NORBA CAESARINA
(Cáceres) Cáceres, Spain.
Town established as a colony ca. 35 B.C. by the
proconsul C. Norbanus Flaccus, which received the cognomen Caesarina in memory of Julius Caesar. It is mentioned by Pliny (
4.117), Ptolemy (2.5.6), and in an inscription (
CIL II, 694).
Some stretches of the Roman wall and parts of its
towers were incorporated into the later Moorish wall,
and the E gate of the cardo maximus survives almost
intact. The Roman wall consisted of large granite ashlar
blocks, not all regular, but well dressed, especially the
voussoirs of the E gate. The lower half of the circular
tower at the NE corner of the wall is Roman. Just E of
the gate is a small bridge over the Marco gully; the original plan is Roman, as are a number of its ashlar blocks. Cáceres also contains small cemetery areas of different
periods. Sculpture and inscriptions are housed in the
Archaeological Museum, and Roman materials incorporated into later buildings are still visible in the town.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. R. Mélida,
Catálogo Monumental de
España. Provincia de Cáceres (1924); A. García y Bellido, “Dictamen sobre la fecha fundacional de la Colonia Norbensis,”
Boletín de la Real Academia de la
Historia 49 (1966) 279-92; C. Callejo, “La Arqueología de Norba Caesarina,”
ArchEspArq 41 (1968) 121-49
MPI
L. G. IGLESIAS
