Italic
Itálica is an ancient Roman city located in the current municipality of Santiponce (Seville), in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.
The Roman city was founded in 206 B.C. C. in an indigenous habitat of Turdetania dating back to at least the IV century B.C. C. Within its term there are sites and indications of its much earlier occupation, including Argarics and Greeks. During the Republican period it was an important city, and much more so in the imperial era, even though it was never the capital of a province or a convent legal. Despite the general belief that it was abandoned around the IV century, the truth is that only the Hadrianic extension was abandoned, the city withdrew towards something more than its primitive extension, under the current town of Santiponce, where it continued a life of certain prestige in the Low Empire and the Visigothic era. There are numerous remains from this time, and it is clear that its walls were restored by Leovigildo in the year 583, in the framework of his fights against Hermenegildo. Another good example of this survival and prestige, at least until the end of the VII century, is the presence of Italian bishops in various Christian councils, being the last one in which one of them is documented, a certain Cuniuldo, the XVI of Toledo, in the year 693. Itálica was still alive in the Muslim era, when several Arab authors mention it with the name of Talikah /Taliqa and there are some well-known characters with the al-Taliki nisba (also, although less, archaeological remains have appeared). It is in the XII century when it must have been really abandoned, becoming a depopulated area, called by the Christians Campos de Tal(i)ca and also Old Seville.
Modern historiography, from Ocampo and Morales in the XVI century, was always aware of the importance of the city, as well as the birth in it of two emperors: Trajan and Adriano, sung by Rodrigo Caro in his famous Canción, to which his eldest son, Arcadio, would still have to be added. of visit, admiration and desolation, of numerous foreign travelers, who left their impressions in writing, and sometimes drawn. All its prestige, history and fame were not enough, however, to save it from being the object of continuous plunder, and a permanent source of materials since the Arab era, even in the enlightened era. In 1740 the Seville City Council ordered the demolition of the walls of the amphitheater to build a dam on the Guadalquivir, and in 1796 areas of the primitive vetus urbs were blown up to build the new Camino Real de Extremadura. The first legal provision for the protection of the site occurred on February 9, 1810, under Napoleonic occupation, ordering it to return its old name of Itálica, and allocating an annual budget for regular excavations, which, however, did not materialize until 1839-1840, and due to the efforts of a simple and unknown official. In 1873 the looting continued to be vandalized. By Royal Order of December 13, 1912, Itálica was declared a National Monument, but, after other minor regulations, it was not until Decree 7/2001, of January 9, of the Junta de Andalucía, when the archaeological zone of Itálica and the areas of its effective protection have been clearly delimited. Its ruins are today a main tourist attraction 7 km north of Seville and its protection is being resumed with the latest scientific techniques.
History
Itálica was the first Roman city founded in Hispania and also outside Italian territory. At the end of the second Punic war in Hispania, Publius Cornelius Scipio the African settled the wounded soldiers in a pre-existing Turdetan city -whose original name is unknown-, in the upper area of Aljarafe, on the west bank of the Baetis, located halfway between the Turdetan cities of Hispalis (Seville) and Ilipa (Alcalá del Río, SE), and surely a port. The text by Apiano de Alejandría in which this is recounted, allows us to deduce that the origin of these soldiers was fundamentally from the Italic peninsula, that is, from Italic auxiliary units, and hence the name chosen by Scipio:
“It was at this time, shortly before the 144 Olympics, when the Romans began to send every year to the conquered nations of Hispania two pretores, as governors or peacekeepers. Escipion left there a small army, the most characteristic of a time of peace, and overcame the wounded soldiers in a city that, from the name of Italy, called “Italic”: this was the homeland of Trajan and Adriano, who later became emperors of the Romans. Scipion on his part returned to Rome with a great fleet, magnificently ridiculed, and full of captives, silver, weapons and all kinds of boots. ”
Possibly the legal status of the city, shortly after its foundation, was that of a Latin colony, and the plan of the original city was campamental (hypodamic), as was the custom in the military colonies of the time in Italy itself. It must have been at the end of Julius Caesar's last stay in Hispania, in the year 45 BC. C., when Itálica obtained from him the legal status of municipium civium Romanorum, possibly as a reward for the support of the city against Pompey in the recent civil war, although he did not mint currency as such until that time. of Augustus, when a mint was created where bronze coins of different values were minted, with the effigy of Augustus and later of Tiberius on the obverse, while the reverses of these coins are exceptional in the Hispanic panorama due to the great romanity of his subjects.
