Lancia (city)

Lancia (in the municipality of Villasabariego, León, Spain) was an ancient Asturian and Roman city in the province of Tarragona, the most important of the Astures. It was located on a plateau between the Porma and Esla rivers generically called El Castro, which includes other well-documented minor place names such as El Pico del Castro, Valdealbura, La Encrucijada, El Praduño, Socesáreo and El Talancón. Currently only visible remains of some buildings are preserved. Archaeological excavations continue today.

Reliquias fusi exercitus ualidissima ciuitas Lancia excepit, ubi cum locis adeo certatum est, ut cum in graspm urbem faces poscerentur aegre dux impetrauerit ueniam ut uictoriae Romanae stans potius esset quem incensa monumentum.

Floro, Epitome bellorum omnium annorum DCC, II, 33, 58-59

Geographic context

Graphic image of what is described in the left text.

Its location explains the choice of this hill because of its easy defense, as it is elevated above the alluvial plains of the valleys of the rivers Esla (called Astura by the Romans) and Porma, whose fertility constituted without a doubt the base of the agricultural economy of the city. Its surface is flat but with a long inclination from the northwest to the southwest. It is located 840 m, on average, above sea level. The surface coincides with the remains of a terrace of the Esla river from the Quaternary period, corresponding to a third level located at +40 m. Its location coincides with the coordinates 5º25'47" West longitude and 42º31'45" North latitude.

Literary and epigraphic sources

Lancia is quoted in:

• Ptolomeo names it as one more among the cities of the astures, (Ptol., GeogrphII, 6, 28).
• The Itinerary of Antonino places it on track I nine miles from the mansio of ad Legio VII Gemina and twenty-nine Camala (Itin. Ant.395, 3).
• Plinius the Elder mentions the Lancienses as people within the astures, (Plin., Nat. hist. III, 28): «Iunguntur iis Asturum XXII populi divisi in Augustanos et Transmontanos, Asturica urbe magnifica. in iis sunt Gigurri, Paesici, Lancienses, Zoelae. numerus omnis multitudeinis ad CCXL liberorum capitum».
• Floro narrates his fall at the hands of Carisio and how he respected it after having defeated the remains of the astur army at the end of the cabal-asture wars so that "without burning it was better monument to the Roman victory", (Flor., Epit., II, 33).
• Dión Casio recounts the same episode and gives him the qualification of "the most important city of the astures" (D. Cass., Hist., LIII, 25, 8).
• Orosio gives a version of the facts, practically identical to that of Floro, in his Stories against the pagans (Oros, Hist., VI, 21, 9-10).

Perhaps the most eloquent passages regarding the facts and characteristics of the city are those of Floro, Dion Casio and Orosio:

Astures per id tempus ingenti agmine a montibus niueis descenderant. Nec feare sumptus, ut barbaris impes, sed positis castris apud Asturam flumen trifariam diuiso agmine tria simul Romanorum adgredit parant castra. (55) I wasssetque anceps et cruentum et utinam mutual clade certamen cum tam fortibus, tam subito, tam cum consilio uenientibus, nisi Brigaecini prodidissent, a quibus praemonitus Carisius cum exercitu aduenit. (56) Pro uictoria fuet opressisse consilia sic tamen quoque non incruento certamine. (57) Relics fusi exercitus ualidissima ciuitas Lancia excepit, ubi cum locis adeo certatum est, ut, cum in graspm urbem faces poscerentur aegre dux impetrauerit ueniam. (58) ut uictoriae Romanae stans potius esset quem incensa monumentum

The Astures at that time had descended with a great army of the snowy mountains. And the barbarians did not seem to be afraid of this momentum, but, placed the camp by the Astura River and divided the army into three bodies, prepared a simultaneous attack on the three Roman camps. There had been an uncertain, crude struggle and perhaps with many deaths on both sides coming with so many forces, so suddenly and with a planned plan, if the Brigecinos had not betrayed them by warning Carisio, who came with his army. It was considered victorious to cast the plans for land, although it was not a totally incrutent struggle anyway. The very powerful city of Lancia welcomed what was left of the defeated army and in it was fought, for that reason, with a force that, when they asked to set the city on fire once taken, with difficulty the general got it to be forgiven, in order that, remaining without being destroyed, it would be better monument of the Roman victory than destroyed by the fire.

Floro, Epitome bellorum omnium annorum DCC, II, 33, 54-59.

