TARRACONENSIS PROVINCIA
TARRACONENSIS PROVINCIA (called by the Greeks
Ταρρακωνησία,
Ptol. 2.6,
8.4.5, &c.; and
Ἰβηρία ἡ περὶ Ταρράκωνα,
D. C. 53.3), at first constituted, as already remarked [Vol. I. p. 1081], the province of Hispania Citerior.
It obtained its new appellation in the time of Augustus from its chief city Tarraco, where the Romans had established themselves, and erected the tribunal of a praetor. The Tarraconensis was larger than the other two provinces put together. Its boundaries were, on the E. the Mare Internum; on the N. the Pyrenees, which separated it from Gallia, and further westward the Mare Cantabricum; on the W., as far southward as the Durius, the Atlantic ocean, and below that point the province of Lusitania; and on the S. the province of Lusitania and the province of Baetica, the boundaries of which have been already laid down. (Mela, 2.6; comp.
Strab. iii. p.166;
Plin. Nat. 4.21. s. 35; Marcian, p. 34.) Thus it embraced the modern provinces of
Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, Arragon, Navarre, Biscay, Asturias, Gallicia, the N. part of
Portugal as far down as the
Douro, the N. part of
Leon, nearly all the
Castiles, and part of
Andalusia. The nature of its climate and productions may be gathered from what has been already said [
HISPANIA Vol. I. p. 1086.] A summary of the different tribes, according to the various authorities that have treated upon the subject, has also been given in the same article [p. 1083], as well as the particulars respecting its government and administration [p. 1081.]
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T.H.D]
