BILBILIS
(Calatayud) Zaragoza, Spain.
Iberian settlement and Roman municipium in the Conventus Caesaraugustanus Tarraconensis, at the junction of the Jalón and Jiloca rivers and SW of the town of
Zaragoza on the road to Madrid. Traces of it are visible
on the hill above Bambola, 6 km from the present town
of Calatayud. Excavations have yielded remains perhaps
of a theater, of a temple, and of hydraulic construction.
The town climbed a hillside and was of long but irregular outline. Paintings and other objects are in the local
museum.
Bilbilis was the scene of the struggle between Sertorius
and Metellus. The town issued native coinage and, from
the time of Augustus, Imperial bronze coinage. It was
famous for the temper of its weapons, as well as for
being the place where Martial was born and died. Ausonius (
Ep. 29.57), in the 4th c., includes it among the abandoned and desolate Spanish towns.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Strabo 3.4.13; Pliny,
HN 24.144.
M. Dolç, “Semblanza arqueológica de Bilbilis,”
ArchEspArq 27 (1954) 179-211
I.
J. ARCE
