6. MEDITERRANEAN SPAIN ----------------------- EXTENT Modern Spanish regions of Cataluna, Valencia, Murcia, Andalucia, Estremadura, Castilla y la Mancha, and Aragon; Gibraltar. Note that this is an exceptional regional entry, in that it lacks sections on sources and on introductory works. For these you should see - probably before continuing to read this entry - the entry on the IBERIAN PENINSULA. PERIODISATION AND TERMS This region enters history with a number of quasi-literate societies already present: Phoenician and Greek colonists (present from perhaps 700 and 600 BC respectively), and several groups all known to historians as "Iberian". Some of these latter seem to have formed a kingdom (?) called Tartessus quite early, around the Guadalquivir valley. Terminology for the period is routinely imprecise; there seem to be broad divisions between the peoples in the southwest (roughly today's Andalucia, including Tartessus), the southeast (roughly today's Murcia), and the northeast (roughly today's Cataluna), all of which peoples are sometimes called "Iberian" and sometimes not, while later literary sources provide too many tribal names to list. In addition, Celts or Celtic influence affected some areas in the north and east, leading to another vague term, "Celtiberian". The southwesterners had a marked "orientalising" period under Phoenician influence, to perhaps 530 BC, and later traded with colonies of CARTHAGE on the coast. Carthage invaded in force in 237, from a base it founded at Cartago Nova (Cartagena). ROME followed suit in 218, and kicked Carthage out by 206. In 197 Rome divided its conquests into the provinces Hispania citerior (ruled from Cartagena) and Hispania ulterior (ruled from Corduba [Cordoba]). Rome's conquest of the rest of the region may not have been intentional, and certainly took a long time; most of the great men of the period took part - too many to list. But the initial sweep can be considered complete after the death of Viriathus (a local leader) in 140 and the fall of the fortress of Numantia in 133 BC. The Roman rebel Sertorius, the Roman civil wars, native revolts by the Lusitani, and invasions from MOROCCO all troubled the area between 82 and 35 BC. Around 15 BC, Hispania ulterior was split into Baetica (still ruled from Cordoba) and Lusitania (ruled from Emerita Augusta [Merida]); Hispania citerior was thenceforth governed from Tarraco (Tarragona), and at some point renamed Tarraconensis. By the late first century AD, this was a central part of the empire, and Baetica was even the birthplace of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian. Earlier, the provinces were split into , whose borders are the ancestors of many modern borders; those including parts of this region were governed from Cordoba, Astigi (Ecija), Gades (Cadiz), and Sevilla (Hispalis) in Baetica; Tarragona, Cartagena, and Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza) in Tarraconensis; and Merida in Lusitania. New invasions from Morocco in AD 171-3, and again (more lastingly) somewhat later, disrupted the south. There was also trouble in the north. By the 250s, Christianity was widespread. The peninsula joined the empire of Postumus in the 260s, but this did not prevent a Frankish invasion in the northeast. In 298, the peninsula was reorganised: specifically, the conventus at Cartagena became the province Cartaginensis; the whole peninsula, plus Morocco, became the diocese Hispaniae, with its capital at Merida; and conventus-level administration ended. Vandals, Sueves and Alans invaded in AD 409, and by 411 the Siling Vandals controlled Baetica and the Alans Lusitania and Cartaginensis. Rome sent the VISIGOTHS in in 416 to defeat them, which was done by 418, but this only resulted in first Asding VANDALS (from 420 to 429) and then SUEVES (from at latest 438 to at earliest 455) invading the region. There was also trouble with "Bacaudae" in the northeast in the 440s. So the Visigoths came back. They wiped the Bacaudae out in 453-454, demolished the Sueve kingdom in 456, and spent the 460s establishing rule in most of the peninsula; in and after 472, they conquered the remaining Roman province of Tarraconensis. After this we have detailed political information for only half a century, a time which begins with the MEROVINGIAN FRANKS' invasion in 541 and features also a Roman invasion and several revolts. During this time only King Leovigild in the 570s seems strong. The more impressive legacies of the Visigothic era are its writings, of which the most important are: the history of John of Biclar (died c. 614); the encyclopaedic works of Isidore, Bishop of Seville (died 636); and the great compilations of canon and secular law, King Egica's (c. 690) and King Reccesuinth's (654) respectively (the latter of which is based on a work of King Leovigild's time). Isidore and the law books were widely influential. RESEARCH As discussed under the super-regional entry for the Iberian Peninsula, most relevant works are at the level of modern Spanish regions or smaller areas, are in Spanish or Catalan, and are unavailable to me. I have decided, faced with this situation, to relegate the many books I haven't been able to see to a companion document, and list in this one only those books I have stumbled on. These concern only two modern Spanish regions. --Murcia-- . Edited by ?Antonino Gonzalez Blanco. Volume II of 'Universidad de Murcia Departamento de Historia Antigua - Antiguedad y Cristianismo Monografias Historicas sobra la Antiguedad Tardia'. On the surface this book looks like just another collection of conference papers (although a one-volume collection of conference papers is itself rather exotic in Spanish antiquity, where ten volumes is not unheard of). But it includes impressive bibliographies and surveys of various topics and should be your first stop, if you can find a copy, for this region and period. --Andalucia-- . A. T. Fear. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. A volume in 'Oxford Classical Monographs'. Although this is a monograph of limited scope (as Fear emphasises), it marshals evidence broadly enough to be of considerable bibliographic help. Fear argues that Romanisation was far less pervasive than usually thought, even in this rich province.