted by the Senate. In 78 B.C. a formal
fcedus was made, and confirmed by the Senate, requiring,
among other things, that no member of either com-
munity should be admitted to the citizenship of the
other without the sanction of the public assembly of
the original state. About this time Gades became the
head of a conventus.

Cassar had many associations with the place. As
quaestor he had here a mysterious dream, which was
interpreted as promising the chief power at home;
as praetor he gave to the city, which had hitherto
been ruled by suffetes, and observed, as Cicero says,
Poenorum iura, something of a Roman organization. In

1 Strab. III. s, 5 ; [Arist.] De Mirab. 134 ; Veil. I. 2.
* Diod. V. 20.

Wide Expansion of its Commerce 139

the civil war it suffered much from the Pompeian legate
Varro, who removed the temple treasures. Caesar had
these restored after his success in the Ilerda campaign,
and procured the grant of municipal rights;^ the first
example of such a concession to a town outside Italy in
which no Italian settlers had been incorporated. It
belonged to the Galerian tribe, and received the title of
Urbs Julia Gaditana, and under Augustus that of
Municipium Augustum.

Gades had absorbed much of the trade of Carthage
after the destruction of the latter in 146 B.C. Many
Greeks came to settle, and even early in the empire
it retained almost the whole Atlantic trade of both
continents. The richer merchants sent out large
vessels, the poorer small, which were called from
the Phoenician emblem on the prow, ' Horses.' These
went down the African coast as far as Guinea on
fishing and trading expeditions, and on the north
their voyages extended to Gaul and Britain. There
was much trade with Rome, especially in corn, fish,
and the produce of the African coast, and rich
Gaditans were to be found travelling in all parts
of the Mediterranean. The story in Pliny of the
citizen who came cill the way to Italy in order to
see Livy is familiar ; and silver vessels inscribed with
the names of Gaditans, probably as thank-offerings
after a cure, have been found at the famous spa of
Thermae Aurelia; (Vicarello) in Etruria.

The city was looked on as a home of Oriental luxury,
and not exempt from the demoralizing influences which
often sheltered under the protection of Semitic religions.
' Dion C. 41, 24.

140 Luxury of the Inhabitants

Spanish dancing girls and castanet-players came from
here in numbers to Italy,^ and it was famed for music,
especially of a festive or amatory character. Thus the
gallant in Martial^ is one Cantica qui Nili qui Gaditana
susurrat, and Eudoxus in his adventurous journey along
the African coast took on board at Gades not only
physicians but fiovcriica TraiBia-Kapia.^ The modern
Andalusian title, ' Cadiz la joyosa,' is only anticipated
in Martial's Gades iocoscs.

The original town was small and came to serve
rather as a political and business centre than a place of
residence. Many of the inhabitants spent much of
their time at sea, or on the opposite mainland where
there were large municipal and private estates, and
pastures of remarkable richness. At the time of the
Augustan census Gades included one of the largest
collections of rich men in the empire, with as many as
500 of the equestrian order, more than any Italian
town except Rome and Patavium. Juba, King of
Mauritania, thought himself honoured, as Avienus
says, by holding the duovirate here as at Carthago.

The buildings most often mentioned are the arsenal
(now Puerto Real), constructed on the opposite shore
at the expense of the younger Balbus to facilitate
the construction and equipment of merchant vessels,
the temple of Baal Saturn adjoining the town, and that
of Melcarth-Hercules at the south-east end of the
island. Of the last, as indeed of the whole of this

1 Plin. Ep. I. IS ; Mart. I. 41 : ' De Gadibus improbus
magister.'

2 III. 63. Cf. VI. 71 ; Juv. XI. 162.

3 Strab. II. 3, 4.

Legends about the Hercules Temple 141

mysterious city, many wonders were told.' The god,
or rather gods, for altars existed to both the Punic
and Greek aspects of Hercules, was not worshipped
with statues, but there were in the temple two bronze
pillars eight cubits high, which shared with the
mountains of Calpe and Abile the honour of being
the real pillars of Hercules. There were one or more
ebbing and flowing wells, which acted contrary to the
tides, and a tree with branches sloping to the ground
and sword-like leaves a cubit long. When a branch
was broken milk came out ; when the root was cut,
juice of vermilion colour, believed to be the blood
of Geryon who had been buried at its foot. Splendid
sacrifices were offered in the temple, the wood of which
had lasted from its first foundation. Women were
excluded from its walls, and the worshippers wore
white linen robes and offered incense ungirt, with
bare feet and hair closely cropped. On the hearth
a fire always burned.

Nor was the favour of Melcarth to be despised. When
Gades had been attacked by a native king, Theron, and
a naval engagement was taking place, fire broke out
among the Tartessian fleet, and the few survivors de-
clared that lions had appeared to them standing on the
prows of the Phoenician ships, and their own vessels
had suddenly been consumed by rays of light such as are
represented round the head of figures of the sun-god.*

Altars were set up to old age, to poverty, art, the
year and month, representing long and short periods.

1 Strab. III. 5, 7 ; Sil. III. 20 ; Philostr. Vil. Apoll. IV. 4 ;
Polyb. 34, 5 ; Diod. V. 20.
* Macrob. I. 20.

142 Decay of Gades — Existing Remains

The citizens were in tiie habit of singing hymns to
Death ; sick persons could not die when the tide
was full, needing the submarine winds which control
the sea for their spirit to be released. Night and day
were thought to arrive with remarkable suddenness ;
and many other fables were told by imaginative Greek
travellers, who often visited Gades to inspect the
curiosities, and especially the tides, over which in-
habitants of the Mediterranean coasts never ceased to
marvel.

Under the empire its prosperity declined. New
harbours grew up on the east coast, more accessible
from Italy ; the west of Spain, Gaul and Mauritania,
could now more readily be approached by land. It
was never the see of a bishop, but was subject to
Asido, and before the Gothic conquest had almost
disappeared.^

Owing to this decay and the size and activity of
mediaeval and modern Cadiz, Roman remains are slight,
and part of the ancient site is now submerged. The
bridge connecting it with the mainland, over four
hundred yards broad and resting on forty-five arches, is
ancient in part, but much altered. Part of the road
from here to Corduba exists, and of the aqueduct which
brought water from eleven leagues away. At excep-
tionally low tides the foundations of the Hercules
temple have been discerned, and many subterranean
monuments are discovered from time to time, with gold
ornaments, rings, or necklaces ; occasionally, too, sarco-

1 Avien. Or. Mar. 273 : ' Nunc egena nunc brevis Nunc destituta
nunc ruinarum agger est. Nos hoc locorum prjeter Herculaneam
Solennitatem vidimus miri nihil.'

Coinage — Distinguished Natives 143

phagi in human form, according to the Phoenician
fashion.

The earlier coinage has on the obverse the head
of Hercules, on the reverse an astronomical symbol or
fish. Roman issues retain the head, but add the names
of Augustus or Agrippa, and have as the usual symbol the
naval Aplustre, and sometimes the four columns of the
Hercules temple.

Among the natives of Gades were Moderatus, a
Pythagorean philosopher, whose works were still studied
at a late date ; Canius Rufus, credited by Martial with
extraordinary dexterity in every kind of poetry, whether
traged}', fable, or burlesque, and a neighbour of Pliny
the Younger, who describes his fine villa at Comum ;
Columella the agriculturalist ; and the two Balbi, uncle
and nephew. The elder of these, who had the honour
of having Cicero as an advocate, was, like a fellow-
townsman, Hasdrubal, enfranchised by Pompey, on the
recommendation of Caesar and Lentulus, in considera-
tion of his services to the republic by land and sea.
Gades was then on very friendly terms, had sent corn
to Rome at a time of dearth, and procured many benefits
through Balbus. As, however, he had received no
formal sanction at home of his acceptance of Roman
citizenship, the validity of the latter might be disputed.
In 56 certain Gaditans were suborned by enemies of
Pompey to accuse Balbus, but Cicero's eloquence ap-
parently procured an acquittal. He held the position of
prcsfectus fabrum in Caesar's army, possessed a Tusculan
estate, and was a man of wealth and learning. The
first consul of provincial origin (40 B.C.), Balbus wrote
on Caesar's life, and contributed some to the collection

144 The Younger Balbus — Italica Founded

of letters preserved under Cicero's name. At Rome he
erected a fine theatre, opened with pubHc spectacles in
the presence of Augustus, and having adjoining baths
adorned with alabaster ; and he bequeathed a general
distribution of money to the citizens.

The younger Balbus, enfranchised with his uncle, was
the first and (except for emperors) the last provincial to
celebrate a triumph. After his successful expedition
against the Garamantes (19 B.C.) he was proconsul of
Africa, and conferred several benefits on Gades, not
only adding the arsenal, but constructing a second and
adjoining town. Like his uncle, he produced some
literary works, including a historical play drawn from
events in his own life, which was exhibited at Gades in
the course of public entertainments provided by him as
qusstor.^

Italica.

' Donde nacio aquel rayo de la guerra
Gran padre de la patria, honor de Espafia,
Pio, Felice, Triunfador Trajano,
Ante quien muda se postro la tierra.
Donde de Elio Adriano,
De Teodosio divino
De Silio Peregrine
Rodaron de marfil y oro las cunas.'

RiOJA.

Italica, the oldest Roman settlement in Spain, was
founded in 206 B.C. with veterans from Scipio's army
about two leagues from the native town of Hispalis, and
on the farther or western bank of the Bsetis. The
district was still called Talca in the eighteenth century,

* Cic. Fam. 10, 32.

History and Distinguished Natives 145

but the city which had long decayed disappeared under
Moorish rule, and is now represented by the insignifi-
cant village of Santiponce. This is often called by the
country people Sevilla la vieja, similar titles being
elsewhere applied to ancient ruins in the vicinity of
large towns, though in this case Seville is much the
older foundation of the two.

In its earlier years Italica had no definite political
organization, and was only a Viciis civium Romanorum.
By the age of Cassar, in which period more veterans were
settled, it was a niunicipiuni, and became the occasional
residence of the governor of Baetica. Gellius ^ refers to a
petition from the citizens to the senate that colonial rights
might be conferred on Italica. This was opposed by
Hadrian, who, as a student of antiquity, considered a
municipality the more honourable community. Inscrip-
tions, however, refer to a Colonia Italiccnsis in provincia
BcBtica, and the town is sometimes called ^lia Augusta,
which suggests that Hadrian, who greatly honoured and
enriched his birthplace, eventually granted the request.
He traced his descent from one of the original veterans,
a native of Hadria in Picenum, and was almost certainly
a native of Italica, like his predecessor.

Another Italicensian of the period was Csecilius
Tatianus, chosen by Trajan to be his controller of the
fiscus. The family of Theodosiiis also belonged here, and
Spaniards have been eager to claim the epic poet Silius
Italicus as a native. His cognomen would not of itself
be a strong argument, as the usual adjectival form is
Italicensis. The name Italicus occurs frequentlyin Spain,
as in other provinces, but would hardly be applicable to a

1 16, 13.

146 Silius Italicus — Roman Remains

citizen of Roman descent residing in Italy. The style
of Latin adopted by Spanish writers of the early empire
differs so slightly from the classical standard of the age,
that the language of Silius affords no assistance in
determining his origin. The minute care, however,
with which he describes the habits of remote Iberian
and Celtiberian tribes, and his diligence in quoting any
legends connected with the foundation of Spanish cities,
suggest that, if not a native, he had travelled widely in
Spain, and studied many authorities on its history.

The date of the introduction of Christianity is un-
certain, but the neighbouring Hispalis long resisted the
faith, only receiving a bishop towards the end of the
third century. The basilica of a bishop Gerontius was
visited by a pious traveller Fructuosus in the seventh
century, but the legend describing the persecution of
Gerontius does not necessitate any earlier date for his
tenure of the see than the reigns of Decius or Valerian.
Late in the empire Italica fell into complete ruin, but
was temporarily restored by Leovigild (584) during the
rebellion of Hermenigild, in order to harass the Roman
garrison of Seville.^ Much of the site is occupied by
an olive ground, from which cornices, capitals, bases,
and statues (including a fine figure of Diana) have been
excavated. Foundations of temples and thermae have
also been found ; but the most perfect building is the
Amphitheatre,^ probably erected, in part at least, at
Hadrian's expense, an elliptical building of stone and

* Joh. Bid. (M. H. G. XI. 216) : ' Muros Italicag antiquae civitatis
restaurat quse res maximum impedimentum Hispalensi populo
exhibuit.'