Καίε το κ ε το καμάτοου καίον φρον φροντίδων νοσιν νοσ νοσισαος κος κεινανα εερονερον καρον καρον σεισε καν κρρρεικε κειειε κεικειν κειν κιν κειν κειν κε κιν κεν κεν κιν κιν κε κε κειν κιν κειν κον κειν κεν κον κεν κον κεν ρον ρον ρον ρον ρον ρον εν κεν θος δ.ντος προς σγρος σγεος σεος σος κεεεεεος κος τοος τοοος σγ.γ.ιειειειεικειειειειειειειεεειεειειειειειειειειειειεειειειεεεεειεεεεειειειεειειειειειεειειεεεεεειεεεειειειειεειεεεεειειειειεειεεεειεειεεεικικικικικικιεεεεεεεειεεεεεεειεεεεεεικιειεεεεεειειειει Κα‐block ο marginτως κείος τινός τινα,λαβε, καίτος μετος ταὰτατταα, Καρίσιος τον ε τε γγγκίαν τον γγιστον τον.στρων πόλισμα κλειφθ.ν ε.λε.λε κα πολλλλλικιεεστιεεστιεστοτοτοτοτοτουτουτοεειειειειειειειειειειειειειειειειειειειειοειειειεν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν εν ερεεεεεειεεεεεεεεεειειειειειειειε

Because of the efforts and concerns (Augusto) he got sick and retired to Tarraco to replenish there. Cayo Antistio continued the struggle against them and led it to the end without interruption, not because it was better strategist than Augustus, but because not giving importance to the barbarians went out to meet the Romans and were overcome. In this way that (C. Antistio) took some (prisoners) and, after this, Tito Carisio took over Lancia, the largest city of the Astures, already abandoned, and subjected many others (city).

Dion Casio, Hist., 53, 25, 2-8 (spec.53, 25.8)

Astures uero positis castris apud Asturam flumen Romanos, nisi proditi praeuentique essent, magnis consiliis uíribusque oppressissent three legatos cum Legionibus suis in tria castra diuisos tribus aeque agminibus obruere suddenly moliti, suorum proditione detecti sunt. (10) pars eorum proelio elapsa Lanciam confugit. cumque milites circumdatam urbem fire adoriri pararent, dux Catisius et a suis cessationem impetrauit incendii et a barbaris uoluntatem deditionis exegit. studiose enim nitebatur integram attack incolumen ciuitatem uictoriae suae testem relinquere.

The astures, having placed their camp by the River Astura, would have defeated the Romans with great projects and forces not to have been these prevented and put on notice. Trying to destroy by surprise the three legacies, with their three legions and divided into three camps, with three army fronts, were discovered by a betrayal. Afterwards, Carisio, attacking them, defeated them in a battle, resulting in many deaths on the Roman side. Part of them (astures), escaping in the struggle, went to take refuge in Lancia and, as the soldiers prepared to set fire to the city already fenced previously, General Carisio asked his own to stop burning it and demanded a voluntary surrender from the barbarians. With great interest, he tried to leave the city in full and incolted as a witness of victory.

Orosio, Hist., VI, 21, 9-10

History

Prehistory and protohistory

The life of the site before Roman times can be summarized by the materials that appeared from the Lower Paleolithic, Late Neolithic and early phases of the Metal Age and Second Iron Age.

Lancia was the most important city of the Asturians and some authors consider it their capital, although there is no evidence that their organization as a group required a city as their head, nor is there any evidence that this was the case. This enclave is located about 14 km from León and just over 1 km from Mansilla de las Mulas.

Epithetes that have been applied to you validissima civitason the part of Floro, or "the most important city of the Astures", according to Dion Casio, seem to be faced with the archaeological findings of pre-Roman times in the city, which, as we know today, would reach an approximate extension of perhaps about 30 hectares for that stable population of the Second Age of the Iron.

Roman times

In the year 25 B.C. C. the Roman general Publius Carisio attacked the city and managed to subdue it, but saved it from being destroyed by his soldiers so that "without burning it would be a better monument to Roman victory" ("ut cum in captam urbem faces poscerentur aegre dux impetrauerit ueniam ut uictoriae Romanae stans potius esset quem incensa monumentum»).

It was rebuilt as a Roman city during the I century and was abandoned for good in the IV, at least in the central area of the city; a certain survival in peripheral areas is possible, revealed by loose materials out of stratigraphic context.

