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Caesaraugusta or Caesar Augusta was the name of the Roman city of Zaragoza, founded as a colonia inmunis from Rome in 14 BC, possibly on December 23, on the intensely Romanized Iberian city of Salduie. Its foundation occurred in the context of the reorganization of the provinces of Hispania by Caesar Augustus after his victory in the Astur-Cantabrian wars.
The new city received the name of "Colonia Caesar Augusta". It enjoyed the privilege of bearing the full name of its founder, who entrusted its deductio, like many other tasks of the Empire, to his general and close friend Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
Veteran soldiers of the legions IV Macedonica, VI Victrix and X Gemina, discharged after the hard campaign against the Asturians and Cantabrians, participated in the foundation of the city, with the double intention of guaranteeing the defense of the territory at the same time as establishing the presence of Rome in it. Zaragoza had the status of a Colonia Inmune, granting it certain privileges such as the right to mint coins or the exemption from paying taxes. The new citizens were attached to the Aniense tribe.
In the process of reorganization of Hispanic territories, three provinces were created, Tarraconense, Baetica and Lusitania, divided into juridical convents, minor districts with judicial and administrative functions; of these, the one governed by Caesaraugusta, the conventus juridicus Caesaraugustanus, was one of the largest of the seven into which the province of Tarraconense was divided. Caesaraugusta assumed from the beginning the role of regional head, replacing the colony Victrix Ivlia Celsa (in the current Velilla de Ebro).
The period of the city's greatest apogee in the first and second centuries brought many of the great public works, some of which can still be seen today: the forum, the river port, which made Caesaraugusta the main redistributor of goods in the Ebro valley, the public baths, the theater or the city's first bridge, located on the site of the current Stone Bridge and which was probably a work of ashlar or a mixture of stone and wood.
Water also played an important role in Roman Zaragoza, both for its location on the banks of the Ebro River and next to the mouth of the Huerva and Gállego rivers, as well as for its complex supply and irrigation systems. In addition to the aforementioned baths, a multitude of cisterns, fountains, sewers and various sections of lead and sanitation pipes have been documented.
Caesar Augusta was founded in 14 BC (although other dates have been proposed for the foundation of the city, ranging from 25 to 12 AD) as a colonia inmunis where soldiers from the legions that fought with Caesar Augustus in Hispania between 29 and 26 B.C. were integrated into the Iberian Salduie, forming a new Roman colonial city of mixed character, as Strabo reflects in his Geographica (III, 2, 15).
The new immune colony occupied an area of 44 hectares, delimiting an area of more than 900 x 500 m around two axial axes of communication: the maximum decumanus (present-day Mayor and Espoz y Mina and Manifestación streets) and the cardo, which coincided approximately in its route with Jaime I street, although the confluence with the decumanus at the southern limit —located in the present-day Coso Alto and which could be found at any point from the Main Theater to the Cinegia Gate— is uncertain, since the layout of the aforementioned street in its southern half dates from a reform of the 18th century.
The city had four main entrances, whose location was preserved until the 15th century, at both ends of the cardo and the decumanus:
The city of Caesaraugusta thus became the most influential city in the middle valley of the Ebro, and its coinage spread throughout the interior of Tarraconensis, becoming predominant even in the current province of Soria.
The whole design of the colony was meticulously planned before its execution. The city was soon provided with a bridge, probably made of stone, a forum, aqueducts and a sewage system with drainage sewers. However, the most recent studies support the hypothesis that these infrastructures, bridge, river port, forum, market, pre-existed the Roman foundation, although in many cases they were reformed and enlarged, as happened with the forum, in the time of Tiberius. The bridge, the port and the baths may have been part of the endowments of the highly Romanized Salduie of the years 50-14 B.C. Due to this, the construction activity between 14 B.C. and 14 A.D. was limited if we consider the enormous urban works undertaken from the government of Tiberius, with the construction of the theater or the remodeling of the forum, among other actions.
Until the end of the 20th century, the limits of the 1st century city were considered to be established by the remains of the preserved walls. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, a different evolution of the Roman city of Caesaraugusta took hold. According to the remains of the first and second centuries found outside the perimeter of the preserved walls (Plaza de la Magdalena, Antonio Agustín, Rebolería, Añón and Teniente Coronel Valenzuela streets, to cite a few examples), the initial extension of the city would occupy the current neighborhood of Magdalena and Tenerías to the east until the course of the Huerva river, and to the south a strip of land that would reach Cinco de Marzo and San Miguel streets, parallel to the Coso Alto. One of the arguments presented is that in the second half of the 2nd century, houses in this area were abandoned, suggesting the construction of the wall to the south and east at this time, which would cause the population to move from this area to the interior of the walls. A probable hypothesis is that the western and northern limits would have remained stable since the foundation of the city, even with a wall of opus caementicium that protected the most unprotected area, while in the east the wall was unnecessary in its early days thanks to the natural protection of the course of the Huerva, which would mark the eastern limit. In the 3rd century, in any case, the perimeter described above was definitively built or rebuilt with an ashlar wall, of which abundant remains are preserved.
