| Provincia Hispania Baetica | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of theRoman Empire | |||||||||
| 14 BC – 5th century | |||||||||
.svg) The Roman province of Hispania Baetica, c. 125 AD | |||||||||
| Capital | Corduba | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
| • Coordinates | 37°30′00″N6°00′00″W / 37.5000°N 6.0000°W /37.5000; -6.0000 | ||||||||
| Historical era | Antiquity | ||||||||
• Established | 14 BC | ||||||||
• Visigothic conquest | 5th century | ||||||||
| |||||||||
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Hispania Baetica, often abbreviatedBaetica, was one of threeRoman provinces created inHispania (theIberian Peninsula) in 27 BC. Baetica was bordered to the west byLusitania, and to the northeast byTarraconensis. Baetica remained one of the basic divisions of Hispania under theVisigoths. Its territory approximately corresponds to modernAndalusia.
InLatin,Baetica is an adjectival form ofBaetis, the Roman name for theGuadalquivir River, whose fertile valley formed one of the most important parts of the province.
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BeforeRomanization, the mountainous area that was to become Baetica was occupied by several settled Iberian tribal groups.Celtic influence was not as strong as it was in theCeltiberian north. According to the geographerClaudius Ptolemy, the indigenes were the powerfulTurdetani, in the valley of theGuadalquivir in the west, bordering onLusitania, and the partlyHellenizedTurduli with their cityBaelo, in the hinterland behind the coastal Phoenician trading colonies, whosePunic inhabitants Ptolemy termed the "Bastuli". Phoenician Gadir (Cádiz) was on an island against the coast of Hispania Baetica. Other important Iberians were theBastetani, who occupied theAlmería and mountainousGranada regions. Towards the southeast, Punic influence spread from theCarthaginian cities on the coast: New Carthage (RomanCarthago Nova, modernCartagena),Abdera and Malaca (Málaga).
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Some of the Iberian cities retained their pre-Indo-European names in Baetica throughout the Roman era.Granada was calledEliberri,Illiberis andIlliber by the Romans; inBasque,"iri-berri" or"ili-berri", still signifies "new town".[citation needed]
The south of the Iberian peninsula was agriculturally rich, providing for export ofwine,olive oil and the fermented fish sauce calledgarum that were staples of the Mediterranean diet, and its products formed part of the western Mediterranean trade economy even before it submitted to Rome in 206 BC. After the defeat ofCarthage in theSecond Punic War, which found itscasus belli on the coast of Baetica atSaguntum, Hispania was significantly Romanized in the course of the 2nd century BC, following the uprising initiated by theTurdetani in 197. The central and north-easternCeltiberians soon followed suit. It tookCato the Elder, who became consul in 195 BC and was given the command of the whole peninsula to put down the rebellion in the northeast and the lowerEbro valley. He then marched southwards and put down a revolt by the Turdetani. Cato returned to Rome in 194, leaving twopraetors in charge of the two Iberian provinces. In the lateRoman Republic, Hispania remained divided likeGaul into a "Nearer" and a "Farther" province, as experienced marching overland from Gaul:Hispania Citerior (the Ebro region), andUlterior (the Guadalquivir region). The battles in Hispania during the 1st century BC were largely confined to the north.
In the reorganization of the Empire in 14 BC, Baetica was made a senatorial province, which means it was governed by aproconsul who had formerly been apraetor appointed by the Senate. Its capital was Colonia Patricia Corduba (modern dayCórdoba), founded in 169 BC. Fortune smiled on rich Baetica, which wasBaetica Felix, and a dynamic, upwardly-mobile social and economic middling stratum developed there, which absorbedfreed slaves and far outnumbered the richelite. The Senatorial province of Baetica became so secure that noRoman legion was required to be permanently stationed there, whereasLegio VII Gemina was permanently stationed to the north, inHispania Tarraconensis, in a camp which later became the city ofLeón.
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Baetica was divided into fourconventūs, which were territorial divisions like judicial circuits, where the chief men met together at major centers, at fixed times of year, under the eye of the proconsul, to oversee the administration of justice: theconventus Gaditanus (of Gades, orCádiz),Cordubensis (ofCordoba),Astigitanus (of Astigi, orÉcija), andHispalensis (of Hispalis, orSeville). As the towns became the permanent seats of standing courts during the later Empire, theconventūs were superseded (Justinian's Code, i.40.6) and the termconventus is lastly applied to certain bodies of Roman citizens living in a province, forming a sort of enfranchised corporation, and representing the Roman people in their district as a kind ofgentry; and it was from among these that proconsuls generally took their assistants. So in spite of some social upsets, as whenSeptimius Severus put to death a number of leading Baetians— including women — the elite in Baetica remained a stable class for centuries.
