Economy of Hispania
Encyclopedia
The economy of Hispania, or Roman
Iberia
, experienced a strong revolution during and after the conquest of the peninsular territory by Rome, in such a way that, from an unknown but promising land, it came to be one of the most valuable acquisitions of both the Republic and Empire and a basic pillar that sustained the rise of Rome.
with little or very limited trade, with the exception of the largest cities, located mainly on the Mediterranean coast, which had regular contact with Greek
and Phoenician commerce.
and how commercial expeditions returned from the coast of Hispania
loaded with cargoes of silver
. Undoubtedly, these stories contributed to the increase in interest of the Mediterranean powers in the Iberian peninsula.
After their defeat in the First Punic War
, Carthage
was overwhelmed by the loss of important markets and by the tribute it had to pay Rome as compensation for the war. With the goal of alleviating this situation, the Carthagenians decided to expand along the coast of Iberia, which had until then been outside the area of Roman influence. Carthage, interested above all in getting quick profit, exploited the silver mines along the coastline of Andalusia
and Levante
, extracting large amounts of this metal with which it financed a great part of the Second Punic War
and Hannibal's Italian campaign.
With this purpose and others, one of the first strategic objectives of Rome when invading the peninsula was to take the mines near New Carthage. In part due to the loss of these resources, and in greater part due to the isolation he found himself in, Hannibal had to renounce the war in Italy in 206 BC.
After the expulsion of Carthage, part of the indigenous peoples of Hispania were forced to pay tribute
to Rome through an intricate web of alliances and allegiances. Despite this, throughout the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Rome took the unconquered lands of Hispania as an opportunity to pillage and plunder, frequently breaking peace treaties, like the accords from the times of Graccus Sempronius, which had allowed long periods of peace. The uprising of the Celtiberian
and Lusitanian
peoples only served to increase revenues from Rome via the immense spoils of war from the campaigns of Cato the Elder
.
This policy of obtaining riches by force had its continuation in the campaigns of Pompey and later Julius Caesar, whom the histories say undertook not only to fight Pompey, but to profit from the conquest in order pay his creditors.
Meanwhile, the Spanish
Mediterranean coast, which had been conquered during the war against Carthage and rapidly Romanized, began its economic and commercial expansion that would soon make it famous in the Roman world.
s that opened the markets of the rest of the Empire.
to facilitate commercial transactions. Until then, the peninsular peoples organized their economy around the exchange of products, but beginning in the 3rd century BC, Greek colonies like Ampurias
began minting coins, but with no influence beyond its boundaries.
Later, Carthage would introduce a more general use of the coins as payment for its troops, before and during the Roman invasion; but it would be the Romans who would impose the use of currency throughout the Spanish territory, and not just that currency whose value was based on the metal contained in the coin, but others of lower value than the alloy
that comprised them, and were endorsed by the Roman treasury
. From the abundance of coins found, especially those of lower value, one can draw the conclusion that the money was used widely in everyday life. During expansion of Rome in Spain, many peoples of the Peninsula minted their own coins in order to facilitate payment of tribute and trade with the area under Roman rule.
Throughout the Republican
period, it was the Roman Senate
that completely controlled the issuance of coinage through the monetary courts, but later, with the rise of the dictators, its control was reduced to lower valued coins, later passing many of the mints to imperial control.
Once Roman power in Hispania was consolidated, there were many mints that coined money, such as Tarraco (the first of the Roman mints in Hispania), Italica, Barcino, Caesaraugusta, Emerita Augusta, etc. And throughout the Empire, more than 400 mints provided coinage to most of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
.
