The Western Roman Atlantic Facade: A Study of the Economy and Trade in the Mar Exterior from the Republic to the Principate

This book has attempted to collect evidence of the lively trade in the Atlantic from the 1st century BC up to 1st century AD, when the Romans decided to conquer the territories of the Atlantic littoral. The papers here cover the commercial phenomena detected from the Strait of Gibraltar up to the Galician coasts of the NW Iberian Peninsula, which was probably determined by the military campaigns in the NW during the Augustan campaigns against Cantabrii and Astures, and later the NW exploitation of the rich mines there. However, our feeling is that the phenomena was not limited to the Iberian Peninsula but affected the whole Mar Exterior (Atlantic), from the coast of Armorica, Brittany, Normandy, Belgium and Germania Inferior. Despite obvious differences between all these territories, there were some common traits in material culture, information, traders and logistics which cannot be explained in a fragmentary way. The present volume attempts to fill a gap from the western side of the Atlantic, but we are aware that some questions raised here can be only answered from other territories of the Mar Exterior. Contents: 1. An archaeological perspective (C. Carreras) 2. The trade and the means of transportation (R. Morais) 3. The costs of transport in Hispania (P. de Soto) 4. The Latin sea and the Ocean conquest (II-I BC) (C. Aranegui) 5. Formal Romanisation and Atlantic projection of amphorae from the Guadalquivir valley (E. García Vargas) 6. Rome and the whale fishing Archaeological evidences from the Fretum Gaditanum (D. Bernal Casasola) 7. Seaports and fluvial harbours in the Portuguese territory the options for ancient harbour activities within a changing nautical landscape (M.L. Blot) 8. Looking towards the North (R. Morais) 9. Roman lighthouses in the Atlantic coast (C. Fernández Ochoa and A. Morillo) 10. The structure of the Roman military supply: an explanatory model (C. Carreras) 11. Supplying armies in the Iberian Peninsual during the Republic (P. Edrkamp) 12. Garrisons, military logistics and civil population in the Late Republic: Africa and Hispania (T. Ñaco) 13. Octavians reforms (C. Carreras) 14. Demand and military supply in the Northwest of Hispania throughout the Early empire (A. Morillo) 15. Hispania: a particular supply network (C. Carreras) 16. The incorporation of the Baetican hinterland on the western supply during the Late Republic A reading based on the Guadalquivirs minority amphora types widespread (R.R. de Almeida) 17. The Western African amphorae (II BC I AD) (C. Aranegui) 18. A case study from the Haltern 70 amphorae (C. Carreras) 19. Bracara Augusta (R. Morais) 20. The mining area of Quinta da Ivanta (R. Morais) 21. Rías Baixas and Vigo (Vicus Eleni) (A. Fernández) 22. The example of Astorga and León (C. Carreras)23. A system of hybrid market suggested by the Haltern 70 amphorae (R. Morais) 24. The Gaditan elites and the figure of L. Cornelius Balbus (C. Carreras) 25.The Atlantic traders: the Gaditan and Lusitanian elites (R. Morais)26. Was there a true Atlantic vocation in the first emperors? (R. Morais) 27. CONCLUSION: New Atlantic frontier (C. Carreras & R. Morais).