The Roman Conquest of Hispania Citerior. Strategies and Archaeological Evidence in the North-Eastern Peninsular Area. (II-I BCE): the Examples of Puig Castellar of Biosca and Can Tacó (Catalonia, Spain)

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-0319.25.11

Keywords:

Roman Republican Army, conquest, Hispania Citerior, second century BC

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide data for the knowledge of the strategies followed by Rome to take effective control of the Citerior Province of Hispania during the 2nd century BC. We will analyse two settlements of the north-eastern region, namely Puig Castellar de Biosca (Province of Lleida) and Can Tacó (Province of Barcelona), that will serve to gauge the degree of Roman territorial implementation and under what forms this power will be consolidated.

The period that interests us ranges from the end of the second Punic-Roman conflict to the first decades of the 1st century BC. It was a slow process in which Rome did not have a pre-established plan of action but was adapting its strategy to the different circumstances and stages of the conquest. The end of all this was the final control and pacification of the country.

While all the researchers have a common understanding that during the first phase of control of the Hispanic territories the army played the most important role, the main discrepancies are related to the nature and characteristics of this occupation. The main focus in this discussion has its centre in the need to define how the Roman Army embodied his presence in Hispania during the first century of conquest and to characterise the different settlements in order to identify and determine with precision their military character or their connection with the process of conquest without a strictly military function.

Funding: This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (De la consolidación del poder militar romana a la fundación de ciudades (mediados del siglo II a.C.-principios del siglo I d.C). en la Cuenca del rio Segre: Iesso y Iulia Libica DGYCIT PID2019-104120GB-I00-2023-2021), and the Department of Culture of the Catalan Autonomous Government (La conquesta romana a la Catalunya interior: l’exemple de Puig Castellar (Biosca), CLT009/18/00014).

Author Biographies

Esther Rodrigo Requena, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Dr Esther Rodrigo Requena – obtained her PhD in Archeology in 2006 with the dissertation: “The evolution of the settlement and organization of the Ager de Iesso from the Iberian period to Late Antiquity. Study of the occupation and structuration of the territory”. Her field of expertise focuses on the study of territory and landscape in Antiquity and the process of Romanization in the Iberian Peninsula. She has participated in numerous projects on the Romanization process in the Iberian Peninsula, such as the excavation and research project of the Serrat dels Tres Hereus (Casserres, Barcelona) from 1996 to 2000, the research project of the Roman republican complex of Can Tacó (Montmeló/Montornès del Vallès, Barcelona), from 2004 to 2017, in which she was the director of the excavations that have had a special impact on the studies of the first Roman settlement in the territory between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, and also the archaeological research project in the Roman Republican fortress of Puig Castellar de Biosca (Lleida) since 2012 until now, and in the Roman municipality of Iesso (Guissona, Lleida).

Finally, it is also important to highlight her participation as a member of the research team on the landscape of the Greek city of Emporion, a project that started in 2012 under the direction of Josep Maria Palet.

Núria Romaní Sala, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Dr Núria Romaní Sala – is a tenure-eligible lecturer (Serra Húnter fellow) in the Department of Antiquity and Middle Age Studies of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Her research has focused on Roman urbanism and water engineering, especially on the evolution, construction techniques and organization of streets and urban public services, mainly the water supply and sewerage systems in the Roman town. She is also particularly interested in exploring the early stages of the Roman conquest of north-eastern Hispania, as a member of the research team of the Puig Castellar de Biosca archaeological project

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Published

2022-12-16

How to Cite

Rodrigo Requena, E., & Romaní Sala, N. (2022). The Roman Conquest of Hispania Citerior. Strategies and Archaeological Evidence in the North-Eastern Peninsular Area. (II-I BCE): the Examples of Puig Castellar of Biosca and Can Tacó (Catalonia, Spain). Collectanea Philologica, (25), 149–169. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-0319.25.11

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