page_title: Tarraco
section_title: The period of Augustus
hierarchical_section_title: Tarraco / The period of Augustus
context_page_description: Tarraco is the ancient name of the current city of Tarragona. It was the oldest Roman settlement on the Iberian Peninsula. It became the capital of the Roman province of Hispania Citerior during the period of the Roman Republic, and of Hispania Tarraconensis following the latter's creation during the Roman Empire.
  In 2000, the archaeological ensemble of Tarraco was declared a World heritage site by UNESCO.
context_section_description: In 27 BC, Emperor Augustus went to Spain to monitor the campaigns in Cantabria. However, due to his poor health he preferred to stay in Tarraco. Apparently, Augustus had built an altar in the city, and a story by the rhetorician Quintilian mentions that the inhabitants of Tarraco complained to Augustus that a palm tree had grown on the altar. He replied that would mean it was not used very often.
  Soon after he arrived the old via Herculea became the Via Augusta. A milestone, found in Tarragona's Plaça de Braus, mentions the road between 12 and 6 BC, leading to Barcino to the north-east and Dertosa, Saguntum and (Valentia) to the south.
  The city flourished under Augustus. The writer Pomponius Mela describes it in the 1st century AD as follows: "Tarraco is the richest port on this coast" (Tarraco urbs est en his oris maritimarum opulentissima). Tarraco under Augustus and Tiberius minted its own coins with depictions of the imperial cult and the inscription CVT, CVTT o CVTTAR.
  After the death of Augustus in the year 14 AD, the emperor was officially deified and in 15 AD a temple was erected in his honour, probably in the eastern-most neighbourhood of the city or near the Colonial Forum, as mentioned by Tacitus in his annales.
caption: Arc de Berà in the Via Augusta, about 20 km north of Tarraco.
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