Archaeological research

The site was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest with the category of Archaeological Zone in 1994. The oldest references can be traced back to the century. XVI and recognize it from the XIX and XX archaeologists and researchers such as Saavedra, Ricardo Velázquez Bosco, Padre Fita, Gago Rabanal, J. Sanz Martínez, Antonio Blázquez, José María Luengo, Francisco Jordá Cerdá, Eladio Isla, Carmen García Merino and Manuel Abad, who significantly contributed to the progress of the investigations.

Archaeological remains

Renowned researchers have excavated the archaeological site of Lancia as far back as the 19th century. Unfortunately, such studies have never been accompanied by the adequate conservation of the remains or by their public opening or visit. Currently, the Provincial Council of León, through the Leonés Institute of Culture, carries out annual excavation campaigns.

Recently, the construction of the A-60 motorway (León-Valladolid) has brought to light a very interesting industrial neighborhood with furnaces and foundries, a building with a basilica plan and a necropolis, among other multiple remains, which, given the proximity to the central site of Lancia, are interpreted as the location that the documentary sources call Sublancia.

Second Iron Age

The phases of the Second Iron Age are represented at the site by remains of the bottoms of houses built with driven posts, with fireplaces and domestic ovens and by some remains of adobe constructions, all of them belonging to the centuries II and I a. c.

In excavations from the late 20th century and early XXI the remains of the pre-Roman settlement were found, perhaps the same one that according to the sources inhabited the subdued Astures in the year 25 B.C. C. by the legions of Augusto under the command of the general Publio Carisio.

It is a still small set of trodden earth soils, buckets dug into the clayey substratum and filled with ash, fire areas, hearths, post holes, etc., which respond to the residues of a habitat area, where bone and ceramic vestiges are located at the time that belong to a cultural phase of the Second Iron Age, which could be dated from the s. II to I a. C., with a marked Centromeseteño accent and, therefore, related to the Celtiberian cultures. The location of this area has led to its assessment, opening new hypotheses about a larger extension than originally admitted for the pre-Roman settlement, about the degree of integration of the exchanges with the surrounding environment, with interesting consequences in the geographical framework in which it is located. inserted, and about the links with nearby areas of clear cultural identity.

The most important structures were exhumed under room VIII, according to the numbering that Jordá assigned to the hot springs he discovered, later identified as apodyterium. Here two levels were discovered below the ground from Roman times. The first was made up of a cobbled surface with small river pebbles that was arranged without much order over part of the intervened area. It highlighted the existence of stone alignments of the place that, for the moment, have not been functionally identified, at the same time that the presence of discarded elements was verified: fauna, remains of a circular mill, etc. This space seems to correspond to a place of transit, undoubtedly the one that marks the end of the life of the pre-Roman settlement and the first record of Roman presence, since some fragment of terra sigillata italica.

The phase that preceded this level, undoubtedly the most revealing in terms of cultural classification, has been determined by the presence of alignments of post holes that frame tamped clay soils, sometimes stratified, that respond to structures that would close domestic spaces. Unfortunately, they cannot be known to their full extent because the foundations of the Roman baths were excavated below this level, partially dismantling them.

Outside the described enclosure there are pockets of small rocks, ovoid-shaped clayey plates that have sealed new (larger) holes and gravel packages, all located in an environment that is difficult to understand functionally.

The rest of the evidence of the pre-Roman phase has been highlighted in the partial cuts of the floors of the building of the Roman baths. For example, in room IV an ashen bag yielded Celtiberian ceramics and a deer antler handle; and in room I soil residues are preserved. To the south, in the area that was later occupied by the palaestra, dark pockets were found and, also and especially, in the cut made in the distribution corridor of the hot springs. In this place, under a circulation area that must date from the construction phase of the baths, a floor was observed that contained a small silo and a tray filled with charcoal with a clayey closure with a surface reddened by the heat.

The one known as "Fíbula de Lancia", a Celtibera bronze fibula found in Lancia (sixteenth century BC, M.A.N., Madrid).

To the north of the baths, outside the building, where Jordá had identified a Roman street made up of boulders, a survey was carried out in 1999 that revealed a very careful enchinarrado, with a small river edge, with a slight slope towards the center, with regular edges, where some fragment of a reciprocating mill had been amortized.

