Understanding Historical Events: Time, Space, and Roman Hispania

Understanding Historical Events

Events happen within a specific timeframe. To understand the past, it’s essential to know where historical events occurred. Events always unfold in a given time.

Time can have different meanings:

  • Weather
  • Astronomical Time
  • Psychological Time: Differs from astronomical time, which is the same for everyone.

A key feature of time is that it passes for everyone and everything. Throughout history, things change. Change is the transformation that humans and beings experience over time.

Before and After Christ

The birth of Jesus Christ is a pivotal point in history, dividing it into before and after. It’s considered a starting point. The birth year of Christ is at the center of the timeline.

Events before the birth of Christ are counted backward from that year (BC). Events after the birth of Christ are counted forward (AD).

Dates

Dates are used to pinpoint when events took place. They are crucial for organizing events in history.

The Chronological Order

While memorizing all dates isn’t necessary, understanding the chronological order of events is important.

The Timeline

Imagine time as a line without beginning or end. This is the timeline, representing the passage of time.

The Historical Period

Historians divide history into periods or ages. The end of one age and the beginning of another often mark significant events for humankind.

Events in a Given Space

Historians analyze not only when past events occurred but also where they took place. Events don’t happen randomly; the natural environment often has a decisive impact.

The First Inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula

The Iberians and Celts were the first settlers of the Iberian Peninsula. The area of Tartessos was particularly important. These people coexisted with Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, who were colonizing powers.

Roman Hispania

Military Conquest

The Roman conquest of the peninsula lasted over 200 years, from 218 BC, when Roman legions landed in Empúries, until the pacification in 19 BC by Augustus. Not all peoples accepted Roman occupation peacefully.

The Romanization of Hispania

Romanization is the process by which the inhabitants of the peninsula adopted the lifestyle, customs, and culture of the Romans. Hispania was divided into provinces administered by a governor (proconsul) sent from Rome.

Villages and their inhabitants who peacefully accepted Roman rule acquired equal rights. The Romans imposed Latin, which, through contact with Roman soldiers and traders for nearly 600 years, became widely used among the inhabitants of Hispania.

Several emperors, such as Trajan, came from Baetica Hispania, as well as prominent thinkers and writers like Seneca, Martial, and Columella.

Cities

The Roman influence is evident in many towns and cities of the Iberian Peninsula. Most of our cities are built on ancient Roman cities: Barcelona, Toledo, Astorga, Lugo, etc.

The Romans conquered lands and developed them into urban centers, modeled after the city of Rome. The city was the political, administrative, religious, and economic center. Newly created cities followed an orthogonal plan.

Activity centered around major temples, the basilica, and public buildings. Baths and public buildings were constructed for the theater, circus, or amphitheater.

The major cities in Roman Hispania were the capitals of the provinces: Tarraco, Emerita Augusta, and Hispalis.