CHAPTER XXIV

THE CARTHAGINIANS IN SPAIN

I.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN SPAIN

IN volumes III and IV we have seen how Greek colonization had, for a moment, transformed the Western Mediterranean almost into a Greek Lake. While the main effort had been concentrated in Sicily and South Italy, the bolder Phocaeans in the seventh century BC had pushed farther afield along the Ligurian coast to found Massilia, down the east coast of Spain to found Hemeroscopium, near Denia, and on the south coast to Maenace (east of Malaga); these three being the most westerly Greek colonies. With good reason Bias of Priene could advise the Ionians, when threatened by Persian encroachment, to found in Sardinia a state where they would be free to develope. But now a competitor entered these seas from the south. About 600 BC Carthage spread her empire over the north coast of Africa, thus staking out her claim to the hegemony of the Western Mediterranean. Strife was inevitable between Hellenes and Barbarians, and the Carthaginians found in the Etruscans allies whose interests were at one with their own in their common hatred of the Greeks.

Carthage made the first move in the struggle under the leadership of a rich, able, and warlike general, Malchus, who carried on the war in Sicily and Sardinia, where it was continued after his death by a succession of generals of the house of Mago. And the Barbarians were materially assisted by the subjugation of the Ionian states in Asia to Persia. Finally in 535 a sea battle took place at Alalia on the west coast of Corsica between the Phocaeans who had established themselves there some twenty years earlier and the allied Carthaginians and Etruscans. Tactically the battle was a victory for the Phocaeans, but its actual results were entirely in favour of the Barbarians, since almost the entire Phocaean fleet was destroyed or disabled, and the Greeks evacuated the island. Alalia marks the end of the brilliant Phocaean thalassocracy in the Western Mediterranean.

But the setback would not have been so decisive if the Phocaeans had not lost their mother-city to the Persians and therewith their base for westerly colonization. The struggle of the Barbarians against the Greeks spread over the whole Greek world, led in the east by the Persians and in the west by the Carthaginians and Etruscans, exactly as later the so-called Peloponnesian War was a world-war whose battle grounds were alike in the East—in Hellas and Asia, and in the West—in Sicily. On the Barbarian side the war was waged with the greatest savagery; Phocaean prisoners were stoned to death. After Alalia the two allied powers hastened to make use of their victory. The immediate prize, Corsica, the Carthaginians resigned to the Etruscans, since they had no interests in this island, which by its geographical position belongs to Italy. But Sardinia from now onwards was held by the Carthaginians in undisputed possession. From Sardinia it is less than two days sail to the Balearic Isles off the east coast of Spain. Hence Spain was the next object of Carthaginian imperialism.

Spain, especially Andalusia, was in consequence of its mineral wealth one of the most coveted lands of the ancient world. And the Carthaginians may have believed that they had a real historical claim to it, since the Tyrian colony at Gades had founded a ;Spanish dominion after subduing the unwarlike Tartessians (c. 800 BC?). Later, after the fall of Tyre, in the first half of the seventh century, the Tartessians succeeded in freeing themselves, and under the long rule of the far-famed King Arganthonius ‘the silver man’ their city enjoyed a final period of brilliance from 620—540. The Phoenician towns Gades, Malaca, Sexi, Abdera, were not threatened, but the Phocaeans enjoyed commercial preference in their trade with Tartessus. Arganthonius had maintained friendly relations with them, and they founded the colony Maenace on the south coast.

II.

SPAIN IN THE GREAT AGE OF TARTESSUS

A very trustworthy picture of conditions in the Iberian peninsula and the empire of Tartessus is preserved in a description of a coasting voyage (Periplus) by a Massiliote sailor written about 520 BC. The voyage was made from Massilia to Tartessus and back, and the sailor describes the return journey with the enhanced accuracy of a second view. The detailed description begins at Tartessus, or rather at the mouth of the Tagus, which was connected with that city by an overland trade-route. A short introductory account deals with the coast lands from Brittany to Tartessus, the tin trade-route; for this metal was in demand for the manufacture of the beautiful Tartessian bronze which was exported as far as Greece. It was mined on the coasts of Brittany and the group of tiny islands adjacent. But the Periplus makes mention also of lands lying farther north; for in Brittany (Oestrymnis) the tribesmen told the Tartessian sailors of their adventurous voyages in boats made of sewn hides to Ierne (Ireland) and to the North Sea coasts, whence the Ligurians had been pushed out by the southward pressure of Celtic tribes moving along the coast. In this latter region the Oestrymnians probably found amber, the gold of the North. The mention of Ierne and Albion is the most ancient reference to the British Isles.

The return journey of the Tartessians was made from Brittany to the west coast of France, at that time still inhabited by Ligurians; then to the north coast of Spain passing C. Venus (C. Higuer) and C. Aryium (C. Ortegal), thence to the west coast of Spain, the island of Saturn (Berlenga) and C. Ophiussa (C. Roca). Ophiussa is the most ancient name of the Iberian peninsula; like other names in -ussa it belongs to the dialect of the Phocaeans, the trade-allies of the Tartessians. Off C. Roca the sailors heard stories of the wild Dragani, a Ligurian people, who lived on the north coast of Spain; and of Cempsi and Saefes who were probably Celts. For during the sixth century the Celts had occupied the west of the peninsula and the central highlands, previously held by the Ligurians, the oldest known inhabitants of Spain. C. Cempsicum (C. Espichel) got its name from these Celts. Between C. Espichel and the Guadiana lived the Cynetes, probably a Ligurian tribe, who were known to Herodotus as the most westerly of all. Between the Guadiana and the Hiberus (Rio Tinto) dwelt the Iberians, a part of the great stock which had spread far and wide over the peninsula giving it its name. Next we find Tartessians at the river Tinto, for here the boundaries of that state began, and her domains stretched as far as C. Nao on the east coast. In the middle reaches of the Guadalquivir there were the Ileates and in the higher reaches the Etmaneans.

