Roman Iberia ( Hispania )

Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar) and to two provinces created there in the period of the Roman Republic: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior.

During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was first divided into two other provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed to Tarraconensis. Next, the western part of Tarraconensis was split off, first as Hispania Nova, later renamed Callaecia (or Gallaecia, hence modern Galicia).

Since Diocletian's Tetrarchy (284 AD), the south of remaining Tarraconensis was again split off as Carthaginiensis, and probably then too the Balearic Islands, and all the resulting provinces formed one civil diocese under the Vicarius for the Hispaniae ('Spains'; in the western prętorian prefecture of the 'Gauls', that is, the Celtic provinces), who was also competent for Mauretania Tingitana (around Tangiers), which hence was also officially 'Hispanic'.

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