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CADIZ (Town) ANDALUCIA
Gades (-ium; also Gadis, and Gaddis), the Latin form of the name which,
in the original Phoenician, was Gadir (or Gaddir), and in the Greek Gadeira (ta
Gadeipa; Ion. Gedeira, Herod.; and, rarely, he Gadeira, Eratosth. ap. Steph. B.
s. v.), and which is preserved in the form Cadiz or Cadix, denotes a celebrated
city, as well as the island on which it stood (or rather the islands, and hence
the plural form), upon the SW. coast of Hispania Baetica, between the straits
and the mouth of the Baetis. (Eth. Gadeireus, fem. Gadeiris, also, rarely, Gadeirites,
Gadeiraios and Gadeiranos, Steph. B.; Adj. Gadeirikos, e. g. with chora, Plat.
Crit. p. 114, b: Lat. Adj. and Eth. Gaditanus). The fanciful etymologies of the
name invented by the Greek and Roman writers, are barely worthy of a passing mention.
(Plat. Critias, p. 114, Steph. B. s. v.; Etym. M.; Suid.; Hesych.; Eustath. ad
Dion. Perieg. 64.) The later geographers rightly stated that it was a Phoenician
word (Dion. Per. 456; Avien. Ora Marit. 267-269: Gaddir hic est oppidum: Nam Punicorum
lingua conseptum locum Gaddir vocabat.
It was the chief Phoenician colony outside the Pillars of Hercules,
having been established by them long before the beginning of classical history.
(Strab. iii. pp. 148, 168; Diod. Sic. v. 20; Scymn. Ch. 160; Mela, iii. 6. § 1;
Plin. v. 19. s. 17; Vell. Paterc. i. 2; Arrian. and Aelian. ap. Eustath. ad Dion.
Perieg. 454.) To the Greeks and Romans it was long the westernmost point of the
known world; and the island on which it stood (Isla de Leon) was identified with
that of Erytheia, where king; Geryon fed the oxen which were carried off by Hercules;
or, according to some, Erytheia was near Gadeira. (Hesiod. Theog. 287, et seq.,
979, et seq.; Herod. iv. 8; Strab. iii. pp. 118, 169; Plin. iv. 21. s. 36; and
many others: for a full discussion of the question, see Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1,
pp. 240, 241.) The island was also called Aphrodisias, and Cotinussa, and by some
both the city and the island were identified with the celebrated Tartessus.
The early writers give us brief notices of Gades. Herodotus (l. c.)
places Gadeira on the ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and near it the island
of Erytheia. Scylax states that, among the Iberi, the first people of Europe (on
the W.), there are two islands, named Gadeira, of which the one has a city, a
day's journey from the Pillars of Hercules. (Scylax, pp. 5, 120, ed. Gronov.,
pp. 1, 51, ed. Hudson.) Eratosthenes mentioned the city of Gadeira (ap. Steph.
B. s. v.), and the happy island of Erytheia, in the land of Tartessis, near Calpe
(ap. Strab. iii. p. 148, who refers also to the views of Artemidorus). In the
period of the Carthaginian empire, therefore, the situation of the place was tolerably
well known to the Greeks; but it is not till after the Punic Wars had given Spain
to the Romans, that we find it more particularly described. The fullest description
is that of Strabo (iii. pp. 140, 168), who places it at a distance of less than
2000 stadia from the Sacred Headland (C. S. Vincent), and 70 from the mouth of
the Baetis (Guadalquivir) on the one side, and about 750 from Calpe (Gibraltar)
on the other, or, as some said, 800. Mela (ii. 7) transfers it to the entrance
of the Straits, which he makes to begin at Junonis Pr. (C. Trafalgar). Pliny,
who makes the entrance of the Straits at Mellaria, places Gades 45 M. P. outside
(iv. 22. s. 36, with Ukert's emendation: the MSS. vary between 25 and 75). The
island is described as divided from the mainland of Baetica by a narrow strait,
like a river (Mela, iii. 6), the least breadth of which is given by Strabo as
only 1 stadium (606 ft.), and as barely 700 ft. by Pliny, who makes the greatest
breadth 7 1/2 M. P. (ii. 108. s. 112): it is now called the River of St. Peter,
and the bridge which spanned it (Itin. Ant. p. 409) is called the Puente de Zuazo,
from Juan Sanchez de Zuazo, who restored it in the 15th century. The length of
the island was estimated at about 100 stadia (Strab. l. c.), or 12 M. P. (Polyb.
ap. Plin. l. c.: Pliny himself says 15): its breadth varied from one stadium to
3 Roman miles (Strab., Plin., ll. cc.). The city stood on the W. side of the island,
and was from the first very small in comparison with its maritime importance.