The city reached its period of greatest splendor at the end of the I century and during the II, since the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, both born in Italica, which would greatly reinforce the undoubted prestige that the ancient Hispanic colony already had in Rome. Both emperors, who no doubt owed their accession to the throne in large part to the important Spanish lobby group that had existed in the Roman Senate since at least the time of Claudius and Nero, were particularly generous to their hometown, expanding it and revitalizing its economy. Hadrian was the one who granted it the rank of colony after the inhabitants requested it, the emperor also embellished it with excellent public buildings.
Although perhaps already begun under Trajan, Adriano's participation in the great urban expansion to the north -also hippodamic, like its predecessor- which was baptized in 1960 by García y Bellido as has been proven literary) and epigraphically. Nova urbs, or new city, which only had a truly splendid existence during the II century, at the end of which, and without ever having been completed, began its decline, for certainly political-economic reasons. This is the part of the city that currently constitutes the Archaeological Ensemble of Itálica, unparalleled because of its enormous mansions paved with mosaics, or its great, though badly battered, amphitheatre, fourth of the Empire by capacity. The old city or Vetus urbs is located under the urban area of the current town of Santiponce (founded in 1601, after successive flooding of the river, closer to which it was originally located), since this part of the city is the one that had the most continuity, reaching the times of the Muslim occupation when it took place, in the X century, its depopulation and definitive abandonment. There are very few known Roman remains of it, the main ones being the theater and the so-called minor or Trajan baths.
It is during Hadrian's government that the city itself requests from the emperor, and against his advice, as Aulus Gelio recounts it), to change its advantageous Roman municipal statute for that of a Roman colony, heavier but more prestigious, since they were simulacra Romae or mirrors of Rome and as an ideal part or extension of the Urbs itself. Following this concession, it was renamed Colonia Aelia Augusta Itálica, in honor of Adriano, titles that usually appear abbreviated as C.A.A.I.
The archaeological site
Among the remains of what was the nova urbs are the amphitheatre, the supposed temple of Trajan (Traianeum), the so-called major or Moorish queen baths, and the different houses.
The walls
It is possible that the Ibero-Roman nucleus had a fence defining its perimeter, but the first historical records of the walls date from the middle of the century I a. C. Augusto worked on them, Hadrian enlarged them and Leovigildo restored them in 583. The maximum perimeter, in the II century d. C., was more than 3000 m, with an average thickness of 1.5 m.
Provenance
In Roman times the entire city was delimited by a walled perimeter. It had, in general, a defensive character, but it also played a symbolic and religious role, since the influence of the gods and their temples reached up to it. There are visible remains in two points of the Archaeological Ensemble: a tower from the time of Augustus, in the area of the theater, next to the stands; and a canvas from the Hadrianic period at the northern end of the city, next to the amphitheatre.
Technical description
The tower in the area of the theater, from the time of Augustus (27 BC-AD 14), is built with a framework that combines concrete with vertical strips of ashlar masonry; of the sections from Hadrian's time (117-138 AD) the concrete foundations are preserved.
Comments
The walls of Itálica, which came to cover an area of more than 50 ha, were built in various phases that correspond to the extensions and reductions operated on the surface occupied by the city. A geophysical survey carried out between 1991 and 1993 located a stretch of wall that ran behind the elevation where the temple presumably dedicated to Trajan sits. It is pending archaeological dating, but it is thought that it could be a late-Roman section erected after the hypothetical reduction of the urban site, or the action of King Leovigildo, who restored the Italian walls in the year 583, at the time of the confrontation with his son Hermenegildo.
