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cattle. In vain do the pines and oaks push forth shoots, the carregts keep their ground, and it is not before many years that they yield to the efforts of their gigantic neighbours. The myrtle, the pistachio, the thorny caper bush, the cistus and other shrubs on the stony heights near the mountains of Majorca, indicate the Mediterranean region. The lignous salicornia and the tamarind grow on the marshes near the shore, the vine flourishes on the hills, and the cotton plant is cultivated on the low and humid lands. It is unnecessary to give an account of the vegetable productions in the neighbouring islands, they differ but little from those that are found in Majorca.*

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CXXXVII.

habitants.

The Baleares or Balearides were so called by the Greeks, Ancient infrom the great skill with which the inhabitants used the sling. According to Pliny, they were also called Gymnasii, because they went naked to battle.‡ Their arms were a small buckler, a javelin and three slings of different sizes, one or other of which was used according to the distance of the enemy. Their children were early accustomed to handle the same instrument; it is said that their parents refused to give them food, until they hit a mark at a certain distance.

It has been, inferred from the surname of Gymnasii or naked, that the Greeks and Romans had not often friendly intercourse with these islanders, for it is certain that they wore dresses long before the inhabitants of Italy. Diodorus Siculus mentions a singular custom established amongst them; the "marriage ceremony," says he, "terminates in a feast, but the husband is not permitted to consummate the nuptials, until the bride has granted her favours to all the guests." The Romans conquered the Balearides, not so much to put a stop to the piracies of the islanders, as to deprive the Carthaginians of important stations for the commerce of the Mediterranean. The same people founded Palma and Pollensa in Majorca, two places which shall be

Enumeratio plantarum quæ referuntur in insulis Balearibus. Cambussede, 4to. Paris, 1827.

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afterwards mentioned; the islands formed part of the proCXXXVII. vince Tarraconensis.

Origin of the word

Spain.

Ancient inhabitants.

Celtiberi.

Many conjectures have been formed concerning the origin of the words Hispania and Hesperia, the ancient names of the Peninsula. It is probable that Hispania comes from the Phenician word span, which signifies concealed, not an inapplicable name, for at an early period the country was little known to the Phenicians. It has been also said that they called it Spania, from the number of rabbits they observed.* The Greeks called it Hesperia from its western situation, relatively to their own country. The name of Iberia, which it also bore, seems to have been derived from the name of its early inhabitants. M. Bory de St. Vincent supposes them a colony from the island or continent of Atlantis. Such an assumption, however, is liable to many objections, and it appears to be as probable, as the opinion supported by several Spanish authors, who affirm that the first inhabitants of their country were descended from Tubal, a son of Noah, who landed in Spain twenty-two centuries before the Christian era.

The Iberians, according to Herodotus, were divided into six tribes; the Cynetes, Gletes, Tartesses, or Turdetani, Eleusinii, Martinii, and Celeiani. Strabo informs us that the Tartesses made great advances in civilization; they applied themselves to literature, they possessed books of poetry, histories of a very ancient date, and laws which, they affirmed, were written six thousand years before his time.‡

Diodorus Siculus mentions the invasion of the Celts into Spain. The Iberi made war against them for a long time, but after an obstinate resistance on the part of the natives, the two people entered into an agreement, according to which, they were to possess the country in common, bear the same name, and remain for ever united; such, says

The double signification of the word span (concealed, rabbit), leads to a double interpretation, The Romans adopted the last, as appears from a medal of Adrian, on which Spain is represented by the figure of a woman with a rabbit on her side. See Flores, Medalles de Espania. Tome i. p. 109.

+ Hesperia signifies the west or the evening in Greek.

- Strabo, Book V. ch. 2.

the same historian, was the origin of the Celtiberi in Spain. BOOK These warlike people, continues Diodorus, were equally cxxxvII. formidable as cavalry and infantry, for when the horse had broken the enemy's ranks, the men dismounted and fought on foot. Their dress consisted of a sagum or coarse woollen mantle; they wore greaves made of hair, an iron helmet adorned with a red feather, a round buckler and a broad two-edged sword of so fine a temper as to pierce through the enemy's armour. Although they boasted of cleanliness both in their nourishment and in their dress, it was not unusual for them to wash their teeth and bodies with urine, a custom which they considered favourable to health. Their habitual drink was a sort of hydromel; wine was brought into the country by foreign merchants. The land was equally distributed, and the harvests were divided among all the citizens; the law punished with death the person who appropriated more than his just share. They were hospitable, nay, they considered it a special favour to entertain a stranger; being convinced that the presence of a foreigner called down the protection of the gods on the fami ly that received him. They sacrificed human victims to their divinities, and the priests pretended to read future events in the palpitating entrails.* At every full moon, says Strabo, they celebrated the festival of a god without a name; from this circumstance, their religion has been considered a corrupt deism.

The Phenicians were the first people who established co- Earliest lonies on the coasts of Spain; Tartessus was perhaps the colonies. most ancient; at a later period, they founded Gades, now Cadiz on the isle of Leon. They carried on there a very lucrative trade, in as much as it was unknown to other nations; but in time, the Rhodians, the Samians, the Phocians and other Greeks established factories on different parts of the coast.

Carthage had been founded by the Phenicians; but the inhabitants, regardless of their connexion with that people, took possession of the Phenician stations, and conquered the whole of maritime Spain. The government of these

Diodorus, Book V. ch. 31.

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CXXXVII.

Spain, a
Roman

Lusitania.

Betica.

Tarraconensis.

Inhabit

sitania.

republicans was still less supportable; the Carthaginians were unable to form any friendly intercourse with the Spaniards in the interior; their rapine and cruelty excited the indignation of the natives.

The ruin of Carthage paved the way to new invaders, and Spain was considered a Roman province two centuries before the Christian era. Those who had been the allies, became the masters of the Spaniards, and the manners, customs and even language of the conquerors were introduced into the Peninsula. But Rome paid dear for her conquest; the north or the present Old Castille, Arragon and Catalonia were constantly in a state of revolt; the mountaineers shook off the yoke, and it was not before the reign of Augustus that the country was wholly subdued. The Peninsula was then divided into three provinces, Lusitania, Betica and Tarraconensis.

The Lusitanian province or the western region was separated on the north from Tarraconensis by the Duero, above its confluence with the Tormes; the two most eastern points within its limits were Libora on the Tagus, and Augustobriga. The course of the Guadiana served as a boundary from the mountains of Toledo to the Mediterranean. Thus, it comprehended the greater part of Portugal, and all Estremadura. Emerita Augusta, the present Merida, was the capital of the province.

Betica was separated from Lusitania by the Guadiana, and from Tarraconensis by a line extending from the neighbourhood of Civdad-Real to the Rio-Almanzar; it formed the most southern portion of the Peninsula; Corduba was its capital.

All the rest of Spain was included in the province of Tarraconensis; Galloecia on the north-west, now Gallicia, Carthaginensis, now the kingdom of Murcia, and the Balearic islands were contained in it.

The same province was also called Hispania Citerior, while the two others formed Hispania Ulterior.

The province of Lusitania was partly peopled by the Cyants of Lu- netes or Cinesii, the earliest inhabitants of Algarve. The Celtisi or Celtes-Glebas possessed the land between the Guadiana and the Tagus. The country round the mountains of

Gredos belonged to the Vettones, a people that passed from a BOOK state of inactivity and repose to the vicissitudes and hard- CXXXVII. ships of war. The Lusitani, a nation of freebooters, were settled in the middle of Estremadura, they were distinguished by their activity and patience of fatigue; their food was flour and sweet acorns, beer was their common beverage. They were swift in the race; they had a martial dance, which the men danced, while they advanced to battle.*

ants of Be

The part of Betica near the Mediterranean, was peopled Inhabitby the Bastuli or, as they were also called, the Peni. The tica. Turduli inhabited the shores of the ocean, near the mouths of the Bætis. The Bœturi dwelt on the Mariani mountains, and the Turdetani inhabited the southern declivities of the Sierra d'Aracena. The last people, more enlightened than any other in Betica, were skilled in different kinds of industry long before their neighbours. When the Phenicians arrived on their coast, silver was so common amongst them, that their ordinary utensils were made of it. What was afterwards done by the Spaniards in America, was then done by the Phenicians in Spain, they ex-. changed iron and other articles of little value for silver; nay, if ancient authors can be credited, they not only loaded their ships with the same metal, but if their anchors at any time gave way, others of silver were used in their place.

ants of

The people in Gallaecia, a subdivision of Tarraconensis, Inhabitwere the Artabri, who derived their name from Cape Arta- Tarraconbrum, now Cape Finistere, the Bracari, whose chief town ensis. was Bracara, the present Braga, and lastly the Lucences, Lugo was the capital of their country. These tribes and some others formed the nation of the Calaici or Gallæci, who, according to the ancients, had no religious notions. The Asturi, now the Asturians, inhabited the banks of the Asturis or the country on the east of the Gallœcian mountains. Asturica Augusta was their capital. The Vacceï, the least barbarous of the Celtiberians, cultivated the country on the east of the Asturi. The fierce Cantabri occupied the coasts of old Castille; it was customary for two to mount

Strabo, Book III. chap. 3.

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