Even after it was enlarged by the building of the New City, under the Romans,
by its wealthy and celebrated citizen, the younger Balbus, the Double City (he
Didume), as it was called, was still of very moderate dimensions, not exceeding
20 stadia in circuit: and even this space was not densely peopled, since a large
part of the citizens were always absent at sea. In fact, the city proper seems
to have consisted merely of the public buildings and the habitations of those
immediately connected with the business of the port, while the upper classes dwelt
in villas outside the city, chiefly on the shore of the mainland, and on a smaller
island opposite to the city, which was a very favourite resort (Trocadero or S.
Sebastian). The territory of the city on the mainland was very small; its wealth
being derived entirely from its commerce, as the great western emporium of the
known world. Of the wealth and consequence of its citizens Strabo records it as
a striking proof, that in the census taken under Augustus, the number of Equites
was found to be 500, a number greater than in any town, even in Italy, except
Patavium; while the citizens were second in: number only to those of Rome. Their
first alliance with Rome was said to have been formed through the centurion L.
Marcius, in the very crisis of the war in Spain, after the deaths of the two Scipios
(B.C. 212): another instance of the disaffection of the old Phoenician cities
towards Carthage; a feeling all the stronger in the case of Gades, as she had
only submitted to Carthage during Hamilcar's conquest of Spain after the First
Punic War. The alliance was confirmed (or, as some said, first made) in the consulship
of M. Lepidus and Q. Catulus, B.C. 78. (Cic. pro Balbo, 15; comp. Liv. xxxii.
2.) C. Julius Caesar, on his visit to the city during the Civil War in Spain,
B.C. 49, conferred the civitas of Rome on all the citizens of Gades. (Dion Cass.
xli. 24; Columella, viii. 16.) Under the empire, as settled by Augusta, Gades
was a municipium, with the title of Augusta Urbs Julia Gaditana, and the seat
of one of the four conventus juridici of Baetica. (Plin. iii. 1. s. 3, iv. 22.
s. 36; Inscr. ap. Gruter, p. 358, no. 4; Coins ap. Florez, Med. vol. ii. p. 430,
vol. iii. p. 68, who contends that the city was a colony; Mionnet, vol. i. p.
12, Suppl. vol. i. p. 25; Sestini, p. 49; Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 19-22.) There are
extant coins of the old Phoenician period, as well as of the Roman city; the former
are, with one exception, of copper, and generally bear the head of the Tyrian
Hercules (Melcarth), the tutelary deity of the city, on the obverse, and on the
reverse one or two fish, with a Phoenician epigraph, in two lines, of which the
upper has not been satisfactorily explained, while the lower consists of the four
letters which answer to the Hebrew characters HEBREW or HEBREW,
Agadir or Hagadir, that is, the genuine Phoenician form of the city's name, with
the prosthetic breathing or article, the omission of which gives GADIR, the form
recognised by the Greek and Roman writers. (Eckhel, l. c. and vol. iii. p. 422.)
The coins of the Roman period are very remarkable for the absence of the name
of the city, which occurs only on one of them, a very ancient medal, having an
ear of corn, with the epigraph MUN (i. e. Municipium) on the obverse,
and on the reverse GADES with a fish. The remaining medals bear, for
the most part, the insignia of Hercules, and naval symbols, with the names of
the successive patrons of the city, namely, Balbus, Augustus, M. Agrippa, and
his sons Caius and Lucius, and the emperor Tiberius. (Eckhel, vol. i. pp. 20-22.)
The first of these names refers to two eminent citizens of Gades,
who are distinguished by the names of Major and Minor. L. Cornelius Balbus Major,
who is generally surnamed Gaditanus, or, as Cicero writes jestingly, Tartesius
(ad Att. vii. 3), served against Sertorius, first under Q. Metellus, and then
under Pompey, whom he accompanied to Rome, B.C. 71, and who conferred upon him
the Roman citizenship, his right to which was defended by Cicero in an extant
oration. With both he lived in terms of intimacy, as well as with Crassus and
Caesar, and afterwards with Octavian. He was the first native of any country out
of Italy who attained to the consulship. But his nephew, L. Cornelius Balbus Minor,
who, as proconsul of Africa, triumphed over the Garamantes in B.C. 19, and who
attained to the dignity of Pontifex (Veil. Paterc. ii. 51, and coins), is probably
the one to whom the coins refer, as he was the builder of the New City of Gades.