The amphitheater
With a capacity of 25,000 spectators, it had three levels of stands. Below the level of the old wooden floor of the amphitheater there is a service pit for the different gladiator and wild beast shows.
The theater
The theater is the oldest known civil work in Itálica, after the probable remains of the curia found in 1984. It is located on the so-called Cerro de San Antonio, to the west of the urban area of Santiponce, taking advantage of the natural slope on the Baetis. It was built between the I centuries BC. C. and I d. C., and its use, surely already sporadic, lasted until at least the V century, more or less as in the rest of Hispania, possibly being the main cause of their abandonment, more than their condemnation for religious reasons (which on the part of the Christians was as incessant as it was unsuccessful), the gradual disappearance or the lack of interest of the local elites who used to pay for them; The truth is that it fell into disuse and part of its land was gradually filled in and converted into warehouses and corrals, into landfills and even instead of occasional burials, already in medieval times. It was finally filled and blinded by various floods from the Guadalquivir.
The approximate location of the building has been known since the 18th century, and some of the sculptures were known to come from there. Part of its steps were partially uncovered around the 1940s in the courtyard of one of the houses on the hill, but it was not massively excavated until the period 1970-1973, with later minor campaigns to free the portico. After various phases of restoration, which began in the 1980s, it is currently used for the celebration of the Itálica Theater Festival.
The Traianeum
Although no reliable proof of this has appeared, it has been assumed since its excavation, around the years 1979-1980, that the baptized "Traianeum" It is a temple dedicated to Emperor Trajan erected by his great-nephew and successor, Hadrian. It is located in a square in the nova urbs, surrounded by an arcaded square.
The hot springs
Itálica had at least two public thermal complexes, one in the old city and the other in the new city, both with hot (caldarium) and warm (tepidarium<) and cold (frigidarium), sudatorio (laconicum) and perhaps palaestrae of exercise, as was the custom, which fully satisfied the Hygienic customs of the Roman population. The baths of the old city are popularly known as Menores or Trajan's, and can be visited within the town. The hot springs of the new city are the so-called Mayores or Reina Mora, occupying the extension of a complete block; It seems that they were unfinished, and are still partly unexcavated; It is one of the most plundered areas of the nova urbs.
The Major Baths
They were a leisure center that housed, along with other services, public baths. They date from the time of Hadrian, around the first half of the II century. It is a large building; It approximately occupies an area of 32,000 square meters. They are found in the nova urbs, occupying the extension of a complete block, still partly unexcavated. The structure of the distribution of the pools and ovens is still preserved. The baths were accessed through a staircase that led to the lobby. Behind this is the T-shaped pool, with walls and floors covered in white marble. Then you access the rest of the bathroom rooms and around this are the service rooms and dependencies. In addition to the baths themselves, with the three rooms (caldarium, tepidarium and frigidarium), the building housed a library, massage room, sauna, changing rooms and to the south of the main body would be the arena that would occupy almost half of the building..
The Minor Baths
They are located in the old town of Santiponce, more specifically on Calle Trajano, and they date from before Adriano. These remains have been given numerous interpretations. They have been dated to the time of Trajan (98-117) due to the construction methods used and in the time of Hadrian its structure was reinforced. The surface occupies an area of about 1500 square meters, in an area urbanized by Trajan with public buildings.
The vestiges that can be seen correspond to the central and rear area of the baths, being able to recognize two rooms with a hot temperature (caldarium), one warm (tepidarium) and another for cold baths (frigidarium) and for the practice of exercises. The excavated lot does not fully cover the entire area of the baths, since it extends below the surrounding houses, especially the main door.