Since the mines were state owned, Rome created companies, 'public societies', which were public businesses administrated by publican
s for mining. These publicans, generally members of the equestrian order, enriched themselves rapidly and abundantly, but during the dictatorship of Sulla, he snatched the mines from the publicans, putting them in the hands of private individuals and obtaining with it great economic and political benefits. In the times of Strabo (1st century BC - 1st century AD, during the transition from the Republic to the dictators and the Empire), they were granted as concessions to private exploitation. This system permitted the rapid enriching of certain families who, coming from Italy, had settled in Hispania
for this purpose. In other cases, the mines could belong to a city (generally to a colony). The profits from the mines were huge and remained so throughout the period of seven centuries of Roman rule, which converted Hispania into a economic mainstay of the Empire. The records show with sufficient accuracy mine production figures, that in the 2nd century BC were more than nine million denarii
annually, while the spoils of war during the same period, were never more than a little more than a third of this amount.
With regards to minerals, Rome extracted with greater interest silver
, copper
, and iron
. Hannibal had had given a great vitality to the silver mines of New Carthage. In those on the outskirts of Cartagena
and Mazarron
, Rome continued extracting silver, lead
, iron, zinc
, and other minerals in great quantities, making about 40,000 slaves
labor in them. Even today in the region of Ilipa
(the same place where Scipio inflicted a major defeat on the Carthaginians on the west bank of the river Betis) there are significant mineral deposits such as Almaden de la Plata or Aznalcollar in Sevilla, and the Almaden mercury that depended on Sisapo (Valle de Alcudia, Ciudad Real). This production, besides the remains of the same mineral deposits, is demonstrated by the many underwater wrecks in which silver ingots have been found, and lead and copper bars with the seals of Hispanic smelters.
Another important mineral extracted in Hispania was lapis specularis, a type of translucent gypsum
, much appreciated as a mineral for the making, as crystal, windows in Rome. Its principal areas of extraction were the current Spanish provinces of Toledo
and Cuenca
. The city of Segobriga was the administrative center of the mineral's production, and it was the principle economic activity of the city.
Beyond all of this, the work in the mines in the times of Roman Hispania took place under appalling conditions. Millions of slaves were employed in mines in extremely dangerous work without any security and without a schedule that is humanly bearable. For a slave, the fate of the mines was the worst of all fortunes, and with almost complete certainty, a slave was destined to spend the rest of their short lives without seeing the light of the sun again, hauling mineral and stone all day long or swinging a pick in the galleries, always under the threat of cave in
s.
were divided amongst the professional troops, the land being measured and divided for the colonization of the territory. Traditionally, farming had been idealized by Roman culture as the culmination of the aspirations of the citizen. The Romans pushed legislation on land ownership, guaranteeing property lines through surveying techniques and the "centuriazation" of the fields. This policy would allow a rapid colonization of the land. Subsequently, late in the 2nd century AD, this would produce a crisis for the peasantry throughout the territory under Roman rule, caused by the huge quantity of slaves who were employed in all sectors, with a consequent decline in the competitiveness of small farmers. The crisis, despite the failed agrarian reform attempts of the Tribunes Tiberius and Cayo Sempronio Graco, would favor the strengthening of the great landowners, possessors of large expanses of land dedicated to cultivation of a single crop and worked by slaves. The small farmer in many cases would be doomed to abandon his lands and swell the ranks of the growing number of Roman armies.
The deposits of camphor
from "Mount Testaccio" as much as underwater deposits are evidence of trade with Rome. Mount Testaccio originated as a dumping ground for ceramic packaging from goods that arrived in Rome. From the size that the hill attained, which according to research, 80% of its volume is composed of Betician camphor for olive oil, one can deduce the magnitude of the trade generated by the oil and hence the importance that olive cultivation had in Hispania. This was undoubtedly the product of Hispania which was marketed in more abundance and for a longer period of time, and indeed is still the foundation of agriculture in southern Iberia.
Camphor of Betic origin has been found, besides in Mount Testaccio (since most of the oil production was sent to Rome until the middle of the 3rd century AD), in locations as diverse as Alexandria, and even Israel. During the 2nd century AD, shipments of oil were destined for the Roman garrisons of Germania.