He undertook this work when he was quaestor to Asinius Pollio in Further Spain,
B.C. 43. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 32.) Balbus also constructed the harbour of Gades,-Portus
Gaditanus,-on the mainland (Strab., Mela, ll. cc.; Itin. Ant. p. 409; Ptol. ii.
4: now Puerto Real), and the bridge already mentioned, which was so constructed
as to form also an aqueduct. The Antonine Itinerary places the bridge 12 M. P.
from Gades, and the harbour 14 M. P. further, on the road to Corduba. Of the other
public buildings the most remarkable were the temples of the deities whom the
Romans identified with Saturn and Hercules. The former was in the city itself,
opposite to the little island already mentioned; the latter stood some distance
S. of the city, 12 M. P. on the road to Malaca, in the Itinerary, and still further
according to Strabo, who has a long discussion of a theory by which this temple
was identified with the Columns of Hercules (iii. pp. 169, 170, 172, 174, 175;
Plin ii. 39. s. 100; Liv. xxi. 21; Dion Cass. xliii. 40, lxxvii. 20). The temple
had a famous oracle connected with it, and was immensely rich. It was also remarkable
for a spring, which rose and fell with the tide. Its site is supposed to have
been on the I. S. Petri or S. Pedro (St. Peter's Isle), a little islet lying off
the S. point of the main island of Leon. The city had one drawback to its unrivalled
advantages as a port: the water was very bad. (Strab. iii. p. 173.) Besides the
general articles of its commerce, its salt-fish was particularly esteemed. (Athen.
vii. p. 315; Pollux, vi. 49; Hesych. s. v. Gadeira.) The immense wealth which
its inhabitants enjoyed led naturally to luxury, and luxury to great immorality.
(Juv. xi. 162; Mart. i. 61, foil., v. 78, vi. 71, xiv. 203.) The modern city of
Cadiz stands just upon the site of Gades, that is, on the NW. point of the island
of Leon, together with the island of Trocadero. (The following are the authorities
for the antiquities of Cadiz cited by Ford, Handbook of Spain, p. 6: J. B. Suarez
de Salazar, Grandezas, &c., Cadiz, 1610, 4to.; Geronimo de la Concepcion, Emporio
de el Orbe, Amst. 1690, folio; Ms. de Mondejar, Cadiz Phenicia, Madrid, 1805,
3 vols. 4to.; Historia de Cadiz, Orosco, 1845, 4to.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TARTISSOS (Ancient city) SPAIN
Tartessus (Tartessos, Herod. i. 163; Tartessos and Tartesos, Diodor.
Siculus, Frag. lib. xxv.), a district in the south of Spain, lying to the west
of the Columns of Hercules. It is now the prevailing opinion among biblical critics
that the Tarshish of Scripture indicates certain localities in the south of Spain,
and that its name is equivalent to the Tartessus of the Greek and Roman writers.
The connection in which the name of Tarshish occurs in the Old Testament with
those of other places, points to the most western limits of the world, as known
to the Hebrews (Genes. x. 4; 1 Chron. i. 7; Psalms, lxxii. 10; Isaiah, lxvi. 19);
[p. 1107] and in like manner the word Tartessus, and its derlivative adjectives,
are employed by Latin writers as synonymous with the West (Ovid, Met. xiv. 416;
Sil. Ital. iii. 399; Claud. Epist. iii. v. 14). Tarshish appears in Scripture
as a celebrated emporium, rich in iron, tin, lead, silver, and other commodities;
and the Phoenicians are represented as sailing thither in large ships (Ezek. xxvii.
12, xxviii 13; Jerem. x. 9). Isaiah speaks of it as one of the finest colonies
of Tyre, and describes the Tyrians as bringing its products to their market (xxiii.
1, 6, 10). Among profane writers the antiquity of Tartessus is indicated by the
myths connected with it (Strab. iii. p. 149; Justin, xliv. 4). But the name is
used by them in a very loose and indefinite way. Sometimes it stands for the whole
of Spain, and the Tagus is represented as belonging to it (Rutilius, Itin. i.