The first tribe in Tartessian territory was the Cilbiceni between the Guadalquivir and the Guadiaro. On the coast came next the Liby-phoenicians, Phoenician colonists from Tyre who had been subjects of Tartessus since about 700 BC. The Mastieni occupied the interior as far as C. Palos. Their town was called Mastia and lay on the site of the later Cartagena. Between C. Palos and C. Nao there were the Iberian Gymnetes. The boundary of Tartessian territory seems to have been C. Nao. Then northward from C. Nao as far as the Pyrenees there were several tribes, amongst which the names are known of the Indigetes (in the gulf of Rosa) and the Ceretes (in the eastern Pyrenees). And also north of the Pyrenees there were more Iberian tribes, in particular as far as Oranus (now Lez near Montpellier), where the Ligurians began. On the plateau above the Jucar and Guadalquivir dwelt the Berybraces, a Celtic stock like the Cempsi and Saefes in the West.

Thus at the time of the Periplus while the empire of Tartessus embraces all Andalusia and Murcia between the Guadalquivir and C. Nao, Celts inhabit the highlands of Castille and the West, and ‘Iberians’ the north-east coast. But the Cilbiceni and Mastieni in the south must also count as Iberians, since this name is found also between the Guadiana and Tinto rivers. It is clear that the Iberians, immigrants from Africa, had pushed along the south and east coasts and northwards as far as the Pyrenees, whereas the Celts had occupied the central plateau and the West. Traces of the Ligurians are still to be found in the ‘Pagurian Lake’ on the lower Guadalquivir, apart from the Ligurian Dragani on the north-west coast, and the Cynetes in the north-east.

This great southern empire of Tartessus is a remarkable phenomenon. It is the one great political creation not only of Spain at that time, but in Spain throughout ancient history. Indeed in culture it stood very far above the barbarism of the wild Celtic and Iberian tribes. The racial affinities of Tartessus are a riddle. One wonders whether they were an Iberian stock civilized by early contact with Phoenicians and Greeks; or whether they should not be regarded as an entirely foreign element, colonists from the East, perhaps from Asia Minor (or Crete).

Tartessus, or as the Phoenicians called it Tarshish, the capital of the empire, lay at the mouth of the river of that name (the Baetis) and possessed a rich and ancient culture shown both in material and intellectual achievements. The source of her wealth was vast deposits of minerals in the Sierra Morena, which as far back as 2000 BC had been worked by unknown previous inhabitants, ‘the Pre-Tartessians’; even at that time it had already been developed into the most important metal industry of the West. The bronze of Tartessus won world-wide fame and found its way into the treasuries of Olympia1. Trade went hand in hand with industry, partly in the passive form of commercial dealing with merchants from the East, first Tyrians and later Greeks, and in part actively in voyages to Britain for tin and even to the west coast of Africa for gold and ivory. In the sixth and fifth centuries, there was in Andalusia under the influence of the Greeks a highly developed art. It is known to us in the reliefs of Osuna, in the statues of animals like the lions of Corduba and Bocairente, and the statues of ‘ Cerro de los Santos,’ while perhaps the finest example is the ‘Lady of Elche’. The bronzes and the artistically painted vases are of high merit, for in this department also the Tartessians knew how to learn from Greek models and then to manufacture their own ware. Tartessus is credited with a literature of ancient origin and high development. It boasted high antiquity—six thousand years, so it was claimed—and consisted of histories, epics, and laws, written in metrical form. Architecture too was important; there were stone temples and town walls of ashlar masonry (Castel Ibros). One art alone was neglected, the art of military defence against foreign attack. Such were the peace and culture into which the Carthaginians broke, bringing the law that might is right.

III.

 THE CARTHAGINIAN CONQUEST

After their conquest of Sardinia the Carthaginians reached the Balearic Isles. But it was not till later that they succeeded in getting any firm foothold on them. The capital of the island of Minorca, the town of Mago (today Mahon) is clearly named after a Mago, but it is probably the later general of that name who captured it in 206. The Balearic Isles kept their autonomy, but supplied the Carthaginians with their famous slingers. On the other hand they succeeded completely in winning the neighbouring island, Ebusus (Ibiza), which had already been visited by the Phoenicians and which now became Carthaginian1. From Ibiza it is only a day’s sail to the east coast of Spain. In the south the inhabitants were subjects of Tartessus, but in the north there were free Iberian tribes. The trade had been the monopoly of the Phocaeans, who had founded here their colony of Hemero-scopium, and of the Massiliotes.

Whether there had been wars earlier, about 600 BC, between Massilia and Carthage is doubtful. But now after the battle of Alalia, the Massiliotes seem to have made a successful resistance, since we see that the Carthaginian empire in Spain only reached as far as Cartagena and C. Palos, which proves that Massilia remained in possession of the north half of the east coast. It appears that Massilia even had extended her zone of influence. For in the Periplus, Hemeroscopium and C. Nao rather than C. Palos are mentioned as the boundaries between Tartessus and the Phocaeans. While an understanding was reached with the stout Massiliotes, and C. Palos was accepted as marking that frontier, the Carthaginians succeeded in conquering the whole empire of Tartessus which stretched from a point south of C. Nao to the river Guadiana.

Unfortunately we possess hardly any direct reference to the collapse of Tartessus and the Carthaginian conquest. But the fact is certain. For in the first treaty between Rome and Carthage, that of 508, Carthage, as mistress of Spain, prohibits the Romans and their allies from sailing in those waters; and further Polybius tells us that Hamilcar in 237 had to ‘reconquer’ Andalusia, which shows that Carthage must have held it before, and lost it.