Aqueducts
Traditionally, the bibliography has known the existence of the remains of a single aqueduct that brought water to Itálica from Tejada la Nueva (near Escacena del Campo (Huelva), about 36.5 km to the west of the city. There was news of some visible remains of him, and the reference to some large cisterns already near the city, which were seen and described by the scholar Jerónimo Fray Fernando de Ceballos, but whose location was considered lost. Guadalquivir Hydrographic Confederation in January 1974 found some of the remains and calculated the direct slope of what was still believed to be the only aqueduct.
Aqueduct from the 1st century AD. c
The first aqueduct dates from the early I century d. C. and it brought water from at least ten springs next to the Guadiamar river (the old Maenoba), the main one, that of the Huerta de Basilio, supplying only the then existing vetus urbs or old city. A good part of this aqueduct, up to the Conti glen, runs underground, but at some points (the best as it passes through the La Pizana farm, in the Gerena district), the gallery through which the water flowed is visible in about 40 m, presenting a height of 1.70-1.80 m and around 80-90 cm wide. The specus or channel was covered with a barrel vault. The main characteristics of this oldest aqueduct, according to the author, are the massive use of concrete, the circular luminaries, and its general lack of brick cladding, except for the voussoirs of the arches in some small bridges.
Hadrian's Aqueduct (2nd century AD)
When the so-called nova urbs was built, with its large houses, baths and huge amphitheatre, the need to expand the water supply was evident. The problem was solved in an ingenious way, building a long extension that collected water from another good area of springs, further away, in the Peñalosa de Tejada la Nueva farmhouse (Escacena del Campo, Huelva), near the Roman Ituci, where the Fuente Grande, Fuente Pequeña, de la Reina Mora and several others are still preserved, annexing the new channeling to that of the primitive aqueduct at the height of the aforementioned Conti glen. Shortly before reaching Itálica, the Hadrianic leadership separated again, arriving at their own cisterns, from three ships (the views in the century XVIII by Zevallos), already near the amphitheatre.
The Hadrianic aqueduct was a concrete construction, but with the particularity of being entirely covered with brick, a luxury detail that no other aqueduct on the peninsula has, and very few in the Empire. Its specus or channel is smaller, always with a hydraulic cord and raised on a substructio to maintain a constant elevation; It must have been covered in the open sections with tegulae or with stone plates from Tarifa. Its luminaries, unlike those of the old one, are square and also covered with brick, denoting its coetaneity with the nova urbs and its system of sewers. It had long sections of arches to save streams and valleys, most of which have now disappeared, although a spectacular section is still preserved at the Guadiamar river crossing.
After a period of great abandonment, and the well-known ecological catastrophe of 1998, citizen interest and that of the administrations have come together to save and revalue what remains of such an expensive hydraulic work, whose remains are now part of the protected Green Corridor of Guadiamar, and of the Olivares Historical Landscapes Route. Therefore, although what has been lost is enormous, it is possible that the future of what still remains can be seen with greater optimism, and even that more remains can be found still covered, or the sections already known can be better studied.
The houses
In the splendor of Hadrian's Itálica, houses of important and wealthy local families were built in the new city, some of which would undoubtedly be senatorial ones that, in addition to following the traditional scheme of the Roman house, with a patio interior from which the patios of Andalusian houses would later derive, had the predominant Hellenistic aesthetic of the time.
