GADIR
(Cádiz) Cáidiz, Spain.
Originally a
small island, long since much enlarged by silting and
joined to the mainland by a bridge (the Isla de Léon),
and a larger long island now the peninsula. Gadir was
founded, according to tradition, by Phoenicians from Tyre
in 1100 B.C. (
Strab. 3.5.5; Vell. Pat.,
Historia Romana
1.2.3). To the Phoenicians Gadir meant a fortress or
walled area, but Pliny (
4.120) and Silinus (23.12) wrote
that the Carthaginians called it Gadir, meaning redoubt,
as did Avienus (268) and St. Isidorus (
Etym. 45.6.7).
Martial (1.61.9, 5.78.26) employs the plural in referring to Gades, perhaps in imitation of the Greek (
Hdt.
4.8). Pliny (
4.119) states that, according to Polybios, it
was 12,000 paces long and 3000 wide; the part closest
to the mainland was less than 213 m from it, but the
remainder was more than 2135 m away. Strabo (
3.5.3）
says that the city was on the W part of the island, and that
the Temple of Moloch was on the end that projected
toward the smaller island. The temple of Hercules was
on the other side, Sancti Petri, where the island was
separated from the mainland by a channel only one
stadium wide; the sanctuary was ca. 19 km from the city.
The most ancient Greek material is a proto-Attic
oinochoe, in the Copenhagen Museum, which is thought
to have been found in the city and dates from the 7th c.
B.C. Parts of Carthaginian necropoleis, ca. 150 hypogea
from the 5th-3d c. B.C., have been discovered; many gold
jewels were found in the tombs, and Etruscan bucchero
of the 6th c. B.C. On the other hand, there are few terracottas, coarse ceramics, ostrich eggs, lamps, and necklaces, as in Ibiza, and no Greek vases or Campanian
ceramics. A gold masked figurine is now in the National
Archaeological Museum in Madrid, and an anthropoid
sarcophagus of the 4th c. B.C. in the Cádiz Museum. The
graves are impersonal and independent, made of huge
stone blocks.
Nothing is known of the plan of the city, whose inhabitants were primarily interested in trade and fishing. In
the beginning of the 1st c. B.C. they controlled tin mining
and the tin trade (
Strab. 3.5.11). Strabo (
3.5.3) also
writes that Cádiz had the most sailors and the best ships,
both in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. However,
up to 500 horsemen were counted in a census. When the
city became crowded Galbus the Younger built a second
one, and from both cities Didyme arose (
Strab. 3.5.3).
Towards the end of the Republic, it had a theater, perhaps of wood, of which no trace remains (Cic.
Ad fam.
10.32.1). An underground tomb from this period yielded
many ceramic vases, a polychrome plate, and two engraved gold rings, all now in the Cádiz Museum.
The city also minted coins at an early date and bronzes
without inscriptions, of Greek type. It initiated its series of
coins with the Phoenician Hercules on the obverse and
the tuna, symbol of its fishing wealth, on the reverse. The
silver coins came somewhat later, a result of the Barcine
domination, mining operations, and military necessity.
The obverse, bearing a head of Hercules with a club on
his shoulders, is taken from Greek coins. Drachmas and
half-drachmas were minted. With the Roman conquest
appear asses of Roman metrology bearing a Phoenician
inscription. Infrequently, the reverse bears the caduceus
and the trident. The smaller units continue the same
series, with tuna fish and dolphins. Other mintings do not
follow the Roman pattern, but are of barbaric design
with neo-Carthaginian inscriptions. Under Augustus,
great commemorative medals appear, reminted coins
characteristic of the coinage of Cádiz, which continued
until the time of Claudius, and always had a Phoenician,
never a Roman, inscription. On the obverse they bore
the Hercules of Gadir and priestly attributes in honor of
Balbus, the builder of the new city, as Pontifex. Others
have Augustus on the obverse and Caius and Lucius on
the reverse, or Agrippa represented as praefectus classis.
These medals were rapidly demonetized. The city also
had an arsenal.
In 49 B.C. Caesar bestowed Roman citizenship on the
city (Livy
Per. 110). Many inscriptions of the 1st c.
have been found. Discoveries, including a heroic statue
of an emperor from the first half of the 2d c., are in the
Archaeological Museum of Cádiz. The city also had a
statue of Alexander (Dion. Cass. 37.52). The most important personages during the change in era in Cádiz
were the Balbi. The oldest was Caesar's banker; the nephew triumphed over the Garamantes and was the first consul from the provinces possessed by Rome and the first
provincial who earned the honors of a triumph. During
the 1st c. the puellae gaditanae, variety hall artists, were
famous and were mentioned by Strabo (
2.3.5) and others
(Mart. 3.63; 5.78; 14.203; Juv.
Sat. 11.162; Pliny,
Ep.
1.15).
The Temple of Hercules, one of the most famous
sanctuaries of the ancient world, was visited by Hannibal
(Sil. 3.1), Fabius Maximus (App.
Hisp. 65), Caesar
(Dio. Cass. 37.52), whose future power was foretold by
the priests, and Apollonius of Tiana (Philostr.
VA 5.5).
Its ritual was always typically Semitic. There was no
image of the god, and only the priests were permitted to
enter the sanctuary. On the doors, which can be no earlier than 500 B.C. (Sil. 3.32-44), were represented the
labors of Hercules. The temple contained fabulous riches,
stolen by Mago in 206 B.C. (
Livy 28.36.2). In 49 B.C.
Varro ordered that the treasure and decorations of the
temple be transported to Cádiz (Caes.
BCiv. 2.18,2).
There was still, in 60 B.C., a Temple to Moloch where
human sacrifices were made, a custom which Caesar
abolished (Cic.
Balb. 43), and altars to poverty and the
arts, services to Menestheus, veneration for Themistocles
and other heroes and demigods. There were services and
an altar to old age, and a special worship of death, and
it was said that while the ocean tides were high the souls
of the sick did not expire (Philostr.,
VA 5.2-4). Towards
the end of the 4th c. B.C., when Avienus visited it, the
city was in ruins, except for the Temple of Hercules.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Rubio, “Los Balbos y el Imperio
Romano,”
Anales de Historia Antigua y Medieval (1949)
69-83; A. García y Bellido, “Iocosae Gades,”
Boletín de
la Real Academia dela Historia 129 (1951) 73-121
PI;
id.,
Historia de España, España Protohistórica (1952)
289-417
MPI; id.,
La Península Ibiérica en las comienzos
de su historia (1953) 467-89; id., “Hercules Gaditanus,”
ArchEspArq 36 (1963) 70-153
PI; id., “Sobre los athloi hercúleos de la puerta del Herakleion de Cádiz,”
Estudios Clásicos 7 (1963) 307-10; J. M. Blázquez, “El
Herakleion gaditano, un templo semita en Occidente,”
I Congreso Arqueológico del Marruecos Español (1954)
309-18
I; A. M. Guadan, “Gades como heredera de Tartessos en sus amonedaciones conmemorativas del Praefectus Clasius,”
ArchEspArq 34 (1961) 53-89; M. Jiménez, “Miscelánea epigráfica. Inscripciones funerarias
gaditanas inéditas,”
Emerita 30 (1962) 294-304
I.
J. M. BLAZQUEZ
