Hispania (personification)

These coins were carried out by the Hispanic mercenaries who received the government of this Sicilian city by order of the Roman Senate during the Second Punic War.

The antecedent of the allegory of Hispania was a series of coins minted in Morgantina (Sicily) by Hispanic mercenaries who ruled this city by order of the Senate during the Second Punic War.

with the same legend inscribed on a standard and the wild boar, symbol of the city of Clunia (Hispania Tarraconense) in commemoration of the victories of Caius Coelius, governor of the Citerior.

The legend HISPANIA appeared for the first time in the Galba empire, complete with two types of representations: One with a bust of a young woman and the other with a full-length woman; both stamped with laurel and dressed in a stole and tunic, their attributes being the ears of corn —symbol of fertility— and two indigenous weapons, the short javelins and the round shield or caetra.

The series of denarii issued by Galba in Tarraco (from April to June 68 AD) represent the emperor in an equestrian position oriented to the left and in others to the right or his bust on the obverse and with the legend HISPANIA.

Galba honored Clunia for giving him shelter in the early days of the rebellion and for having proclaimed him emperor on the death of Nero.

In this Galba appears seated in a curule chair, holding the parazonium and receiving Palladium at the hands of the representation of the goddess of the city who carries cornucopia.

In 269 AD the usurper Laelian minted a gold coin with the legend TEMPORVM FELICITAS alluding to its Hispanic origin and once again rescued the allegory of Hispania from Hadrian's model.

In the transition period between the overthrow and the establishment of the First Republic (1869–1873), several different coins were minted representing Hispania, always reclining, on a rock or sitting with a lion.

[2] Therefore, the allegory of the First Republic was a version inspired by the French Marianne, since she always wore a Phrygian hat and appeared next to a gallic rooster (allegory of France), however that of the Second, depending on her attire, was more similar to Marianne or Hispania, in any case, regardless of the attire with which she was represented, she was always accompanied by the hispanic lion, an attribute inexorably associated with Hispania .

As an example, the Second Republic issued in 1933 a silver coin worth one peseta, which featured a woman with an olive branch, but this time in a seated position.

However, a medal with the symbolic value of 30 euros was created with the allegory of Hispania on its reverse as a commemoration of the European monetary agreement.

After this, we would have to wait for the 19th century, with the arrival of the romanticism movement, which awakened nationalism in the West, often recalling the past, and the neoclassicism that sought to imitate the classic works of the Antiquity.

On the breastplate of the statue of Augustus of Prima Porta Hispania appears on the right hand side (on the left when looking at the sculpture).

These are: Abundance, Peace, Courage, Strength, Justice, Astronomy, Poetry and Mathematics, Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, Commerce and Agriculture.

He finished it off with three sculptures, at the top Hispania appears next to the hispanic lion that represents Castilla —as heiress to the Kingdom of León— offering a laurel wreath as a prize for the literary works of her children.

To the right of Peace appears Philosophy, Jurisprudence, History, Astronomy, Ethnography, Geography, Chemistry, Medicine and Mathematics.

[5] The Puerta de Toledo was a monument ordered to be built by Joseph Bonaparte in Madrid, but when he fled with the French troops it was not cancelled, but continued with the project although with some changes.

[6] In the middle of the 19th century the Italian sculptor Raffaelle Monti sculpted an image of Hispania that he attributes as decoration on the terraces of the gardens of The Crystal Palace of the first Great World Exhibition of 1851 in London along with the personifications of other nations.

These, apart from Spain, are: Greece, Rome, Phoenicia, Genoa, Venice, Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, England and France.

The group of sculptures is located on the facade of the former United States Custom House in New York City, now known as the Alexander Hamilton.

In La Religión socorrida por España, a Spain appears as a matron with blonde hair, wearing a cuirass and armed with a spear from which a red banner of victory hangs, helping a helpless woman, an allegory of religion.

Spain appears martial next to the lion of Castile and next to it its territory, Parma, and around it the allegories of the sciences and the arts in a fresco by Francisco Bayeu y Subías located in the little house of the prince of the Palacio del Pardo, in Madrid.

The painting seems to want to represent the Spanish monarchy in an allegorical way, this, due to the similarities seems to be inspired by Hispania in a martial way with Corinthian helmet and armor.

Due to the policy of Manuel Godoy, Spain decided to ally itself with revolutionary France, which led to the defeat of the Franco-Spanish fleet in Trafalgar.

Especially famous were the magazines La Flaca and Don Quijote, which often represented a Spain afflicted by the pressing problems of the country in that century.