^ Florez, X. 228, gives several illustrations.

Coinage — Site of Tarraco 147

strong cement, a short distance to the north. There
are fifteen tiers of seats, each 2 feet high, without any
division to separate the classes of spectators. The
building rests on arches, and is reached by a covered
alley.

Coins exist with the heads of Augustus, Livia,
Tiberius, Germanicus, and Drusus, and most have the
legend permissu August i. Reverse designs include the
legionan,' eagle, the standard, and the empress Livia
seated. Some examples have the names of Italica and
Bilbilis on opposite sides, suggesting some commercial
league between these towns.

Tarraco.

' Capite insigni despectat Tarraco pontum.'

Paulixus.

Tarraco, the usual landing-place of governors and
troops arriving from Italy, and in the earlier period
the chief city of Roman Spain, stands on a rocky hill
over 500 feet high, overlooking the sea, and com-
manding the whole country between the Ebro and
Pyrenees. It lay in the territory of the Cessitani — a
tribe whose capital, Cissa or Cissis, is mentioned by
the historians ; and a number of Iberian coins from it
are preser\ed. Though Pliny and Isidore say that
Tarraco was founded by the Scipios, a native town
had already existed on the site. Walls of huge un-
shaped monoliths have been found belonging to the
earlier settlement, as well as a second wall of the
Roman age, with Iberian inscriptions on squared
stones.

148 Tarraco as a Colony — Its Inhabitants

Tarraco was first occupied in 218 B.C. by Cn.
Scipio, who had defeated the Punic general Hanno in
the neighbourhood, and through the war it was the
usual starting-place for expeditions into southern Spain.
The Romans extended the early hill fortress to the sea
a mile distant, and it became henceforth an important
military station, giving ready access to the north-
western districts, and by the coast to Gaul. In spite
of the want of natural anchorage, it was the Spanish
port most easily reached from Italy. Either Csesar or
Augustus, more likely the former, granted colonial
rights, with the title ' Colonia Julia Victrix Trium-
phalis.' An artificial harbour was constructed, and it
became not only the head of a judicial conventus of
forty-three towns, but from the time of Augustus the
official capital of the Hither province. Latin inscrip-
tions are nearly five hundred in number, far in excess
of those of any other town.

Tarraco had a mild climate, serving as a winter
resort for those who disliked the cold of the moun-
tainous interior.^ Romans, who for various reasons
found it desirable to leave Italy, sometimes settled
here, as C. Cato, grandson of the censor, after his
conviction for extortion in Macedonia. Rich people
readily welcomed guests, as the owner of the house to
which was attached a marble tablet inviting all comers
to take advantage of his hospitality.^

The population was of a very mixed character, but
native Iberian names become rare after the Augustan

1 Mart. I. 49, 21.

^ 4284. ' Si nitidus vivas, eccum domus exornata est ;
Si sordes, patior, sed pudet hospitium.'

History under the Empire 149

age. A Greek grammarian is mentioned in the in-
scriptions, several Italians and Gauls, and some
Africans. The African historian, Florus, was at one
time a resident, and has left an enthusiastic descrip-
tion of the city, omnium earum qua ad quieteui eliguninr
gratissinia? Here Augustus rested after the fatigues
of the Cantabrian war, and received embassies from
far eastern peoples. In the Flavian age a detachment
of the Legio Septima Gemina was stationed at Tarraco
— a legion raised in Spain by Galba — and a special
official, pmfedus murorum, was charged with the care
of the fortifications. Hadrian wintered here, convening
an assembly of provincial notables, and here he was
attacked by a madman while walking in his host's park.
He restored the Augustus temple, which was again
almost ruinous by the end of the century.

The chief article of export from ' Tarraco vitifera ' *
was wine, as at the present day, as well as flax, and
the various products of the potter's art ; but the
country was not as rich as Bsetica, and lacked mineral
wealth.

Tarraco never recovered from the harrying which it
received from German tribes in the third century, and
much of its commercial importance passed to Barcino
(Barcelona), which stood in closer proximity to the
main entry into Spain ; while the seat of government
was transferred, at least for a time, to Csesaraugusta.

The architectural monuments seem to have been very

fine, especially the palace and the altar dedicated to

Augustus and Rome, to which a temple was added

under Tiberius. The altar appears on the local

^ Flor. Vcrg. orat. an poda. " Sil. III. 369.

150 Temple of Augustus and other Buildings

coinage, and to it was ascribed the miracle of the
palm-tree springing out from it, which gave Augustus
the occasion for a humorous reply to the gross adula-
tion of the citizens.^ It is represented on coins as a
large square building adorned with bucrania and festoons
of oak-leaves. On the front were shield and spear, re-
calling the Cantabrian campaign. The palm sometimes
appears as well. The temple stood on high ground,
probably on the site of the present cathedral, and had
eight pillars in front, with a terrace reached by an
open staircase of great width. Within stood a statue
of Augustus wearing crown and sceptre, and on his
right hand a Victory.^ Of this temple are preserved
the dedication stone, a marble altar, some friezes with
good reliefs, and the great bell which was rung by the
sacristan (nuntius senior) to convene the body of slaves
charged with performing the rites of the temple.
Cacabulus, with which it is inscribed, seems to be a
provincialism for ' bell,' pointing to the origin of the
modern Castilian cascabel.^

In addition to the ordinary Roman deities, such as
Venus and Minerva, we read of shrines of Isis, the
Provincial Genius, Circe, and the African Cselestis. To
the east of the city are traces of the Circus Maximus,
500 yards by 100, with rows of seats in three divisions,
and beneath arches leading to offices and stores. Two
enthusiastic epitaphs on the charioteers who performed
here are preserved.* In one case there is a carving of
the deceased Eutyches, standing and holding the palm
of victory. At the end of the long Latin panegyric on

1 Quint. VI. 3. 2 cf. Hermes, I. no.

^ B.A.H. 25, 41 « 4314-S.

Circus, Amphitheatre, and Aqueduct 1 5 1

the other, Fuscus, the Greek artificers have added one
line in their own language, prophesying that future ages
shall speak of the exploits of that hero of the Blue
faction ; a prophecy that has been fulfilled by the inclusion
of the epitaph in both the Greek and the Latin Corpus.

On the south of the Circus was the amphitheatre,
where Bishop Fructuosus suffered, built of cement
so hard as to be unbreakable by picks. Outside,
it had two tiers of arches, and within, fifteen tiers of
seats, holding about 30,000 spectators. Traces of a
theatre were found in 1SS5, but nearly destroyed at the
time. It was semicircular in the Doric style, of hewn
stone and rubble, and had thirteen tiers of seats cut in
the side of a rocky hill.^ It doubtless witnessed the
mimes of the local dramatist jEm. Severianus.^

Traces of fine houses, villas, and tombs, are often
discovered, and many statues, altars, and reliefs. A bas-
relief now in the cathedral represents the rape of Pro-
serpine, and includes the figures of Ceres and Mercury.
Part of the aqueduct exists (Puente de las ferreras)
between two hills to the north, on two tiers of arches.
In the district is the fine sepulchral monument known as
Torre de los Scipiones, but probably not earlier than
the Augustan age, in two stages, of large hewn stones.^

No Iberian coins of the town itself are known. Of
Roman issues, some are autonomous colonial, some
imperial with the heads of Augustus, Drusus or Tiberius.
The reverse sometimes has the initials of the official

* Cf. B. A. H. ^2, 169, where the only inscription found here is
described.

* 4092.

3 Illustrated with the aqueduct in Florez, 24, 230-8.

152 Coinage of Tarraco

title of the town (Colonia Victrix Triumphalis Tarraco)
within an oak wreath. Tarraco was the chief, perhaps
the only, Spanish mint in the third and fourth centuries.

Cean Bermudez : Stimario de las Antiguedades Romanas.

Florez : Espaiia Sagrada.

Ibanez de Segovia : Cadiz Phenicia.

HiJBNER : Die rom. Herrschaft in Wesieuropa (articles on Tarraco

Balearic islands, and prehistoric discoveries in Galicia).
Boletin de la real Academia de la Historia (for contemporary

archaeological discoveries).
P. Paris : Promenade arcUologique en Espagne (on remains at

Tarraco), Bull. Hisp. XII.

PART III.— LITERATURE
CHAPTER X

SPANISH WRITERS OF THE EARLY EMPIRE

' Duosque Senecas unicumque Lucanum
Facunda loquitur Corduba ;
Gaudent iocosre Canio suo Gades,

Emerita Deciano meo.
Te, Liciniane, gloriabitur nostra,
Nee me tacebit Bilbilis.'

Martial.

There are few materials for tracing the course of the
literary movement which developed in Baetica in the
days of Caesar and Augustus, reached later to central
and northern Spain, and expired early in the second
century. More than once, history has shown that
Spain receives the first impulse in this direction from
abroad, from Rome, Provence, France, or Italy. Such
a movement reaches rapid maturity, and decays almost
as rapidly, from an exhaustion of ideas which the orators
or poets vainly try to conceal by cleverness of language,
or by over-refinement and subtlety of thought. The three
generations of the Annsean family, the elder and younger
Seneca, and Lucan, may serve to illustrate the beginning,
maturity, and decay of such an age of literature.

The number of Spanish authors of this period is
large ; and as some, like Columella or Pomponius

153

1 54 Characteristics of Spanish Literary Eras

Mela, devoted themselves to technical subjects, others,
as Quintilian, threw off any national characteristics and
made themselves completely Roman, it may at first
sight seem difficult to find any common qualities
characteristic of their origin.

The most striking feature of Spanish literature in
later times is the strong tendency to dramatization.
Even if the vs^ork were not in a dramatic form, the
writer would strive to efface himself, and introduce
frequent speeches or lively anecdotes. He would draw
a character in a few rapid strokes, and call up a situa-
tion or a scene in the most vivid manner. Nor are
these qualities lacking in the writers of Roman Spain-
In spite of the inflated rhetoric then taught in the schools,
a rhetoric which, owing to the decay of public life, was
becoming more and more unreal and trivial, they some-
times express as much in one or two lines as an author
even of greater genius would in a page. When Lucan
says of Csesar that ' he deemed nought accomplished
while anything yet remained to do,' when Prudentius
styles the ill-fated apostate ' a leader mighty in arms, a
traitor to his God, but faithful to the state,' we have speci-
mens of this faculty for reaching the heart of things
which is most fully displayed in the epigrams of Martial.
Side by side there appear a love of minuteness in
description, with the tendency to over-elaborate minor
episodes, and an unreal pathos, which spoil the general
effect of a work ; and this is the more noticeable when
the subject is of a ghastly or repulsive character. This
impulse leads Seneca to describe with unnecessary
detail the self-blinding of CEdipus or the Thyestes feast,
Lucan to give a minute account of the appearance of a
battlefield the day after a fight. It is a Spanish poet

Evidence for Educational System 155

who sounds the depths of infamy to which Roman
society had sunk in its most corrupt period, another
who expatiates to such a degree on the physical tor-
ments of the Christian martyrs, with all their acces-
sories, as to withdraw attention from their mental firm-
ness and the nobility of the cause for which they died.

The earliest educational system to which there is
reference is the college set up by Sertorius at Osca, but
the presence of Greek colonies would introduce some
knowledge of Greek literature and philosophy, and
teachers of Greek seem to have been readily obtainable.
The grammarian, Asclepiades, who followed Pompey
to Spain, taught his art in Baetica; at the same time
collecting materials for his work on the Spanish peoples,
from which Strabo borrowed much. Nor was he
isolated. One teacher of Greek, who died at the ad-
vanced age of one hundred and one, is mentioned at
Corduba,^ another rhetor grcBcus is recorded at Gades.^
Several private tutors or psedagogi, slaves or freedmen,
and usually Greek, are referred to f most towns had
grammatici or teachers of literature,^ and in the larger
towns were rhetoricians, who would help to train
pleaders, and to some extent philosophers also. Such
teachers were usually supported by the fees of pupils,
occasionally by the municipalities ; like the public teacher
of Latin literature paid by the township of Tritium,
who died at the age of twenty-five.^ The imperial
government did little in this direction. At Italica was
a Latin school, in the ruins of which is a tile with the
first two verses of the jEiteid scraped on it, probably as

• 2236 (Domitius Isquilinus). ' 1738 (Troilus).
3 14S2 (Astigi), 1981 (Abdera).

* E.g., 3872 (Saguntum), 5079 (Asturica). « 2892.