Within the oil trade, the quantity of camphor found, as much in Mount Testaccio as in other places, stands out. The Sevillian town of Lora del Rio
, where one of largest exporters of this product was located, is studied today in the archeological remains of La Catria. However through the history of Roman Hispania, a multitude of potteries and producers of oil existed in Betica itself as much as in the area to the east of it.
cultivation, classical sources discuss the quality and quantity of Hispanic stock, some of them highly appreciated in Italy, while the production of others less selective were destined to be consumed by the greater public who had less purchasing power. This crop was produced mostly in the 'fundus' (latifundias), that understood all the processes needed to make wine
, occasionally including the manufacture of the pottery
needed for the manufacture of the bottle. Because of the number of said 'fundus' and the total production of the same, it was possible to keep the domestic market supplied and to export the considerable excess for consumption of other parts of the Empire.
Thanks to archeological research about the production of camphor
in the southern peninsula, it can be deduced that the commerce of salted fish
existed before the control of Carthage. Evidence exists for production and marketing of salted fish as early as the 5th century BC. The Carthaginians extended this trade throughout all of the western Mediterranean, as much Hispanic as North African.
Throughout the Roman period, Hispania stood out for its continuation of the flourishing trade of salted fish from Betica, extending its market throughout western Europe. This activity is reflected in the remains of factories whose product was, in addition to salted fish, the sauce garum
, whose fame was extended throughout the Empire. Garum sauce was produced by the process of maceration of fish viscera. As with the wine and oil trade, the production of garum generated an important auxiliary industry of packaging in camphor, in which were conserved abundant remains, and thanks to which, it is possible to determine the reach of this trade.
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Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
Iberia
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
, experienced a strong revolution during and after the conquest of the peninsular territory by Rome, in such a way that, from an unknown but promising land, it came to be one of the most valuable acquisitions of both the Republic and Empire and a basic pillar that sustained the rise of Rome.
The Pre-Roman economy
Before the entrance of Rome into Iberia, almost all of the peninsula was based on a rural subsistence economySubsistence economy
A subsistence economy is an economy which refers simply to the gathering or amassment of objects of value; the increase in wealth; or the creation of wealth. Capital can be generally defined as assets invested with the expectation that their value will increase, usually because there is the...
with little or very limited trade, with the exception of the largest cities, located mainly on the Mediterranean coast, which had regular contact with Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
and Phoenician commerce.
The economic strategy of the Roman conquest
Phoenician legends had traditionally circulated throughout the Mediterranean about the infinite riches of the TartessosTartessos
Tartessos or Tartessus was a harbor city and surrounding culture on the south coast of the Iberian peninsula , at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River. It appears in sources from Greece and the Near East starting in the middle of the first millennium BC, for example Herodotus, who describes it as...
and how commercial expeditions returned from the coast of Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
loaded with cargoes of silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
. Undoubtedly, these stories contributed to the increase in interest of the Mediterranean powers in the Iberian peninsula.
After their defeat in the First Punic War
First Punic War
The First Punic War was the first of three wars fought between Ancient Carthage and the Roman Republic. For 23 years, the two powers struggled for supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and its surrounding waters but also to a lesser extent in...
, Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
was overwhelmed by the loss of important markets and by the tribute it had to pay Rome as compensation for the war. With the goal of alleviating this situation, the Carthagenians decided to expand along the coast of Iberia, which had until then been outside the area of Roman influence. Carthage, interested above all in getting quick profit, exploited the silver mines along the coastline of Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
and Levante
Levante
This is a disambiguation page. Levante may refer to*Levant, the lands in the eastern Mediterranean, covering Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq.*Levante, Spain, the eastern Iberian coastal region of Spain...
, extracting large amounts of this metal with which it financed a great part of the Second Punic War
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
and Hannibal's Italian campaign.
With this purpose and others, one of the first strategic objectives of Rome when invading the peninsula was to take the mines near New Carthage. In part due to the loss of these resources, and in greater part due to the isolation he found himself in, Hannibal had to renounce the war in Italy in 206 BC.