356; Claud. in Rufin. i. 101; Sil. Ital. xiii. 674, &c.). But in general it appears,
either as the name of the river Baetis, or of a town situated near its mouth,
or thirdly of the country south of the middle and lower course of the Baetis,
which, in the time of Strabo, was inhabited by the Turduli. The Baetis is called
Tartessus by Stesichorus, quoted by Strabo (iii. p. 148) and by Avienus (Ora Marit.
i. 224), as well as the town situated between two of its mouths; and Miot (ad
Herod. iv. 152) is of opinion that the modern town of S. Lucar de Barameda stands
on its site. The country near the lower course of the Baetis was called Tartessis
or Tartesia, either from the river or from the town; and this district, as well
as others in Spain, was occupied by Phoenician settlements, which in Strabo's
time, and even later, preserved their national customs. (Strab. iii. p. 149, vii.
p. 832; Arr. Exp. Alex. ii. 16; App. Hisp. 2; Const. Porphyrog. de Them. i. p.
107, ed. Bonn.) There was a temple of Hercules, the Phoenician Melcarth, at Tartessus,
whose worship was also spread amongst the neighbouring Iberians. (Arr. l.c.) About
the middle of the seventh century B.C. some Samiot sailors were driven thither
by stress of weather; and this is the first account we have of the intercourse
of the Greeks with this distant Phoenician colony (Herod. iv. 152). About a century
later, some Greeks from Phocaea likewise visited it, and formed an alliance with
Arganthonius, king of the Tartessians, renowned in antiquity for the great age
which he attained. (Herod. i. 163; Strab. iii. p. 151.) These connections and
the vast commerce of Tartessus, raised it to a great pitch of prosperity. It traded
not only with the mother country, but also with Africa and the distant Cassiterides,
and bartered the manufactures of Phoenicia for the productions of these countries
(Strab. i. p. 33; Herod. iv. 196; cf. Heeren, Ideen, i. 2. § § 2, 3). Its riches
and prosperity had become proverbial, and we find them alluded to in the verses
of Anacreon (ap. Strab. iii. p. 151). The neighbouring sea (Fretum Tartessium,
Avien. Or. Mar. 64) yielded the lamprey, one of the delicacies of the Roman table
(Gell. vii. 16); and on a coin of Tartessus are represented a fish and an ear
of grain (Mionnet. Med. Ant. i. p. 26). We are unacquainted with the circumstances
which led to the fall of Tartessus; but it may probably have been by the hand
of Hamilcar, the Carthaginian general. It must at all events have disappeared
at an early period, since Strabo (iii. pp. 148, 151), Pliny (iii. I, iv. 22, vii.
48), Mela (ii. 6), Sallust (Hist. Fr. ii.), and others, confounded it with more
recent Phoenician colonies, or took its name to be an ancient appellation of them.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
TARTISSOS (Ancient city) SPAIN
An ancient town in Spain, and one of the chief settlements of the Ph?nicians, probably the samearshish of Scripture. The whole country west of Gibraltar was called Tartessis.
ERYTHIA (Mythical lands) SPAIN
BOLONIA (Village) ANDALUCIA
Baelo (Bolonia) Caidiz, Spain.
Town near Tarifa which in Roman times belongzd to the juridical district of Gades.
Pliny (3.7; 5.2) refers to it as the oppidum of S Baetica nearest Tingi (Tangier).
Its name appears variously in the sources (Mela 2.96; Strab. 3.140. 153; Ptol.
2.4.5; Plin. loc.cit.; Solinus 24.1; Ant. It. 407.3; Livy 33.21.8) and as Bailo
on its own bilingual coinage. For this the Libyo-Phoenician alphabet was employed,
with types of a standing bull on the obverse and an ear of grain on the reverse,
and occasionally the head of Hercules. During the main period of romanization
it also coined other types on asses, semisses, and quadrantes with the names of
magistrates. Under Claudius it was declared a municipium, as shown by the designation
Belone Claudia in the Ravenna Cosmographer 305.12 and 344.9, and confirmed by
a coin and a recently discovered inscription.
As a community of the Turdetani devoted to the fishing industry, it
was noted for its production of garum and other fish sauces. Some salting vats
may still be seen. Excavations have revealed the fortified enceinte with its gates,
the forum, theater, a nymphaeum, remains of the aqueduct, houses, and Roman, Christian,
Visigothic, and Mohammendan cemeteries. Many Latin inscriptions have also been
found, sculptures of divinities and humans, a sun-dial, fragments of Arretine
ware, terra sigillata (S Gallic and Hispanic) and plain ware. In view of the Libyo-Phoenician
characters on its coins, the town was probably founded before the Roman period,
but this has not been established. The oldest ceramic finds, however, are of Campanian
B and C, with a single example of decorated Iberian.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 2 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
CADIZ (Town) ANDALUCIA
Gadir (Cadiz) Caidiz, Spain.
