What is now called the Iberian Peninsula, and what in Latin was called Hispania (and included Portugal, as well as modern Spain), was ruled by Rome for nearly five hundred years. In that time, it produced two of the leading lights of Latin letters, the elder and younger Seneca. More characteristically Roman, perhaps, Hispania also gave the Empire three of its greatest Emperors: Trajan and Hadrian, two of the so-called Five Good Emperors, and Theodosius the Great, the last ruler of the entire Roman Empire.
Such, in briefest outline, is the contribution that the land that would become Spain made to Rome. On the other side of the equation, what Rome gave to Spain is its language, the form if not the ultimate essence of its faith, and that side of Spanish culture that allowed the traditionally indivualististic Spanish people to found and for three centuries rule the first empire upon which the sun did not set. In the remainder of this essay, we will survey the Roman influence upon Spain.
As Roman Spain was divided into two provinces, Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior (Williams, 1990, p. 31), so this discussion is divided into two sections. In the first, we will briefly trace the history of the Roman impact upon Spain, a history well documented both by writings and by physical remains such as the aqueduct at Segovia. The second, necessarily more speculative in nature, inquires into the enduring Roman influence upon Spain and the Spanish people. Equally necessarily, there will be some intermixture between the sections, as we refer forward to future developments or back to past events.
Rome officially proclaimed the conquest in Spain in 38 BC, and it is one sign of the durability of the Roman impact that the reckoning of dates in Spain continued to use this event as a base year until AD 1383 (Williams, 1990, p. 34). Formal Roman rule was fractured in AD 409, when the Suevi and Vandals swept down across the Pyren...