bga_580665 - HISPANIA - BÆTICA - CARTEIA Unité de bronze CARTEIA

HISPANIA - SPAIN - BÆTICA - CARTEIA

(1st century BC)

The Latin colony of Carteia, located between the mouth of the Guadalquivir, in the bay of Algeciras, near the municipality of San Roque and the Palomares river, near the peak of Gibraltar was dedicated in 171 BC according to Livy (XLIII, 3). Established on the site of a very ancient city whose foundation would go to Hercules according to Strabo, the Roman and Carthaginian fleets had fought a naval battle there which left Lælius victorious over Adherbal during the Punic Wars. The colony would have been founded by the contribution of four thousand men who would have been freed, hence the name sometimes given to the city of "colonia libertinorum".