Page 42 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Northern Spain

40  INTRODUCING NOR THERN SP AIN

who continued to expand their territory.
In the final stages of the Visigothic state,
Septimania (its northern part) attempted to
break away. Civil wars fought under Wamba’s
reign hastened the kingdom’s disintegration.

Moorish Spain
In 711 the declining Visigothic king dom
was invaded and quickly con quered by
the Moors. Most of the Iberian peninsula
Fragment of a Roman mosaic of the 4th century BC, now in the
Museu Arqueològic in Girona became part of a vast Islamic empire.
Christians who did not accept Muslim rule
Roman and Visigoth Spain retreated into the northern mountains,
The Romans entered Spain as part of their war which remained unconquered due to their
with the Carthaginians (the Punic Wars), trying terrain, fierce resistance and an inhospitable
to control the whole of the Iberian peninsula. climate. In 756 Abd al Rahman I proclaimed
The tribes in the north, who occupied land an independent emirate on the peninsula,
rich in minerals, resisted the longest, but and made Córdoba its capital. For 300 years
their lands were finally taken over. the Caliphate of Córdoba was Europe’s
The Romans also built an extensive most opulent society. Periods of peace
network of roads, bridges and aque ducts.
The towns of Astorga, in León, and Lugo,
Galicia, still have their Roman walls, and
Pamplona, founded in 74 BC by the Roman
military com mander Pompey, later became
the capital of the kingdom of Navarra.
Although Latin was widely spoken, the
indigenous population continued to use
local languages as late as the 2nd century
(the Basques never stopped). Christianity
began to spread, replacing the worship of
local deities.
When the Roman Empire began to
crumble, Germanic tribes invaded from the
north. The Vandals and the Suevi occupied
León and Galicia, but the Visigoths gained
control, almost succeeding in creating the
first unified state in Spain. However, the
Visigoths failed to subjugate the Basques, Portrait of Wamba, the Visigothic king who ruled from 672 to 680

219–201 BC Second 61 BC Julius Caesar begins final conquest of Galicia
Punic War. Expansion of and northern Lusitania
Roman territory on the A depiction of king
Iberian peninsula 19 BC Agrippa conquers Cantabria and Reccared I joining
Asturias, completing the Roman conquest the Catholic church
200 BC 1 BC AD 200 400 600
155 BC Lusi­
tanian War AD 74 Emperor Vespasian 476 Fall of the Western
extends Roman law to the Roman Empire
219 BC Hannibal Spanish provinces
captures Sagunt 589 Visigothic king Reccared I and the nobility embrace
Stone disk, 1st century BC Christianity; Toledo becomes capital of Visigothic Spain

038-041__Hist_Portrait_.indd 40 13/09/16 5:27 pm