Saguntum

[Pantagathus]

More than likely, we all know Saguntum well as the city in Iberia that Hannibal sacked to spark the 2nd Punic War. However, many aspects regarding the foundation of the city and how it came to be allied with Rome is somewhat shrouded in a vague mist.

 

The general consensus is that it started out as a village of the Iberian Editani tribe who then accepted 'foreign' settlers at some point in the middle of the 1st Millennium BC (or earlier...) Though it's typically identified as a Greek colony, I say 'foreign' loosely because that

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Where is Baetia? Also, is Ardea in Campania.

[Pantagathus]

Where is Baetia? Also, is Ardea in Campania.

 

Baetia was the Roman province name for the area near the Guadalquivir river in Spain, bound by the Anas River to the west, the Sierra Morena to the north and the Orespeda to the east.

 

The Turditani lived primarily near the south west of the territory closer to the Atlantic.

 

As for Ardea, it was in Latinum only about 24 miles from Rome, south of Ostia on the coast.

 

Note: Pelasgians = Mycenean Greeks ~ non Indo-European Greeks

[Favonius Cornelius]

Pantagathus did Saguntum have any relation as an important area with respect to that ancient Iberian kingdom in roughly the same area?

[Pantagathus]

Pantagathus did Saguntum have any relation as an important area with respect to that ancient Iberian kingdom in roughly the same area?

 

On the face of it I would have to say no as it would appear that Saguntum was founded after Carthage had apparently closed Tartessus to non-Punic trade.

 

However, though not really in the same area of the Iberian peninsula as Tartessus, if you remember from my post about it, the Turditani were in fact the ancestors of (/same as) the Tartessians. So, obviously it can be infered that Saguntum was indeed important in some sense even if the flourishing city operated as an unwelcome rivalry...

 

Would that rivalry have existed without Carthaginian interaction? We can only guess. Was there a rivalry since Saguntum's founding? I doubt it; but perhaps.