Roman Conquest of the Iberian Peninsula & Theseus's Legend

The Conquest and Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula

In the early second century BC, the territories conquered by Rome occupied the east coast of the peninsula (Hispania Citerior) and the south (Hispania Ulterior). The areas that had been colonized by the Phoenicians and Greeks were accepting the presence of Roman territories, while others were opposed to internal resistance. The Lusitanian leader Viriathus became the symbol of resistance, and this caused many problems for the Roman troops. Numantia fell in 133 BC. In 19 BC, the conquest of the peninsula was completed with the Cantabrian Wars, in which Augustus intervened. During the conquest of the peninsula, Rome did not stop founding new cities, contributing to triple Romanization. Around 14 AD, the peninsula was divided into three territories:

• Tarraconensis, the largest, with Tarraco as its capital.
• Baetica, with Corduba as the administrative center in the south.
• Lusitania, with Emerita Augusta as its capital.

In 212 AD, Caracalla subdivided Tarraconensis, and the new province of Gallaecia was created. Diocletian divided Tarraconensis in 297 AD, and Carthaginensis was created. In 386 AD, Theodosius split off the Balearic Islands.

Theseus

He was the son of the King of Athens, Aegeus, who had joined with Aethra, a princess of Argolis. According to tradition, after this union, Aegeus did not wait for the child to be born and returned to his city. When he reached adolescence, Theseus made a trip to Athens, where Aegeus recognized him as his son. Theseus joined the group chosen to go with the ship's human toll that Athens sent to Crete every year as food for the Minotaur. His father gave him a red sail to replace the black one on his return trip. To kill the Minotaur, he received the help of Ariadne, a daughter of King Minos, who gave him a ball of thread with which he could find the exit of the labyrinth in which the monster lived. Theseus achieved victory. But on Naxos, Ariadne fell in love with the god Dionysus. Theseus continued on the trip but forgot to change the black sails. In Athens, he was recognized as the new monarch, but the calm did not last long: he had to confront an attack by the Amazons, and after the death of his wife Phaedra, he embarked with his friend Pirithous to get two daughters of Zeus as wives. Theseus was able to take Helen to Sparta but failed in the attempt to attain Persephone from Hades for his friend. He was rescued from the underworld by his friend Hercules. On the island of Scyros, King Lycomedes killed him by throwing him off a precipice.