Augusta Bilbilis

Bilbilis was the name of a city in the Celtiberian in the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis in present-day Spain. She is best known as the home town of the Roman poet Martial.

The settlement was located on a steep hill on the river Salo ( today Jalon ). The remains are found today on the Cerro de Bambola near Calatayud ( Zaragoza province ). The place name is derived possibly from Birbilis ago, the name of a river, which is identified either with the tributary Ribota or with a portion of Salo itself. He is attested by coins with the inscription plpls Iberian and Latin Bilbilis Italica municipium Augusta, which also points to its own mint. Whether Bilbilis had the status of municipium or a Colonia is controversial. Anyway, it was urban structures through the establishment of Roman coloni. The trunk road from Augusta Emerita Augusta after Caesar led by Bilbilis. In late antiquity, the city declined and was finally abandoned. From one in the 8th century within 5 km built stronghold of the Moors came out today Calatayud.

Important source for Bilbilis is next to the archaeological finds of the poet Martial, who was born in the year 40 AD here and returned home around the year 102, also died here. He mentions his own country often praised in his poems. Thereafter Bilbilis was famous for its metal processing. The approximately 24 km west situated on the Roman highway sulfur springs Aquae Bilbilitanorum, these praised by Martial, can still be used as spas ( Alhama de Aragon ). More from Martial numerous localities mentioned in Bilbilis and surrounding areas are no longer identifiable today.