156 Oratorical School of Corduba

the model for a writing lesson.^ Education was, in
fact, readily accepted by the Spaniards when it came
in their way, and the Latin used in non-official inscrip-
tions is fairly correct.

Latin poets appear at Corduba in the time of Cicero ;
and M. Porcius Latro, so often mentioned by the elder
Seneca, may be considered one of the founders of
scholastic rhetoric. He left Spain for Rome early in
the Augustan age, and though his language was criticized
by the purist Messala, he was greatly respected by his
pupils, who included the poet Ovid. They were even
content to sit silent and listen to him instead of de-
claiming themselves, apparently an unusual event. Yet
this same Latro, who could declaim before the emperor
himself, when he had to plead in a real case on behalf
of a kinsman in a Spanish provincial court, began with
a solecism and broke down so completely that the judge,
respecting his high reputation, consented to transfer him-
self to the rhetorician's lecture room.^

With him was associated Junius Gallio of Corduba,
also a leading orator at Rome, who opposed the growing
tendency to inflation, and with two or three others formed
a coterie which guided oratorical taste.^ Sextilius Hena,
also of Corduba, is described as an orator of unequal style,
and with a strange pronunciation, but of great abihty,
who defended Cicero against the depreciation of PoUio's
partisans.* A Spaniard of distinction residing at

1 4967.

2 Sen. Conir. IX. prasf. and II. 23. Livy is also thought to show
signs of indebtedness to Latro {Bull. Hisp. XV., 408).

» Quint. IX. 2.

* Sen. Suas. VI. 27. Another rhetorical school seems to have
existed at Tarraco, including Turrinus Clodius and Gavius Silo,
who was heard with approval by Augustus (Sen. Conir. X. praef.)

Life of Seneca the Elder 157

Rome under Augustus was the freedman Hyginus,^
who was appointed by the emperor head of the Palatine
library, and was the author of biographical, historical,
and genealogical works. The treatises on mythology
and astrology, which have come down under the name
of Hyginus, are generally referred to the Antonine
age.

Orators, poets, and other literary men, abounded at
this period, but the information about those whose works
are lost is scanty, and only the seven of whom something
important remains are here discussed, and very briefly.

Seneca, the rhetorician, was born at Corduba of a
wealthy family of equestrian rank, between 60 B.C.
and 53 B.C. His early education was in his native
town ; and he was for a time prevented by the civil wars
from going to Rome to complete his rhetorical studies,
and only arrived in the capital some time after the death
of Cicero. His teacher here was Marullus, ' homo satis
aridus,'^ and Porcius Latro was a fellow student. There
is no proof that Seneca himself was ever a professed
rhetorician ; he was a man of independent means, who,
however, devoted himself to the study of rhetoric and
to hearing the declamations of orators of every kind.
He returned to Corduba for some years, and there
married Helvia, a lady of high station, by whom he
had three sons, all men of mark. These were Annseus
Novatus, who was adopted by Seneca's friend, Junius
Gallic, and was himself an orator credited by Jerome*
with copious eloquence ; the philosopher, Lucius ; and

1 Suet. Gramni. 20.
* Cotitr. I. praef.

s Prcef. ad les. 8. Tac. (Or. 26), however, refers to ' Calamistros
Mzecenatis aut tinnitus Gallionis,' probably meaning Seneca's son.

158 Subjects of his Rhetorical Treatises

Annasus Mela, who, though of greater capacity than his
brothers, preferred the quiet life of a civil servant. The
father returned to Rome not later than a.d. 4, since he
heard Asinius Pollio when the latter was already an
old man ; and some years later addressed to his sons the
extant reminiscences of the orators of his earlier years,
besides composing a historical work now lost, which
covered the period from the outbreak of the civil war.
He was dead at the time of Lucius's banishment
in 41.

Seneca's own style and feeling are best displayed in
the prefaces to the various declamations. The form is
unaffected, and resembles more that of familiar letters
than of silver -age oratory, betokening a republican
gravity such as became an admirer of Cato. The cor-
ruption of the times is sternly condemned, the degrada-
tion of the female character, the decay of oratory, and
the suppression of free thought and speech, exemplified
by the official burning of literary works that happened
to be obnoxious to the government. Even Greek rhe-
toricians and Greek culture are not spared. The
chief value of his works is in the information about
rhetorical training, which was, in fact, synonymous
with all higher education, in the age of Augustus and
Tiberius. A man of good judgment, with an extra-
ordinarily retentive memory, he aimed at giving an idea
of the methods of argument adopted by professional
orators during the previous sixty years.

The SuasoricB refer to historical or mythological
personages, and deal with some practical point, whether
something should or should not be done, or which of two
or more alternatives should be chosen. The Controversies

Seneca's Controversies — his Style 159

are devoted to difficult legal cases. After outlining the
case they summarize the arguments used on either side.
Most of the themes seem to have been hackneyed ones,
unlikely to occur in real life, and often of an unpleasing
character, but yet such as would not rouse the hostility
of an autocratic government from too political a bearing.
In several instances a mere outline is preserved, with-
out any reference to particular orators. Though the
reports are obviously not verbatim, there is sufficient
difference of style to show that Seneca is not inventing
throughout. Collections of declamations are known to
have been in existence, and may have been utilized in
places. Two collections, attributed to Calpurnius
Flaccus amd Quintilian, and probably belonging to the
century after Seneca, have points of contact with his
Controversies.

The language of the quotations is of the epigrammatic
and declamatory type characteristic of the age — the
language which exercised a strong influence on Lucan
and the tragedies of the younger Seneca; but inter-
mixed are many digressions and personal judgments
due to the author himself, which are of real value.

Seneca the philosopher, though like his father born
at Corduba, came to Rome at an early age, and never
appears to have revisited Spain. His allusions to it are
few, the two chief both belonging to the period of his
exile in Corsica. In a treatise dedicated to his mother
Helvia he alludes to the resemblance between the
islanders and some Spanish tribes in respect to language
and costume; and in the little group of epigrams
attributed to this period there is one of some elegance,
but too self-conscious for modern taste, in which

i6o Philosophy of Seneca the Younger

Corduba is bidden to mourn for her bard imprisoned
on a desolate rock.

Seneca's life belongs to the general history of Rome,
nor is it possible to do more than allude briefly to the
manifold directions in which his literary activity
displayed itself. A moderate Stoic, free from the
paradoxes and exaggerations which characterized the
tenets of many of that school, free also from pedantry,
and a master of striking epigrammatic language and
piquant anecdote, he produced a number of popular
philosophical treatises which have been a real power
for good at all times. The absence of creative thought
and deep penetration is compensated for by a genuine
tone of religious fervour, such as is seldom found in
ancient moralists. The lofty religious and ethical
ideals which he sets before him have no relation to
the ordinary Roman anthropomorphic system. They
have far more in common with the New Testament, at
least with the earnest religious attitude which Stoicism
and other eastern beliefs were disseminating in Italy
and the west. In youth Seneca had been attracted by
the asceticism of the Pythagoreans ; and though later
he was accused of excessive devotion to wealth, he
seems to have turned with relief (always suffering as
he did from delicate health) from the luxury of a
corrupt age to study and philosophical meditation.

The language, like that of most of his contemporaries,
suffers from the general absorption in rhetoric. There
is ever present a desire to make striking points, to use
ordinary words in strange contexts, to enforce a single
idea by constant repetitions in slightly different forms ;
a tendency which Fronto compares to the feats of a

Apocolocyntosis and Tragedies i6r

juggler who plays a number of antics with the same
pebbles.^

Besides the ethical treatises and letters there are
several books on physical science {Qumstion&s Naturales),
drawn chiefly from Stoic sources, especially Posidonius,
and popular in the middle ages ; and the pasquinade on
the deification of Claudius. Like the Menippean satire,
this is in mixed prose and verse, and is a masterpiece of
bitter raillery on the emperor who had banished him,
as keen as anything in Martial, with something in its
farcical exaggeration which recalls the old Attic comedy.

The declamatory tragedies extant under the name of
Seneca, most of which are usually ascribed to the philo-
sopher owing to coincidences of thought and language,
add little to his reputation. The plots are derived
entirely from the Attic tragedians ; the language owes
much to Ovid; but the feelings of frenzy which the
cruelties and recklessness of the Neronian age evoked
are too visible throughout. The characters are hardly
distinguished; all are at the boiling-point of passion.
The Furies and Hecate are invoked on every page ;
horror succeeds horror, and all the resources of language
are exhausted to express unreal feelings. Yet the com-
mand of epigram and the cleverness displayed through-
out are those of a true artist if not a great poet, and
the form and arrangement are so perfect as to have
made Seneca the recognized model for the classical
dramatists both of France and Italy.

Lucan, the son of Annseus Mela and grandson of
M. Seneca, but named after his maternal grandfather
Acilius Lucanus, was also born at Corduba, but was

^ P. 156, ed. Naber.

II

1 62 Life of Lucan — Nature of his Works

taken to Rome at a very early age, and spent the rest
of his short life between Italy and Greece. Dying at
twenty-five by his own hand, he left a large body of
literature, of which nothing but the unfinished epic and
fragments of other poems now remains. A native of
the Patrician colony which had suffered severely at the
hands of the Csesarean faction, like other members of
the Annasan family Lucan gravitated towards the re-
mains of the senatorial order, imbibing much of the
old republican sentiment and a hatred of the new^er
order of things. The Pharsalia is thus filled with
regrets for the obsolete regime which had proved hope-
less and brought endless misery on the provinces.
Living principally at Rome, Lucan had before him the
worst aspects of the new absolutism, to which was
added the personal ill-will caused by the jealousy of
Nero, who ultimately forbade the young and aspiring
poet to declaim in public. Rich and honoured, re-
posing in the beautiful gardens which Juvenal mentions,
Lucan composed this fine series of declamations put
into the form of an epic. Lacking in continuity of
interest, in plot, hero, and conclusion, the Pharsalia
is yet a wonderful performance, the outcome of true
genius forced into premature exuberance by rhetorical
training. More deserving, as Quintilian says, of imita-
tion by orators than by poets, especially distinguished
by his aphorisms and sententicB, Lucan can turn readily
from pathos to indignation, from description to scientific
disquisitions. For his age he has a wide knowledge of
geography, astronomy, and natural history, gathered,
no doubt, from handbooks, but utihzed with judgment.
Yet so great was the exhaustion of poetical language.

Style of the Pharsalia 163

so necessary was it felt to give new turns to familiar
ideas, that Lucan is obliged to resort to the far-fetched
paraphrases, the exaggeration of language and senti-
ment, which characterize the decline of literary move-
ments in Spain. Descriptions are vigorous, and the
picturesque points in a scene are skilfully seized, but
too often wearisome catalogues or ill-timed enumera-
tions of horrors take their place. In spite of his Stoic
professions, his religion is little more than a vague
fatalism, and the divine interventions of traditional
epic are carefully avoided. Superstitions and omens
are indeed dwelt on for the sake of their literary effect,
and there are few more impressive scenes in Latin
literature than the account of Appius at the Delphic
Oracle,^ or of the necromancy of the witch Erichtho.^
In this latter scene the harmless Pluto and Hecate of
the Greeks, under the influence of far-reaching Oriental
mysticism, are transformed out of all recognition, so as
to recall the ferocious Siva himself and the cannibal
Kali with her necklace of skulls ; and the whole episode
is worthy of comparison with that witnessed on the
battlefield by the priest and the maiden in the Syrian
romance of Heliodorus.^

The sententicB praised by Quintilian are the single
weighty lines expressing some general truth, with which
Lucan sums up the bearing of a long declamatory
passage — e.g., ' Nescit plebes ieiuna timere — semper
metuet quem sseva pudebunt — vincitur baud gratis
iugulo qui provocat hostem.' These have felicity of
expression and show an aptitude for clear and pointed
language which, relieved of the load of rhetoric, finds a

» V. 120 et seq. ^ VI. 507 to end. ^ jEthiop. VI. 14-15.

1 64 Lucan's Versification — Pomponius Mela

natural vehicle in the epigram. Lucan's versification
is correct, but formal and monotonous. Vergil's variety
of pauses and his skilful use of caesura and elision give
place to the type which would win applause at a recita-
tion, the declamatory hexameter with fixed pauses,
made smooth by the avoidance of elision and irregu-
larities; a type which reappears in Juvenal and the
epics of the next generation. As a national poet
Lucan is of small account. A fresh geographical
setting is provided for almost every one of the ten
books, and the scene of the fourth, which embodies
Caesar's Ilerda campaign, is in the north of Spain. A
flood is vividly depicted, and the plight of an army cut
off from water while in full sight of it ; but the country
would not be familiar to Lucan's Baetican relatives, and
the whole episode is, no doubt, derived from historical
authors, especially Caesar and Livy.

