The Romans

Romans start the conquest of Hispania in the year 206 BC. The original reason for Roman interest in Spain was the presence of the Carthaginians there, and it was as part of the war against Hannibal that the Romans first sent troops to the peninsula in 218 BC. Their original intention appears to have been to prevent reinforcements being sent to Hannibal in Italy from his bases in southern Spain, but by the time the command was taken over in 210 by Publius Cornelius Scipio, this had been extended to include the removal of the Carthaginians from Spain altogether, which was achieved following the defeat of the Carthaginian armies at Baecula (Bailén) in 208 and Ilipa (Alcalá del Río) near Seville in 207. Pacification was completed until the year 19 BC, when Augustus definitely subdued the Cantabrians and Asturians. Thus, Rome, when conquering new lands, ended disputes among tribes, towns and cities, imposing their culture, which brought with it the concept of law and citizenship. The Romans were masters in management and law. We must remember that Roman law established the basis of occidental legislation. The Romans completely changed the way of life of the inhabitants of Hispania, bringing not only the Latin ways of life, but also the Greek culture, which they had acquired when they conquered the Helvetian region. Very soon they started building Latin cities in the Iberian Peninsula and they extended rapidly over different regions of the colonized country. By 90 BC, natives of Salduia (Zaragoza) fought side by side with the Romans in the social war of Italy.

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Lack of Pre-Roman Unity

We cannot speak of linguistic unity in the Iberian Peninsula before the arrival of the Romans. The Iberian and Taressian alphabets each served for different languages. Each colonizing group (Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Celts, etc.) conserved and extended their own language.

Besides the languages mentioned, one must add Basque. The Basque language, which has been preserved up to now, does not have any linguistic relation to the other languages which were and are spoken in Spain, has a still controversial origin.

There are three theses:

• Basque is of African origin. It shows decisive coincidences with the Cantabrian languages, like Berber and others.
  
• Basque originated in the Caucasian region. Its grammatical structure is very similar to the Caucasian languages.
  
• Basque is a mixed language. It is akin to the Caucasian languages in its structure and origin. It incorporated numerous elements of the Iberian languages, as well as from Celtic and Latin.
  

The second and third theories are the ones that hold currently (a lot of this due to pressure from some “experts” geared towards getting it away as much as possible from African origins). Since its origin to the 10th century, Basque was a language transmitted through oral tradition. More or less ample texts appear up to the 16th century, but without reaching cult language quality. It still keeps its elemental grammar structure in our days, but subjected to Latin and Romance language influence. Basque has spawned many dialects, and many toponyms are of Basque origin, mainly along the Pyrenees.

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Celts

The Celts invaded Hispania in the VII century BC originating from southern Germany. They settled in Galicia, southern Portugal and in the region called Sierra Morena. Later they mixed with the Iberians in central and lower Aragón, and formed a region called Celtiberia. There are many toponyms of Celtic origin, and most of them have warrior names. Some of the main ones are: Coimbra, Carrión, Segovia, Zaragoza, and Lérida.

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Central and Northeast Regions

Concerning the central and northeastern regions of Spain, we can’t define precisely which group or groups of humans colonized them. There is a hypothesis regarding a Ligur migration (coming from the northern and central region of Provenza, Italy). This supposition holds due to the toponyms (names of places or names derived thereof) found in different parts of Spain. Toponyms such as Pontevedra, Santander, Murcia, Madrid,

Lérida and Barcelona come from and are characteristic of (although not exclusively) the Ligur language.

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Phoenicians and Greeks

The Phoenicians from Carthage founded today’s city of Cadiz in the southern part of the peninsula, whom they called Gadir. Later the Romans called it Gades and the Arabs Qádis. The word gadir is of Punic origin and it means walled-in precinct. Another important city established by the Phoenicians was Málaga (Málaka: factory). The Greeks, exiled from the south by the Phoenicians, settled in the region of Levante. There they founded important cities such as Lucentum, today Alicante, and Emporion, Ampurias. These two influences, Phoenician and Greek, prompted the development of Iberian art.

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History of the Spanish Language

The origin of Spanish goes back many centuries before our times. It is supposed that the first inhabitants of what is today the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) settled on both sides of the Pyrenees (a mountain range between France and Spain). These settlers spoke a language that survives in the Basque Language (Basque is spoken in the Basque Country, region of Spain).

The Iberians settled in another geographical region, (the Coast of Levante), from whose name the peninsula takes its name. Their culture probably came from the African coasts. The Tartessian civilization, influenced by oriental ethnical communities settled where we now find the southern region of Portugal and the lower part of Andalusia. It is known that this culture ruled during many centuries.

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