Many of the characteristics described show an ostensible relationship with the center of the Meseta, where, when occupation levels of the Celtiberian phase are exhumed in the large Vaccean towns, “bouldered pebble pavements, limestone pavers” appear everywhere., elongated adobes, clay floors, circular mills, plastering, excavated holes, post holes, etc.”.

Among the various materials located, it is worth mentioning here a symmetrical fibula, a fibula spring and a button with a central perforation, all of them in bronze, and some handles worked in deer antler.

The scant data currently offered by archaeological finds have led to a chronology for the pre-Roman levels found under the Roman baths around the end of the century II and, mainly, throughout the I century a. c.

The Asturian-Roman city

Thanks to research and literary sources, the characteristics of the later Asturian-Roman city are somewhat better known. After Augusto's wars against the Cantabrians and Astures, life in the settlement continued. It survives without apparent problem through the Id century. C. and even shows a certain economic vigor towards the end of that century and during the next, a fact that seems to confirm both the possible access to the status of municipium in the Flavian period (end of the century I AD), as the urban impulse implied by the construction of the macellum a early to mid-century II d. C. and the thermae, perhaps somewhat earlier in their initial phase but modified at the same time that the commercial building was built.

The municipal condition of the city can be hypothesized thanks to an inscription from Tarragona:

Iunio Bl[andi(?)]
Quirin[a]
Maroni Aem[il(io)]
Paterno Lancien[s(i)]
omnib(us) in re publica
sua honorib(us) functo
IIuir(o) bis sacerd(oti) Rom(ae) et
Aug(usti) conuent(us) Asturum
adlecto in quinq(ue) decuri[as]
[le]gitum(e) Romae iudicantium
flamini Augustali p(rouinciae) H(ispaniae) c(iterioris)
p(rouincia) H(ispania) c(iterior).

In it the cursus honorum of Lucius Iunius Maro Aemilius Paternus is developed in direct order as a typical career with logical progression that starts from the performance of positions such as duumuir twice in Lancia and which, passing through the capital of the Conuentus, Asturica Augusta, with religious duties, ends in Tarraco with other civil and religious duties. The mention of the Conuentus Asturum excludes the fact that we are dealing with an origo other than that of the Asturian enclave, such as that of the Lancienses from Transcudan, whose presence is relatively abundant in peninsular epigraphy. Similarly, the possible relationship with the family of Lucius Aemilius Paternus that is revealed in the cognomina of Maro further supports the thesis of provenance Astur, since this character served in the legio VII Gemina, whose main base was located, as is well known, in present-day León, about 14 km from the city of Lancia. On the other hand, belonging to the Quirina tribe demonstrates a Flavian or post-Flavian chronology that Alföldy specifies between the years 110 and 140 of the Era. It is thus chronologically possible a granting of the Flavian municipal statute for Lancia in the last quarter of the century I d. C., the performance of a municipal magistracy by Maro in his hometown and the culmination, already well into the century II, of his political career in Asturica Augusta and Tarraco.

However, despite epigraphic evidence that does not seem to raise suspicions in other cases, it must be noted that some authors do not admit the Flavia municipalization of Lancia. The reasons that lead to this stance are varied. Those closest to the epigraphic evidence maintain that the presence of charges in the cursus honorum of Maro such as those of duumuir do not presuppose a municipal legal statute in the city since these and other similar ones, such as those of flamen, aedil, decurio, etc., appear in other communities as uici or pagi in Italy and in Africa. On the other hand, but with no less importance, behind these positions, the old reservations regarding the final characteristics and the true extension of the citizenship granted by Vespasian still remain latent, especially in relation to the northern territories of the Iberian Peninsula. It is also necessary to highlight that these reservations are sometimes forced by the excessive importance that has been given to this phenomenon in terms of its meaning from a social and even urban point of view, when in reality it must have been a complex process, with a multitude of nuances and highly variable incidence depending on the case.

