ITALICA

ITA´LICA (Ἰτάλικα, Strab. 3. p. 141; Ptol. 2.4.13; ἸταλικήAppian, App. Hisp. 38; Steph. B. s. v.), a Roman city, in the country of the Turdetani, in Hispania Baetica, on the right bank of the Baetis, opposite HISPALIS( Seville), from which it was distant only 6 M. P. to the NW. ( Itin. Ant. p. 413, comp. p. 432.) It was founded by Scipio Africanus, on the site of the old Iberian town of Sancios, in the Second Punic War (B.C. 207), and peopled with his disabled veterans; whence its name, the Italian city.It had the rank of a municipium: it is mentioned more than once in the history of the Civil Wars: and it was the native place of the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius the Great, and, as some say, of the poet Silius Italicus. (See Dict. of Greek and Roan. Biog. s. v. ) Its coins, all of the imperial age, bear military emblems which attest the story of its origin, and on some of them is the title JULIA AUGUSTA.The city flourished under the Goths, and, for some time, under the Moors, who preserved the old name, in the form Talikaor Talca;but, in consequence of a change in the bed of the river, its inhabitants abandoned it, and migrated to Seville. Hence, in contradistinction to the city which (although far more ancient, see HISPALIS) became thus its virtual successor, Italica received the name of Old Seville( Sevilla la Vieja), under which name its ruins still exist near the wretched village of Santi Ponce, while the surrounding country retains the ancient name, los campos de Talca. The chief object in the ruins is the amphitheatre, which was in good preservation till 1774, when it was used by the corporation of Sevillefor river dikes, and for making the road to Badajoz. (Ford.) Mr. Ford also states, that on Dec. 12, 1799, a fine mosaic pavement was discovered, which a poor monk, named Jose Moscoso, to his honour, enclosed with a wall, in order to save it from the usual fate in Spain. Didot, in 1802, published for Laborde a splendid folio, with engravings and description. . . . . Now, this work is all that remains, for the soldiers of Soult converted the enclosure into a goat-pen.The only other portion of the ruins of Italica to be seen above. ground consists of some vaulted brick tanks, called La Casa de los Baños, which were the reservoirs of the aqueduct brought by Adrian from Tejada, 7 leagues distant. (Caes. B.C. 2.20; Bell. Alex. 53; Gell. Noct. Att. 15.13; Oros. 5.23; Geog. Rav.; Florez, Esp. S. vol. xii. pp. 227, foll.; Coins, ap. Florez, Med. de Esp. vol. 2. p. 477; Mionnet, vol. 1. p. 17, Suppl. vol. 1. p. 31; Sestini, p. 61; Eckhel, vol. 1. p. 23; Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 372; Ford, Handbook of Spain, pp. 63, 64.) [P. S.]