There is, further, one remarkable piece of evidence for the struggle and the Carthaginian victory over Tartessus. The Massiliote Periplus, which gives the latest evidence for Tartessus, mentions a trade-route from Maenace, which as a Phocaean colony was closely bound by friendship to Tartessus, over the mountains to that city in five days, and farther to the mouth of the Tagus. The voyage by sea from Maenace to Tartessus takes no more than three days and is much easier than this route through wild mountain country, which must therefore owe its existence to the closing of the sea-route through the straits by the Carthaginians. Here, then, we have a glimpse of the struggle between Carthage on the one hand, and Tartessus and Maenace on the other. For the Carthaginians must have first blocked the straits in order to obtain the monopoly of the trade with Tartessus, and then, when the men of Maenace, undaunted, devised a landroute to Tartessus, the Carthaginians blockaded that city on the landward side as well. Thereupon, the traders of Maenace pushed on their route to the Tagus mouth so as to be able there to buy the tin of Brittany from the Tartessians. As a result of this, Carthage proceeded to extreme measures and destroyed first Maenace and then Tartessus in the closing years of the sixth century.

Further evidence of the destruction of Tartessus can be found, in the opinion of the present writer, in the description given by Athenaeus of the taking of a fort near Gades and then of Gades itself. By Gades must be meant Tartessus (a confusion which is not uncommon), for the historical Gades was a Phoenician town which must have been a more or less willing ally of Carthage. The mention of the fort, too, suggests Tartessus, for that city could only be besieged after the capture of the stronghold of Geron which commands the mouth of the Guadalquivir. The destruction of Tartessus and Maenace was complete: even their names were blotted out, for in later times Gades was generally substituted for Tartessus and Malaca for Maenace, a fact which also suggests that Gades succeeded to the trade of Tartessus, Malaca to that of Maenace.

With the destruction of Tartessus Carthage became mistress of a wide empire stretching from the Guadiana to C. Nao and inland to the Sierra Morena. The rich valley of the Baetis was a valuable acquisition; and still more valuable was the mineral wealth of the mountains—gold, silver, copper and iron—upon which had been founded the wealth and greatness of the ancient industrial and merchant state. But perhaps even more valuable was the access to the Atlantic and the monopoly of the tin trade which now passed from Tartessus to Carthage. For hundreds of years the Tartessians had sailed to Brittany; they were bold sailors like their friendly rivals, the Phocaeans. The Atlantic had almost become a Tartessian lake, now it was to be Carthaginian. It must have been very soon after the destruction of Tartessus—and not in 480 or later, as has been supposed— that two famous voyages of discovery took place; Hanno’s voyage to the west coast of Africa, which had hitherto been the private preserve of the Tartessians, and that of Himilco to the tin-lands of the North. Of Hanno’s explorations we have his own account1; we only know the fact of Himilco’s voyage and one fragment describing the terrors of the ocean which has been inserted in the early Periplus in Avienus. The outlet to the Atlantic by the straits of Gibraltar was henceforward closed to all foreign shipping, and in order to frighten away any alien ships the Carthaginians spread abroad those exaggerated reports of the terrors of the Atlantic, long calms, shallow reefs, floating wrecks, fogs, and mountainous seas, which gained the greater credence because they haunted even Greek literature.

The Pillars of Hercules, once the proud symbol of the unsealing of the outer ocean, became the ‘non plus ultra’ of Greek voyaging and it is with this meaning that they four times appear in Pindar. Ships were allowed to sail as far as the two tiny islands in the straits, Paloma and Peregil, where a very ancient cult of Heracles, that is, of the Phoenician Melkart, was celebrated; but the voyage was only allowed for the purpose of making offerings, in ships which had left their cargoes behind in the harbour of Maenace near the Isle of the Moon, and directly the offering was completed, the ships had to return. The Carthaginians did not even allow their allies, the Etruscans, to pass through and forbade them to settle at Madeira. But the bold Massiliotes determined, now that the tin route by the straits of Gibraltar was blocked, to open a land-route to the Atlantic; and, by treaties with the Celtic tribes, they were able to use the waterways of the Loire and Seine and imported the tin direct from the mines, without the Carthaginians being able to prevent them.

IV.

THE FIRST CARTHAGINIAN EMPIRE IN SPAIN

After the conquest of the Western Mediterranean, the Carthaginians appear to have consolidated the position they had won by treaties with the states with whom they were brought into contact. To one of these treaties we may refer the fixing of C. Palos and Mastia as the boundary between Carthage and Massilia1. That the boundary was drawn here is plain from the facts that the Massiliotes were able in the fifth century to found two new trade marts north of C. Palos, and that in the second treaty between Carthage and Rome ‘Mastia in Tarsis’ is fixed as the boundary for Rome and her allies, by whom in this neighbourhood Massilia alone can be meant. It is surprising that the Carthaginians did not claim the coast as far as C. Nao, the boundary of the Tartessian empire, but only as far as C. Palos. It would seem that after the fall of Tartessus Massilia, which earlier ruled only as far as C. Nao, pushed forward to C. Palos. We may further assume that a treaty was made also with the Etruscans closing the ocean to them, and it is possible that a reference to it is to be found in the Politics of Aristotle.

The only one of these treaties that survives is that with Rome, the first of those cited in Polybius. It is dated 508 BC and it fits well the time and conditions immediately after the Carthaginian conquest of Southern Spain. For while the Romans are permitted under prescribed conditions to trade in Sicily, Africa, and Sardinia, the route beyond C. Farina, which is the route to Spain, was completely forbidden. And this is still more definitely laid down in the second treaty of 348 BC, in which the further definition is made that they are not to sail along the Spanish coast beyond C. Palos. If a ship should be driven by storm into the Spanish waters, then it might only put into port for the purpose of repairs and the purchase of what was needed for these repairs, or for a thank-offering. And lastly, it must set sail home again after five days. The wording of this clause exactly corresponds to that which was laid down for the offerings on the two tiny islands of the Gibraltar straits and the formula about immediate return is the same.

