Carteia

**Carteia** was a town and commune located at the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, end of the bay of Mons Calpe (modern Gibraltar). It was also known as the *Colonia Libertinorum Carteia* (the Freedmen's Colony of Carteia).

## History

According to the historian Strabo, the town was founded around 940 BC as the trading settlement of *Kʿrt* (meaning "city" in the Phoenician language).

The area had much to offer a trader; the hinterland behind Carteia, in the modern south of Andalusia, was rich in wood, cereals, oranges, lemons, lead, iron, copper and silver. Dyes were another much sought-after commodity, especially those from the Murex Shellfish, used to make the prized Tyrian purple. The population of Carteia before and during the Punic Wars were a mix of people related to the original Phoenician traders, native Iberian people of the Turdetani tribes and the Carthaginians.

The town's strategic location meant that it played a significant role in the wars between Carthage and the Roman Republic in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC.

Carteia was one of the possible sites of Hamilcar's landing in 237 BC, the other being Gades (modern Cadiz), and in 206 BC the Carthaginian admiral Adherbal retreated there with the remnants of his fleet after being defeated by Gaius Laelius in the Battle of Carteia. Around 190 BC, the town was captured by the Romans.

In 171 BC, the Roman Senate was petitioned by a group of 4,000 Romano-Iberian people, the sons of Roman soldiers and Iberian women. Although they were of Roman descent, they were not regarded as Roman citizens, nor were they allowed to marry Roman citizens. The Senate responded by elevating Carteia to the status of a *colonia* (a Roman colony) and granting them the right to live there and receive a grant of land on a similar basis to Roman colonists. The existing inhabitants were permitted to remain there, while all of the inhabitants were given the right to marry Roman citizens and to carry on trade with Rome. This marked a significant innovation for Rome's overseas colonies; the Carteians were the first outside Italy to receive a civic status known as the Latin Rights, halfway between being a non-citizen provincial and a full Roman citizen.

Carteia grew to become a substantial city which served as a centre for the export of local wines, shipped in amphorae and the manufacture of *garum* (first sauce). Carteia acquired a mint, an amphitheatre, several temples and a port, and played a significant role in late Roman Republican affairs. Pompey made it his western base for his campaign against Mediterranean pirates in 68 BC. His sons Gnaeus and Sextus raised an army there in 45 BC before being defeated by Julius Caesar at the Battle of Munda. While Gnaeus was captured and executed, Sextus escaped via Carteia's port and fled north to the Pyrenees.

The *Colonia Libertinorum Carteia* (Freedmen's Colony of Carteia) prospered for another 580 years under Roman rule.

Little is known of the remainder of Carteia's Roman history, but it appears to have been sacked by the Visigoths around 409 AD, by which time it was probably already in decline. Nonetheless, archaeological evidence shows that urban life continued there into the medieval period.

## Notes

* The history of the Roman city of Carteia at the mouth of the river Guadarranque near the present day town of San Roque begins with the Phoenicians who established a settlement a kilometre or so up the river on a small hill now known as Cerro del Prado or Carteia la Vieja.
* Strabo (64BC – 24AD) writing some nine hundred years later calls the settlement K’rt and says the place was established in 940BC. Archaeological artefacts indicate the settlement was in place during the 7th and 8th centuries BC.
* Three hundred years later, during the 4th century BC, the Phoenician influence in the area was declining and their trade was being picked up by the Carthaginians.
* The settlement at Cerro del Prado was not large enough for the ambitious Carthaginians and the river alongside was liable to silt up so the settlement was re-located to the mouth of the river, at the head of the Bay of Gibraltar, and called Carteia from the Phoenician word qart that means new.
* In 237BC Hamilcar Barca, the father of the famous Hannibal and a Carthaginian general, may have landed in the vicinity of Carteia with an army and elephants (other sources indicate he landed near Cadiz).
* His immediate goal was to wrest control of the gold and silver mining areas of the Sierra Morena from the Iberians. For eight years he expanded the area of Carthaginian influence in Spain.
* His strategy, using elephants in battle, may well have given Hannibal, who as a nine year old had accompanied his father on the Spanish expedition, the idea for his famous exploits during the Second Punic War that broke out in 218BC.
* The Second Punic War ended in 201BC after Hannibal was finally defeated at the Battle of Zama near Carthage in North Africa. However the Carthaginians had been driven out of Spain in 205 BC, never to return.
* The citizens of Carteia had played little part in the war, only being mentioned once as the port to which Adherbal, the Carthaginian Governor of Gades (Cadiz), had retreated following his defeat at the naval Battle of Carteia at the hands of the Commander of the Roman fleet Gaius Laelius in 206BC.
* The citizens of Carteia could not have been too impressed since, following the defeat of the Carthaginians at Ilipa earlier the same year, the citizens of Carteia led by the Turdetani had decided to ally themselves with Rome.
* This alliance stood them in good stead when in 190BC the administration of the town was finally taken over by the Romans.
* The event must have been a peaceful one, and preceded by a considerable Roman presence for by 171BC, barely nineteen years later, there were 4,000 Romano Spanish people, the sons of Roman men and Spanish women, living in Carteia.
* Livy (64BC – 17AD) tells us that in 171BC the Roman senate received a petition from Carteia. As a result the town was granted the status of a colonia.
* This gave the 4,000 Romano Spanish people a grant of land on a similar basis to Roman colonists. The existing citizens to remain there and all the inhabitants were given the right to marry Roman citizens and to trade with Rome.
* Carteia was the first town outside Italy to receive this civic status and led the way for other towns in Spain to be granted similar rights.
* Carteia prospered and grew to be a city port that acted as a trade centre for Spanish produce, garum, wine, fish sauce, olives and other agricultural products.
* It had its own kilns producing amphorae, a mint and the full suite of Roman public buildings, an amphitheatre, temples and forum.
* In 68BC Pompey had his headquarters there whilst he suppressed Mediterranean pirates. Pompey’s sons, Gnaeus and Sextus, raised an army at Carteia in 45BC to oppose Julius Caesar who was waging a civil war against the Roman Republic.
* They were defeated at the Battle of Munda, the final battle of Caesar’s campaign. Gnaeus was executed but Sextus escaped via Carteia.
* Caesar appears not to have exacted any retribution from Carteia itself and its continued history mirrors that of the Roman Empire; initially continuing to grow and prosper and then declining towards the 4th Century AD as the fortunes of the Empire itself declined.
* Rome withdrew from Western Europe leaving the way open for the Visigoths who arrived in Carteia towards the end of the 5th Century.
* They occupied Carteia building a necropolis on the site of the Roman temple. The Romans returned briefly when, in 552AD Byzantine forces landed somewhere near the Guadalette river in Cadiz province according to one source or Malaga according to others.
* Over a period of two years the Byzantines managed to conquer a coastal strip of land running from the Portuguese border to Cartagena.
* They called it Spania.
* Spania was never intended to be much more than a bulwark against the Visigoths, protecting the Byzantine possessions in North Africa and by 624AD the Visigoths had regained control over all the Byzantine towns on mainland Spain.