Among the houses of Itálica, the following stand out:
Casa de la Exedra: The characteristics of this building do not clarify its specific function. It has been classified as a dwelling —Domus—, since it partly has the characteristics of these, but its grandeur —it occupies an entire 4,000 m² module— and the appearance of indeterminate elements means that it is also identified as a semi-public building, possibly a private school in which their owners also lived. On the sides of the entrance are seven tabernae, public shops, which flank the door. In addition, there are two others on the right side and one on the back. In its interior design we can see that behind the entrance vestibulum, the fauces gives way to the distribution patio of the building. This peristyle is rectangular with a curvilinear and elongated fountain or pool located in its central axis. For the perimeter portico support there are no columns as is traditional and there are large pillars with a cruciform plan. Most likely they are to support a greater weight than usual in a private home, so it is assumed that it could support one or several upper floors. These pillars would not be lintelled, but would be joined by arches, forming an arcade on each of the floors. On its sides there are numerous rooms -cubiculum- that make up the whole of the domus itself. One of them has an exit to the outside through the right façade. The bottom of the peristilium is accessed by stairs to the area of the baths distributed through the interior patio. Two of the bathrooms are covered by quarter-round vaults. On one of its sides, the left as one enters, there is a large rectangular and elongated palaestra -almost the entire length of the building- which ends in a large exedra covered with a quarter sphere vault. This area is connected to the outside with a corridor perpendicular to the direction of the entrance that faces the right side. Therefore we can determine four large areas within this building: the tabernae, the baths, the domus and the exedra with its arena. Opus sectile mosaic: Rectangular geometric mosaic organized into fifteen squares framed with gray marble and with a central motif that represents either circular figures or a combination of shapes resulting in a star motif. They may be schematic representations of astral models.
Neptune's House: We classify this building in the semi-public category since, despite not having been fully excavated, what has been observed so far suggests that it is a unique construction that occupies the entire block of about 6000 square meters. The little that has been documented about the building hardly says anything about its spatial distribution, if we except the data from the western sector, dedicated to a beautifully made hot spring area. A Tepidarium and a Caldarium have been excavated in this area, which preserve the brick pillars of the Hypocaustum, and a sector of the cold area, or Frigidarium, decorated with the mosaic that gives its name to the building and which is one of the main ones in the city.. The presence of the thermal area, documented rooms towards the center of the building with elaborate mosaics and, already on the north flank, a cistern of considerable proportions, reinforce the hypothesis that this great building performed similar functions to that of the Exedra, located in the next block. The main mosaic of the house represents the god Neptune and his train of sea creatures. In black and white except for the figure of the god, polychrome, it represents this with a trident driving a chariot pulled by two seahorses; Around them, centaurs, rams, bulls and other terrestrial animals have been transformed into inhabitants of the sea by substituting their hindquarters for fish tails. They coexist in the aquatic depths with dolphins, fish, molluscs and crustaceans. It is thought that it corresponds to the frigidarium of the thermal area. Another mosaic represents a walled city with towers, possibly the capital of the kingdom of Minos, since inside there is a labyrinth that, distributed in four quadrants, surrounds a central emblem where the Athenian hero Theseus was represented in his day, victor of the Minotaur. A final mosaic is made up of a series of paintings with elements linked to the god Bacchus, the Greek Dionysus: dancing maenads, satyrs, centaurs, tigers that fight against evil. This god and the hero Theseus, represented in the other mosaic, have a common history, since one concludes what the other has begun.
Casa del Patio Rodio: In this east-facing building that has not been completely excavated, the organization of space is achieved thanks to several consecutive open spaces around which the different rooms. The main one in this house is a rhodium-type patio, that is, with one of the four galleries higher than the rest and the transit between levels solved by using some steps. As is common in this sector of Itálica, the main pavements were carefully crafted mosaics. Unfortunately, the long exposure to the elements and the action of man, has determined its loss or the deterioration of its state of conservation. Beyond the area defined by the mosaics, you can see a series of pools associated with a small pool, which may suggest that we are looking at the remains of a laundry. Another luxurious house in Itálica that is only partly excavated, which leaves its distribution unknown. Specifically, the entrance to the house is under discussion, on the eastern side through a large hall or more improbably through the southern façade. The main peristilium was presided over by a square fountain and had one of its aisles at a higher height than the rest -rhodium patio-. It communicated with a triclinium, on the lower level, which is floored with a mosaic representing allegories of the four seasons and in front, with another larger triclinium, the main one, with a mosaic of tigers and flanked by two patios. From these patios you can access other rooms, also tiled with mosaics.
