page_title: Hispania
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Hispania / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain Español: Acueducto de Segovia, España Deutsch: Aquädukt von Segovia (Spanien)
context_page_description: Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, first as Hispania Nova, later renamed "Callaecia". From Diocletian's Tetrarchy onwards, the south of remaining Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginensis, and probably then too the Balearic Islands and all the resulting provinces formed one civil diocese under the vicarius for the Hispaniae. The name Hispania was also used in the period of Visigothic rule.
  The modern place names Spain and Caribbean Island Hispaniola are both derived from Hispania.
context_section_description: The origin of the word Hispania is much disputed.  The evidence for the various speculations is based merely upon what are at best mere resemblances, likely to be accidental, and suspect supporting evidence. The most commonly held theory holds it to be of Punic origin, from the Phoenician language of colonizing Carthage. Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate ī shāpān of Hebrew ī shāfān (אׅי שָׁפָן) meaning "island of the hyrax", referring to the European rabbit (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew are both Canaanite languages and therefore closely related to each other). Some Roman coins of the Emperor Hadrian, born in Hispania, depict Hispania and a rabbit. Others derive the word from Phoenician span, meaning "hidden", and make it indicate "a hidden", that is, "a remote", or "far-distant land".
  Other far-fetched theories have been proposed. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania of Iberian origin and derived it from the pre-Roman name for Seville, Hispalis. This was revived for instance by the etymologist Eric Partridge (in his work Origins) who felt that this might strongly hint at an ancient name for the country of *Hispa, presumably an Iberian or Celtic root whose meaning is now lost. Hispalis may alternatively derive from Heliopolis (Greek for "city of the sun"). However, according to modern research by Manuel Pellicer Catalán, the name derives from Phoenician spal "lowland", rendering the above explanations of Hispania highly unlikely. Occasionally Hispania was called Hesperia ultima "farthest western land" by Roman writers since the name Hesperia "western land" had already been used by the Greeks to refer to the Italian peninsula.
  During the 18th and 19th centuries, Jesuits scholars like Larramendi and José Francisco de Isla tied the name to the Basque word ezpain ‘lip’, but also ‘border, edge’, thus meaning the farthest area or place.
  During Antiquity and Middle Ages, the literary texts derive the term Hispania from an eponymous hero named Hispan, who is mentioned for the first time in the work of the Roman historian Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus, in the 1st century BC.
   
   
  Although "Hispania" is the Latin root for the modern name "Spain", substituting Spanish for Hispanicus or Hispanic, or Spain for Hispania, should be done carefully and taking into account the correct context. The Estoria de España ("The History of Spain") written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile "El Sabio" ("the Wise"), between 1260 and 1274, during the Reconquista ('reconquest') of Spain, is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish using the words "España" ("Spain") and "Españoles"("Spaniards") to refer to Medieval Hispania. The use of Latin "Hispania", Castilian "España", Catalan "Espanya" and French "Espaigne", among others, to refer to Roman Hispania or Visigothic Hispania was common throughout all the Late Middle Ages. A document dated 1292 mentions the names of foreigners from Medieval Spain as "Gracien d'Espaigne". Latin expressions using "Hispania" or "Hispaniae" (e.g. "omnes reges Hispaniae") were often used in the Middle Ages, while the Spain Romance languages of the Reconquista use the Romance version interchangeably. In the James Ist Chronicle Llibre dels fets, written between 1208 and 1276, there are many instances of this. Since the borders of modern Spain do not coincide with those of the Roman province of Hispania or of the Visigothic Kingdom, it is important to understand the context of medieval Spain versus modern Spain. The Latin term Hispania, often used during Antiquity and the Low Middle Ages as a geographical name, starts to be used also with political connotations, as shown in the expression laus Hispaniae, "Praise to Hispania", to describe the history of the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula of Isidore of Seville's Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum:
  You are, Oh Spain, holy and always happy mother of princes and peoples, the most beautiful of all the lands that extend far from the West to India. You, by right, are now the queen of all provinces, from whom the lights are gi
caption: The Roman Aqueduct of Segovia, Castile, Spain.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.6.6", "Image DateTime": "2009:06:14 21:36:58", "Image ExifOffset": "146", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "282", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8505", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1746", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1324"}