HELMANTICA
(Salamanca) Salamanca, Spain.
Originally a fort inhabited by the Vetones tribe, Helmantica later belonged to the Roman province of Lusitania and is frequently mentioned in the sources. It was
conquered by Hannibal (Polyb. 3.13.5-14, 9;
Livy 21.5;
Polyaenus 7.48,
Σαλματίδες Ptol. 2.5.7;
Ant. It. 434.4;
Ravenna Cosmographer 319.7).
It has a bridge of the Augustan period and mediaeval
walls built over Roman walls dating from the end of the
Republic. Incorporated in the mediaeval wall were various Roman funerary inscriptions of the Severan period
which are unpublished and kept in a private collection.
There are two boundary markers between Helmantica
and Mirobriga, one in a private collection in Ciudad
Rodrigo and the second in the Ledesma Church in Salamanca. No terra sigillata has been found, only pre-Roman
pottery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. Bejarano, “Fuentes antiguas para la
historia de Salamanca,”
Zephyrus 6 (1955) 89-119.
J. M. BLAZQUEZ
