Hispania citerior

Hispania Citerior ("the closer Hispania " ) or this-worldly Spain is the name of one of the two provinces, in which the Romans BC divided up the time they controlled part of the Iberian Peninsula in the year 197. The other was the province of Hispania ulterior ("the more distant Hispania "). The Hispania ulterior covered the south and west, the Hispania Citerior the East. The Northwest (the area between the western end of the Pyrenees and Galicia and northern Portugal) was slowly conquered by the Romans; only Caesar and Augustus completed the subjugation of the peoples there. The Northwest including Northern Portugal to Douro River, whose lower reaches west of Zamora was the provincial border, was incorporated after its conquest in the Hispania Citerior. Provincial governor was a Propraetor.

Under Emperor Augustus, the Hispania was Citerior an imperial province. Since the seat of the governor in Tarraco was, today Tarragona in Catalonia, people began to call this province in the imperial period Hispania Tarraconensis. The official name in the titulary of the governor, however, was still Hispania Citerior.

For the further history of the province see Tarraconensis.

The most important cities of Hispania Citerior were in the Republican period and Tarraco, Carthago Nova (Cartagena). In the earlier research has been suggested that originally Carthago Nova was the seat of the governor and only Augustus changed this in favor of Tarraco; according to a more recent state of research but was probably from the beginning of Tarraco official residence. Among the important cities of the province also included Saguntum (Sagunto north of Valencia) and Ilerda south of the present city of Lleida inland.