Originally a small island, long since much enlarged by silting and joined to the
mainland by a bridge (the Isla de Leon), and a larger long island now the peninsula.
Gadir was founded, according to tradition, by Phoenicians from Tyre in 1100 B.C.
(Strab. 3.5.5; Vell. Pat., Historia Romana 1.2.3). To the Phoenicians Gadir meant
a fortress or walled area, but Pliny (4.120) and Silinus (23.12) wrote that the
Carthaginians called it Gadir, meaning redoubt, as did Avienus (268) and St. Isidorus
(Etym. 45.6.7). Martial (1.61.9, 5.78.26) employs the plural in referring to Gades,
perhaps in imitation of the Greek (Hdt. 4.8). Pliny (4.119) states that, according
to Polybios, it was 12,000 paces long and 3000 wide; the part closest to the mainland
was less than 213 m from it, but the remainder was more than 2135 m away. Strabo
(3.5.3) says that the city was on the W part of the island, and that the Temple
of Moloch was on the end that projected toward the smaller island. The temple
of Hercules was on the other side, Sancti Petri, where the island was separated
from the mainland by a channel only one stadium wide; the sanctuary was ca. 19
km from the city.
The most ancient Greek material is a proto-Attic oinochoe, in the
Copenhagen Museum, which is thought to have been found in the city and dates from
the 7th c. B.C. Parts of Carthaginian necropoleis, ca. 150 hypogea from the 5th-3d
c. B.C., have been discovered; many gold jewels were found in the tombs, and Etruscan
bucchero of the 6th c. B.C. On the other hand, there are few terracottas, coarse
ceramics, ostrich eggs, lamps, and necklaces, as in Ibiza, and no Greek vases
or Campanian ceramics. A gold masked figurine is now in the National Archaeological
Museum in Madrid, and an anthropoid sarcophagus of the 4th c. B.C. in the Cadiz
Museum. The graves are impersonal and independent, made of huge stone blocks.
Nothing is known of the plan of the city, whose inhabitants were primarily
interested in trade and fishing. In the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. they controlled
tin mining and the tin trade (Strab. 3.5.11). Strabo (3.5.3) also writes that
Cadiz had the most sailors and the best ships, both in the Mediterranean and the
Atlantic. However, up to 500 horsemen were counted in a census. When the city
became crowded Galbus the Younger built a second one, and from both cities Didyme
arose (Strab. 3.5.3). Towards the end of the Republic, it had a theater, perhaps
of wood, of which no trace remains (Cic. Ad fam. 10.32.1). An underground tomb
from this period yielded many ceramic vases, a polychrome plate, and two engraved
gold rings, all now in the Cadiz Museum.
The city also minted coins at an early date and bronzes without inscriptions,
of Greek type. It initiated its series of coins with the Phoenician Hercules on
the obverse and the tuna, symbol of its fishing wealth, on the reverse. The silver
coins came somewhat later, a result of the Barcine domination, mining operations,
and military necessity. The obverse, bearing a head of Hercules with a club on
his shoulders, is taken from Greek coins. Drachmas and half-drachmas were minted.
With the Roman conquest appear asses of Roman metrology bearing a Phoenician inscription.
Infrequently, the reverse bears the caduceus and the trident. The smaller units
continue the same series, with tuna fish and dolphins. Other mintings do not follow
the Roman pattern, but are of barbaric design with neo-Carthaginian inscriptions.
Under Augustus, great commemorative medals appear, reminted coins characteristic
of the coinage of Cadiz, which continued until the time of Claudius, and always
had a Phoenician, never a Roman, inscription. On the obverse they bore the Hercules
of Gadir and priestly attributes in honor of Balbus, the builder of the new city,
as Pontifex. Others have Augustus on the obverse and Caius and Lucius on the reverse,
or Agrippa represented as praefectus classis. These medals were rapidly demonetized.
The city also had an arsenal.
In 49 B.C. Caesar bestowed Roman citizenship on the city (Livy Per.
110). Many inscriptions of the 1st c. have been found. Discoveries, including
a heroic statue of an emperor from the first half of the 2d c., are in the Archaeological
Museum of Cadiz. The city also had a statue of Alexander (Dion. Cass. 37.52).
The most important personages during the change in era in Cadiz were the Balbi.