After the expulsion of Carthage, part of the indigenous peoples of Hispania were forced to pay tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
to Rome through an intricate web of alliances and allegiances. Despite this, throughout the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, Rome took the unconquered lands of Hispania as an opportunity to pillage and plunder, frequently breaking peace treaties, like the accords from the times of Graccus Sempronius, which had allowed long periods of peace. The uprising of the Celtiberian
Celtiberians
The Celtiberians were Celtic-speaking people of the Iberian Peninsula in the final centuries BC. The group used the Celtic Celtiberian language.Archaeologically, the Celtiberians participated in the Hallstatt culture in what is now north-central Spain...
and Lusitanian
Lusitanians
The Lusitanians were an Indo-European people living in the Western Iberian Peninsula long before it became the Roman province of Lusitania . They spoke the Lusitanian language which might have been Celtic. The modern Portuguese people see the Lusitanians as their ancestors...
peoples only served to increase revenues from Rome via the immense spoils of war from the campaigns of Cato the Elder
Cato the Elder
Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, commonly referred to as Censorius , Sapiens , Priscus , or Major, Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor, to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger.He came of an ancient Plebeian family who all were noted for some...
.
This policy of obtaining riches by force had its continuation in the campaigns of Pompey and later Julius Caesar, whom the histories say undertook not only to fight Pompey, but to profit from the conquest in order pay his creditors.
Meanwhile, the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Mediterranean coast, which had been conquered during the war against Carthage and rapidly Romanized, began its economic and commercial expansion that would soon make it famous in the Roman world.
The economy of Romanized Hispania
Besides the exploitation of mineral resources, Rome obtained with the conquest of Hispania access to what were probably the best agricultural lands in all of Romanized territory. Therefore, it became necessary to use those lands as soon as possible. During the Roman domination of the area, the economy of Hispania experienced a major production expansion, fueled further by roads and trade routeTrade route
A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...
s that opened the markets of the rest of the Empire.
Circulating currency
One of most obvious symbols of civilization that foreign cultures brought to Hispania was the minting of coinsCOinS
ContextObjects in Spans, commonly abbreviated COinS, is a method to embed bibliographic metadata in the HTML code of web pages. This allows bibliographic software to publish machine-readable bibliographic items and client reference management software to retrieve bibliographic metadata. The...
to facilitate commercial transactions. Until then, the peninsular peoples organized their economy around the exchange of products, but beginning in the 3rd century BC, Greek colonies like Ampurias
Ampurias
Ampurias may refer to:* Empúries in Catalonia, Spain* Castelsardo on Sardinia, Italy...
began minting coins, but with no influence beyond its boundaries.
Later, Carthage would introduce a more general use of the coins as payment for its troops, before and during the Roman invasion; but it would be the Romans who would impose the use of currency throughout the Spanish territory, and not just that currency whose value was based on the metal contained in the coin, but others of lower value than the alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
that comprised them, and were endorsed by the Roman treasury
Treasury
A treasury is either*A government department related to finance and taxation.*A place where currency or precious items is/are kept....
. From the abundance of coins found, especially those of lower value, one can draw the conclusion that the money was used widely in everyday life. During expansion of Rome in Spain, many peoples of the Peninsula minted their own coins in order to facilitate payment of tribute and trade with the area under Roman rule.
Throughout the Republican
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
period, it was the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
that completely controlled the issuance of coinage through the monetary courts, but later, with the rise of the dictators, its control was reduced to lower valued coins, later passing many of the mints to imperial control.
Once Roman power in Hispania was consolidated, there were many mints that coined money, such as Tarraco (the first of the Roman mints in Hispania), Italica, Barcino, Caesaraugusta, Emerita Augusta, etc. And throughout the Empire, more than 400 mints provided coinage to most of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Minerals
Undoubtedly, the first interest of Rome in Iberia was to take advantage of its legendary mineral wealth, besides that taken from Carthage. After the Second Punic War, the administration of was entrusted to Publius Scipio 'Africanus', who paid special attention to the mines. Rome would continue the extraction practices that the Iberian peoples began and that the Carthaginians would improve by importing the techniques used in Ptolemaic EgyptPtolemaic Egypt
Ptolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter invaded Egypt and declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a powerful Hellenistic state, extending from southern Syria in the east, to...
