Send Gift Baskets to Cordoba, Spain

Neanderthal Man remains dating back to c. 42,000-35,000 BC are the first evidence of human presence in the area. There has been evidence of pre-urban settlements around the mouth of the Guadalquivir river since the 8th century B.C. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy. A payment first appears in history during the Carthaginian expansion across the Guadalquivir. 206 BC was the year that the Romans conquered Cordoba.

Marcus Claudius Marcellus (grandson of Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who had governed both Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior) established a Latin settlement alongside the preexisting Iberian settlement in 169 BC. A dispute exists over its founding date; it may have been in 152 BC. A siege was carried out by Viriatus between 143 BC and 141 BC on the town. There is evidence that a Roman forum was present in the city in 113 BC. The British Museum now houses the famous Cordoba Treasure, which combines local and Roman artistic traditions.

Corduba became a Roman colony between 46 and 45 B.C. under Colonia Patricia. Augustus resettled the city with veteran soldiers after Caesar sacked it in 45 for being loyal to Pompey. Throughout Hispania Ulterior, it became the capital of Baetica and was home to numerous temples and a forum. From Roman Cordoba came the philosopher Seneca the Younger, his father, the orator Seneca the Elder, and his nephew, the poet Lucan.

Through the early 4th century, Corduba’s bishop Hosius (Ossius) dominated the western Church during the late Roman period. In the late 6th century, Corduba became an important city under the Visigoths, who conquered it in the late Byzantine Empire (552-572).