About the relations of the old Phoenician towns on the south coast of Andalusia, Gades, Malaca, Sexi, and Abdera, with Carthage we know little. They must have submitted to Carthage’s hegemony more or less of their own accord, like the Liby-phoenician towns in Africa. Gades preserved its long-standing precedence and enjoyed a privileged position, rather like Utica. The other three towns also kept a certain measure of autonomy; they were called the Bastulo- or Blasto-Phoenicians after the Iberian tribe in the middle of whose territory the towns lay. Gades was the capital of the new Spanish empire and, as we have seen, the successor of Tartessus. The site of Tartessus itself remained empty and deserted, and very soon the sand dunes covered it from view, so that the Greeks had only a faint idea of where it had lain. The same fate befell Maenace though Artemidorus about 100 BC was still able to recognize its ruins.

Carthage took over from Tartessus the suzerainty over the native Iberian tribes of Andalusia—the Cilbiceni between the Guadalquivir and Guadiaro, and the Mastieni who extended from the Guadiaro to Mastia. The wild Iberian tribes of the east coast, the Indigetes, the Gymnetes, and the Celts of the highlands were not disturbed by the change of masters. They were however poor and warlike, and very ready to use the strength of their right arm in return for good gold in the service of Carthage. Indeed, after the Africans, they were the best soldiers of Carthage, and appear in her armies first at the battle of Himera, 480 BC, and then in the wars between Carthage and the Greek towns of Sicily from 409 onwards.

But Spain did not provide Carthage with soldiers alone. The Sierra Morena was extremely rich in metals, particularly silver, so that Hannibal later obtained daily from a single mine at Baebelo 300 pounds of silver. Even in Roman times the silver mines of Cartagena, although they had been mined for hundreds of years, produced twenty-five thousand drachmae a day. And besides the mountains were rich in gold, copper, and iron. The salt-fish pickling industry of the Andalusian coastal towns, especially Gades, produced masses of salt-fish which the Carthaginians exported far and wide, even to Greece and beyond. From the esparto grass of the east coast they manufactured ropes for their ships. The rich valley of the Baetis produced oil, wine, and corn, the mountains wood and pitch. Not only was Spain herself rich, she was the key of the wealth of the Atlantic lands, since she watched over the straits of Gibraltar which gave access to them. The men of Gades now, like the Tartessians earlier, sailed in search of tin to the isles of Brittany and to England, and brought back cargoes of gold and ivory, etc. from the west coast of Africa.

The supremacy of the Carthaginians and Etruscans in the West founded by the battle of Alalia was severely shaken by the defeat of the Carthaginians at Himera in 480 and of the Etruscans at Cyme six years later. However, the empire in Spain was hardly affected by these disasters. Here the Carthaginians ruled unchallenged for more than two centuries, until, after 260 BC, their power began to decline. Unfortunately we possess an almost negligible amount of literary evidence about this first Punic empire in Spain and the archaeological finds are also poor1. The oldest objects found in the necropolis of Gades go back into the sixth and fifth centuries, and are therefore to be classed rather as Phoenician, as for example the well-known sarcophagus with carving in relief representing a priest. These are then followed by Carthaginian objects, ornaments, vases and the like.

The same is true of the fine gold ornament of a lady found near Caceres. At Ibiza only the rough clay figures from the Isle of Plana are Phoenician, everything else is Carthaginian. The oldest objects discovered in the Punic necropolis at Puig es Molins on Ibiza, which has yielded ornaments of every kind and provides, next to Carthage itself and Tharros, the richest finds of Carthaginian art, date from 500 BC and the same is true of the finds of Carthaginian ivories from the Iberian graves of the Carmona district. On the other hand the Carthaginian amulets and scarabs from the Iberian town of Villaricos on the south-east coast are not earlier than the end of the fifth or the beginning of the fourth century.

Besides Carthaginian objects, Greek imports—vases and so on—are found in Ibiza and in Villaricos. They must have arrived here through Carthaginian middlemen, because since 500 BC the Greeks had no longer been able themselves to trade along these coastlands which were now in Carthaginian possession; still less could they penetrate into the interior, where in many native Iberian towns Greek objects are found beside Carthaginian, as for example at Galera in the province of Granada. Of Carthaginian houses and buildings nothing is known; the only inscription is one at Villaricos on the south-east coast. Massilia in the fifth or fourth century BC founded, close to the ancient Phocaean town of Hemeroscopium on the east coast, two new colonies between C. Palos and C. Nao. One was Alonis, the other perhaps that known to the Greeks as ‘Akra Leuke,’ the later Lucentum of the Romans (modern Alicante). These foundations show that Massilia’s sphere of influence began north of C. Palos and that the Carthaginians recognized C. Palos as the boundary of her suzerainty.

In the fifth and fourth centuries we have no direct testimony about the Carthaginian empire in Spain, but only a few indirect scraps of evidence which show clearly the closure of the straits of Gibraltar. The oldest pieces of evidence after the Peri-plus are Pindar, and Scylax of Caryanda; the latter estimates the width of the straits at seven stades when it is in reality seventy, an error which illustrates the ignorance of the Greeks about the Spanish seas due to the Punic ‘mare clausum’ policy. Equally significant is Herodotus’ ignorance of the Atlantic lands, for example of the tin islands well known earlier to the writer of the Periplus. Euripides like Pindar says the Pillars of Hercules are the limits of navigation. Euctemon gives accurate information on the closure of the straits and Damastes repeats Scylax’ error about their breadth. Plato too, says that the Pillars are the limits of sailing and his Atlantis is perhaps an imaginative picture of the happy lot of Tartessus. In the fourth century b.c. further evidence for this same fact of the ‘mare clausum’ is given by Isocrates, and Pseudo-Scylax who narrates the terrors of the Atlantic, and lastly by Aristotle.