.
Since the mines were state owned, Rome created companies, 'public societies', which were public businesses administrated by publican
Publican
In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects...
s for mining. These publicans, generally members of the equestrian order, enriched themselves rapidly and abundantly, but during the dictatorship of Sulla, he snatched the mines from the publicans, putting them in the hands of private individuals and obtaining with it great economic and political benefits. In the times of Strabo (1st century BC - 1st century AD, during the transition from the Republic to the dictators and the Empire), they were granted as concessions to private exploitation. This system permitted the rapid enriching of certain families who, coming from Italy, had settled in Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
for this purpose. In other cases, the mines could belong to a city (generally to a colony). The profits from the mines were huge and remained so throughout the period of seven centuries of Roman rule, which converted Hispania into a economic mainstay of the Empire. The records show with sufficient accuracy mine production figures, that in the 2nd century BC were more than nine million denarii
Denarius
In the Roman currency system, the denarius was a small silver coin first minted in 211 BC. It was the most common coin produced for circulation but was slowly debased until its replacement by the antoninianus...
annually, while the spoils of war during the same period, were never more than a little more than a third of this amount.
With regards to minerals, Rome extracted with greater interest silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, and iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
. Hannibal had had given a great vitality to the silver mines of New Carthage. In those on the outskirts of Cartagena
Cartagena, Spain
Cartagena is a Spanish city and a major naval station located in the Region of Murcia, by the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Spain. As of January 2011, it has a population of 218,210 inhabitants being the Region’s second largest municipality and the country’s 6th non-Province capital...
and Mazarron
Mazarrón
Mazarrón is a municipality in the autonomous community and province of Murcia, southeastern Spain. The municipality has an area of , and a population of more than 34,351 inhabitants...
, Rome continued extracting silver, lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
, iron, zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
, and other minerals in great quantities, making about 40,000 slaves
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
labor in them. Even today in the region of Ilipa
Ilipa
Ilipa is an ancient Spanish town near Seville. It is famous as the site of the Battle of Ilipa....
(the same place where Scipio inflicted a major defeat on the Carthaginians on the west bank of the river Betis) there are significant mineral deposits such as Almaden de la Plata or Aznalcollar in Sevilla, and the Almaden mercury that depended on Sisapo (Valle de Alcudia, Ciudad Real). This production, besides the remains of the same mineral deposits, is demonstrated by the many underwater wrecks in which silver ingots have been found, and lead and copper bars with the seals of Hispanic smelters.
Another important mineral extracted in Hispania was lapis specularis, a type of translucent gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
, much appreciated as a mineral for the making, as crystal, windows in Rome. Its principal areas of extraction were the current Spanish provinces of Toledo
Toledo (province)
Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Ávila....
and Cuenca
Cuenca (province)
Cuenca is a province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha.-Guide to the area:Located in a natural setting of beauty, the Old Town of Cuenca occupies a superb site between two river gorges. Famous are its 15th Century "hanging houses" , that appear...
. The city of Segobriga was the administrative center of the mineral's production, and it was the principle economic activity of the city.
Beyond all of this, the work in the mines in the times of Roman Hispania took place under appalling conditions. Millions of slaves were employed in mines in extremely dangerous work without any security and without a schedule that is humanly bearable. For a slave, the fate of the mines was the worst of all fortunes, and with almost complete certainty, a slave was destined to spend the rest of their short lives without seeing the light of the sun again, hauling mineral and stone all day long or swinging a pick in the galleries, always under the threat of cave in
Cave In
Cave In is an American rock band that formed in 1995, in Methuen, Massachusetts. After several members changes in the late 90's, their lineup solidified with the 1998 release of Until Your Heart Stops through Hydra Head Records. Their early albums were prominent releases in the independent...
s.