The oldest was Caesar's banker; the nephew triumphed over the Garamantes and was
the first consul from the provinces possessed by Rome and the first provincial
who earned the honors of a triumph. During the 1st c. the puellae gaditanae, variety
hall artists, were famous and were mentioned by Strabo (2.3.5) and others (Mart.
3.63; 5.78; 14.203; Juv. Sat. 11.162; Pliny, Ep. 1.15).
The Temple of Hercules, one of the most famous sanctuaries of the
ancient world, was visited by Hannibal (Sil. 3.1), Fabius Maximus (App. Hisp.
65), Caesar (Dio. Cass. 37.52), whose future power was foretold by the priests,
and Apollonius of Tiana (Philostr. VA 5.5). Its ritual was always typically Semitic.
There was no image of the god, and only the priests were permitted to enter the
sanctuary. On the doors, which can be no earlier than 500 B.C. (Sil. 3.32-44),
were represented the labors of Hercules. The temple contained fabulous riches,
stolen by Mago in 206 B.C. (Livy 28.36.2). In 49 B.C. Varro ordered that the treasure
and decorations of the temple be transported to Cadiz (Caes. BCiv. 2.18,2). There
was still, in 60 B.C., a Temple to Moloch where human sacrifices were made, a
custom which Caesar abolished (Cic. Balb. 43), and altars to poverty and the arts,
services to Menestheus, veneration for Themistocles and other heroes and demigods.
There were services and an altar to old age, and a special worship of death, and
it was said that while the ocean tides were high the souls of the sick did not
expire (Philostr., VA 5.2-4). Towards the end of the 4th c. B.C., when Avienus
visited it, the city was in ruins, except for the Temple of Hercules.
J.M. Blazquez, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
CHIPIONA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Chipiona Cadiz, Spain.
Town NW of Cadiz, near the mouth of the Guadalguivir. The Coepionis monumentum corresponds to the Kaipionis Pyrgos of Poseidonius, according to Strabo (3.140) and, better still, to the Salmedina rock on which the monument or pharos must have stood. Appian (Hisp. 70) states that the pharos was built by Q. Servilius Caepio, hence its name. P. Mela (3.4) also mentions it. The town appears to have belonged to the Turduli and most of its ruins are probably under the sea. Coins, jewels, and terra sigillata vases have been found, and rock-cut pits as well as graves and their grave goods near the beach.
MEDINA SIDONIA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Asido (Medina Sidonia) Cadiz, Spain.
A Roman colony near the S coast of Baetica and belonging to the juridical area of Hispalis (Seville) (Plin. 3.11). It is SE of Cadiz. The name appears to be of Punic origin, as shown by its bilingual coins. The mint employed the Libyo-Phoenician alphabet, and the leading motifs were the bull, the dolphin, and the full-front head of Hercules. Later it coined asses and semisses bearing ears of grain and fish. Variants of the name appear in Ptolemy (2.4.10) and in the Ravenna Cosmographer (317.9).
Remains include portraits, busts, togate figures, statues of divinities,
sarcophagi, inscriptions, columns, cameos, rings, and coins. Among these finds
are the epigram, now in the archaeological museum of Seville, dedicated to the
quattuorvir Quintus Fabius Senica by the Municipes Caesarini (perhaps a relative
of the Fabia Prisca of Asido, who occurs in a Cordova inscription), and the portraits
of Livia and Tiberius now in the archaeological museum of Cadiz. The Roman town
must lie under the modern one, as remains of buildings have been recorded in the
area of the present convents of S. Francisco and S. Cristobal, and the Calle Althaona
Vieja. No Phoenician or Punic remains have been found, but there has been no deep
excavation.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MESAS DE ASTA (Town) CADIZ
Hasta Regia or Asta (Mesas de Asta) Cadiz, Spain.
Town near Jerez de la Frontera, which belonged to the Conventus Hispalensis (Plin.
3.11; Mela 3.4; Ant. It. 409.4) and was a Turdetanian settlement. It was called
Asta in Strabo (3.140), elsewhere Hasta (Livy 39.21; Bellum Hisp. chs. 26, 36;
Ravenna Cosmographer 4.43). In 187 B.C. C. Caius Atinius captured it and it was
conquered by Caesar in 45 B.C.
The city minted coins during the Imperial age; and from a small bronze
coin with the legend P. COL. ASTA RE. F on the reverse, it appears to have been
called Colonia Asta Regia Felix. It was the third stage on the military road from
Cadiz to Cordoba via Seville, and its ruins were known in ancient times. Finds
made during the 19th c., now lost, included a granite lion, a headless togate
statue, a bust, and several inscriptions.
