UNIDAD 12: HISPANIA ROMANA
ACTIVITY 30: ANCIENT ROME ( HISPANIA )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hispania1.jpg
1. Read the text.
Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar). The term Hispania is Latin and the term Iberia is Greek. Surviving Roman texts always use "Hispania" (first mentioned 200 BC by the poet Quintus Ennius) while Greek texts always employ "Iberia".
The major part of the Punic Wars, fought between the Punic Carthaginians and the Romans, was fought on the Iberian Peninsula. Carthage gave control of the Iberian Peninsula and much of its empire to Rome in 201 BC as part of the peace treaty after its defeat in the Second Punic War, and Rome completed its replacement of Carthage as the dominant power in the Mediterranean area. By then the Romans had adopted the Carthaginian name, romanized first as Ispania. The term later received an H, much like what happened with Hibernia, and was pluralized as Hispanias, as had been done with the three Gauls.
Roman armies invaded Hispania in 218 BC and used it as a training ground for officers and as a proving ground for tactics during campaigns against the Carthaginians and the nations of Hispania, such as the Iberians, the Lusitanians, the Celtiberians and the Gallaecians. Iberian resistance was fierce and prolonged, however, and it was not until 19 BC that the Roman emperor Augustus (r. 27 BC-14 AD) was able to complete the conquest (see Cantabrian Wars).
Infoirmation from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Spain
The Roman Theatre in Merida
http://www.spanish-living.com/images/Roman%20Theatre%20in%20Merida,%20Spain.jpg
2. Read the following text.
Romanization of the Iberians peoples proceeded quickly after their conquest. Hispania was not one political entity but was divided into three separately governed provinces. More importantly, Hispania was for 500 years part of a cosmopolitan world empire bound together by law, language, and the Roman road.
Iberian tribal leaders and urban oligarchs were admitted into the Roman aristocratic class and they participated in governing Hispania and the empire. The latifundia (sing., latifundium), large estates controlled by the aristocracy, were superimposed on the existing Iberian landholding system.
The Romans improved existing cities, such as Lisbon (Olissipo) and Tarragona (Tarraco), established Zaragoza (Caesaraugusta), Mérida (Augusta Emerita), and Valencia (Valentia), and provided amenities throughout the empire. The peninsula's economy expanded under Roman tutelage. Hispania, along with North Africa, served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbors exported gold, wool, olive oil, and wine. Agricultural production increased with the introduction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use. The Hispano-Romans - the romanized Iberian populations and the Iberian-born descendants of Roman soldiers and colonists - had all achieved the status of full Roman citizenship by the end of the 1st century. The emperors Trajan (r. 98-117), Hadrian (r. 117-38), and Marcus Aurelius (r. 161-80) were born in Hispania.
Infoirmation from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Spain
Roman Mosaic
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Travel/Pix/gallery/2005/07/26/gal-Roman-floor-in-Seville.jpg
3. Visit the following links and write down the names and a definition.