Though the civil war between Cæsar and Pompey had the exclusive possession of Rome as its object, yet most of their battles were fought on the soil of Spain. In the year 49 Cæsar defeated Pompey’s legates in Spain; the following year he overthrew Pompey himself at Pharsalia, in Thessaly; but the final battle was fought about the year 45, between Cæsar and the sons of his dead rival.
These great Romans had subdued for their country the East and the West; had conquered Gaul and Syria, Britain and Africa; but the great and decisive conflict, which was to forever settle the question of supremacy between the Roman senate and the greatest Roman of all time, took place in Spain! It was at Munda, not far from Cordova, in the valley of the Guadalquivir, and it is said that Cæsar himself led the soldiers in the ranks; saying afterward that though he had often fought for victory, yet he had never before fought for his life. More than thirty thousand men were slain, among them one of Pompey’s sons; and this great victory made Cæsar “undisputed master of the Roman world,” From Spain he returned to a triumph in Rome; but he was not long to enjoy the fruits of his victories, the titles of “Pater patriæ” and “Imperator” for he was assassinated the following year.
How inextricably interwoven are the threads of history which bind Rome and Spain, we may note by glancing at the names of four only of the former’s greatest men: Sulla, the first Roman to invade the Eternal City with her own troops, “set the pace” for Cæsar at the Rubicon; Sulla’s champion, Pompey, pursued Sertorius, friend of Marius, into Spain and accomplished his death; in his turn, Pompey fell before the might of Cæsar, who triumphed over all!
While it is true that “peace hath her victories,” yet they are not often recorded, and the history of Spain for the next four hundred years is mainly uneventful. But although Hispania had been freed from participation in Roman feuds, yet the barbaric population of the far north was not entirely subjugated until the time of Augustus, who finally completed the work begun by the Scipios and continued by Pompey and Cæsar. Ten years later, under Marcus Agrippa, Spain had become completely Latinized, and finally was considered “more completely Roman than any other province beyond the limits of Italy.”
During the Roman occupation cities were founded, notably Cordova, Saragossa, and Italica (the latter now in ruins, near Seville); magnificent public works were constructed, such as roads, aqueducts, bridges, and amphitheatres. The best examples of Roman engineering and architecture may now be found and studied in Spain, such as an amphitheatre at Merida, another at Saguntum, the Roman bridges at Cuenca, Salamanca, and Cordova, and that splendid bridge over the Guadiana built by Trajan, which is half a mile long, thirty-three feet above the river, on eighty-one arches of granite; the aqueducts of Tarragona, Evora, and Seville, and that surpassing piece of engineering work which has commanded the admiration of centuries, the aqueduct bridge of Segovia, twenty-six hundred feet long and one hundred feet in height.
These material evidences of Roman occupation may be seen to-day, and besides these, the finest of Roman coins are frequently discovered. But more than in mere mechanical works Rome has left her impress upon Hispania: in the language spoken there, in the illustrious names of Roman citizens born there, such as Trajan and Hadrian, her great rulers; Lucan, Martial, the two Senecas, Quintilian, Columella, Pomponius Mela, Silius Italicus, Florus—most of whose works are classics in the Latin tongue.
Thus, while the names of Rome’s greatest soldiers are written across Spain’s page of history, in the years of her peace and prosperity other Romans appeared equally famous in the realms of literature.
