BAELO
(Bolonia) Cáidiz, Spain.
Town near
Tarifa which in Roman times belongzd to the juridical
district of Gades. Pliny (
3.7;
5.2) refers to it as the
oppidum of S Baetica nearest Tingi (Tangier). Its name
appears variously in the sources (Mela 2.96;
Strab. 3.140.
153; Ptol. 2.4.5; Plin.
loc.cit.; Solinus 24.1;
Ant. It. 407.3;
Livy 33.21.8) and as Bailo on its own bilingual coinage.
For this the Libyo-Phoenician alphabet was employed,
with types of a standing bull on the obverse and an ear
of grain on the reverse, and occasionally the head of
Hercules. During the main period of romanization it also
coined other types on asses, semisses, and quadrantes
with the names of magistrates. Under Claudius it was
declared a municipium, as shown by the designation
Belone Claudia in the Ravenna Cosmographer 305.12
and 344.9, and confirmed by a coin and a recently discovered inscription.
As a community of the Turdetani devoted to the fishing industry, it was noted for its production of garum
and other fish sauces. Some salting vats may still be seen.
Excavations have revealed the fortified enceinte with its
gates, the forum, theater, a nymphaeum, remains of the
aqueduct, houses, and Roman, Christian, Visigothic, and
Mohammendan cemeteries. Many Latin inscriptions have
also been found, sculptures of divinities and humans, a
sun-dial, fragments of Arretine ware, terra sigillata (S
Gallic and Hispanic) and plain ware. In view of the
Libyo-Phoenician characters on its coins, the town was
probably founded before the Roman period, but this has
not been established. The oldest ceramic finds, however,
are of Campanian B and C, with a single example of
decorated Iberian.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. Paris,
Fouilles de Belo (1923); E.
Romero de Torres, Catálogo Monumental de España.
Provincia de Cádiz (1934) 230-42; C. Domergue et al.,
“Reouverture d'un chantier à fouilles it Bolonia-Baelo
(Cádiz),”
Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez III (1967) 507ff.
C. FERNANDEZ-CHICARRO