Alexander the Great is said to have envisaged the liberation of the West from the yoke of Carthage and the opening up of the straits, but when the great conqueror and discoverer died his bold plans sank with him into the grave1. If such plans there were, it seems to the present writer not impossible that the voyage of discovery which Pytheas of Massilia undertook about this time may have had some connection with them. Unfortunately we do not know when exactly the voyage took place. It was however before Dicaearchus, a pupil of Aristotle’s who wrote about 320 BC and attacked Pytheas. Pytheas was in Gades, which proves that his voyage was undertaken with the consent of the Carthaginians. They may perhaps have hoped from his discoveries to gain new land for colonies. It is possible to assume that it was the weakening of the Carthaginian power in Spain, which began after 348, which made this voyage possible, but the closure of the straits continued much later even in the third century BC, when the earlier Spanish empire had long been lost. This voyage which Pytheas made from the west coast of Spain along the shore of Gaul to Britain, and even farther northwards, dispelled for a moment the night of ignorance about these lands of the outer ocean, but very soon, owing to the narrow-mindedness of Greek geographers who charged Pytheas with flat lying, darkness descended again.

After the long silence of tradition from 500 BC. onwards the first new information is the treaty of 348 between Carthage and Rome recorded in Polybius. The clause which concerns Spain runs: ‘On the far side of the “Fair Promontory” (C. Farina) and Mastia in Tarsis the Romans and their allies are neither to trade nor to found cities.’ While the first treaty had only forbidden sailing along the African coast, now they were no longer to pass south of Mastia (Cartagena) and C. Palos. Thus both routes to Andalusia and the straits were now closed, since ancient navigation was entirely confined to coasting and there were only two routes, the one along the African and the other along the Spanish coast. In 348 BC, therefore, the empire of Carthage was as firm as a rock and it was still in existence just before the First Punic War, since Polybius attests the existence of the Spanish province. But between 264 and 237 it must have been lost, since, as we have seen, Hamilcar had to re-conquer Carthaginian Spain. Unfortunately we do not know exactly when the loss took place. In any event, the attack came from the Massiliotes, whose power was at its height in the fourth and third centuries BC, and who seem to have strengthened themselves by an alliance with the Iberians.

Although Carthage must have lost her empire, perhaps as far as Gades, she retained command of the sea, at least sufficiently to prevent any ship in the third century BC passing through the straits, as Eratosthenes expressly says. The loss of Spanish possessions was more particularly felt in the reduction of Carthage’s financial resources, now that she no longer controlled the silver mines. This would explain the fact that in the closing stages of the First Punic War the Carthaginians were in financial straits, and after the war they failed to pay their mercenaries. But the general who crushed the Mercenary Revolt with mailed fist also recovered the Spanish province and extended it by conquests—Hamilcar Barca. He landed in 237 with a small army at Gades which still remained Carthaginian, and from that base began the re-conquest.

V.

THE IBERIANS

There had been great changes in Spain since the writing of the Massiliote Periplus. For at that time, about 520, the central highlands and west of Spain were entirely occupied by Celts with some traces of Ligurians, whereas the Iberians were confined to the south and east coasts. Now however the Carthaginians found Iberians also on the highlands and in the west; for example in New Castille on the Sierra Morena the Oretani (Orissi, Oretes) and the Olcades whose exact locality is not known; on the Tagus near Toledo the Carpetani; in Old Castille the Vaccaei round Salamanca; on the upper waters of the Douro and Tagus the Celtiberi, that is, Iberians inhabiting what were earlier Celtic settlements. On the east coast now between C. Palos and C. Nao the Contestani occupied the territory of the wild Gymnetes; round Valencia lived the Edetani, whose name is borne by the prince Edeco; beyond them as far as the Ebro Ilercavones related to the Ilergetes (round Ilerda); near Tarragona the Cessetani with their town Cissa; as far as Barcelona the Lacetani; on the upper Llobregat the Lacetani; on the gulf of Rosas the Indigetes; along the foot of the Pyrenees the Bargusii and Andosini. In short, the Iberians had pushed forward from the east coast into the central highlands.

Possibly this shifting of population is to be connected with the irruption of Gallic tribes into Provence, for in consequence of their pressure the Iberians north of the Pyrenees may have been compelled to retreat across the mountains, and, since the east coast was already occupied, to find new homes in the highlands previously occupied only by Celts. The mixture of Celts and Iberians produced the wild Celtiberians, who were in their essential characteristics Iberians but had assimilated many Celtic traits. The highlanders were the most warlike section of the Iberians and at the same time the poorest and most savage. Whereas the tribes of the east coast were steadily subdued, though some of them only after stubborn resistance as for instance at Saguntum, the Carthaginians only succeeded in reducing the most southerly of the highland tribes. Meanwhile the Celtiberians continued to boast of their independence and only succumbed to the Romans after long resistance, as witness the siege of Numantia. But bravery could not make up for their lack of political cohesion. Like their kinsmen in Africa the Iberians showed a disinclination for subordination and discipline.

