Iulia Traducta

Iulia Traducta was a Roman city in Andalusia, Spain, on the site of the modern Algeciras.

The location of the city of Iulia Traducta has been widely debated by historians. The traditional hypothesis identified the city of Iulia Traducta with the town of Tarifa, or a location within that municipality. According to Pliny the town was in Mauretania, on the African coast. Strabo, calling it Iulia Ioza, says it was on the Mediterranean coast of Hispania Baetica. Some historians have even identified Iulia Traducta with the town of Baelo Claudia in Baetica.

However, the latest research and the discovery of several important archaeological sites in the neighboring city of Algeciras have caused investigators to reconsider the matter. One of the most important sources for determining the location of various cities of Hispania was the Antonine Itinerary, a description of the Roman municipalities along the various roads of the time. This document does not name the city of Iulia Traducta in the Bay of Algeciras, but in the place that it should occupy, halfway between Carteia and Mellaria, it places Portus Albus. The Ravenna Cosmography places the mansion of Transducta between Gartegia (Carteia) and Cetraria (Caetaria), identified as being respectively in the north and south of Algeciras Bay, but does not name Portus Albus. The hypothesis most widely accepted today is that Portus Albus stood within the present town of Algeciras, north of the city of Iulia Traducta in the old town. However, we must not dismiss the possibility that Portus Albus was a vernacular name of the city, or the name given to its port.

The city is named by classical sources such as Pliny the Elder, Marcian of Heraclea and Pomponius Mela. However Pliny, in an obscure or inaccurate passage, places the city in Mauritania. According to Strabo, between 33 and 25 BC part of the population of the North African city of Colonia Iulia Constantia Zilitanorum (Zilis) was moved to the Iberian peninsula and settled at Iulia Traducta. Strabo also notes that some people were moved from Tingi (modern Tangier), so the town was also called Tingentera, a contraction of Tingis Altera, or "the other Tangier". The historian Pomponius Mela was born in Tingentera, which he said was founded after the transfer of the populations of Zilis and Tingis to the peninsula. Coins issued in Tingis have the inscription Tingis Maior ("Greater Tingis"), suggesting the existence of a Tingis Minor or Tingis Altera.

...
Wikipedia