Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "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.
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
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