Sagunto

Sagunto () or Sagunt () is an ancient city in Eastern Spain, in the modern fertile comarca of Camp de Morvedre in the province of Valencia. It is located in a hilly site, c. 30 km north of Valencia, close to the Costa del Azahar on the Mediterranean Sea. It was historically known as (Latin), and later Morvedre ().

History

During the 5th century BC, the Celtiberians built a walled settlement on the hill overseeing the plain; a stretch of cyclopean limestone slabs from the former temple of Diana survives, close to the modern church of Santa Maria, but the settlement site is still older. The city traded with Greek and Phoenician coastal colonies, and under their influence, minted its own coins. During this period the city was known as Arse (Ripollès i Alegre 2002). By 219 BC Saguntum was a large and commercially prosperous town, which sided with the local Greek colonists and Rome against Carthage, and drew Hannibal's first assault, his siege of Saguntum, the opening move of the Second Punic War. After a harsh resistance of several months, related by the Roman historian Livy, Saguntum was captured in 219 by the armies of Hannibal.

Hispania was not meekly pacified and Romanized, as the Iberian career of Quintus Sertorius makes clear. Saguntum minted coins under his protection, and continued to house a mint when, as Roman Saguntum, it was rebuilt and flourished with the rank of municipium. This later prosperity lasted most of the empire through, and is attested by...
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