Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/222

 210 SPAIN ishing colonies on its coasts, such as Tartes- Bus (probably the Tarshish of Scripture) and Gades (Cadiz). They were followed by the Greeks, among whose colonies were Empori (now Ampurias, on the coast of Catalonia) and Saguntura (Murviedro, in Valencia). Still the interior remained very imperfectly known, and it was not till the second Punic war that the Romans acquired an accurate knowledge of the country. The Greeks at first applied the name Iberia (corresponding to that of the river Iberus, now Ebro) to the eastern coast, calling the western part of the peninsula Tartessis and the centre Celtica ; but later they extended the term Iberia to the whole. The Romans ex- changed this name for that of Hispania (whence the modern Spain), supposed by many critics to be derived from the Semitic shapJian, rabbit, an animal which the Phoenicians found in vast numbers in the country, aud by others to be from the Basque ezpafta, border. From re- mote antiquity the elevated regions of the inte- rior were peopled by the Celtiberians, a race formed from the mixture of Celts and Iberi- ans. (See CELTIBERIANS.) A number of Ibe- rian and Celtic tribes, however, retained their distinct nationality. Among the former were the Astures, Cantabri, and Vaccaei, inhabiting the mountainous districts of the north. The unmixed Celts dwelt chiefly near the Guadi- ana, and in Gallaecia (Galicia). The Turde- tani, who lived in the valley of the Guadal- quivir, were accounted the most civilized of the Spanish tribes, and even had a literature of their own. The inhabitants were brave and warlike. Even in antiquity the sheep of Spain were highly prized, and the country produced corn, oil, and wine; but its princi- pal riches lay in its mines of gold, silver, and other metals. After the first Punic war the Carthaginians began to establish themselves in Spain, and, under the leadership of Hamil- car and Hasdrubal, subdued several tribes on the S. and E. coasts. Among the cities found- ed by them was New Carthage (now Carta- gena), which soon became a celebrated em- porium. Pressed by the Carthaginians, the Greek colonies of Saguntum and Emporias applied for aid to the Romans, who obtained from Carthage an agreement not to extend her dominion beyond the Iberus, and to re- spect the independence of Saguntum. The siege and destruction of Saguntum by Han- nibal in 219 B. C. led to the second Punic war, in the course of which Scipio expelled the Carthaginians from Spain (206). The Ro- mans now undertook the subjugation of the entire peninsula, but did not fully succeed until after a war of about 200 years, in which the exploits of the Lusitanian Viriathus, the heroic resistance and final downfall of Nu- mantia (133), and the temporary independence of a part of the country under the gallant Sertorius (84 to 72) form brilliant episodes. B. C. the subjection of all Spain, with the exception of the Basques, was completed. Augustus divided the peninsula into three provinces : Hispania Tarraconensis, so named from the capital Tarraco (Tarragona), in the north, east, and centre ; Hispania Beetica (from the Bastis, now Guadalquivir), in the south, and extending to the Anas (Guadiana), the capital of which was Corduba (Cordova) or Hispalis (Seville) ; and Lusitania, between Cape St. Vincent and the Durius (Douro), and nearly corresponding to the modern Portugal, the capital of which was Augusta Emerita (M6rida). The country became so thoroughly Romanized that it was one of the principal seats of Roman civilization and literature. Christianity was early introduced, and in the time ef Constantino the Christianization of the entire country was completed. The de- cay of the Roman empire called several Ger- man tribes to Spain, who encountered but fee- ble resistance. The Suevi founded an empire in the N. W. part, in the province of Galleecia; the Alani occupied Lusitania; and the Van- dals settled in the southern province of BsBtica, which was called after them Vandalusia (now Andalusia). The Romans called to their aid the Visigoths, who had a powerful empire in S. W. France, already extending across the Pyrenees as far as the Ebro. King "Wallia of the Visigoths in A. D. 418 destroyed the empire of the Silingi, a tribe of the Vandals, in S. Spain, and so reduced the power of the Alani that they fused with the Vandals, who in their turn in 429 left under Genseric for N. Africa, where they founded a great empire. The Visigoths soon subdued the whole of Spain with the exception of the northwest, which remained in the possession of the Suevi till 585, when their empire was destroyed by the Visigothic king Leovigild. One of the great- est kings of the Visigoths was Euric, who in 471 put an end to the dominion of the Ro- mans, and gave to Spain the first written laws. Under Reccared I. the Visigoths, who until then had been Arians, adopted the Catholic faith (589), a step which greatly facilitated the thorough coalescence, of the Gothic, the Latin, and the native Spanish elements of the popu- lation into one Spanish nationality, with a general prevalence of the Latin element. The constitution of the Visigoths was an elective monarchy, which proved to be a prolific source of violence, assassination, and civil war, and finally led to the destruction of their kingdom. The family of Alaric, which had been dissatis- fied at a new election, called the Arabs, who had an empire on the N. coast of Africa (in Mauritania, whence they were called Moors), into Spain, and King Roderic fell in the great and protracted battle at Jerez de la Frontera (July, 711). The Arabs, under the leadership of Tarik, Musa, and others, completed within a few years the subjugation of the country, with the exception of the mountainous districts Asturias, Cantabria (E. of the preceding), and Navarre, where a Gothic prince, Pelngius (Spanish, Pelayo), was elected king, and main-