Pomponius Mela produced his geographical treatise
about A.D. 40. He calls himself a native of Tingentera,
near Carteia, a place inhabited by Phoenicians from
Africa, and usually identified with the Julia Traducta
(Tarifa) of the coins, which was colonized from Tingi.
His description of places is very summary, and almost
limited to coast districts. The language is rhetorical,
and constructions are distorted to form epigrammatic
phrases in Seneca's manner, the style in places even
recalling Sallust ; and the author regrets the few
openings for eloquence which his theme provides.
The work was utilized by later writers, as Pliny and
Solinus, and for better known countries is fairly
correct. Mediterranean lands are first dealt with, then
those lying outside, so that Spain is twice introduced.

His References to Spain — Life of Columella 1 6 5

In some respects, as in the account of the north coast,
an advance is shown on Strabo, and the true direction
of the Pyrenees, extending in reality to the western
ocean, not ending with the Bay, is now first pointed
out. Spain abounds, he says, in men, horses, and
many metals, and is so fertile that if anywhere from
want of water it is exhausted or unhke itself, it grows
flax or esparto grass. Remote tribes are mentioned, as
the Artabri, ' still of Celtic race,' the shrine of
Egyptian Hercules at Gades, ' famed for its founders,
sanctity, age, and wealth,' the Cassiterides, and the
lesser Baleares, about which some curious details are
given. The work is a popular compendium more than
a scientific treatise, ignoring measurements and dis-
tances. The manners and customs of remote peoples
are noticed, often from authorities long antiquated,
and fabulous stories of Hyperboreans, Griffins, headless
Blemmyes, and the antipodean source of the Nile are
inserted.

Columella was born in the reign of Augustus at
Gades, and was reared by his grandfather, an expert
agriculturist, who was well acquainted with the virtues
of particular soils and the management of vineyards
and herds. He served as military tribune in Syria, and
after leaving the army settled in Italy, where he had a
number of estates in the vicinity of Rome. He was
acquainted with distinguished men, as Seneca, his
brother Gallio, and Cornelius Celsus ; but the language
of his treatise is free from contemporarj' affectation.
He had read the chief agricultural writers, had some
knowledge of philosophy and historj-, and introduces
reminiscences of the language of Cicero and Vergil.

1 66 The De Re Rustica — Quintilian's Life

Though a provincial by birth, his tone is that of
a Roman of the old school. He speaks bitterly of
the dishonesty of present-day lawyers, the dependent
position of the client, the general devotion to town life
with its circuses and theatres, instead of to cornfields
and vineyards. The work itself is written in a
clear if somewhat diffuse style, and in a language
which the very nature of the subject kept free from
many innovations. It covers the field of agricultural
activity in a very satisfactory manner, dealing with the
choice of a farm, trees, flocks and herds, birds, parks
for various kinds of animals, even the duties of the
Vilica, or farmer's wife. One book on gardening
is in verse, in imitation of the Georgics, but the writer
makes no great claims for it, being satisfied if it
does not disgrace his prose. It presents few striking
features ; the ornaments introduced are of a familiar
kind, and the point of view is that of the practical
agriculturist rather than of the admirer of natural
beauty.

The five writers hitherto considered were natives
of southern Spain ; the two who remain, the last
that the nation produced in its short period of
literary supremacy, belonged to the north of the
Hither province, a token of the extension of Roman
culture to the ruder districts. Quintilian was a native
of Calagurris (Calahorra), a small Iberian town on the
upper Ebro. It had been the last to surrender to the
Roman troops after the suppression of the Sertorian
revolt, resorting to desperate expedients in order to
prolong its resistance ; and later received municipal
rights. Born about A.D. 35, Quintilian was brought to

His Wide Influence at Rome 167

Rome at an early age by his father who was a teacher
of rhetoric in the capital; and there he had the
opportunity of hearing some of the most distinguished
exponents of the art, such as Domitius Afer, Julius
Africanus, and Remmius Palasmon. He returned for a
few years to Calagurris, practising as a lawyer and
teaching rhetoric, and attracted the notice of Galba,
the legate of the Tarraconensian province. He accom-
panied that emperor to Rome, and soon became a
celebrated pleader, one of his speeches being on behalf
of the Jewish queen Berenice. In 79 he obtained
an endowment from Vespasian as the first official
teacher of rhetoric, retiring about ten years later.
From Domitian he received the consular insignia, and
was appointed tutor to members of the imperial family,
repaying the emperor with some ill-deserved flattery.
His later years he devoted to the extant treatise on the
training and equipment of an orator.

For twenty years Quintilian was the leader of literary
taste at Rome, and. an acknowledged authority on
education ; nor is it fanciful to attribute to his influence
the refinement and nobility of feeling which character-
izes the next generation. Pliny and many of his corre-
spondents, Tacitus, Trajan, and Hadrian, had all grown
up under the influence of a character which induces
even Juvenal to single out Quintilian as the example of
a severe and honourable man in an age of utter degrada-
tion.^ The expressed object of his work is to recall
to higher standards the art of speaking, corrupted and
warped by every kind of fault.'' Oratorical handbooks
composed by men who had grown up in the school
1 Sat VI. 175. 2 jnst. Or. XI. 125.

1 68 Antonius Julianus — Fortune-Hunters

of Seneca and exaggerated its defects, were unprac-
tical, and full of pedantic subtleties. The orator must
above all things be a good man, must not knowingly
uphold the worse cause, must study all that is good in
literature, both Greek and Latin, Cicero more than any.
As with other Spanish writers of the day, Quintilian
shows no traces of a provincial origin. His language,
though not exempt from the faults of the Silver age,
is remarkably pure. On one occasion when he quotes
a provincialism, he is careful to add that he has merely
been told that it belonged to Spain. ^

Quintilian's place as an arbiter of taste was to some
extent taken by Antonius Julianus, who was also of
Spanish birth, and is praised by Gellius for eloquence
and familiarity with ancient literature. Another orator
and poet was Voconius Romanus of Valentia, of whom
Pliny says: ' He writes epistles such that one would
think the Muses themselves were speaking Latin.' ^

The high position attained by such persons at Rome
induced others of their countrymen to dream of great
riches to be gained there, often to be bitterly disil-
lusioned; such as the Spaniard Tuccius, who turned back,
after coming as far as the Milvian bridge, on hearing how
paltry a dole was all that clients could expect.^ The
less successful would be liable thus to sink to the ignoble
position of parasites of the richer citizens, and be com-
pelled to live by their wits.

Valerius Martialis, of Bilbilis, now Calatayud, near
Cassaraugusta, is an example of how a brilliant wit,

' I- 5> 57 : ' Gurdos ex Hispania originem duxisse audivi.'

2 Ep. II. 13, 7.

3 Mart. III. 14.

Life and Style of Martial 169

facility, and real poetical genius, were insufficient to
raise a poor man above a mean and dependent position.
He was a member of a poet's club at Rome, which
included several Spaniards ; one of the most popular
was Canius Rufus of Gades, a witty raconteur always
full of high spirits, of whom Martial says that, though
Ulysses may have deserted the Sirens, ' what would
surprise me would be that he should leave Canius
behind.' Decianus of Emerita was a poet, Greek
scholar, and stoic; Maternus of Bilbilis a knight and
orator, who neglected Martial when he became rich.
Valerius Licinianus was a lawj'er of note ; and Lucius
of Bilbilis, a poet, is invited to celebrate their native
town, ' excelling,' Martial says, ' in cruel iron, engirt
by the Salo that tempers the sword.' ^

Martial's epigrams cover a great variety of subjects.
Many are deeply pathetic, with that dwelling on the
idea of death which was characteristic of ancient Spain.
Others are amusing vers de socidte, of but transitory'
interest. Others display the satiric vein, the biting
humour which marks many Spanish writers, such as
Juan Ruiz, archpriest of Hita, in his satire on the proud
and poverty-stricken nobles, the corrupt priests, and
dishonest servants of the middle ages. Coarse and
servile though Martial undoubtedly is, these qualities
are partly redeemed by the recognition, never long con-
cealed, of the hollowness and artificiality of city life, and
the desire to refresh himself, if not in his native village,
at least in a rural part of Italy. At last, after over
thirty years of the enervating and embittering life of
Rome, he returns to Bilbilis, and, through the generosity

' IV. ss.

170 His Later Years in Spain

of a lady admirer, Marcella, receives a small estate which
enables him to be independent for his few remaining
years.

However much disillusioned, the poet yet could not
repress some vexation at the dulness of his fellow-
townsmen, with whom ill-will took the place of criti-
cism.^ His muse too was stifled by his absence from
theatres, libraries, and places of public resort, and he
came to realize that epigrams were in reality dictated
by the audience rather than evolved by the poet. Yet
he feels a certain pride in Bilbilis, ' famed for horses
and iron,' and loves the dances and festivals of the
villagers, the bowers of twining roses, the oak-groves
where the country people worshipped.

One toga would last four years, so seldom was it
needed ; the neighbouring place-names are too harsh
and barbarous to be well treated in Latin verse. The
poet would sleep till past nine o'clock, and would then
watch the bailiff serving out rations to the farm-hands,
and his wife loading with pots the fire fed with oak-logs
from the neighbouring grove. He enjoys the shadow of
interlacing vines, green even in winter, the fountains,
dovecote, and eel-pond on the estate given by Marcella.^
As with Theocritus and many writers of pastorals,
Martial, the poet of a city life as corrupt as the world
has ever known, shows the truest appreciation of rustic
sights and sounds.

What, then, was the intellectual condition of the
Spanish people in the early empire ? Had the brigands,
the troglodytes, the sacrificers of human beings, evolved
into a nation of rhetoricians, philosophers, and poets,

I XII. praf. 2 XII. 18 and 31. C/. I. 49, IV. 55.

Education Limited to the Towns 171

with their auditors and readers ? How, then, can we
explain the outburst of ignorance and superstition which
in the fourth and following centuries lowered the noblest
religion to a level hardly above that of heathendom, the
fierce intolerance which speedily turned the persecuted
into persecutors ? What would QuintiHan have said of
the miraculous passage of the body of Santiago from
Palestine to Compostella ? What would have been the
opinion of the author of the De dementia on the execu-
tion of Priscillian and Euchrotia ?

The answer may be that, as a result of misgovern-
ment and loss of trade, learning had declined somewhat
in the larger towns, while the vrave of Orientahsm in
the Antonine age contributed to the subordination of
reason to blind faith. Spain was not, however, a land
of large towns ; the little pueblo, with a few hundred
agricultural or mining inhabitants, was the typical
community. It had no municipal organization ; the
Romans ' attributed ' it to a larger centre, which would
mean in practice that, except for the occasional visits
of the tax-collector, it was left to manage its own affairs
under a locally elected headman. No grammaticus or
rhetor would think it worth while to set up his school
here ; no inscriptions would remain to attest the purity
of its Latin. While the cosmopolitan population of
Tarraco applauded the Blues and Greens of the Circus,
ajid the citizens of Emerita were studying the evolutions
of Salamis or Actium in their splendid Naumachia, the
villagers, like Martial's neighbours, would be content
with rustic dances, hunting, or competitions in javelin-
throwing. Roman dominion meant hardly more to
them than English rule does to remote Indian villages.

1/2 Country Parts Little Romanized

When Nero won his Olympian victory, orders came to
some Bsetican aldeanos that there should be public
rejoicings. The command was duly performed, but the
only impression left on the mind of the villagers was
that the emperor had won a battle over some people
called Olympians.

As the towns decayed, this class, always the real
strength of the population, came to the front. In-
stead of the artificial product of an alien civilization,
we have now the feelings and beliefs of the average
provincial. While Seneca and Quintilian were unin-
telligible to the great mass of their fellow-country-
men, the mysterious legends, the miraculous lives of
saints and martyrs, evolved among and for the people,
satisfied their love of the marvellous, and formed what
is in a manner a truer expression of national feeling
than the literary output of the Silver age.

Dill : Roman Society from Nero to Aurelius (chapter on L. Seneca).
NiSARD : Poetes Latins de la Decadence.