Agriculture
As soon as the first conquests obtained them, cultivated landsAgriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
were divided amongst the professional troops, the land being measured and divided for the colonization of the territory. Traditionally, farming had been idealized by Roman culture as the culmination of the aspirations of the citizen. The Romans pushed legislation on land ownership, guaranteeing property lines through surveying techniques and the "centuriazation" of the fields. This policy would allow a rapid colonization of the land. Subsequently, late in the 2nd century AD, this would produce a crisis for the peasantry throughout the territory under Roman rule, caused by the huge quantity of slaves who were employed in all sectors, with a consequent decline in the competitiveness of small farmers. The crisis, despite the failed agrarian reform attempts of the Tribunes Tiberius and Cayo Sempronio Graco, would favor the strengthening of the great landowners, possessors of large expanses of land dedicated to cultivation of a single crop and worked by slaves. The small farmer in many cases would be doomed to abandon his lands and swell the ranks of the growing number of Roman armies.
Olives and commerce in oil
Of the agricultural production of Hispania since the 2nd century BC, the cultivation of olives, especially along the Mediterranean coast and Betic Tarragona, stands out. Under the Romans, the province of Bética specialized in the production of olive oil for export to Rome and northern Europe.The deposits of camphor
Camphor
Camphor is a waxy, white or transparent solid with a strong, aromatic odor. It is a terpenoid with the chemical formula C10H16O. It is found in wood of the camphor laurel , a large evergreen tree found in Asia and also of Dryobalanops aromatica, a giant of the Bornean forests...
from "Mount Testaccio" as much as underwater deposits are evidence of trade with Rome. Mount Testaccio originated as a dumping ground for ceramic packaging from goods that arrived in Rome. From the size that the hill attained, which according to research, 80% of its volume is composed of Betician camphor for olive oil, one can deduce the magnitude of the trade generated by the oil and hence the importance that olive cultivation had in Hispania. This was undoubtedly the product of Hispania which was marketed in more abundance and for a longer period of time, and indeed is still the foundation of agriculture in southern Iberia.
Camphor of Betic origin has been found, besides in Mount Testaccio (since most of the oil production was sent to Rome until the middle of the 3rd century AD), in locations as diverse as Alexandria, and even Israel. During the 2nd century AD, shipments of oil were destined for the Roman garrisons of Germania.
Within the oil trade, the quantity of camphor found, as much in Mount Testaccio as in other places, stands out. The Sevillian town of Lora del Rio
Lora del Río
Lora del Río is a city located in the province of Seville, Spain. According to the 2006 census by INE, it has a population of 19,077 inhabitants.-Geography:...
, where one of largest exporters of this product was located, is studied today in the archeological remains of La Catria. However through the history of Roman Hispania, a multitude of potteries and producers of oil existed in Betica itself as much as in the area to the east of it.
Cultivation of grapevines and commerce in wine
With respect to grapevineGrapevine
Grapevine is the common name for plants of the genus Vitis. Other meanings include:*Grapevine , a term often used to describe a form of communication by means of gossip or rumor, as in "heard it through the grapevine"...
cultivation, classical sources discuss the quality and quantity of Hispanic stock, some of them highly appreciated in Italy, while the production of others less selective were destined to be consumed by the greater public who had less purchasing power. This crop was produced mostly in the 'fundus' (latifundias), that understood all the processes needed to make wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
, occasionally including the manufacture of the pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
needed for the manufacture of the bottle. Because of the number of said 'fundus' and the total production of the same, it was possible to keep the domestic market supplied and to export the considerable excess for consumption of other parts of the Empire.
