Hispania

Hispania (/hɪˈspeɪniəˌ -ˈspæ-/; Latin: [hɪˈspaːnja]) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, first as Hispania Nova, later renamed Callaecia (or Gallaecia, whence modern Galicia). From Diocletian's Tetrarchy (AD 284) onwards, the south of remaining Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis, and probably then too the Balearic Islands and all the resulting provinces formed one civil diocese under the vicarius for the Hispaniae (that is, the Celtic provinces). The name, Hispania, was also used in the period of Visigothic rule.

The modern placenames Spain and Hispaniola are both derived from Hispania.

Name

The origin of the word Hispania is much disputed and the evidence for the various speculations are based merely upon what are at best mere resemblances, likely to be accidental, and suspect supporting evidence. One theory holds it to be of Punic derivation, from the Phoenician language of colonizing Carthage. Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate of Hebrew אי-שפניא (i-shfania) meaning "Island of the Hyrax" or "island of the hare" or "island of the rabbit" (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew are both Canaanite languages and therefore closely related to each other). Others derive the word from Phoenician span, in the sense of "hidden", and make it indicate "a hidden", that is, "a remote", or "far-distant land".

Hispania Tarraconensis

Hispania Tarraconensis was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania. It encompassed much of the Mediterranean coast of modern Spain along with the central plateau. Southern Spain, the region now called Andalusia, was the province of Hispania Baetica. On the Atlantic west lay the province of Lusitania, partially coincident with modern-day Portugal.

History

The Phoenicians and Carthaginians colonised the Mediterranean coast in the 8th to 6th centuries BC. The Greeks later also established colonies along the coast. The Romans arrived in the 2nd century BC.

The Imperial Roman province called Tarraconensis, supplanted Hispania Citerior, which had been ruled by a consul under the late Republic, in Augustus's reorganization of 27 BC.

Its capital was at Tarraco (modern Tarragona, Catalonia). The Cantabrian Wars (29–19 BC) brought all of Iberia under Roman domination, within the Tarraconensis. The Cantabri in the northwest corner of Iberia (Cantabria) were the last people to be pacified. Tarraconensis was an Imperial province and separate from the two other Iberian provinces — Lusitania (corresponding to modern Portugal plus Spanish Extremadura) and the Senatorial province Baetica, corresponding to the southern part of Spain, or Andalusia. Servius Sulpicius Galba, who served as Emperor briefly in 68–69, governed the province since 61. Pliny the Elder served as procurator in Tarraconensis (73). Under Diocletian, in 293, Hispania Tarraconensis was divided in three smaller provinces: Gallaecia, Carthaginensis and Tarraconensis. The Imperial province of Hispania Tarraconensis lasted until the invasions of the 5th century, beginning in 409, which encouraged the Basques and Cantabri to revolt, and ended with the establishment of a Visigothic kingdom.

Hispania Ulterior

Hispania Ulterior (English: "Further Hispania") was a region of Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly located in Baetica and in the Guadalquivir valley of modern Spain and extending to all of Lusitania (modern Portugal, Extremadura and a small part of Salamanca province) and Gallaecia (modern Northern Portugal and Galicia). Its capital was Corduba.

Etymology

Hispania is the Latin term given to the Iberian peninsula. The term can be traced back to at least 200 BC by the poet Quintus Ennius. The word is possibly derived from the Punic אי שפן "I-Shaphan" meaning "coast of hyraxes", in turn a misidentification on the part of Phoenician explorers of its numerous rabbits as hyraxes. Ulterior is the comparative form of ulter, which means "that is beyond". According to ancient historian Cassius Dio, the people of the region came from many different tribes, not sharing a common language nor a common government.

History

After losing control of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica in the 1st Punic War, Carthage began to expand into the south of the Iberian peninsula. Soon afterwards, the 2nd Punic War began. Much of the war involved Hispania until Scipio Africanus seized control from Hannibal and the Carthaginians in the Battle of Ilipa in 206 BC; four years later, Carthage surrendered and ceded its control of the region to Rome after Carthage’s defeat in 201 BC.

Hispania Citerior

Hispania Citerior (English: "Nearer Hispania") was a region of Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly occupying the northeastern coast and the Ebro Valley of what is now Spain. Hispania Ulterior ("Further Hispania") was located west of Hispania Citerior—that is, farther away from Rome.

See also

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Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən pəˈnᵻnsjᵿlə/, also known as Iberia /aɪˈbɪəriə/, is located in the southwest corner of Europe and is divided among three states: Spain, Portugal, and Andorra; as well as Gibraltar, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. With an area of approximately 582,000 km² (225,000 sq mi), it is the third largest European peninsula, after the Scandinavian and Balkan peninsulas.

Name

Greek name

The English word Iberia was adapted from the use of the Ancient Greek word Ιβηρία (Ibēría) by Greek geographers under the rule of the Roman Empire to refer to what is known today in English as the Iberian Peninsula. At that time, the name did not describe a single political entity or a distinct population of people. Strabo's Iberia was delineated from Keltikē (Gaul) by the Pyrenees and included the entire land mass southwest (he says "west") of there.

The ancient Greeks discovered the Iberian Peninsula by voyaging westward.Hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term around 500 BC.Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that "it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with ... Iberia." According to Strabo, prior historians used Iberia to mean the country "this side of the Ἶβηρος (Ibēros)" as far north as the river Rhône in France, but currently they set the Pyrenees as the limit. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, with the Atlantic side having no name. Elsewhere he says that Saguntum is "on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia."