Osca

OSCA


1. （Ὄσκα,Ptol. 2.6.68), a town of the Ilergetes in the N. of Hispania Tarraconensis, on the road from. Tarraco and Ilerda to Caesaraugusta ( Itin. Ant. pp. 391, 451), and under the jurisdiction of the last-named city. Pliny alone (3.3. s. 4) places the Oscenses in Vescitania. a district mentioned nowhere else. It was a Roman colony, and had a mint. We learn from Plutarch (Plut. Sert. 100.14) that it was a large town, and the place where Sertorius died. It is probably the town called Ileoscan (Ἰλεόσκαν) by Strabo, in an apparently corrupt passage (3. p. 161; v.Ukert, vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 451.) It seems to have possessed silver mines (Liv. 34.10, 46, 40.43), unless the argentum Oscensehere mentioned merely refers to the minted silver of the town. Florez, however (Med. 2.520), has pointed out the impossibility of one place sup. plying such vast quantities of minted silver as we find recorded in ancient writers under the terms argentum Oscense,signatum Oscense.;and is of opinion that Oscense in these phrases means Spanish, by a corruption from the, national name, Eus-cara. (Cf. Caes. B.C. 1.60; Vellei. 2.30.) It is the modern Huescain Arragon. (Florez, Med. 2. p. 513; Sestini, p. 176; Mionnet, 1. p. 46, Suppl. 1. p. 9.2; Murray's Handbook of Spain, p. 448.)


2. A town of the Turdetani in Hispania Baetica, which some have identified with Huescar, but which Ukert (vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 370) thinks must be. sought to. the W. of that place. (Ptol. 2.4.12; Plin. Nat. 2.1. s. 3.) The pretended coins, of this town are not genuine. (Florez, Med. l. e,;Sestini, p. 78; Mionnet, 1. p. 43, Suppl. 1. p. 40; Sestini, p. 78; Ukert, l. c.) [T.H.D]: COIN OF OSCA.