IULIA TRADUCTA
(Tarifa) Cádiz, Spain.
Town 22 km SW of Algeciras, which Strabo (
3.140）
calls Ioulia Ioza, and others Iulia Ioza. Ioza is the Latin
equivalent of Transducta or Traducta (Ptol. 2.4.6; Marcianus 2.9; Ravenna Cosmographer 305.12). P. Mela
(2.96), however, places Tingentera in this place.
The town was founded in the Augustan period as
Colonia Iulia Traducta, since some of the inhabitants of
Zelis (Algiers) and Tingis (Tangiers), in North Africa,
had been transferred to it. However, since Pliny (
5.2）
states that Tingis was named Traducta Iulia by the emperor Claudius when he converted it into a colony, some
scholars have concluded that the population that came
from the African coast returned home in the time of
Claudius. The town of Iulia Traducta minted coins only
in the Imperial age; the obverse carried the head of
Augustus or produce such as tuna, grapes, or wheat, and
the reverse the name of the mint, IVL TRAD.
Fragments of ancient pottery and coins have been
found in Tarifa, but until recently its surroundings have
been explored more than the town itself. Copper Age
graves have been found in the Algarbes area, near Tarifa; grave goods, now in the Seville Archaeological Museum, include handmade pottery in the form of a tulip;
also arrow points and flint knives, polished axes, some
bronze pieces, bone objects used for ornament or as
pendants, and a fragment of a gold sword hilt with
checkerboard decoration. Remains from the same period
have been found throughout the course of the Ebro.
Tarifa probably forms part of an ancient tell. Fragments of Campanian pottery indicate that excavation
would be worthwhile.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Romero de Torres,
Catálogo Monumental de España. Provincia de Cádiz (1934) 171, 230,
270-71, 310, 356, 361-62, 460, 549; A. García y Bellido,
“Las colonias romanas de Hispania,”
Anuario de Historia
del Derecho Español 29 (1959) 493ff.
C. FERNANDEZ-CHICARRO
