Italica

To find Italica, you have to travel 12km outside of Sevilla to Santiponce. It’s rather difficult to find with rather sparse signage along the way. It’s a mere 3 euros to enter the site and worth every centavos.

The city of Italica started with the Battle of Ilipa and an attempt to banish the Carthaginians from Iberia during the Second Punic War. Ilipa turned the Romans and Scipio towards victory and led to the eventual defeat of Hannibal and the Carthaginians.

The city of Italica was founded in 206 BC to settle Roman soldiers wounded during Ilipa. The name Italica comes from “Italy” and is a call out to the army’s Italian origins.

Two of Rome’s emperors come from the city: Trajan and Hadrian, with Hadrian being Trajan’s successor to the throne. Though the city was considered rather popular amongst the aristocracy, it’s lifespan remained short. By the 3rd century the city began to decline and people left and moved to Sevilla in the South.

One of the more interesting nuggets of information about Italica comes from the Vintage Travel Blog: Excavations started way back in 1781 and have never ceased… in fact, Italica was so big that it’s unlikely ALL that the entire city will be fully excavated.

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