Naturally, from the epigraphic point of view, it is possible to discuss as much as we want since the existence of a single inscription, if it is not accepted as definitive, puts us in a blind alley. Perhaps this state of affairs can change somewhat if we analyze the new archaeological data. It should be noted at the outset that these are not elements that irrefutably solve the problem but that, in our opinion, come to give the reason or, at least, a greater weight of proof to an epigraph that tells us that this character was duumviro in Lancia. From an archaeological point of view, everything seems to indicate that the two buildings we know of, a macellum and some small baths, belong chronologically to the last years of the century I d. C. or at the beginning of the II, the latter, and at the beginning or middle of the II century, the first. On the other hand, we now know thanks to aerial photography that the city forum is probably very close to these factories, so it is possible that these works are closely linked to the forensic area in terms of their development from a certain moment. It is not necessary, but it is not uncommon either, for architectural programs of a certain magnitude that affect the city center or adjacent elements to coincide with the changes in the legal status of cities in Roman times. In some cases, the new administrative needs explain the appearance of certain buildings that have to do directly with the imperial power, like the temples of worship to the emperor, for example, or with the way of administering it, like the curias, the archives, the basilicas, etc.; in other places it is simply the evergetism that accompanies these processes that explains the complementary development in the form of more or less secondary buildings of the type of Lancienses: baths, markets, porticos, etc. The case at hand seems to be in hypothetical agreement with a supposed concession of the municipal statute in Flavian times, and these two buildings are the product of the urban remodeling that was carried out in the center of the city; They can be, due to their rather small dimensions, very suitable as a product of some evergetic action in eventual connection with the well-known processes of access to Roman citizenship through the performance of municipal magistracies that should explain, at least in part, the building flourishing in Hispania at the end of the 1st century.

The presence of the macellum is even more illustrative for two reasons: the first is the connection that many of these buildings seem to present with the legal development of cities and with the need, from from a certain moment, to supervise and control (weights, measures and prices, for example) an important part of the merchandise that is sold in the city through a closed place and subject to the municipal hierarchy; the second affects the motivations for their presence or not in urban enclaves, since it is not a market for products of all kinds, but rather an exclusively food shopping center and more specifically those more sophisticated, exclusive and therefore more expensive food available to the wealthiest social classes in the city. Only the presence of these elites, who often also promote their existence through an evergetic act, justifies the construction of the macellum, precisely the same condition that explains the granting of municipal statutes in the Flavian period. Going back to the beginning of the argument, it is not that we think that these are reasons without the possibility of controversy or that the process substantially altered the development of the city but, at least, the much-discussed epigraphic data of the Lancian duumvir seems to come to support other arguments that make the supposed municipalization an increasingly plausible hypothesis.

The best represented buildings of this phase are the aforementioned hot springs located in the center of the city and others, less central, in the area called Valdealbura; Of these, only two rooms are incompletely known, one heated and the other not. The first, those located in the urban center, are medium-sized and eminently functional examples in which the typical spaces dedicated to changing rooms, hot and cold bath rooms and other no less important rooms such as spaces for practicing physical exercises are attached. and the latrines. This building, in its last phase of use, was divided into two different spaces, probably to facilitate its use by women and men at the same time. Unfortunately, the continuous reuse of construction materials means that they have come to us in a mediocre state of conservation.

The macellum building has three sections: an entrance area that opens onto one of the cardos (probably the highest cardo) of the city, a section where the shops are located, which There are six in total, and a backyard, probably used as a corral to house cattle that would later be slaughtered and sold in the market.

Partial aerial view of the archaeological site of Lancia.

Controversies over its location

Although most authors agree that the current Villasabariego site is the seat of the Asturian and Roman Lancia, over the years dissenting opinions have emerged. Thus, in the 1970s, Francisco Jordá Cerdá, then director of the excavation campaign, was skeptical as to the location of said enclave. More recently there are theories according to which the old Lancia could be located in the castro de las Labradas, in Arrabalde (Zamora). According to Nicolás Santos, the identification of the site of El Castro (Villasabariego) with Lancia cannot be based on the archaeological testimonies yielded up to now by the excavations carried out, since they do not fit with the accounts of Greco-Latin historians. Among the most significant discrepancies are the absence of vestiges of a walled enclosure, the absence of indications of Roman military enclosures in the vicinity contemporaneous with the wars, and the weakness of the epigraphic and numismatic arguments.

These opinions were contested in 2010 by the team of archaeologists in charge of excavating at the site. of 33 hectares compared to the 23 of Arrabalde and that Lancia is located at the exact point of the Asturica-Burdigala road between Camala and Legio that is indicated in the Antonino Itinerary, next to the Astura river, where the battle between Astures and Romans prior to the taking of the city by them. In relation to this, and because the Itinerary does not refer to Lancia but alludes to Lance, problems of interpretation have arisen regarding the identification of the place names of the Itinerary.