Among them the political unit was not, as among the Gauls, the tribe, but each single town or fort1. Some of the very small castles could only have held a clan of 50 to 100 persons. But even these formed an independent political and economic unit, a miniature state, like the clan ‘castella’ in Africa. Even the smallest castles were strongly fortified. Apart from their personal names people were called after their clan, as for example ‘Madicenus Vailicom’ which stood for ‘Madicenus’ of the ‘Vailo’ clan. The only government which the Iberians would tolerate was that of the council of the oldest heads of families which corresponds to the ‘jema‘a’ of the Berbers. Only among the most civilized tribes of the south and south-east do we find kings, but their powers were probably very small. Only temporarily and in the direst need would several states consent to form a league which elected a chieftain to lead them. And this weak bond was at once broken after a war, in fact often even during a war, especially after a disaster. It is true that round a popular leader a band of soldurii (in Latin devoiti) would collect who took an oath not to survive him. But amongst the Iberians we cannot speak of any national feeling such as inspired and unified the Gauls under Vercingetorix. They were content to be recruited as mercenaries both by the Carthaginians and by the Romans and to fight against their own tribesmen, earning without scruple today Carthaginian pay, tomorrow Roman. On the other hand, separate states or castles made the most desperate resistance to attack (Saguntum, Numantia, Astapa and Calagurris), often having recourse to cannibalism in order to hold out longer. Sometimes the clans engaged in war would concentrate in a single town or tribal refuge, as for example the Duero-tribes in Numantia, the tribes of the Jalon valley in Contrebia and Segeda. In general the Iberians avoided pitched battles; their strategy and tactics were those of guerrilla warfare, in which the people and the country fought together against invaders. They made use of the fact that the mountains everywhere were split into deep ravines to lay ambushes, and they wore out the enemy by the poverty of the land, the lack of water, the great distances, and the sparse population. Viriathus and the Roman Sertorius were masters of this warfare; but Hannibal also used ambushes at Trasimene and Gereonium with consummate skill, adopting the kind of warfare in which his African and Iberian troops had been trained.

The Iberians were armed after the fashion of the Berbers: they carried several spears for throwing, the solliferreum, entirely of iron; the falarica, a wooden shaft with long thin iron point, and a very small round shield, the caetra, after which their light armed troops were called caetrati, and, in addition, a dagger. Besides these national weapons there were heavy-armed troops with the long Celtic shield and the sword of the late Hallstatt type also borrowed from the Celts. This was the famous ‘Spanish sword’ later adopted by Rome. Helmet and coat of mail were seldom worn. These heavy-armed troops were called scutati. Common also was the use of the falchion which is found in Hellas and is perhaps the descendant of the curved knife of the Bronze Age. There were slingers of extraordinary skill, particularly the Balearic islanders, and the same weapon is still common amongst the herdsmen of Andalusia. The Iberians were superb horsemen and the same warrior could fight, now on horseback, and now on foot. The mount was the native wild pony, small and unimpressive, but very fast and hardy, and wonderfully sure-footed in the mountains. Like their horses the men were small and lean, but speedy, tough, and able to subsist on the smallest rations, as the poverty of the land made necessary.

As a result of this poverty, farming was little developed, and there was far more grazing than agriculture. This was the cause of the laziness which, after the lack of political organization, was the chief characteristic of the Iberian race. Poverty bred rapine, especially amongst the Lusitanians. Often farming was entirely left in the hands of the womenfolk. The Iberians made very little use of the mineral wealth of the country for the purposes of trade, but they knew how to forge from the excellent iron, especially from Moncayo (in the province of Soria), magnificent weapons which provoked the admiration of the Greeks and the imitation of the Romans. Of other industries amongst the highlanders there is little trace, except for pottery, which under Greek influence attains some merit. They painted their vases chiefly with geometric designs, but also drew plants and animals; their drawing of the human figure was childish. There is no evidence of any other art and naturally no signs of any literature. Only the Tartessians had any literature, and they were probably not Iberians. In general their manner of life was savage; they washed their bodies and teeth in urine and dwelt in mud huts or hovels scooped in the sides of hills. As has been said, they often resorted to cannibalism in the stress of a siege.

Amongst the Lusitanians the houses still preserved the form of the oldest type of circular straw hut, but amongst the eastern tribes the house was as a rule oblong with two or three rooms. In Numantia and the small towns of the province of Teruel the houses were on the street, and the town was formed by one or two long streets cut sectionally by cross streets, planning which shows clearly Greek influence. The furniture was poor; prominent were vast pitchers and stone troughs let into the floor, which were used either for washing purposes or for collecting the urine (for we are told that it was not used fresh). They slept on the floor. Public buildings seem not to have existed, though there may have been a council house for the sittings of the elders. The staple food was flesh and the national drink caerea, a kind of beer made from wheat, which the Celtiberians had learnt to make from the Celts, amongst whom it was called cerevisia. Besides this there was a kind of mead, though it was only drunk amongst the tribes of the east coast. Their clothing was made from black sheep’s wool; it consisted of a close fitting jersey, gaiters, and the famous sagum* a mantle of black wool which the Romans adopted. Their heads were swathed in a kind of turban, or else they wore a leather cap. The women wore over a veil or head-dress an early form of the mantilla; this is in fact what ‘the Lady of Elche’ wears. They laid great importance upon slimness of stature and fixed limits for waist measurements which ought not to be exceeded. Bright-coloured garments were commonly worn by the women on the east coast.

They seem in general to have burnt their dead. The ashes were placed in an urn, and the dead man’s arms were laid alongside; the grave was marked by a tombstone, and these were arranged in long rows, as for instance in the Celtiberian (or perhaps Celtic) necropolis of Aguilar. The highlanders, according to tradition, exposed the bodies of their dead to be devoured by the birds, and this perhaps explains the absence of any necropolis at Numantia. Their religion was a worship of natural phenomena, especially of the stars and the moon, which they celebrated on the nights of the full moon with dances. Dancing, indeed, was very popular amongst all the tribes, particularly the war-dance. Their musical instruments were flutes and horns—clay horns have been found at Numantia. Besides the stars, springs, rivers and mountain tops were worshipped and other local spirits. Human sacrifice was widely practised and divination was performed from the entrails. Of animals from the earliest times the bull had been the chief object of veneration, just as today it is the favourite animal of the Spaniards. Yet despite all their savagery, the Iberians did not lack fine qualities, above all, the devotion of soldiers to their chieftain and their gratitude towards foreign conquerors who treated this proud people with courtesy (Hasdrubal, Scipio, Tiberius Gracchus, Sertorius), and lastly their hospitality. Such then were the Iberians about 250 BC

VI.