House of Hylas: Another luxurious house in Itálica that is only partly excavated, which leaves its distribution unknown. Specifically, the entrance to the house is under discussion, on the eastern side through a large hall or more improbably through the southern façade. The main peristilium was presided over by a square fountain and had one of its aisles at a higher height than the rest -rhodium patio-. It communicated with a triclinium, on the lower level, which is floored with a mosaic representing allegories of the four seasons and in front, with another larger triclinium, the main one, with a mosaic of tigers and flanked by two patios. From these patios you can access other rooms, also tiled with mosaics. The patio located further north, communicates by means of a staircase with an anteroom, which in turn serves as a passage to the room with the mosaic of Hylas, which gives its name to the house. In it, the abduction of Hylas by the Nymphs is represented, presided over by Hercules. Currently this central motif is in the Provincial Archaeological Museum of Seville, leaving only the surrounding geometric decorations.
House of the Birds: Its organization is typical of a Roman domus: a porticoed peristyle surrounded by the other rooms. It is a stately residence, possibly belonging to an aristocratic family from the city. It is noteworthy that this type of house only represents a minority of the population, usually the town houses were infinitely worse, not to mention the slave ghettos. It has a good number of high-quality mosaics, one of which gives the house its name. It was the first completely excavated dwelling in the Itálica complex. It is currently restored and conditioned with some 60 cm high walls that delimit the different rooms. From the door there is access to a vestibule -vestibulum- that immediately communicates with the access fauces to the peristilium or porticoed patio with a well, the distribution center of the house. It consists of a covered corridor, rectangular in shape that surrounds the patio and to which the doors of the rooms open. Columns are used to support the roof. At the back is the triclinium, flanked by two open patios -exedra- one with a fountain and the other with a pool. The other main rooms are also located in this area, all of them paved with excellent mosaics. In the wings of the house are the service rooms, kitchens and drains. On the left of the house is the cubiculum paved with a mosaic with birds that gives its name to the domus. Finally, on the main façade some rooms open to the outside, one of them with an oven, which were shops -tabernae- associated with the house.
House of the Planetarium: Its construction began in the time of Hadrian (117-138) and underwent various reforms in the late Roman period, highlighting among them the segregation of the plot into several housing units. Residential building of almost 1,600 square meters, excluding the tabernae that occupy the western half of a block located between the Amphitheater and the temple dedicated to Trajan. The mosaic that gives this house its name consists of a circle within which seven medallions with busts are distributed. They represent the planetary divinities that, in the Roman calendar, give name to each of the days of the week. In the center is Venus (Friday), surrounded by the Moon (Monday), Mars (Tuesday), Mercury (Wednesday), Jupiter (Thursday), Saturn (Saturday) and the Sun (Sunday). It is one of the mansions destined exclusively for the notables of Itálica. These residences stand out for their privileged location, the quality of the construction and the luxury of their finishes, as well as the extension of the habitable surface. It occupies the western half of a block located between the amphitheater and the temple dedicated to Trajan. After entering through the ostium or entrance, you reach the vestibule and the tablinum, a reception and transit room open to the peristyle.
Around the peristilium, a large porticoed courtyard with columns and a central garden, the domestic areas were distributed: bedrooms -cubicula- and living rooms -oeci-. The two most western areas are the best known, being almost identical between them: a side lounge and two bedrooms with doors to a larger rear room and opening to the atrium, a quadrangular space with an opening in the roof to allow air to pass through., light and rainwater. At the bottom of the peristyle was located, coinciding with its axis, the dining room or triclinium and on both sides were new rooms and patios. The site was segregated into various housing units in the late Roman period. The peristyle was divided in two, so that its northern part was linked to the domestic area, characterized by mosaics, and the remaining surface became a garden or patio. In this new patio the columns were replaced, to the south, by powerful pillars, on which a second floor was raised. The rooms built at the bottom of the peristyle in the II century suffered the overlapping of various structures related to a service area of the stage late.
Contenido relacionado
JavaBean
Subject
Electron transfer (chemistry)