Excavations have uncovered material from phase I of the Mediterranean
Bronze Age which document an Ibero-Saharan culture showing central and E Mediterranean
influences, as evidenced by its incised, burnished, reticulated, painted, and
decorated pottery. Abundant stone objects include knives, sickle blades, scrapers,
bone and even bronze utensils. The existence of an Iberian settlement is confirmed
by Iron Age decorated pottery of the Andalusian type, cinerary urns, Ibero-Roman
coins, fragments of Punic amphorae, glass paste necklace beads, Italo-Greek and
Campanian pottery. Material from the Roman period includes stucco fragments, thin-walled
and Arretine ware, terra sigillata, lamps, coins, and Roman and Early Christian
inscriptions. Finally, sherds of Byzantine, and especially of Caliphat, pottery
as well as dirhems, and the remains of the foundations of a house or perhaps of
a farmhouse have been found. All the finds are in the Jerez de la Frontera Archaeological
Collection.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TARIFA (Town) ANDALUCIA
Iulia Traducta (Tarifa) Cadiz, Spain.
Town 22 km SW of Algeciras, which Strabo (3.140) calls Ioulia Ioza, and others Iulia Ioza. Ioza is the Latin equivalent of Transducta or Traducta (Ptol. 2.4.6; Marcianus 2.9; Ravenna Cosmographer 305.12). P. Mela (2.96), however, places Tingentera in this place.
The town was founded in the Augustan period as Colonia Iulia Traducta,
since some of the inhabitants of Zelis (Algiers) and Tingis (Tangiers), in North
Africa, had been transferred to it. However, since Pliny (5.2) states that Tingis
was named Traducta Iulia by the emperor Claudius when he converted it into a colony,
some scholars have concluded that the population that came from the African coast
returned home in the time of Claudius. The town of Iulia Traducta minted coins
only in the Imperial age; the obverse carried the head of Augustus or produce
such as tuna, grapes, or wheat, and the reverse the name of the mint, IVL TRAD.
Fragments of ancient pottery and coins have been found in Tarifa,
but until recently its surroundings have been explored more than the town itself.
Copper Age graves have been found in the Algarbes area, near Tarifa; grave goods,
now in the Seville Archaeological Museum, include handmade pottery in the form
of a tulip; also arrow points and flint knives, polished axes, some bronze pieces,
bone objects used for ornament or as pendants, and a fragment of a gold sword
hilt with checkerboard decoration. Remains from the same period have been found
throughout the course of the Ebro.
Tarifa probably forms part of an ancient tell. Fragments of Campanian
pottery indicate that excavation would be worthwhile
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
TARTISSOS (Ancient city) SPAIN
Town on the Cortijo de El Rocadillo near the Guadarrangue area, in
the S Roque district on the bay of Algeciras, the S coast of Hispania Ulterior.
Although it is Phoenician or Punic in origin, as its name indicates, there are
few remains of these cultures. In antiquity it was called Karteia and Herakleia,
since its foundation was attributed to Herakles according to Timosthenes of Rhodes.
Strabo (3.1.7-8) stated that in Timosthenes' time, ca. 280 B.C., its circuit wall
and arsenals were visible.
Part of this wall has been uncovered, as well as Campanian ware A,
B, C, and Hispano-Carthaginian silver coins. However, most of the remains are
Roman, the oldest from the Republican period. The Roman foundation dates from
171 B.C. when it was called Colonia Libertinorum (Livy. 28.30.3). There are frequent
references to the city, some stating that it was the site of the legendary Tartessos
(Strab. 3.151; Paus. 6.19.3; Mela 2.96; Plin. 3.7; and Sil. Pun. 3.396). The port
was of great importance in both the Iberian and the Imperial age according to
Strabo and the author of De Bello Hisp. (26.1-37.1-2), who calls it navale presidium.
In 46 B.C. the squadron of Accius Varo took refuge in Karteia when pursued by
Caesar's ships under Caius Didius, and Cn. Pompeius embarked in the same port
after the defeat at Munda (De Bello Hisp. 26.1-17, 1-2), when the partisans of
Caesar in Karteia compelled him to leave the city. On the death of Cn. Pompeius,
Sextus Pompeius returned to Baetica, and Karteia, which had declared itself for
Pompey, again surrendered to him (Cic. Ep. 15.30.3).
