KARTEIA
or Herakleia, Cádiz, Spain.
Town
on the Cortijo de El Rocadillo near the Guadarrangue
area, in the S Roque district on the bay of Algeciras, the
S coast of Hispania Ulterior. Although it is Phoenician
or Punic in origin, as its name indicates, there are few
remains of these cultures. In antiquity it was called Karteia and Herakleia, since its foundation was attributed
to Herakles according to Timosthenes of Rhodes. Strabo
(
3.1.7-8) stated that in Timosthenes' time, ca. 280 B.C.,
its circuit wall and arsenals were visible.
Part of this wall has been uncovered, as well as Campanian ware A, B, C, and Hispano-Carthaginian silver
coins. However, most of the remains are Roman, the
oldest from the Republican period. The Roman foundation dates from 171 B.C. when it was called Colonia Libertinorum (Livy. 28.30.3). There are frequent references to the city, some stating that it was the site of the
legendary Tartessos (
Strab. 3.151;
Paus. 6.19.3; Mela
2.96;
Plin. 3.7; and Sil.
Pun. 3.396). The port was of
great importance in both the Iberian and the Imperial
age according to Strabo and the author of
De Bello Hisp.
(26.1-37.1-2), who calls it navale presidium. In 46 B.C.
the squadron of Accius Varo took refuge in Karteia when
pursued by Caesar's ships under Caius Didius, and Cn.
Pompeius embarked in the same port after the defeat at
Munda (
De Bello Hisp. 26.1-17, 1-2), when the partisans
of Caesar in Karteia compelled him to leave the city. On
the death of Cn. Pompeius, Sextus Pompeius returned to
Baetica, and Karteia, which had declared itself for Pompey, again surrendered to him (Cic.
Ep. 15.30.3).
Remains include the Roman wall, the theater, the
baths, part of a monumental building with Corinthian
columns and bull protomes (apparently a temple); the
supposed Capitolium; remains of the salting basins for
the manufacture of garum; and finds of sculptures, inscriptions, coins, and pottery.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Romero de Torres,
Catálogo Monumental de España. Provincia de Cádiz (1934) 174, 223-27, 270, 533, 537; A. García y Bellido, “Las colonias
romanas de Hispania,”
Anuario de Historia del Derecho
Español 29 (1959) 450ff; D. Woods et al.,
Carteia (1967).
C. FERNANDEZ-CHICARRO