RiBBECK : Geschichte der Romischen Dichtung, III. (Stuttgart, 1892).
SiMONDS : Themes treated by the Elder Seneca (Baltimore, 1896).
Barbaret : De Columellce vita et Scriptis (Nantes, 1887).
Genthe : De M. Lucani vita et Scriptis.
Heitland : Introduction to Haskins's Lucan.
Peterson : Introduction to edition of Quintilian X.
BuNBURY : Ancient Geography, II. 23 (Pomponius Mela).
BUDINSZKY : Die Ausbreiiung der lat. Sprache, pp. 61-77.
La Ville de Mirmont : Les d/clamafeurs espagnols au temps
d'Augusle et de Tibere {Bull. Hisp. XII.-XV.).

CHAPTER XI

CHRISTIANITY AND ITS INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE

E^paios KcXfTot fie nais, fiaKdp€(riTt.v dvao"0"ci)v,
rdvSf dofAov TTpoXiTTcXv Koi *A(5off av6is iKctrBai,

Oracle ofAf^oIIo at Delphi.

' Idola protero sub pedibus
Pectore et ore Deum fateor ;
Isis, Apollo, Venus nihil est,
Maximianus et ipse nihil.'

Pruden'tius.

There is little doubt that Christianity was introduced
to Spain through Jewish communities established in
the trading towns of the coast, but the origin of these
communities is uncertain. The Jews of the middle
ages invented a number of fantastic legends about
prehistoric Hebrew settlements, partlj', it seems, to
exonerate their own ancestors from any share in the
guilt of the Crucifixion. Worthless as are such
legends, it is not impossible that some Jews, speaking
a ver}' similar language and inspired by a like spirit of
commercial enterprise, joined in the Phcenician colonies
of the south. From early in the empire — perhaps
from the banishment of Jews from Rome by Claudius —
they were well established, as St. Paul's intention of
visiting Spain would suggest. Both \^espasian and
Hadrian settled prisoners here. Jewish coins dis-

173

174 Traditional Visit of St. Paul

covered near Tarraco imply a colony in that city, and
Spain is mentioned both in the Talmud and Midrashes.
The earliest monument however, the grave of an infant
Jewess at Abdera, is not earlier than the third century.^
At this period they increased so fast as to attract the
attention of the Ecclesiastical Council of lUiberis
(Granada), which was attended by the bishops of
many towns, such as Corduba, Hispalis, Toletum,
and Caesaraugusta, where Jewish communities existed.
This forbade not only intermarriage between Christians
and Jews, but living or even eating with the latter, or
the blessing of the produce of their fields. Under
Constantine the perversion of a Christian became a
penal offence, but there was no organized persecution
before the later Gothic age.

Both Clement of Rome and the early Muratorian
fragment state that St. Paul carried out his design of
visiting Spain, but the places visited and the length of
his stay are quite uncertain. Tradition suggests that
he landed at Gades, and passed Hispalis and Astigi
(now Ecija, where the Church still claims him as
patron) on his way to the east coast. After his de-
parture, the legend continues, seven bishops were
consecrated by the apostles at Rome to fill the sees to
be founded in the south of Spain. These set out on a
missionary journey under the leadership of Torquatus,
and various miracles attended their progress, such as
the sudden fall of the great bridge over the river at Acci
on their arrival during a heathen festival. This city, to
which Torquatus was appointed — the sancta et apostolica
ecclesia A ccitana — claimed to be the first episcopal see

in all Spain.

1 1982.

Spanish Church in the Third Century 175

There is no doubt that Christianity was firmly planted
in Bsetica by early in the second century, even though
stories relating to a persecution under Domitian are
apocryphal. The churches of Iberia are mentioned by
Irenseus, and Tertullian says ' all the boundaries of
Spain know the name of Christ.'^ The next group of
documents refers to the middle of the third century.
First comes a famous letter of St. Cyprian^ to the
faithful of Legio, Asturica, and Emerita, in reply to a
request for advice. This proves that there were already
bishops in northern and western Spain, not only at
Caesaraugusta, but at Leon and Asturica, which appa-
rently formed one see, and at Emerita. The two latter
had lapsed in the persecution of Decius, the first to be
felt with any severity in Spain. Secondly, come the
earliest of the Acts of Spanish martyrs, those of
Fructuosus, bishop of Tarraco, who in the persecu-
tion of Valerian (258-9) was burned with two of his
deacons in the amphitheatre of the city, for refusing to
take part in the state religion.' Although Fructuosus
was the only bishop martyred in Spain under Roman
rule, his memory, like that of other early victims, was
less elaborately celebrated than the martyrs of subse-
quent persecutions, who lived at a time when saint-
worship was spreading.

No other bishop of Tarraco is mentioned till the reign
of Theodosius, so that the see probably remained long
vacant after the terrible Prankish inroad. Whether any
had preceded Fructuosus is uncertain, but the size and
importance of the place would make it probable. In the

1 Adi: hid. VII. ' Ep. 67.

^ Ruinart, p. 264 ; Prud. Peristeph. VI. ; Aug. Scrm. 273.

176 Growth of Episcopal Sees

same persecution perished Cyprian of Carthage, whom
the Spaniards revered as much as if he had been a
countryman/ and Laurence, a native of Osca, who
suffered at Rome in 259, and is duly celebrated by
Prudentius. Relief came from an unexpected quarter.
The persecuting Valerian, a prisoner among the Persians,
died amidst circumstances of the greatest ignominy.
His feeble son Gallienus, threatened by a host of usurpers,
withdrew his father's edict, and allowed the Christians
to use their churches and cemeteries undisturbed.

For a generation the Church enjoyed peace, and
its internal organization rapidly developed. Nineteen
bishops took part in a council at the beginning of the
fourth century, chiefly from Bsetica, with three or four
from the west and north ; and Arnobius {circa a.d. 300)
refers to innumerable Christians as living in Spain and
Gaul. The existence of a bishop is not of itself a proof
of any large congregation. In early days the diocese
and parish were almost synonymous ; the bishop was
assisted by a body of deacons, usually seven, distin-
guished by white stoles, and, like a parish priest,
received the tithes. Even after the conversion of
the empire, pagans were in a large majority, nor was
the Church really strong or supported by Christian
governors till the days of Valentinian and Theodosius.

In the earlier period services were held in private
houses, but churches began to be common towards the
end of the third century, as implied by the canons of
the Council of Illiberis, which itself met in a church.
A decree of Honorius a century later, transferring

^ Cf. Prud. Peristeph. XIII. 3 : 'Est proprius patrias sed amore
et ore noster.'

Persecution of Diocletian I'jj

heathen temples to the Church, has led to the pre-
servation of some of these, much altered, to the present
time.

The last and greatest trial still awaited the faithful,
the terrible persecution of Diocletian and Maximian.
The first edict was directed against soldiers who re-
fused certain heathen observances, and this led to the
executions of two Christians of Legio, Chelidonius and
Emeterius, natives of Calagurris, whose praises are
celebrated by Prudentius. Of later edicts, one ordered
the imprisonment of all clergy who continued in their
faith ; another permitted them to be released if they
consented to offer sacrifice ; the fourth prescribed the
death penalty for all Christians who remained obdurate.
To enforce this, Dacianus, governor of Tarraconensis,
arrived from Gaul, and visited all the chief towns. All
contributed their quota to the roll of martyrs, who
perished amidst fearful tortures, defying their perse-
cutors, and inspired by the stoical endurance which
has seldom failed Spaniards in the face of death.
Victims are recorded at Gerona, Barcino (where the
African Cucufat suffered), Caesaraugusta, Complutum,
Toletum, Valentia, Emerita, Astigi, and in the dis-
trict though not the city of Gades. The activity of
Dacianus was not limited to his own province, but the
governors of Bastica and Lusitania are both referred to
in the Acts as taking a part. The persecution lasted
for only about a year (304-5), for the resignation of the
emperors involved the departure of Dacianus ; and the
only effect of their cruelties was to unite the Christians
into a powerful political party, who were able, when
a series of fatalities had brought their oppressors to

178 Council of Illiberis

miserable ends, to turn the scale in favour of the
candidate for the throne who was prepared to grant
toleration.

The Church, having surmounted its greatest danger,
had to provide regulations for the guidance of its
members, especially in relation to their heathen fellow
subjects. A council accordingly met at Illiberis in
Bastica about a.d. 306 under the presidency of Felix,
bishop of Acci. Too violent a break with the past was
not desired. Unnecessary braving of martyrdom was
condemned, and those who were executed for casting
down idols were not to be esteemed martyrs. Christians
who held the duovirate, an office involving some
conformity with heathendom, were not to enter a church
before their duties were ended. Christians were for-
bidden to enter temples, to marry their daughters to
heathens or Jews, to become flamens, to take part in
sacrifices in the Capitoline temples, or to celebrate
public games. Images and pictures were not to be
used in churches, a token that idolatry was already
creeping in again ; idols as far as possible were to be
removed from private estates. Pantomimists and
charioteers were to be excluded from the community
unless definitely renouncing their calling ; bishops and
priests were to abstain from commerce, and remain
unmarried, a regulation which, though disapproved of
by the Nicene congress (325), was reaffirmed by the
council of Toletum in 400.

The energetic Hosius of Corduba, who was probably
the guiding spirit at the council, may have helped to
organize the hierarchy which appears in the course
of the fourth century, apparently in connection with

Degeneration within the Church 179

the new provincial organization. Before this time
there was no metropolitan in Spain, no authority to
whom the individual bishops could look for guidance,
whence we may explain the appeal to Cyprian already
referred to. Six Spanish bishops took pait in the
council of Sardica (343), probably representing the new
divisions of Spain, and before the end of the century
archbishops are found at Hispalis, Tarraco, Asturica
(for the Gallaecian province) and Emerita. For central
and south-east Spain the metropolitan see was fixed
eventually at Toletum, and a Balearic bishop first
appears in 418.

The history of the Church in this period is largely
an account of the struggles first with Gnosticism which
was strong in northern Spain, then with Arianism,
both really forms of Christianized heathendom. These
dangers were successfully surmounted, but within the
Church there was going on a gradual revival of heathen
practices and modes of thought. Ecclesiastical rites
took on the form of mysteries, frescoes and images of
saints were set up and worshipped, pilgrimages to
martyrs' shrines were frequent. The authorities of the
Church in many instances became worldly and self-
seeking, a laxity which evoked the protests first of the
solitary devotees or hermits, later of monachism. Two
opposite tendencies thus manifested themselves, the
admiration of the beautiful and mysterious in religion,
the love of external splendour, the celebration or
worship of great men of the past ; and again the self-
sacrifice and asceticism which mark the Iberian
character, the spirit which afterwards fired Dominic
and Ignatius, that strongly felt individuality, which

i8o Little Early Literature — Juvencus

inculcates the moral independence and individual
responsibility of every man, apart from all externals
of wealth or station. The Roman centralizing tendency
is now checked; marked differences appear between
the separate provinces, not only in doctrine but even
in such externals as the form of sepulchral inscriptions.

Christian literature is scanty before the middle of the
fourth century ; but Spain had been greatly influenced
by the mystical and intolerant attitude of the African
fathers, whose works might appear largely wasted on
their own country, a constant prey to civil disturbance
and barbarian inroads, but which were widely studied
in Spain, as Pacianus studied Cyprian and Orosius
devoted himself to Augustine. From about 330 to
the Arab invasion, there is a steady stream of Christian
writers — two, Prudentius and Isidore of Seville, men of
real genius, and all showing that, while originality was
not strongly represented, the general standard of
education was good and the Latinity pure.

Juvencus, a priest of the era of Constantine and the
first Christian poet of any importance except the African
Commodianus, has left a paraphrase of the Gospels in
hexameter verses of some merit. He chiefly follows
St. Matthew, showing some knowledge of the Greek,
but is mainly indebted to the Vetus Itala, and for the
language to Vergil, of whom he speaks with enthusiasm,*
Lucretius, Horace, and Ovid. The original is closely
followed, and little is to be learned of the poet's own
views. He looks forward to a general conflagration ;
yet those celebrated by the poets have a long life, and
poets themselves are remembered while the world lasts.
' Prcef. : ' lUos Minciadas celebrat dulcedo Maronis.'

Pope Damasus — Life of Prudentius 1 8 1

Juvencus's own work will be exempt from the fire, and
may avail to save the writer at the coming of Christ.
The metre is somewhat incorrect, the grammar has
a few archaisms, side by side with loose popular con-
structions. The style, except for some short florid
digressions,* is plain and well suited for a religious
narrative.