THE RE-CONQUEST OF SPAIN

In 237 BC Hamilcar landed at Gades. The falsified Roman tradition derived from Fabius Maximus affirms that he conquered Spain on his own initiative against the will of the Carthaginians1. This is of course absurd, since every patriot must have rejoiced in his successes, and without state aid he could never have undertaken the enterprise. His first objective was the re-conquest of Spain, but behind this lay his real purpose, war with Rome. On the eve of his arrival in Spain he made his nine-year-old son Hannibal swear eternal hatred to Rome. But when he landed at Gades he could only really rely on the support of this town and at the most three other Phoenician colonies on the south coast (Malaca, Sexi, Abdera). The whole of the south and east of Spain had to be reconquered.

Hamilcar is said to have fought with Tartessians, Celts and Iberians. The ‘Tartessians’ were the inhabitants of the former Tartessian kingdom, the country of Andalusia, which had been Carthaginian for a time, the Iberians were the tribes of the east coast north of C. Palos, and the Celts, mercenaries who formed the army of the unwarlike Tartessians, are either real Celts who inhabited the central plateau and the west coast or the Iberians who after 300 BC were forced into that region, the ‘Celtiberians’ who are referred to by Livy as mercenaries of the Turdetani, the name given to the Tartessians. Their total strength is given as 50,000, perhaps an exaggeration; their leaders were Istolatius and Indortes, two names which occur nowhere else. We are told that Hamilcar incorporated in his army the Celts he captured and that he put their leaders to death with great cruelty. After subduing the Tartessians, Hamilcar transferred operations to the east coast and reduced the Iberians north of C. Palos, pushing forward the boundary of the Carthaginian province as far as C. Nao. In the middle of this district, between C. Palos and C. Nao, he built on the steep, rocky hill of Alicante a bulwark of the new domination; its place was later taken by New Carthage. While he was besieging the town of Helice (perhaps Ilici, the modern Elche), on the river Vinalapb (the Alebos) south-west of Alicante, and the King of the Orissi or Oretani (an Iberian tribe near Castulo) was advancing to relieve the city, Hamilcar met his death by drowning in the river. This occurred in 229/8 in the winter, the only season when the Spanish rivers are full of water.

In 231 the Romans sent an embassy to Hamilcar whose conquests had disquieted them. The Romans had indeed themselves no interests in Spain, but the Carthaginians had overstepped their old boundary line with Massilia at C. Palos, and Rome was concerned as an ally of Massilia. Hamilcar gave the clever answer that he was only engaged in fighting the Iberians in order to get sufficient money to pay to Rome the war indemnity. Rome had at the time to be content with that, but it was clear that any further Carthaginian encroachment would meet with a Roman veto. By his reconquest of Spain Hamilcar had performed a service of lasting value to his country. The material resources of Spain in silver and man-power were a complete offset to the loss of Sicily and Sardinia, and the moral effect of the conquest weighed still heavier in the balance. The star of Carthage was once again in the ascendant.

Hamilcar’s successor Hasdrubal avenged his death by leading a punitive expedition into the territory of the Orissi, whose twelve towns he reduced, with the result that the Carthaginian dominion was extended as far as the upper Guadiana. The Iberians of the east coast were won over by diplomacy, for Hasdrubal contracted a marriage with the daughter of an Iberian prince. He founded New Carthage on the site of Mastia, which had presumably been destroyed by the Carthaginians. This city, the modern Cartagena, was better placed than Alicante to keep in touch with Africa, because it was nearer and possessed a magnificent harbour, the best on the east coast of Spain, indeed one of the best harbours in the world. Moreover, while Alicante lay beyond the old boundary of C. Palos, and so provided evidence of aggression, New Carthage lay within the old frontiers. But Hasdrubal was most unwilling to confine himself within these limits; on the contrary, we hear that he was recognized as king by all the Iberian tribes. That probably meant that his power did not extend beyond the tribes on the coast with their immediate neighbours, but still it gave evidence of a great increase in the sphere of Carthaginian domination. It must have been by drawing largely on the Iberians that Hasdrubal’s army was now raised to 50,000 foot and 6000 cavalry. This increase of power alone enables one to understand why in 226 the Romans sent an embassy with the demand that Hasdrubal should not cross the Ebro. For this demand proves that all the tribes south of the river had already joined Carthage. It was in fact a very considerable concession by Rome, and can only have been forced upon her by the difficulties of her position at home. Polybius says that Rome deliberately avoided a conflict with Carthage now, because her struggle with the Gallic tribes of North Italy was still in progress. And very possibly the Carthaginians undertook not to give any support to the Gauls. Massilia can hardly have welcomed these Roman concessions, for she lost finally as a result of them her three colonies1 which Hasdrubal had perhaps taken and destroyed, but she was forced to put up with it.

The Carthaginians accepted Rome’s offer and established themselves strongly on the frontier line of the Ebro, thus concluding the famous but much disputed Ebro Treaty of 226 BC. It was later asserted at Rome that Saguntum was specifically excepted in the treaty. But Polybius says expressly that there was no mention in the treaty of the rest of Spain, from which it follows that Saguntum cannot possibly have been referred to. All that is proved is that Saguntum, presumably soon after the Ebro treaty2, asked for an alliance with Rome, and that Rome acceded to the request. But this does not mean that the Ebro treaty was annulled; it is rather an infringement of it by Rome. In this way the Carthaginians had step by step won back and extended their Spanish empire: first as far as C. Nao, and then up to the Ebro river.

VII.

HANNIBAL: THE CHALLENGE TO ROME

When Hasdrubal in 221 BC was struck down in a private quarrel with a Celt, Hannibal at the age of twenty-five succeeded to the command of the Spanish armies of Carthage. Hasdrubal owed his successes chiefly to his diplomatic skill in handling the Iberian tribes; Hannibal pursued the warlike policy of his father Hamilcar, and at once assailed the tribes of the inland plateau. His first attack was made upon the Olcades. Hannibal took their capital, called Althia or Althaia by Polybius, but Cartala by Livy—possibly two separate towns were taken. Neither name is mentioned elsewhere. The root Cart-, which appears in Cartala, is found also in Cartima and Carteia and other Iberian place-names.

