Hispania Tarraconensis

The creation of these new provinces was achieved in order to facilitate the incorporation of the northwestern portion of the Iberian peninsula, inhabited by the Gallaeci, Cantabri, and Astures, into the Roman empire.

He also regularised the status of the other political entities in the province, the civitates stipendiaria (communities subject to tribute), whose affairs could be directly intervened in by the governor.

Between the reigns of Augustus and Nero, imperial interventions led to the regularisation of the old pre-Roman roads and their conversion into Roman roads, which formed a framework for the provincial territory which brought the provincials into contact with Roman culture (Latin rapidly became the common language of the province) and gave them access to highly developed economic networks and a monetary economy.

The province was effectively at peace except for an attempt at rebellion by the Astures under Nero which was easily suppressed by a primus pilus of the Legio VI Victrix.

When Galba received news that Nero had decided to have him killed, he accepted Vindex's offer, justifying the decision, according to Suetonius, by an oracle delivered by a young prophet two centuries earlier, which predicted that a new ruler of the world would arise in Clunia.

After receiving the support of the governor of Lusitania, the future emperor Otho, he expanded the military forces of the province,[11] which consisted of the Legio VI Victrix, two cavalry alae, and three infantry cohortes, by recruiting various auxiliaries, at least three cohorts of Vascones, and the Legio VII Galbiana, and then he set out for Rome in order to seize power.

Under Vespasian an edict seems to have been promulgated, perhaps in AD 74, which permitted many of the province's urban communities to become municipia with Latin rights over the course of his reign and that of his successors, Titus and Domitian.

The Imperial province of Hispania Tarraconensis lasted until the invasions of the 5th century, beginning in 409, when Suebi, Vandals and Alans crossed the Pyrenees, and ended with the establishment of a Visigothic kingdom.

The alluvial gold mines at Las Medulas show that Roman engineers worked the deposits on a very large scale using several aqueducts up to 30 miles (48 km) long to tap water in the surrounding mountains.

By running fast water streams on the soft rocks, they were able to extract large quantities of gold by hydraulic mining methods (Ruina montium).

Each year, they chose one of their number to be the flamen and flamenica (they were not required to be married to one another) of the Imperial cult for the whole province, discharging their functions in the provincial forum in Tarraco.

[16] Excepting the communities on the Balearic Islands, Pliny states that:[16] Now, the whole province is divided into 7 conventus: Carthaginiensis, Tarraconensis, Caesaraugustus, Clunienis, Asturus, Lucensis, and Bracarus...

All free men who served as municipal magistrates (duoviri or aediles) in municipia would obtain Roman citizenship, being assigned to the tribe Quirina.

[17] The concession of this right was used by many tributary and subordinate communities in Tarraconensis to transform themselves into municipia, e.g. Nova Augusta (Lara de los Infantes, Burgos), Bergidum Flavium (Torre del Bierzo, El Bierzo, León), Segovia, Duratón (Segovia), and Aqua Flaviae (Chaves, Portugal).

We do not know exactly where they were stationed; it may have been in Baetica and the southeastern part of Tarraconensis to prevent a possible invasion from North Africa, which was controlled by Lucius Clodius Macer.

In any case, both legions and the Legio VI Victrix abandoned Vitellius and declared their support for Vespasian, who quickly sent them to Germania Inferior to suppress the revolt of Gaius Julius Civilis.

Hispania Tarraconensis in 27 BC
Augustus , wearing the toga of a consul , the role that he held in 27–6 BC when he founded Tarraco .
Denarius of Tiberius . The introduction of Roman coinage throughout Tarraconensis allowed its inhabitants to engage more closely with the commercial networks of the Mediterranean world.
Epitaph of L. Valerius Reburrinus , frumentarius of the Legio VII Gemina , who was an important member of the governor's officium under Septimius Severus .
Plan of the city of Tarraco , capital of Tarraconensis
Division of Hispania into provinces and conventus
The Arch of Medinaceli , which may have marked the boundary between the Conventus Cluniensis and Caesaraugustanus
CIL II 2552, a votive inscription erected in honour of Jupiter by the Legio VII Gemina for the health of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus which includes among the dedicants, the procurator metallorum , an imperial freedman called Hermes .
First-century AD Roman lamp from the Municipium Urbs Victrix Osca (modern Huesca )
Denarius of Emperor Vespasian , who extended Latin citizenship to all communities of Hispania in the AD 70s
Les Ferreres Aqueduct , built under Augustus to supply water to the provincial capital, Tarraco.
Roman Theater of Zaragoza , capital of a conventus iuridicus , built under Augustus and Tiberius.
Remains of a Roman house at Vareia [ es ] ( Logroño ).
Theatre of Clunia Sulpicia , built by Tiberius in the most important city of Duero basin, capital of the largest conventus iuridicus in Hispania.
Aqueduct of Segovia , built by Domitian .
Detail of the remains of Iuliobriga , the most important city in Roman Cantabria, showing the columns of the stoas which ran along the decumanus maximus .
Tower of Hercules , a Roman lighthouse built in the second century AD at the Municipium Flavium Brigantium in A Coruña .
Roman Bridge of Chaves at Aqua Flaviae. The cadrao dos pobos inscription indicates that its construction was funded by ten local communities with the aid of the Legio VII Gemina .
Tile inscribed L(egio) VII G(emina) GORD(iana) P(ia) F(elix) , produced by the Legio , which indicates the presence of the Legio VII Gemina in Tarraconensis in the 3rd century AD.
Hispania under Hadrian (AD 117-138), with the location of the castra legionis VII Geminae , with the principle locations for the extraction of precious metals and the main roads.
Semis minted at Carthago Nova under Augustus, dedicated to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa , with a trophy on the reverse, celebrating Agrippa's victory over the Cantabrians and the Asturians. The coin indicates the economic power of the province and the Cartagena mining region.