The only Spanish pope before the era of the Borgias,
Damasus (305-384), who gained his high position only
through unexampled violence, produced some historical
and philosophical works, and elegant little elegiac
poems on biblical subjects, which are still extant.

Prudentius, the greatest of ancient Christian poets,
was born before the middle of the fourth century,
probably at Caesaraugusta, with the history of which he
appears familiar. After practising as a lawyer, he held
official appointments under Theodosius, and was twice
governor of important towns. Late in life, he seems to
have entered some religious society, but his works are
more those of a devout and well-read layman, practical
rather than speculative, than of the professed theologian.
The collection of his poems which has come down is a
large one, and was extraordinarily popular in the
middle ages. As the Church had now triumphed, less
suspicion was felt of classical correctness in language
and versification ; and Prudentius was not afraid to
borrow from Vergil and Horace, with whom he is as
familiar as with the earlier Latin fathers, apparently
knowing little of Greek literature.

» E.g., II. 1-3 :

' lamque dies prono decedens lumine pontum
Inciderat, furvamque super nox caerula pallam
Sidereis pictam flammis per inane trahebat.'

1 82 Chief Works of Prudentius

Unlike many of the religious writers of his age, he
shows a liberal spirit towards the empire and the
higher qualities of heathen civilization. While strongly
condemning the gladiatorial shows and mocking at the
pagan philosophers, he has yet a real admiration for
ancient works of art, condemning their indiscriminate
destruction. There is also perceptible in several places
the feeling that a revival of the Roman power united
to the Church was to be hoped for and desired, while
heathenism should be left to the barbarians. The true
cause for the growth and unification of the empire had
been that the Gospel might spread more easily, though
attributed by pagans to the favour of their own deities.

From the literary point of view, the finest works are
the two hexameter books, Contra Symmachum, historical
and polemical in the main, in a fluent and classical
style, and the Cathemerinon. The latter is a collection
of hymns, partly doctrinal, but often displaying much
feeling and grace, especially the famous funeral hymn,
Ad exequias defuncti, and that in honour of the Holy
Innocents, translations of which have found their way
into most hymnals. Other poems are directed against
heretical views current in the West, such as those of
Marcion, the Sabellians and Patripassians. The best
known group, one which was widely known and
admired, especially in Spain, where it helped to en-
courage and exalt the cult of martyrs, is the Peristephanon,
The literary merit here is slight ; the language is in-
flated, the style tedious and exaggerated, the tortures
of the martyrs are described with ghastly realism.
Such qualities were not out of harmony with the
national character, and the antiquarian information

Romantic Features of the Poems 183

conveyed is often valuable ; for example the minute
account of the Taurobolium, or baptism of blood, often
referred to in inscriptions as practised by the devotees
of Cybele and Mithras, but of which little is recorded
elsewhere.* Most of the martyrs were of Spanish
origin, as Fructuosus of Tarraco, Vincent of Cassar-
augusta, and Eulalia of Emerita. Much is said about
the ornamentation of martyrs' shrines, and in the
Dittochceon of the growing custom of adorning churches
with pictures from biblical history.

In spite of his classical training Prudentius has
qualities which made him a forerunner of mediaevalism.
He tries to invest religion with a romantic interest,
consecrated by the real or supposed sufferings of the
believers of old, and attested by the witness of external
nature. The earth is invited to adorn with flowers the
cradle of Christ. The martyr is at hand to hear the
prayers of the faithful,- who return consoled after a
pilgrimage to his shrine. The Psychomachia, with its
pairs of abstract qualities matched against one another
in argument, anticipates many morality plays, with a
form of plot which lasted on in the Spanish autos sacra-
vientales far into the seventeenth century. Lastly the
exaggerated glorification, in separate poems, of the
heroism and endurance of individuals springs from the
same spirit as that which produced the Poeina del Cid
and other records of chivalry.

A contemporary of Prudentius of a very different

stamp was the ascetic bishop of Abila (Avila between

Salamanca cind Madrid), Priscillian, whose fate has a

melancholy interest as presenting the first example of

1 Pcrisicph. X. 1006. =■ Ibid., IX. 97.

184 Priscillian's Career

the execution by a Christian government of a Christian
for heretical views. Appropriately it was at the in-
stance of the countrymen of Torquemada that this
was carried out.

Priscillian was a Gallascian layman of great learning
and eloquence, rich yet abstemious, and given to vigils
and fasting. Influenced, it was asserted, by Gnostic
teachers, who derived their tenets from Syria and
Egypt, and were powerful in this part of Spain, he
began to claim authority and to gather a following
among both upper and lower classes, including many
women. The ecclesiastical rulers took alarm. At a
council held at Csesaraugusta the heretics were con-
demned by default; but Priscillian was shortly after
raised to the episcopacy by his adherents, and with
them set out for Rome to appeal to Pope Damasus.
In their journey through Gaul they made many con-
verts, one the wealthy widow Euchrotia,^ a resident of
the Burdigala district. At Rome nothing was done,
Damasus refusing to see them; but at Mediolanum the
heretics were more successful. Gratian, as a result, it
was alleged, of bribes given to a court official, issued
an edict ordering their readmission to their respective
churches.

The malice of the persecutors still continued, and on
the appearance of a tyrant in Gaul, Magnus Maximus,
who was in revolt against the lawful emperor, Priscillian
and his companions were condemned by a council at
Burdigala ; and eventually some of the sect, including

^ C/. Drepanus (Paneg. Lat., ed. Baehrens, p. 297) : ' Obiciebatur
atque etiam probabatur mulieri viduas nitnia religio et diligentius
culta divinitas.'

His Death — Allegations of Gnosticism 185

the bishop himself and Euchrotia, were decapitated at
Treviri (385) ; others were banished or had their
property confiscated. The last was the main object
with the adventurer Maximus, who cared nothing for
doctrinal matters, but wished both to enrich himself
and to conciliate the powerful Spanish Church. He
even proposed to send tribunes into Spain to hunt for
heretics, who were to be known by their paleness and
the sobriety of their costume ; and was with difficulty
dissuaded by St. Martin of Tours, who strongly resented
the interference of the civil power in ecclesiastical dis-
putes. The heresy identified with the name of Pris-
cillian, but really a form of the already existing
Gnosticism, spread widely over the north of Spain and
Aquitaine. The bishop was revered as a martyr, the
other victims were solemnly buried in Spain, and an
oath by Priscillian became the most binding of all. It
was only at the council of Toletum in 400 that the
heretics renounced their errors.

While Gnostic and Manichaean views were freely
alleged against him, Priscillian was executed on clearly
fabricated charges of magic and immorality. As to the
first, until the last thirty years it was necessary to rely
on the interpretation of hostile chroniclers. Since the
discovery of twelve of his treatises at Wiirzburg in 1SS5
we are able to judge better of his real teaching. Magic
and Manichseism are emphatically repudiated, nor is
there any proof that Priscillian forbade the use of
animal food and tried to discourage or dissolve
marriages. He appears as an ascetic theosophist, much
wrapped up in revelation and prophecy, struggling for
light and peace of mind. Modern commentators have.

1 86 Evidence of his Views — The Luciferiani

indeed, found traces of Sabellian and Apollinarian
views, probably due to confusion of thought in one
who was no trained theologian. He suggests that the
three persons of the Trinity are one in Christ, and that
in the union of the Godhead and manhood in His nature
the divine soul took the place of the human. These
errors are combated in the Quicunque vult, which some
critics attribute to the period following Priscillian's
death. A similar treatise in the form of a creed, of
clearly anti-Priscillianist tendency, has recently been
restored to a Gallascian bishop Pastor {circa A.D. 450).

These subtleties would, however, be unlikely to pro-
voke such determined hostility. Like the Florentine
friar 1,100 years later, he excited the jealousy of the
ecclesiastical powers by a claim to superior enlighten-
ment and holiness. Both were betrayed to self-seeking
rulers on trumped-up charges : in the one case of magic,
in the other of sedition ; and both met the fate which
Machiavelli considers usual for unarmed prophets.^

A like harshness was shown by the Spanish bishops in
dealing with the insignificant sect of Luciferiani, which
originated in Sardinia, but under the guidance of Vin-
centius of Illiberis gained some influence in Baetica
towards the end of the fourth century. Lucifer of
Carales had broken off from the Church on the question
of readmitting to communion Arian bishops who had
renounced their errors. The inflexibility of the Luci-
feriani thus resembled that of the Novatian heretics of
a century earlier.

The universal history of Orosius {circa 417), though

1 Principe, c. VI. : ' Di qui nacque che tutti i Profeti armati
vinsero, e i disarmati rovinarono.'

Characteristics of Orosius 187

based on authors still extant, such as Suetonius,
Justinus, and the Latin Eusebius for earlier history,
and too rhetorical in places, is of value for the events
of his ovi^n time. Orosius was a priest of Bracara
in Gallaecia, who also resided in Africa and Palestine,
being acquainted both with Augustine and Jerome.
He represents the emergence of some kind of national
feeling, and the recognition of the bonds in which
his native country had so long been held by the
empire. Unlike his heathen contemporary, Namatianus
of Gaul, he has no pity for the fall of that mighty
power, no admiration for the unifying policy which,
with all its faults, it had kept steadily in view.
' Careful research,' says Orosius, ' can show no real
cause for the destruction of Carthage.' ' Let Spain
declare what she felt when she was for two centuries
moistening her fields with her own blood, her towns
pillaged, their citizens reduced by hunger to mutual
slaughter.' ' Why, Romans,' he asks again, ' do you
undeservedly claim the titles of justice, honour,
gallantry, or clemency ? More fitly would you learn
such qualities from Numantia.' At the close he
contrasts the freedom which the Spaniards now
enjoyed under their German masters with the exac-
tions and oppression of the empire. A main object of
the book is to prove that greater calamities occurred
before than after the conversion of Rome.

Latin literature continued active under the Gothic
monarchy, especially in the early years of the seventh
century, when there lived Isidore, bishop of Seville,
historian, theologian, and grammarian, the Gothic
historian, Johannes Biclarensis, besides several other

1 88 Authors of the Gothic Age

theologians and a circle of court poets, who surrounded
the enlightened king Sisebut. These did much to
keep the spoken Latin comparatively pure, preventing
the Germanic dialect of the upper classes from having
any considerable influence on the Romance language
which was to emerge in three or four centuries.

Glover : Life and Letters in the Fourth Century.

Brockhaus : A Prud. Clemens und seine Bedeutung fUr die Kirche

seiner Zeit.
Areval : Annotated edition of Prudentius.
ScHEPss : Vortrag iiber Priscillian, and edition of new treatises.
Gams : Kirchengeschichte von Spanien.
SuLPicius Severus : Chron., Bk. II.

CHAPTER XII

THE LATIN OF SPAIN

' Le latin d'Espagne se distingue par la conservation, jusqu'a
des epoques relativement recentes, de quelques formes casuelles
qui generalement ont disparu aiUeurs, et mSme de reels archaismes.'
— Carxoy.

Knowledge of the Iberian language depends on
between seventy and eighty inscriptions of the later
Republican period, on the inscribed coins of neariy
two hundred towns, divine, personal, and place-names,
and isolated words occurring in Latin authors, glosses,
or inscriptions. The alphabet used among the Iberian
tribes was the Punic, but with certain differences
suggesting rather a common origin than direct borrow-
ing, and retrograde writing was usually abandoned
for the western method. The language was rich
in vowels, as shown by the proper names, and where
they are omitted on the coins it is inferred that
Phoenician influences were at work. The dialects
of the north and west are known only from proper
names, native inscriptions being almost entirely from
the east of Spain, coins from the east and centre.
The latter seldom have any legend except the names
of one or more towns or tribes ; and no bilingual
inscriptions containing identical phrases in Latin
and Iberian have yet been discovered, so as to

189

igo Language of Celtic Tribes

facilitate the decipherment of other classes of monu-
ments.

No inscriptions dating from a time before the
introduction of Latin are preserved from the Celtic
parts, and the character of the language can only
be known from a number of personal and local names.
The latter end chiefly in -briga and -dunum, but are
often much Latinized ; and though thirty towns in
-briga are known, besides six of later foundation with
Latin prefixes, the Celtic origin of several is doubtful,
as they lay quite outside the parts occupied by Celts.
Tribal or gentile names from the Celtic districts
usually end in -cum or -quum. Though Pliny suggests
that a Celtic dialect was still spoken by some Lusi-
tanian peoples in his day, it seems to have died out
early in the empire, influencing the Portuguese and
Galician languages to a slight extent, at least as
regards the pronunciation, and leaving a few words
to modern Spanish, chiefly relating to domestic
objects.^ Inscriptions offer a few examples of Celtic
declension, such as the nominatives of proper names in
-os,^ an uncertainty between -i and -e forms in some
proper names, a possible feminine patronymic in -is, as
Placida Modestis, and the dropping of the final -m.^
This last phenomenon suggests the existence of the
Celtic nasalized vowel, which has been retained in
Portuguese as in French.

