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Bible Dictionaries
Spain
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or SPAIN . The extent of country to which in NT times the name Spain, or more strictly ‘the Spains,’ was given, was practically identical with modern Spain. In the earliest times of which we have any knowledge it was inhabited, at least in part, by a race supposed to be a mixture of the aboriginal Iberian population with immigrant Celts. In b.c. 236, Hamilcar, father of the great Hannibal, invaded the country from Carthage, and after nine years of conquest was succeeded by his son-in-law Hasdrubal, who in turn was succeeded by Hannibal, under whom about b.c. 219 the conquest of the country was practically completed. Hannibal used it as his base in the Second Punic War against Rome. The Romans first invaded Spain in 218, and after various successes and reverses constituted two provinces there in 197, known for centuries afterwards as Hispania Citerior (Tarraconensis) and Hispania Ulterior (Bætica), separated from one another by the Ebro. The mountainous districts in the NW. were not actually subdued till the time of the Emperor Augustus (b.c. 20). The country was valued for its agricultural products, as well as its precious metals. It became the most thoroughly Romanized of all the Roman provinces, and in nothing is St. Paul’s Roman attitude more evident than in his determination to proceed from Rome to Spain, rather than to Africa or to Gaul ( Romans 15:24 ). It is not known whether he carried out his plan. Spain claims more honoured names in Roman literature than any other country in the 1st cent. a.d., having been the birthplace of the two Senecas, Columella, Mela, Lucan, Martial, and Quintilian.
A. Souter.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Spain'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/s/spain.html. 1909.
