Gallaecia

Division Hispania after the reform of Diocletian

The Gallaecia (or Gallec) was a Roman province northwest of the Iberian Peninsula that included the north of Portugal and the present autonomous communities of Galicia and Asturias and the current provinces of Leon and Zamora in Spain. Its capital was Bracara Augusta ( Braga ).
However, it uses the term to refer Gallaecia north west of the Iberian Peninsula to the installation of Suevian kingdom in the region in 410 and even of that.

The gallaeci make their entrance in the history written in the ^first century AD, in the epic Punica of Silius Italicus the First Punic War in a way that is still familiar, two thousand years later.

Boundaries and composition

Rough map of conventus jurisdiction of Gallaecia after the administrative reorganization of the Emperor Diocletian.

Reform of Diocletian

Between the years 284 and 305, the emperor Diocletian reorganized the administrative divisions of the Empire. In the Iberian Peninsula are created two new provinces Gallaecia and Carthaginians from the existing ones Betic the Tarraconaise and Lusitania.

Gallaecia became the Roman province after the reform of Diocletian was composed of three conventus jurisdiction :

• Conventus Bracarensis capital to Bracara Augusta ( Braga ), and included the north of Portugal to the river Douro , the southern province of Pontevedra and almost all of the province of Ourense.
• Conventus Lucenses capital to Lucus Augusti ( Lugo ), corresponded to the province of La Coruna , Lugo province , northern province of Pontevedra , part of the province of Ourense , and the western part of Asturias.
• Conventus Asturiensis capital Asturica to Augusta (now Astorga ), corresponded to the north eastern Portugal , the east end of the province of Orense , the western part of the province of Zamora , the province of Leon and largely Asturias.

Extension: Fourth Century / VI centuries

Northwest of the Iberian peninsula ⁱⁿ the fifth century on the eve of the arrival of Germanic peoples.

From the late fourth century to the early sixth century the province Gallaecia the Western Roman Empire spanned the entire north-western Iberian Peninsula from the coast Cantabrian north to the river Duero Central System and the south, through the incorporation of the Gallaecia Conventus Cluniensis , which previously had belonged to the province Tarraconense , and had its capital city Clunia.

For descriptions of many contemporary authors as Paulus Orosius , Hydatius or Saint Isidore we know some of the human and geographical regions of the Roman province Gallaecia:

• Cantabria , a mountainous region located in the Conventus cluniensis inhabited the Cantabrian.
• Campus Gallaeciae (Champs de Galicia), long plain between the Conventus asturicensis and Conventus cluniensis, formerly inhabited by vaccens currently known as the Tierra de Campos , in the current Castilla y Len.
• Asturia region coinciding with the Conventus asturicensis inhabited by Astures.
• Pars Gallaeciae (Parts of Galicia), the region was clearly made by the Galician Conventus LUCENSIS and Conventus bracarensis, being the nucleus of the Gallaecia.

Bracara Augusta has continued to function as the provincial capital of any Gallaecia until the arrival of the Swabian , when she became the court of the kingdom birth.

The kingdom Suevian generally will consist of conventus Bracarensis and conventus Lucenses and western conventus Asturiensis. These three overlapping conventus a territory that is often incorrectly called the same Gallese until the late fifteenth century.

Heritage

• Wall of Lugo
• Roman bridge of Ourense
• Via XVII
• Lane XVIII, via Nova
• Via XIX
• Via XX

See also

• Gallaeci

• Ancient Rome portal
• Spain portal
• Portugal portal

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