Foederatos Tarracenses: On a Tarraconensis’ community in the list of the Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder

Abstract

In the list of urban communities of the Tarraconensis province and, in particular, of the district of the colony Caesar Augusta given by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia a very singular allusion to the foederati Tarracenses shines especially. The following paper deals with the still opened question of the geographic identification of that city –linking that with the archaeological site of Los Bañales (Uncastillo, Zaragoza)– and analyzes the possible moment in which the foedus between Rome and those Tarracenses could have been signed, probably in the context of the Hispanic bellum Sertorianum.