The winter of 221—220 Hannibal spent at New Carthage. In the spring of 219 he proceeded with the conquest of the east coast. His first objective was Saguntum, which, situated upon a high, rocky, and inaccessible acropolis, was important for the control of the east coast. He found a casus belli in a frontier quarrel between the inhabitants of Saguntum and the Turdetani. The Turdetani, including the old kingdom of Tartessus, occupied the coastal regions as far as C. Nao, or even the Jucar. And C. Nao or the Jucar had been settled as the frontier between them and Saguntum. As successors of the Tartessians the Carthaginians had the right to support them in their quarrel with Saguntum. This opportunity Hannibal seized. In their distress the inhabitants of Saguntum had recourse to Rome, and Rome turned a favourable ear to their request for help, although support of Saguntum infringed the Ebro treaty, which allowed the Carthaginians to subdue all the land as far as the Ebro. Consequently Hannibal and the Carthaginians were perfectly entitled to take no notice of Rome’s protest. If Rome really demanded, as Polybius reports, that Hannibal should relinquish Saguntum because it was an ally of Rome, and that he should not cross the Ebro, Hannibal could answer that Rome’s alliance with Saguntum broke the Ebro treaty, that he was still far from crossing the Ebro, or on his part from doing anything contrary to the treaty. Even so, Rome looked on quietly at the siege of Saguntum, although during the eight months she had ample time to send help.

Saguntum lies upon a steep plateau joined to the surrounding hills only on the west; the plateau is about 1000 yards long, but only no to 130 yards broad, and at that time three-quarters of a mile from the sea, though today it is 3 miles, the difference being due to the alluvial soil brought down by the Palancia. It was an Iberian town and belonged to the Arsetani, from which the Romans deduced an affinity with the Latin Ardea, just as they derived the name Saguntum from the Greek Zacynthus. Hannibal had invested the city and after eight months blockade took the town by storm from the one accessible side, the west, in the autumn of 219. When a Roman embassy protested at Carthage and declared war, failing the surrender to them of Hannibal, the Carthaginians could begin the conflict with clear consciences. For Hannibal had succeeded in putting the Romans diplomatically in the wrong. Then in the spring of 218 he set off for Italy.

Several Spanish place-names preserve the memory of Hannibal’s campaigns in Spain: Portus Hannibalis, a harbour on the peninsula of C. St Vincent near Lagos, Insula Hannibalis near Palma in Mallorca, Scalae Hannibalis, a hill named Mongò shaped like a staircase descending down to the sea at Estartit on the east coast of Spain. Besides these place-names the watch towers built by the Carthaginians in Andalusia were called ‘turres’ or ‘speculae Hannibalis.’ Further, the natives in later times pointed to silver mines which Hannibal had opened up and one particular mine Baebelo, which they said had produced 300 lbs. of silver daily in his time. Like Hasdrubal his predecessor, Hannibal took a Spanish wife, a lady from the city of Castulo. His influence in Spain was not entirely extinguished by the Punic War. At least the great revolt of the Turdetani which broke out in 191 was apparently instigated by him, since it took place at exactly the same time as the outbreak of the war between Rome and Antiochus, in which Hannibal too had a hand.

The Carthaginian empire in Spain embraced in 220 BC first of all the whole Baetis valley, what is today Andalusia and Granada, as far as the Sierra Morena. Next was included part of the south-west coast about as far as the Tagus, since in this district (Alémtego) is situated Portus Hannibalis, and Carthaginian armies are several times mentioned on the west coast. Then on the east coast it comprised all the littoral as far as the Ebro (Murcia and Valencia). On the other hand, the Carthaginians held no more of the interior plateau of Spain than the south-eastern part together with the land of the Oretani in the Mancha who had been subdued by Hannibal; the Olcades, Vaccaei, and Carpetani had been attacked but not conquered. But the warlike highland tribes provided the Carthaginians with mercenaries so long as the war in Spain went in Carthage’s favour, though later they turned more and more towards Rome. The most loyal and trustworthy element of the Carthaginian dominion was formed by the Phoenician towns: Gades (the capital), Malaca, Sexi, Abdera, to which must be added the Phoenician inhabitants on the south and south-east coasts, the Bastulo-phoenicians. These inhabitants of the south and south-east coasts alone were bound to the Carthaginians by the tie of race. The inhabitants of the interior were in the south the Tartessians or Turdetani, in the south-east Iberians (Edetani, Ilercavones and the like). The Turdetani were unwarlike and easy to dominate. But much less trustworthy were the Iberians of the east coast and it was here that the later defection began. The Phoenician towns kept their autonomy, and the tribes and towns of the Tartessians and Iberians continued to be ruled by their princes, after whom many of them took their names.

It is impossible to make an estimate of the population in Spain under Carthaginian rule; but it is clear that only the Baetis valley with its hundreds of towns and villages was thickly populated; the rest was for the most part mountainous country with few inhabitants. The capital of the empire since Hasdrubal was New Carthage, a large and strongly fortified town, which was also the naval harbour with dockyards, arsenals and factories. Near by lay the silver mines—the most valuable Carthaginian possessions in Spain, which have already been described. It was their loss which made the fall of New Carthage in 209 b.c. so mortal a blow. For arms there were the Spanish metals, worked with the unrivalled skill of the Iberian smiths, and for the tackle of the ships the esparto grass of the east coast provided raw material. In this way Spain was for Carthage, as Posidonius says, an inexhaustible treasure store for empire.

CHAPTER XXV

ROME AFTER THE CONQUEST OF SICILY