TARRACO
or Kallipolis, Cissa, or Cissis (Tarragona）
Spain.
One of the most important cities of
Roman Spain, identified with Kallipolis mentioned in
Avienus (Or. Mar. 514-15). It may have had an old
Etruscan population. In the pre-Roman period it was
the principal urban center of the Ibenian tribe of the
Cessetani. On coins and in some sources (Polybios and
Livy), it appears under the name Cissa or Cissis. References to it become more frequent during the Punic
Wars. Ancient Cissa was destroyed by C. Scipio in
218 B.C. After that Rome continually beautified Tarraco
(
Livy 21.60ff; 22.14ff; 26.17ff; 27.7.17; 28.4.13, 16, 17,
21, 42; Polyb. 3.76; 10.6; 11.25; App. 16 c.15; Frontin.
Str. 2.3.1) and Pliny refers to it as Scipionum opus,
which seems to correspond with the latest and definitive
date assigned to the city walls (3d c. A.D.).
After the arrival of Scipio, Tarraco was the base for
the Roman wars against the Carthaginians and Iberians.
Tiberius Graccus landed in its port in 179 B.C.; Scipio
Emilianus, the destroyer of Numantia, disembarked there
in 134 B.C. In the wars between Caesar and Pompey,
Tarraco was loyal to Pompey, but later, either voluntarily or of necessity, joined Caesar's party. Caesar was
the first great protector of the city. In 45 B.C. Tarraco
received a colony of Caesar's (not composed of veterans)
and was given the title Colonia Ivlia Vrbs Triumphalis
Tarraco; the abbreviations CVT or CVTT appear on the
coins of the city between A.D. 16 and 22. However, Tarraco received its highest honor and attained its greatest
importance when Augustus withdrew to it to recuperate
from the illness contracted during the Cantabrian and
Asturian wars (26-25 B.C.: Dio Cass. 53.25.2). Thanks
to him Tarraco became the capital of Hispania Citenior
(Suet.
Aug. 26), and gave its name to Tarraconensis.
During the rising of Galba against Nero, the inhabitants sided with the former (Suet.
Galba 12). Hadrian
spent the winter of the year 121 in Tarraco, calling together an assembly of representatives of all the cities of
the province. Septimius Severus governed Tarraconenis
from this city and later, while emperor, ordered that the
temple of Augustus be restored at his expense.
Imperial Tarraco flourished until 257 when, according
to Aurelius Victor (
Caes. 33) and Eutropius (
Breviarium
9.8), it was destroyed by the Franks. It seems to have
revived, however, since the poet Ausonius in 370 refers
to it as one of the principal cities of Spain along with
Emerita and Corduba, although this may be from a literary point of view. In 476 it was destroyed by King Euric. This was the end of Roman Tarraco, but the city
continued, and attained great importance during the
Visigothic period.
Tarraco was the seat of the legatus Augusti pro praetore and the nucleus of the administration of Hispania Tarraconensis, as well as one of the seven conuentus into which that province was divided. Once a year it was
the meeting place of the 300 municipalities of Tarraconensis and, according to inscriptions discovered there, it had a full detachment of the Legio VII Gemina, established by Galba in Clunia. The founding of Tarraco by
Rome was probably because of the need to establish a
key post for the later conquest of the middle basin of
the Ebro. Strabo considered it the most important city
of Spain (3.4.7); and Mela, in the time of Claudius, does
not hesitate to state: “urbs erat, in his oris maritimaris
opulentissima” (2.6.5).
In the Augustan age Tarraco covered ca. 36 ha and
had a population of about 30,000. There were many
later alterations to the city and much reuse of material
but there are still considerable ancient remains, the best
preserved of which are the walls. Probably they were
originally 4 km long, 1 km of which survives. Their date
has been the subject of controversy, but today it seems
clear that they contain features of two periods of construction: the 6th c. B.C. (the Iberian Period), and the 3d c. B.C., which, moreover, agrees with Pliny's description. On a base of Cyclopean construction of huge,
rough-hewn blocks, some of which are 3 by 4 m, are
preserved some more typically Roman stretches of wall
built with parallelepiped, projecting stones.
The plan of Tarraco, as reconstructed today, is composed of three nuclei: the upper city, with the forum and
the Temple of Jupiter (now the cathedral); the middle
city, with several Imperial buildings; and the lower city
near the port, probably the oldest. We know from the
inscriptions (
CIL II, 4071-4451) that, in gratitude for
the honors that the city received from Augustus, it dedicated an altar to him. The altar was replaced in the year
15 of the Augustan age by a temple dedicated to Diuus
Augustus; this temple appears on coins with eight Corinthian columns on the facade, a few remains of which
are preserved in the Archaeological Museum of the city.
The columns were 1.55 m in diameter and 12 m high.
The temple was built on the highest point of the city, and
the emperor was depicted as Zeus. Suetonius (
Galba 12)
writes of the existence of a temple dedicated to Jupiter,
and Florus tells us that Europa was venerated in the
same temple. There is also information on the worship of
Jupiter-Amon and Isis. Also worth mentioning are the
remains of the Palatine, a palace belonging to Augustus
and later to the governor, which contain some mediaeval
additions. The city had a theater and an amphitheater
(
CIL II, 4280), the latter estimated as 93 by 68 m, baths
(
CIL II, 4112), a forum (
CIL II, 4275), a basilica, and
a circus. In the Archaeological Museum of Tannagona
are sculptures such as a Venus of the knidos type, a
Bacchus of the school of Praxiteles, a head of Alexander,
fragments of the temples of Minerva and of Tutela, a
mosaic with a Medusa motif and one with fish.
On the left bank of the Francoli river, near the city,
was found a Romano-Christian necropolis of ca. 2000
sq. m, buried about 1.8 m deep. It dates from the 3d-6th
c. and contains about 2000 tombs. Sarcophagi and mosaic
tombstones may be seen in the museum in the necropolis. A basilica has been discovered over the sepulchers
of the martyrs Fructuosus, Augurius, and Eulogius, who
died under Valenian and Gallienus, and the necropolis
is now called San Fructuoso.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Serra Villaro, “Excavaciones en la
necrópolis romano-cristiana de Tarragona, Junta Superior de Excavaciones y Antiguedades,”
Memorias 93,
1927 (1928); 104, 1928 (1929); 111, 1929 (1930); 133,
1934 (1935); id., “Excavaciones en Tarragona, Junta
Superior de Excavaciones,” ibid. 116, 1930 (1932); A.
Schulten,
RE IV A (1932) 2398ff; id.,
Tarraco (1948);
P. Pericay,
Tarragona: Historia y Mito (1952); J. M.
Recasens,
La citat de Tarragona I (1966); J. Avella
Vives,
Tarragona romana (1967); Th. Hauschild, “Römische Konstructionen auf der oberen Stadtterrasse des antiken Tarraco,”
ArchEspArq 45-47 (1972-74) 3ff.
J. ARCE
