[2] Between both areas and at the confluence of the Jerga and Tuerto rivers, the city proper was located on a promontory, at 870 m above sea level, whose profile resembles a spur, becoming smoother at its western end.

The number of freemen in the whole population reaches two hundred and forty thousand.This qualification as magnificent may have been related to the growth it experienced as a result of gold mining during the first and second centuries.

This was part of Augustus' political program; after coming to power, he carried out a reform of the army, entrusting it with the protection of the borders, which were delimited through various campaigns, and in this context the action of Rome in the northwest peninsular took place.

In the eastern zone, the Romans followed the course of the Pisuerga and subdued Vellica (Monte Cildá); they continued towards the north, up to Aracillum and Mons Vindius, where the Cantabrians had taken refuge, and there they defeated them.

The city's foundation is linked to the territorial organization carried out by Augustus after the end of the Cantabrian Wars, who applied a set of administrative, political, and fiscal measures to consolidate Augustus after the end of the Cantabrian Wars, who applied a set of administrative, political, and fiscal measures with the aim of consolidating his power in the newly annexed territories.

Later it was Adolf Schulten who placed Legio X in Asturica based on the reconstruction of the military actions against the Asturians, five epitaphs of soldiers of that legion, and a text by Floro that would refer to the demilitarization of the camp: ...he ordered them to dwell and reside in his camp, located in the plain, to hold their assemblies there and to adopt it as their capital.Likewise, José María Luengo considered Legio X responsible for the city's foundation, in whose construction its soldiers would have participated.

Therefore, on a strategic hill, on the border between the countryside of the Duero basin and the mountains of León, around 15-10 B.C., a military garrison was installed whose mission was the surveillance and control of the newly conquered territory, still in the pacification phase.

This pattern is repeated in the different excavations carried out, in which a military horizon is amortized for its later transformation into a civilian nucleus, something that possibly took place coinciding with the capital of the conventus and the exploitation of the mining resources of its territory.

A new wall was also built, with a perimeter of two kilometers, remains of which are still visible in the so-called Roman Gate, but with the end of mining operations in the time of Diocletian the city began to decline.

Apart from the legend that attributes to St James the Apostle the preaching in these lands and the foundation of the bishopric, the discovery in the vicinity of Astorga of one of the oldest Roman-Christian sarcophagi in the peninsula indicates the presence of an early Christian movement.

However, the establishment of Christianity was threatened by the barbarian invasions and, in the religious field, by the expansion of the Priscillianist and Manichaeist doctrines, against which Hydatius or Saint Toribius later fought after the condemnation made at the Council of Saragossa in 380.

After the execution of Priscillian in Trier in 385, Bishop Symposium converted to Catholicism, as did his successors Dictinus and Comasius; a Priscillianist stronghold had been organized around them in Astorga in the second half of the 4th century.

These studies, in addition to their purely scientific interest, have given rise to conservation work in situ of some of the findings, forming part of one of the tourist attractions of the city, the so-called Roman Route.

This may be the cause of the different disposition of the urban road, differentiating two zones: on the one hand, a rectangle of 430 by 380 meters is observed, with grid planning, giving rise to square or rectangular blocks.

At the end of the century, in 1896, the master builder A. G. del Campo recorded the existence of a paved street associated with a sewer in what would be the first documents relating archaeological discoveries of Roman Astorga.

The closing of this space repeats the same scheme, as has been found in the different excavations carried out, for example, the site of the Old Hospice, Santocildes Square, Alonso Luengo Street; it has a double portico in which semicircular apses and rectangular exedras open, whose base uses the same construction technique, the opus caementicium.

On the western limit, and in an axial position, there is a rectangular room with a semicircular head, which is accessed through an entrance presided by two columns in antis, and whose pavement is made of opus sectile, with a geometric design.

On the other hand, the archaeological work carried out on the occasion of the rehabilitation of the Gullón Theater made it possible to document,[6] at the eastern end of the forum, the remains of the basilica: a semicircular apse, with four buttresses on the outside, and at its opening two columns in antis, all in opus caementicium.

In another nearby plot, in the Plaza Arquitecto Gaudí, two parallel walls and a foundation cube of an opilar column were found, which would belong to the eastern flank of the building.

[9] Political instability in the lower imperial period provoked a process of fortification of urban centers, especially intense in the northwest of the peninsula, although widespread in those located along the most important communication routes.

In the history of this wall, it is worth mentioning the repairs carried out in the 13th century by Bishop Nuño, which may have significantly transformed the appearance of the fortification, and the destruction caused by the Sieges of Astorga during the War of Independence.

It has two semicircular towers of 8.20 meters in diameter made of opus quadratum, at least in its lower part, which leave a four-meter span through which a paved road ran.

Dated to the beginning of the Severan dynasty, it covers a square space; in the corners four vases or baskets, with floral motifs, and between them paintings with scenes of birds.

This importance would also be confirmed by the tabula lougeiorum, which suggests the existence of an Ara Augusta (center dedicated to the Imperial Cult) in the place where the city would later be founded.

In addition, Pliny's description of it as magnificent could be related to the growth it experienced due to gold mining, which would have attracted bureaucrats, officials, merchants and immigrants.

In addition to the exploitation of Las Médulas, in El Bierzo, Asturica had under its area of influence a set of mining operations, spread throughout the Maragatería, whose traces are still visible.

The sterile materials, called murias, modified the landscape by forming outlet cones, built in many cases to facilitate the transport of the silt containing the gold.

[19] See also: Vía de la Plata Since ancient times, Asturica Augusta played an important role in communications because it was an obligatory passage to reach the Bierzo and Galician lands, through the ports of Foncebadón and Manzanal.

Likewise, its administrative and management role required a communications network – initially of a military nature – that would allow connection with other cities and act as an economic artery.

The different roads that passed through the city are recorded in various documents; the most important is the Itinerary of Antoninus, written in the 3rd century, in the time of the emperor Caracalla, which indicates the following routes for Asturica Augusta: Of all of them, the XXVI, which together with the XXIV formed the so-called Vía de la Plata, and the XXXIV, of great historical significance because centuries later it would be a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, stood out.