Gothic Kingdom

igothic Kingdom
Main articles: Hispania and Visigothic Kingdom

The Roman Theatre in Mérida
During the Second Punic War, roughly between 210 and 205 BC the expanding Roman Republic captured Carthaginian trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast. Although it took the Romans nearly two centuries to complete the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, they retained control of it for over six centuries. Roman rule was bound together by law, language, and the Roman road.[32]

The cultures of the Celtic and Iberian populations were gradually Romanised (Latinised) at different rates depending on what part of Hispania they lived in, with local leaders being admitted into the Roman aristocratic class.[i][33] Hispania served as a granary for the Roman market, and its harbours exported gold, wool, olive oil, and wine. Agricultural production increased with the intro

duction of irrigation projects, some of which remain in use. Emperors Hadrian, Trajan, Theodosius I, and the philosopher Seneca were born in Hispania.[j] Christianity was introduced into Hispania in the 1st century AD and it became popular in the cities in the 2nd century AD.[33] Most of Spain’s present languages and religion, and the basis of its laws, originate from this period.[32]