1 Berro, water-cress ; penca, strap ; perol, kettle ; manteca, lard,
are given as examples.

^ Caisaros (5762), Secovesos (2871), Viscunos (2809).

3 Annoru (B. A. H. 20, 107) ; also in gentile names in -com or
-cum. Cf. Fita, Restos de la DecUnacion Celtica (1878).

Punic and Greek Influences 191

Punic is of no importance in the Latin of Spain.
Except at Gades the Phcenician settlements included a
strong native element, and the united races readily
adopted Latin at an early date. A few local names
remained, as Gades, Abdera, Carthago, Portus Magonis,
and perhaps Asido ; and some personal names occur
in the earlier inscriptions. Phoenician lettering was
abandoned by all communities by the time of Augustus,
and Punic legends cease on the coins. Only one modern
word, naguela, is doubtfully attributed to a Punic ori-
ginal, magaJia.

In proportion to their small numbers the Greek
colonies were influential ; and Greeks continued to settle
in the commercial centres all through the empire as
musicians, doctors, or votaries of one of the different
arts enumerated by Juvenal. Their names, though
wholly Greek inscriptions are rare before the Byzantine
era, occur constantly on monuments, sometimes declined
in a non-Latin manner ; and several Greek words not
used in contemporary Italy passed into the Latin of
Spain, such as basilium^ (a kind of head-dress), cama"
(a pallet-bed), words connected with medicine as stactum,
spodiacum, or with religion and statuary, as semntis,^
bomus ;* besides others that were ignorantlj- adapted to
a Latin form, as horilegitim, tauribolium, crionis. A few
Greek words were handed on to modern Spanish, as 6elo<;
(tio), Kara in cada uno, etc. It was no doubt through such
Greek settlers that the strongly hellenized Oriental wor-
ships of Cybele and Isis were established in the province.

There is no proof of the influence of any non-

1 3386. ^ Isid. Et. 20, II.

^ B.A.H. 13, o. * Ibid., 39, 43.

192 Provincial Accent in Spanish Latin

Latin Italian dialect. The remains of Tartessian art
have some analogies to the Etruscan, and there was
probably considerable commerce in early times between
southern Spain and Etruria ;^ but the legend of the
settlement at Saguntum of a colony from the Rutulian
town of Ardea is merely due to the resemblance of
Ardea and the name of a neighbouring Iberian tribe.

References in literature to the fate of the native
dialects are inconclusive. The south and east coasts
are represented as mainly Latin-speaking by the Augus-
tan age, and the plantation of colonies in the north and
west must also have helped to disseminate a knowledge
of Latin ; just as the grant of Latin rights by Vespasian
would compel all organized communities to adopt the
language for public acts. Some passages, however,
suggest that a provincial accent was readily perceptible
in the Latin of Spaniards. Cicero, referring to the
Corduban poets patronized by Metellus, says that their
language had a coarse and foreign sound.^ The elder
Seneca affirms that Porcius Latro, a distinguished rhe-
torician of the Augustan age, could not unlearn the
emphatic and countrified mode of expression habitual
with Spaniards f while he considers that the poetry of
Sextilius Hena, a fellow-townsman of his own, deserved
the same strictures as did the prot6g6s of Metellus.*
Hadrian, also a Bsetican, at first roused laughter in
the senate when he had to recite an oration on behalf
of the emperor.^ Other passages point to the continu-

1 The Etruscan names Lucumo, Sisanna, Tarquinius, occur in
Spanish inscriptions.
^ Pro. Arch. X. 26. ^ Controv. I. 16.

* Suas. VI. 27. « Spart. Vit. Hadr. III.

Influence of Iberian on Spanish Latin 193

ance of native dialects in remoter parts. Cicero speaks
of Carthaginians and Spaniards as equally unintelligible
without an interpreter ;^ Seneca notices a resemblance
between the Corsican and Cantabrian dialects f Tacitus
mentions an Iberian of Termes on the upper Douro as
still under Tiberius using the mother-tongue f Pliny
suggests that the Celts of Lusitania were still distin-
guishable by their language ; finally Silius, who prob-
ably represents to some extent the conditions of his own
age, recalls the wild chants with which the Gallasci
went out to war.* Archaeological evidence is hardly
more decisive ; coins with Iberian or bilingual legends
cease with the Augustan age, and the few native inscrip-
tions are certainly not later than the Christian era.
Two sources of evidence remain for estimating the
extent to which the old dialects lasted on and influenced
spoken Latin : words quoted by Roman writers as being
of Spanish origin, together with strange words in in-
scriptions ; and words or inflections in modern Spanish
and Portuguese, which cannot be explained from Latin
or Arabic originals, or from the very small Germanic
element introduced by the Suevic and Gothic invaders.
Owing to the uncertainty as to the relations of Basque
and Iberian, and the extent to which Basque and
Spanish have reacted on each other in comparatively
recent times, modern Basque is no safe guide in this
inquiry.

Besides a few isolated words, such as gurdus, sarna*
(a vulgar equivalent of impetigo), celia^ (a kind of beer),

1 De Div. II. 64. " Cons. Hdv. VII.

3 Ann. IV. 45. * III. 345, X. 230.

» Quint. I. 5, 57. ^ Isid. Orig. IV. 8. ' Plin. XX. 164,

13

194 Native Words Retained — Sound-Changes

paramus^ (a plain, Sp. paramo), and disex (an Asturian
word for some kind of weapon), the native element in
the Latin of Spain seems limited to four classes of
terms: (i) Military phrases and arms, as Thieldones,
Asturcones, Veredi, kinds of horses, cetra and lancea.
Arrian observes that several cavalry terms were borrowed
by the Romans from Celts and Iberians. (2) Technical
mining terms, which are numerous, and occur not only
in Pliny, but in official documents, as the Lex Vipas-
censis : such are palagra, minium, balux, urium, apitas-
cus, scoria, talutatium. Several of these may be
Phoenician, others may have been formed in Spain from
Latin roots. (3) Some land measures, arepennis, acnua,
porca. (4) A few household words, orca (pitcher,
Sp. orza), camisia (kind of shirt, Sp. camisa), cuniculus
(rabbit, Sp. conejo).

Even in the literary language of modern Spain a con-
siderable number of words appear to have a native origin,
as, for example, galapago (tortoise), tormo (rocky peak),
sima (cavern) ; and many changes in the forms of Latin
words are probably due to Iberian influences. The native
dialects confused mediae (d, g, b) with tenues {t, k, p) ;
probably the first group were originally lacking alto-
gether. Bilbilis fluctuates with Pilpilis on inscriptions ;
Seqobrices and Segobriga, Purpecen and Burbecen,
Duriasu and Turiaso, Osicendenses,^ Ossigendenses.*
Latin words passing into Spanish underwent similar
changes, as todo, dedo (totum, digitum), iglesia, igual
(ecclesiam, asqualem), obra (operam), botiga (apothe-
cam). A liquid sound was given to ^^and fi (as nn is

^ 2660. ' 4241-

3 Pliii. III. 4, 8. Cf. I. H. C. S5, floread.

Evidence of Inscriptions 195

now written under Arabic influence) . F seems to have
been wanting, and in Latin or Germanic words was
frequently weakened to a guttural or aspirate, and
finally dropped in pronunciation altogether, as hablar
(fabulari), hervir (fervere), Hernando (Ferdinand). H in
writing begins to replace /about the ninth century, but
/ might be retained in lofty language till 1500, or even
later, as in the letter of the lovelorn Don Quijote, when
doing penance in the wilds of the Sierra Morena.^

A vowel was sometimes inserted between a mute and
/ or r in the provincial Latin, as expectara^ (spectra),
Agathocules ;* so in modern Spanish calavera (calvaria) ,
Salamanca (Salmantica). A long-standing defect of
pronunciation caused to gain something of a 11
sound; as subule* (sobole), and medial is in Spanish
very frequently corrupted into u — e.g., culebra, cumplir,
or later tie, as rueda, fuego.

Knowledge of the Latin of Spain has to be derived
almost entirely from the inscriptions. Authors like
Seneca, Lucan, and Quintilian, who had received an
entirely Roman training, throw no light on the subject,
nor is there anyone to do for Spain what Petronius did
for Italy, and Commodian and other early Christians
for Africa, and consciously adopt a popular style. The
Silver Age writers are artificial. Christian Spanish
authors appear at a late date, when a conventional
vocabulary and style had been evolved for all the
western provinces. Inscriptions, however, are not
altogether satisfactory from this point of view. A large
number were set up by Roman officials, while private

1 I. 2^, fcrido, fermosura, etc. * /. H. C. lo.

3 6107. * B.A.H. 30, 286.

196 Peculiarities of Vocabulary

monuments were often inscribed according to some
formulae included in handbooks, and after the Antonine
age they became fewer and more formal and inflated.
It is generally assumed that the Latin of Spain was
purer than that of any other province, and so far as
inscriptions are capable of proving the point, this may
be admitted. Latin came in early, before the wide
divorce between the literary and the spoken language ;
it was learned as a foreign tongue, and vulgarisms are
late in appearing. Archaisms are frequent, partly from
the natural tendency of legal and formal language to
retain old forms, partly from the number of settlements
made by Romans in the Republican period. Often
they are mere mannerisms, giving no more evidence of
the current speech than Norman-French epitaphs on
old English tombstones.

Vocabulary was little debased before the Gothic
period, when we find common words strangely misused,
as predo (enemy), queruli (mourners), natus (child),
natales (ancestors) ; but even at an earlier date a few
curious compounds occur, suggesting the work of people
experimenting with a half-understood language. Such
are altifrons, quadribacium (necklace with four jewels),
trifinium (place where three properties meet). Tarn
magnus is common for tantus, and remains in the modern
tamano. Caballus is first used in Spain as the ordinary
word for horse, without any notion of contempt, and
parallel to equa,^ just as caballo and yegua still exist
side by side. Iste and ipse (este, eje) are much more
frequent than tile and hie, even Seneca and Lucan
inclining to use iste in place of other demonstratives.

1 S181.

Fate of the Iberian Language 197

Some confusions occur in the declensions of nouns, but
on the whole the Latin of Spain was conservative ;
traces of a neuter gender even now survive, as well as
forms derived from the pluperfect of Latin, while syntax
was little debased till the eighth or ninth centuries.

In conclusion, Iberian seems to have lasted in country
districts till the fall of the Empire, but Latin was
generally understood from at least the Flavian age.
Christianity helped to develop the latter, and again
brought Spain into closer connection with Rome and
Italy. Latin was needed for communication with the
barbaxian conquerors, and Iberian probably died out
during the Gothic monarchy, not without exercising
some influence on the pronunciation and forms, though
little on the vocabulary, of the new language which was
in process of formation.

Carxoy : Li Latin d'Espagne cPaprh les Inscriptions (three parts,

words, vowels, and consonants).
HuBNER : Monumenta Lingua: Iberiar and Inscriptiones Hispania

Christian j:.
SiTTL : Lokalen VerschicdciiJteilcn dcr lat. Spradie, pp. 64-67.
Grober : Grundriss der Ronumischcn Philologic, I.
Martix : Xotcs on the Synta.\- of the Latin Inscriptions found in

Spain (Baltimore, 1909).