Treatises of Columela
Inside the chronicles and treatises concerning agriculture in Hispania, the work of Cadizian Lucio Junio Moderato Columela is remarkable. In his dozen books, he presented the characteristics of agriculture in his time (1st century AD), criticizing those defects that, in his understanding, ruined the industry, like the abandoning of the fields and the hoarding of land by the great landholders. In these books, he deals extensively with the cultivation of olives and grapevines.Trade in salted goods
Camphor
Camphor is a waxy, white or transparent solid with a strong, aromatic odor. It is a terpenoid with the chemical formula C10H16O. It is found in wood of the camphor laurel , a large evergreen tree found in Asia and also of Dryobalanops aromatica, a giant of the Bornean forests...
in the southern peninsula, it can be deduced that the commerce of salted fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
existed before the control of Carthage. Evidence exists for production and marketing of salted fish as early as the 5th century BC. The Carthaginians extended this trade throughout all of the western Mediterranean, as much Hispanic as North African.
Throughout the Roman period, Hispania stood out for its continuation of the flourishing trade of salted fish from Betica, extending its market throughout western Europe. This activity is reflected in the remains of factories whose product was, in addition to salted fish, the sauce garum
Garum
Garum, similar to liquamen, was a type of fermented fish sauce condiment that was an essential flavour in Ancient Roman cooking, the supreme condiment....
, whose fame was extended throughout the Empire. Garum sauce was produced by the process of maceration of fish viscera. As with the wine and oil trade, the production of garum generated an important auxiliary industry of packaging in camphor, in which were conserved abundant remains, and thanks to which, it is possible to determine the reach of this trade.
See also
- Roman economyRoman economyThe history of the Roman economy covers the period of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.Recent research has led to a positive reevaluation of the size and sophistication of the Roman economy within the constraints generally imposed on agricultural societies in the preindustrial age.- Gross...
- HispaniaHispaniaAnother theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
- Conquest of HispaniaConquest of HispaniaThe Roman conquest of Hispania was a historical period that began with the Roman landing at Empúries in 218 BC and ended with the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, then Hispania, by Caesar Augustus in 17 BC....
- Romanization of HispaniaRomanization of HispaniaThe Romanization of Hispania is the process by which the Roman culture was introduced into the Iberian Peninsula during the period of Roman rule over it, or parts of it.- Introduction :...
- Political organization of Hispania
- Roman art in Hispania
External links
The Virtual Library of Miguel de Cervantes:- Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes: La Hispania prerromana
- Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes: Hispania Romana
University sources:
- Universidad de Zaragoza: Historia antigua - Hispania
- Universidad de Zaragoza, departamento de Historia Antigua - Bibliografía sobre la conquista de Hispania
- Departament de Prehistòria, Història Antiga i Arqueologia - Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona - Centro para el estudio de la interdependencia provincial en la antigüedad clásica (CEIPAC)
- Exposición «El monte de las ánforas» - Una exposición en profundidad sobre el monte Testaccio y su importancia en la comprensión de la economía romana.
- Universitat de les Illes Balears (pdf) - Documento con bibliografía relacionada
Other links:
- Mapa de los Pueblos Pre-Romanos de Iberia (circa 200 AC)
- Celtiberia.net: Mercenarios hispanos durante la Segunda Guerra Púnica
- En Hispania: Página de D. José Miguel Corbí, catedrático de Latín
- Simulacra Romae - Las capitales provinciales romanas
- Identificación de puentes romanos en Hispania
- Los ingenieros romanos
- La construcción de los puentes romanos
- Coordinadora para la defensa del Molinete - BAÑOS PÚBLICOS ROMANOS
- Zona arqueológica de Cercadilla (Córdoba)
- Augusta Emerita
- Bibliografía sobre la arquitectura de los teatros de Hispania
- Obras hidráulicas romanas en Hispania
- El garum, la salsa del Imperio Romano
- Las provincias de la Hispania Romana
- Grupo Gastronómico Gaditano - El «Garum Gaditanum»
- TRAIANVS - Las explotaciones mineras de Lapis Specularis en Hispania
- Tesorillo.com - Algunas cecas provinciales romanas
- Tesorillo.com - Algunas cecas imperiales romanas
- Acropoliscórdoba.org - El alma de la pintura en Roma
- ArteEspaña.com - Escultura romana: el retrato