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Columella, who wrote a twelve volume treatise on all aspects of Roman farming and knewviticulture, came from Gades (Cádiz). The vastolive plantations of Baetica shipped olive oil from the coastal ports by sea to supply Roman legions inGermania and general demand elsewhere in the empire.Amphoras from Baetica have been found everywhere in theWestern Roman Empire. It was to keep Roman legions supplied by sea routes that the Empire needed to control the distant coasts of Lusitania and the northernAtlantic coast of Hispania.
Baetica was rich and strongly Romanized, attracting colonists and merchants from Italy. Since the 1st century BC it produced outstanding figures like the aforementioned Columella, the rhetoricianSeneca the Elder, his son the stoic philosopherSeneca the Younger, andLucan, author of the epic poemPharsalia onCaesar's civil war againstPompey the Great. The last three were members of the Annaea family, a prominent Roman gens settled in Córdoba. Facts that the EmperorVespasian was rewarding when he granted theIus latii that extended the rights pertaining to Roman citizenship (latinitas) to the inhabitants of Hispania, an honor that secured the loyalty of the Baetian elite and its middle class.
Baetica also gave Rome two emperors.Trajan, the first emperor since Claudius to be of provincial birth, though of Italic stock, was born inItálica (Baetica), a colony established in 206 BC byScipio Africanus for Roman veterans of theSecond Punic War.[1] Trajan's kinsman and successorHadrian also came from Itálica.Marcus Aurelius, though born in Rome, had ancestors born in the town of Ucubi (modern dayEspejo), a Roman colony not far from Córdoba.
Baetica enjoyedPax Romana for most of imperial history, though it faced a permanent threat stemming from Africa from the 2nd century AD. On 171 groups ofmauri (natives ofMauretania Tingitana, roughly modern dayMorocco) crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and looted rural towns for months until they were expelled. A century later, in 296–297, EmperorMaximian built a massivepalace nearby Córdoba from where to command the campaign against piracy in the Strait and Berber incursions in Mauritania.
Baetica was Roman until the brief invasion of theVandals andAlans passed through in the 5th century, followed by the more permanent kingdom of theVisigoths. The province formed part of theExarchate of Africa and was joined toMauretania Tingitana afterBelisarius' reconquest of Africa. TheCatholicbishops of Baetica, solidly backed by their local population, were able to convert theArian Visigoth kingReccared and his nobles. As an administrative unit, Baetica ceased to exist after the Islamic invasion in 711.
The Province was governed by aproconsul who had formerly been apraetor.
| Proconsuls | Term start | Term end |
|---|---|---|
| Gaius Vibius Serenus[2] | 20 AD | 22 AD |
| Gaius Caetronius Miccio | c. 37 AD | c. 38 AD |
| Umbonĭus Silĭo[3] | 43 AD | 44 AD |
| Marcus Ulpius Traianus[4] | ? | Before 67 AD |
| Lucius Lucullus[5] | 70s AD | 70s AD |
| [? Marcus] Sempronius Fuscus[6] | 78 AD | 79 AD |
| Gaius Cornelius Gallicanus | 79 AD | 80 AD |
| Lucius Antistius Rusticus | 83 AD | 84 AD |
| Baebius Massa | 91 AD | 92 AD |
| Galeo Tettienus Severus Marcus Eppuleius Proculus Tiberius Caepio Hispo | 95 AD | 96 AD |
| ? Gallus | 96 AD | 97 AD |
| Gaius Caecilius Classicus | 97 AD | 98 AD |
| Quintus Baebius Macer | 100 AD | 101 AD |
| Instanius Rufus | 101 AD | 102 AD |
| ? Lustricius Bruttianus | Before 107 AD | Before 107 AD |
| [? Titus] Calestrius Tiro | 107 AD | 108 AD |
| Egnatius Taurinus | between 138 AD and 143 AD | between 138 AD and 143 AD |
| ? Gaius Julius Proculus | 122 AD | 123 AD |
| Publius Tullius Varro | 123 AD | 124 AD |
| Lucius Flavius Arrianus | before 129 AD | before 129 AD |
| Gaius Javolenus Calvinus[7] | between 138 AD and 143 AD | between 138 AD and 143 AD |
| Aelius Marcianus | between 138 AD and 161 AD | between 138 AD and 161 AD |
| Publius Statius Paullus Postumus Junior | middle of the 2nd century | middle of the 2nd century |
| Publius Cornelius Anullinus | 170 AD | 171 AD |
| Gaius Aufidius Victorinus | 171 AD | 171 AD |
| Gaius Memmius Fidus Julius Albius[8] | 183 AD | 183 AD |
| Caecilius Aemilianus[8] | 215 AD | 215 AD |
| Aulus Caecina Tacitus[9] | first half 3rd century | first half 3rd century |
| L. Sempronius O[...] Celsus [Servi]lius Fabianus[10] | first half 3rd century | first half 3rd century |
| Quintus Pomponius Munat[ianus?] Clodianus[11] | first half 3rd century | first half 3rd century |
