The passage of the Roman Empire through Catalonia

The fight that the Romans and Carthaginians had for control of the Mediterranean in the late 3rd century BC led to the Second Punic War. In 218 BC the Romans landed at Emporion (Empúries) to cut off the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who wanted to attack Italy using Hispania as a supply base. Roman troops soon controlled the entire coast of present-day Catalonia. Today there are thousands of sites that help us understand the passage of the Roman Empire through our house.

The Romans promote urban life in Hispania. They are going to promote the development of old cities and founded new colonies. The most important city in Roman Catalonia was Tarraco (Tarragona), which became the capital of Hispania Citerior and after the province of Tarraconense.

In the cities, wealthy families lived in single-family houses called domus, which they organized around a central courtyard. The most humble, lived in blocks of flats with three or four floors, called insulae, with shops on the ground floor. Latin was the official language of the empire.

From language, to architecture, to law or religion, the Roman legacy continues to be present among us 22 centuries after its arrival in Catalonia.