INDEX

Acci, no, 174, 178
Agrippa, 21, 26, 135
Alans, 46-8, 50
Antonius Julianus, 168
Architecture, 93-6
Asclepiades, 155
Assemblies, provincial, 29-30
Astures, 68
Atscina, 115-16
Athanagild, 54
Augustus, 21, 23, 32, 120
Aurelius, M., 41-2

Bffitica, 2, 4, 23, 70, 79, 81

Balbi, 143-4

Baleares, 9, 14, 35, 55, 73-6, 179

Barcino, 28-9, gg, 119, I4g, i77

Basques, 5-6, 66, 193

Bilbilis, 91, 168-70

Bracara, 22, 50, 187

Caesar, 18, 164

Csesaraugusta, 22, 149, 181, 184

Calagurris, 166-7, ^77

Cantabri, 21, 67-8

Carthaginians, 9, 138

Carthago Nova, 9, 19, 23, 65, 80,

82, III, 126-9
Cave-dwellers, 3-4, 75
Celtiberi, 5, 62, 72, in
Celts, 5, 7-9, 109-10, 114-16, 190
Cinnabar, go-i
Classicus, 38
Claudius, 35, 161
Coins, 58, 103-6, 128, 131, 136, 143,

147. 151
Columella, 78, 80, 82, 154, 165-6

Comenciolus, 57-8
Constantinus, 46-7
Corduba, 19, 29, 31, 54-7, 91. 129-

32, 156-7
Corn, 81
Costume, 66-7
Cybele, 121-2
Cyprian, 136, 175-6, 180

Dacianus, 177
Damasus, 181, 184
Dianium, 11, 44, 120
Dyes, 78, 80, 83

Education, 155-6, 171
Emerita, 22, 121, 132-7, 183
Emperor-worship, 29. 119-:

■20, 149-

Emperor-worship, 29

50

Emporiae, lo-ii, loi, 104
Endovellicus, 114
Eratosthenes, 13
Esparto-grass, 82-3
Eulalia, 137, 183
Euric, 50

Fisheries, 80
Flax, 82
Florus, 74, 149
Fructuosus, 151, 175

Cades, 8-9, 17, 137-44. i55i 165,

191
Galba, 35-6, 113, 167
Gallseci, 71, m. nS. 184
Gallio, 34, 156-7, 165
Gladiators, 42, 62
Gnosticism, 119, 124-5, 185

Index

199

Gold, 85, 88, 97
Greeks, 10-15, 120, igi

Hadrian, 39-40, 145-6, 192

Hecataeus, 13

Heraclius, 59

Hercules, 121, 140-1, 143

Hermenigild, 56-7

Hispalis, 23, 54, 567, 119, 123, 132

Horses, 68, 79

Hosius, 178

Hyginus, 157

Iberi, 5-6, 61 et siq.

Iberian language, i8g, 193 et seq.

Ilici, 97

lUiberis, 176, 17S, 1S6

Iron, 91, 102, 169

Isidore, 180, 187

Isis, 99-100, 122-3, 150, 191

Italica, 38-9, 144-7, 156

Jewels, 91, 99
Jews, 59, S4, 173-4
Juvencus, 180-1

Latinitas, 26-7. 32, 36-7

Latro, 156, 192

Legions, 24-5

Leovigild, 48, 56-S, 146

Literature, 154 tt seq.

Live stock, 7S-80

Lucan, 155, 161-4

Luciferiani, 186

Lusitani, 68, 70-1, 112, 114, 190

Lycophron, 15, 75

Malaca, 37, 41

Martial, 155, 168-70

Martyrs, 62, loS, 137. I75. I77.

182-3
Maternus. 42
Metal-work. 97-8, 102-3
Metellus, 76, 130, 192
Mines, 85-91
Mithraism, 124, 183
Mosaics, loo-i
Municipal system, 1S-19, 27-8, 37,

45

Naumachia, 135, 171
Neton, 69, no

Olisipo, 79, 134
Orosius, 48, 180, 1S6-7
Otho, 36, 134

Pacianus, 49, 180

Persecutions, 175, 177

Philostratus, 15

Phoenicians, 8-10, 15, 74, 77, 121,

137-8
Pliny, Elder, 37, 78, S2, 89, igo
Pliny, Younger, 37-8, 143, 16S
Pomponius Mela, 164-5
Posidonius, 13-14, 161
Pottery, 101-2
Priscillian, 113, 125, 183-6
Provincial divisions, 19, 23, 44, 55
Prudentius, 71, 176-7, 1S0-3

Quintilian, 162-3, 166-8

Rhode, II, 104
Roads, 31

Saguntum, 12, 63, 65, 96, 104, 192

Salambo, 123

Salvian, 49

Scipiones, 17, 126, 138, 144, 147

Sculpture, 96-100

Seneca, L., 67, 152-3. i59-6i

Seneca, M., 130, 157-9, 192

Sertorius, 4, 17, 120, 166

Sextihus Hena, 130, 156, 192

Silius Italicus, 61, 71, 145-6

Silver, 88 9, 127

Sisebut, 58-9, 188

Spanish language, 33, 190, 194-7

Strabo, 14, 61, 165

Suevi, 43, 46-8, 50, 55-7

Superstitions, 113, 11S-19, 179

Syrians, 84, 123

Tarraco, 17, 23, 29, 31, 39, 43. 57.

82, 120, 147-52, 157. 175
Tartessians, 4-5, 10, 16, 16-70, 96-7

200

Index

Taxation, 23-4, 30

Temples, 114, 121, 135, 140-1, 150,

177
Tin, 90
Tingitana, 43
Totemism, 115
Trade, 81, 83-4
Trajan, 33, 38, 124
Tyrants, 42-3, 46

Urso, 18-19, 119

Vaccaei, 73

Vandals, 46-8, 50, 53, 55

Varro, 19, 25, 78

Vascones, 71, 113

Vespasian, 37, 134, 192

Vines, 82

Visigoths, 48-60

War, 6s, 67-8, 72-3, 75
Women, 62, 65-6, 122
Wool, 78 9

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PSINTBRS, GUILDFORD

^'•^iuniA-.

ctT\tvi.Tn.

Cartkago
Nova

HISPANIA

RONANA

Scale a]j tnaKjIi Miles

FROM

B. H, BLACKWELL'S

CLASSICAL LIST

Life and Letters in Roman
Africa

BY

E. S. BOUCHIER, M.A.

Crown 8w., cloth, price 38a 6cl> net

' This kind of book is unfortunately too rare in English scholarship.
... It is written with full knowledge of the various kinds of evidence,
and gives a pleasant and trustworthy account of an important group of
Roman provinces.'— OXFOifO MAGAZINE.

' Mr. Bouchier has rendered us a service in writing this. With pains-
taking zeal he has garnered the data from all sources, and the result is
that he has provided us with materials for reconstructing the social life of
North Africa in the early centuries of the Christian era. The book is
very useful, and lets light into one of the darkest regions of history.' —
LITERARY WORLD.

'A well-written study of learning and education, literature, philosophy,
and religion, as they existed in the ancient cities of Carthage, Cirta,
Caesarea, and Romjin Africa generally.' — ATHENMUM.

' The book will, we imagine, be read only by students, but these should
be grateful to the author for the care with which he quotes chapter and
verse for every statement— a habit rare as it is admirable.' — NEW
STATESMAN.

' This is a pleasantly written and easily read essay, which may be
useful in conveying some idea of Roman civilization in Africa to readers
who are unlikely to consult larger works, or works in languages other than
English.'— CL/ISS/C^i. REVIEW.

' The learned and scholarly little volume before us gives succinct
accounts, gathered from many sources, of every side of this bygone
civilization. '—YORKSHIRE OBSERVER.

The Beasts, Birds, and Bees
of Virgil

A NATURALISTS' HANDBOOK TO
THE GEORGICS

BY

THOMAS FLETCHER ROYDS, M.A., B.D.

WITH A PREFACE BY

W. WARDE FOWLER
Crown 8vo., doth, price 3s> 6cl. net

' To all who read the Georgia we would recommend as an accompani-
ment this modest but thoroughly efficient " naturalist's handbook." The
whole ethos of Mr. Royds' book is delightful — it bears the best English
hall-mark of the scholar and the gentleman. We should not be surprised
if it became indispensable to students of Virgil.' — TIMES.

' A delightful little commentary on the natural history of this book
[the Georgicsl ... it has the additional value and charm of being the
best of reading, even for those who may not be able to translate a page of
\iigiV— SPECTATOR.

' Mr. Royds, in his admirable little naturalist's handbook to the
Georgics, has made it easy to comment with interest and certainty on a
great many hitherto moot points . . . suffice it to say that no student of
Virgil can afford to ignore its existence. ' — ATHEN.^UM.

' This little book was worth writing and worth publishing, and it is
worth buying and reading through. . Mr. Warde Fowler writes a
preface, praising and recommending the book, and this preface alone
would make the book worth buying.'— SATURDAY REVIEW.

' Mr. Royds has done excellent service both to students of Virgil and
to students and lovers of natural history by his always helpful comment
on and elucidation of Virgil's meaning. It is indeed a fascinating as well
as an informing volume.'— ANTIQUARY.

Pervigilium Veneris : The Vigil
of Venus

Edited, with facsimiles of the Codex Salmasianus and Codex Thuaneus,
an Introduction, Translation, Apparatus Criticus, and Explanatory
Notes, by Cecil Clementi, M.A., late Demy of Magdalen College,
Oxford ; Assistant Colonial Secretary, Hong Kong. Fcap. 4to.,
paper boards, parchment back, Ss. net.

Bibliographical and other Studies
on the Pervigilium Veneris

Compiled from Research in the Library of the British Museum by Cecil
Clementi. Fcap. 4to., sewed, 3s> net.

' We are extremely grateful to Mr. Clementi for his fruitful research
upon this beautiful poem ; his contributions to modern criticism of the
"Pervigilium" will be a possession for ever.'— WESTMINSTER

Gazette.

' An interesting document in the history of scholarship. It is a model
for what scholars at home with access to the great libraries might oftener
do:--JOURNAL OF ROMAN STUDIES.

■ His edition must be extremely valuable to all students of the " Pervi-
giUum." '—CLA SSICA L RE VIE W.

' The two most notable features of Mr. dementi's edition are his re-
arrangement of the text and his skilful rendering of the poem in the metre
of the original. A very scholarly piece of work.' — TIMES.

' The book is handsomely printed ; both the author and his enterpris-
ing publisher have done a service to Latin scholarship.' — OXFORD
MAGAZINE.

Greek and Roman Ghost Stories

By Lacy Collison-Morley. Crown 8vo., cloth extra, 38. net.

• A scholarly little book with much curious lore.' — TIMES.

' An amusing and interesting collection, which shows wide reading and
good scholarship. '-C^MBif/DG£ REVIEW.

' A book which would have delighted the late Andrew Lang. Mr.
Morley's work will appeal chiefly to those familiar with the classics, but the
general reader need not be deterred from some good reading by the fear
of two many classic allusions and similar technicalities.'— SCOTSiM'/^iV.

The Frogs of Aristophanes

Translated into Kindred Metres by Alfred Davies Cope, sometime
Scholar of Wadham College, Oxford. Crown 8vo., antique boards,
3s. net.

' I am delighted with it. I think it is the best and easiest translation
of Aristophanes I have ever seen. . . . Everybody says what he naturally
would say, and says it in the most natural manner. I congratulate you
on the felicity with which you have found in our language idiomatic
expressions exactly answering to the Greek.' — MR. B. BICKLEY
ROGERS.

' The translator has a good vocabulary, and is quick to apprehend the
niceties of language.' — ATHEN^UM.

Ancient Gems in Modern Settings

By G. B. Grundy, D.Litt. Being Versions of the Greek Anthology in
English Rhyme by various writers. Demy i6mo., cloth, 5s. net; on
Oxford India paper, limp leather, 7s. 6dp net.

' Dr. G. B. Grundy has laid the poetry-loving public under a deep
obligation by the production of his delightful collection. The choice from
first to last is exceUent.'— GUARDIAN .

' Perhaps the most satisfactory presentation of the anthology now
available in English. Altogether a charming little book.' — DIAL.

' In this volume Mr. Grundy has collected a large number of English
versions, in which the tenderness or wit of the Greek originals has been
admirably reproduced by the taste and ingenuity of our own scholars and
poets. Mr. Grundy modestly calls himself the editor, but many of the
best translations come from his own pen.' — LITERARY WORLD.

A pleasanter little volume for a quiet hour were far to seek.' —
BIRMINGHAM DAILY POST.

Ancient Eugenics

By A. G. Roper. Crown 8vo., cloth, 2Si 6cl. net.

' An excellent essay. . . . Mr. Roper must be read . . . before we say
more on the subject.'— EXPOSITORY TIMES.

' Mr. Roper has performed a useful task in collecting and summariz-
ing records of the theory and practice of eugenics in ancient days, and he
has performed it in a thorough and efficient manner. . . .' — OXFORD
MAGAZINE.

• Mr. Roper's well-written and thoughtful little study should find many
Tea.d.sTs:— ANTIQUARY.

OXFORD: B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET.

A

CONSERVATION \gsB