Remains include the Roman wall, the theater, the baths, part of a
monumental building with Corinthian columns and bull protomes (apparently a temple);
the supposed Capitolium; remains of the salting basins for the manufacture of
garum; and finds of sculptures, inscriptions, coins, and pottery.
C. Fernandez-Chicarro, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Tartessos, SW Spain. By Tartessos the literary sources mean a city, a river, and a region.
Avienus (Ora maritima 85.270, 290, 297) calls it a rich city surrounded by walls
and watered by a river. For some authors (Avienus, Ora maritima 85.269-70; Just.
44.4.14; Plin. 4.120, 7.156; Sall. H. 2.5; Val. Max. 8.13.4) Tartessos is identical
with Cadiz. For others (App. Hisp. 63; Plin. 3.7) it is Carteia. It was on an
island (Schol. of Lycophron 643), in the middle of the ocean (Schol. of the Iliad
8.479), or near the Pillars of Hercules (Steph. Byz. voz. Tartessos). Tartessos
is localized at the mouth of the river of the same name (Avienus, Ora maritima
284-90; Steph. Byz. voz Tartessos; Paus. 6.19.3), between the two arms of the
river (Poseidonius in Strab. 3.140, 148). It was two sailing days distant from
Cadiz (Scymn., Ephebos 161-64). The description of Stesichorus (Strab. 3.2.11)
on the sources of the river Tartessos agrees to an astonishing degree with the
origin of the Rio Tinto in the Cueva del Lago (Cave in the Lake) (Avienus, Ora
maritima 291-95). Scymnus (162), in describing the river Tartessos, mentions tin,
but none of the rivers identified with Tartessos contains tin. The only river
that could attract attention because of the peculiar substance contained in it
is the Rio Tinto.
The Tartessos region probably embraced the whole S part of the Iberian
Peninsula S of the Sierra Morena as far as Mastia Tartessiorum, the E border of
the kingdom of Tartessos (Strab. 3.2.11). This entire region was under the cultural
influence of the Phoenicians, and then of the Etruscans and Greeks, beginning
in 1100 B.C. when Cadiz was founded by Phoenician traders. They established a
series of trading posts on the coast of the Straits of Gibraltar: Sexsi (Almunecar),
which contains the oldest Phoenician necropolis in Spain, dating from 700-670
B.C., Los Toscanos (Malaga), dating from the 8th-6th c. B.C., and the necropolis
of Cabezo de la Esperanza (Huelva); both the latter have produced Phoenician material
of the 7th-6th c. B.C. The Phoenicians and Greeks traded with the S of the Iberian
peninsula and established an orientalized culture such as that existing in Etruria,
Carthage, and N Africa. This culture, called Tartessian and of Phoenician origin
with Greek and Etruscan influences added, is known through a great and varied
quantity of archeological material now distributed through a number of museums
in Spain and the U.S.A., and in the British Museum, London, and the Musee St.
Germain, Paris.
About 630 B.C. Kolaios of Samos traveled to Tartessos and took home
riches estimated at 60 talents; the wealth in metals was the attraction behind
the Phoenician and Greek trips to Tartessos. With one tenth of these riches the
Samians made an Argolic style caldron which they placed in the Heraion of Samos
(Hdt. 4.152). Two ivory pieces like those from Carmona, confirming such journeys,
have been found in Samos. Pausanias (6.19.2, 3-4) refers to a chamber from the
treasury of Myron in Olympia weighing 13 tons, made of Tartessian bronze, according
to the Elians. The Phokaians established relations with King Argantonius (670-550
B.C.) of Tartessos, who gave them money to erect a wall around Phokaia (Hdt. 1.163);
later they founded Mainake on the Malaga coast (Strab. 3.4.2). Tartessos was governed
by kings, some of whose names are known, such as Theron (Macrob. Sat. 1.20.12),
Habis (Just. v.4), who taught agriculture, promulgated laws, and finally converted
himself into a god. Other legends, such as the references to the cattle of Gerion
(Strab. 3.148) and the wealth in gold and silver of his father (Diod. 5.17.4),
clearly show the two axes of the economy of Tartessos: metals and cattle. Another
king was Gargoris, mentioned in the myth of Habis. Many poems and laws in Tartessos
were written in verse, and the Tartessians claimed they were 6000 years old. A
syllabic writing with Greek vowels was developed ca. 700 B.C. Tartessian culture
disappeared in the beginning of the 5th c. B.C.
J. M. Blazquez, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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