The ritual plowing of a sulcus primigenius—an act long shown on the reverses of the city's coinage—and erection of a city wall were general requisites of ancient Roman urban planning, particularly with regard to its formal colonies. Therefore, the existence of a wall at the founding of the colony and its subsequent rebuilding in the 3rd century were long taken for granted. However, abundant archaeological remains make it doubtful that Caesaraugusta had a wall that surrounded the entire perimeter of the city until the 3rd century, at least not in the appearance shown by the remains of canvases preserved today, especially on the eastern side, where the city was protected by the Huerva river.
The discovery in 2000 of the House of Añón Street and its location in the eastern part of the city, outside the walls of what was supposed to be the area included within the walls of Caesaraugusta, together with other archaeological remains found, have led to the assumption that the urbanized area extended in its beginnings beyond the walled Roman city of the 3rd century and it has even been postulated (according to research from 2003), that the Roman colony of Caesaraugusta may have initially lacked walls, particularly those located to the east.
The existence of a bridge over the Ebro River at the location of the current Stone Bridge (probably already existing in Salduie's time) is documented from the discovery of lead pipes that supported the bridge and brought drinking water from the nearby Gallego River to the city. It is more difficult to elucidate whether the bridge was already built in ashlar stone in Roman times, although the prestige of the capital of the Caesaraugustan legal convent and the required solidity derived from its function as an aqueduct of heavy pipes leads us to think that it was a stone bridge.
The forum of the Augustan or Saluitan period (located in the current Plaza de la Seo and the museum of the river port) had a mercantile character linked to the transport of goods to and from Tortosa across the Ebro, and was very possibly in operation before the Roman colonial foundation. Attached to the east of the cardo, it consisted of a quadrangular square open to the river, limited only on its long sides, which housed two bodies of commercial premises (seven tabernacles preserved on the east side), erected on plinths of opus vittatum and painting of the early style III. A simple covered portico closed the forum on the south side.
The Roman colony of Caesaragusta had a whole network of sewers, with drains and pipes and drinking water supply guaranteed through aqueducts that collected the water in large collecting cisterns, and whose archaeological remains have been excavated mainly since the last decade of the 20th century. In addition, in the district of the Tanneries, there was a drainage system for the periodic flooding of the Ebro, consisting of a field of amphorae grouped together and placed inverted.
Under the forum, and perpendicular to the Ebro, a large drainage sewer was designed: 2.82 m high and 2 m wide. It was built in opus caementicium with opus incertum lining. Other drainage systems in the city had notable dimensions, without reaching those of the main sewer. Thus, there is a section in Espoz y Mina Street made of opus vittatum 1.2 m high by 0.6 m wide. The proportions of the sewers of Caesaraugusta are similar to those of other large Roman cities, and comparable, for example, to those of Augusta Emerita.
From the time of the foundation of the city, Caesar Augusta was governed by two groups formed from the preeminent Roman citizens: the ordo decuriornum or curia (the local senate) and the ordo Caesaragustanum (a group of magistrates), which made up an ordo or order of citizens of the highest rank, initially drawn from among the officers and veterans of the legions and appointed by the commanders to establish the first curia.
At the head of the government of the city were two duumvirs, equivalent to the Roman consuls at the local level, whose name appeared on the coinage. Exceptionally, they could be substituted by a prefect with attributions directly emanating from Rome.
The duumvirs were assisted by a couple of aediles, in charge of the good functioning of the industries, public works and grain supply silos (horrea), and a quaestor who was in charge of the administration.
The first duumvirs of Caesar Augusta were Quintus Lutatius, Marcus Fabius, Gaius Alsanus, Titus Cervius, Lucius Cassius and Gaius Valerius Fenestella, whose names refer to Italic families. Only the name of one aedile is known, Marcus Julius Antonianus, documented in the inscriptions on the lead pipes that, with aqueduct functions, were integrated into the bridge over the Ebro.
Caesaraugusta was the capital of one of the seven judicial districts (conventus iuridicus) of the province of Tarraco. The conventus Caesaraugustanus was one of the largest and included Pamplona and Irún to the north, Calahorra to the west, Alcalá de Henares to the south and Lérida to the east.
Thus, Caesaraugusta was a center where legal matters were to be resolved in the second instance, whenever they could not be solved in the municipal jurisdiction. In addition, it had a religious capital, with its own cult, since it had a Genius conventus caesaraugustani with its own priesthood and received tributes and sacred offerings from all the cities of the administrative demarcation. According to Fatás and Beltrán (1998), the remains of the Basilica found in the Palacio de los Pardo, at the confluence between the cardo and the decumanus, would constitute the solemn and religious forum; while the forum excavated under the plaza of La Seo would serve as the commercial and administrative forum of the city.
During this period, the new Colonia inmune experienced significant economic growth, judging by the volume of coinage minted and the scale of the public works carried out, which, at a good pace, ended up giving the Caesaraugustean city the physiognomy of a large city.
The entire bank of the Ebro was terraced at this time to prevent flooding up to a level equal to the current level of the Plaza del Pilar. The scope of these works solved for the future the risk of flooding of the Ebro, and Zaragoza benefited from it until today. The area around the city was also extensively cleared in order to develop agricultural land to supply the colony.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Salduie”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.