INTRODUCTION 5to earlier towns, as ltalica was to Hispalis (Seville), to serve both as a
cultural model and as a means of control.
At first these settlements were Roman enclaves, as in the case of
Emerita Augusta (Merida), founded to serve the needs of retired
veterans of Augustus's Cantabrian war, who received their pension by
being established as colonists. The former soldiers were granted land
in the vicinity of the city, which itself was adorned with all of the
necessities and most of the luxuries of Roman urban life. Such foun-
dations were centres from which Roman ideas and methods could
permeate outwards into the countryside and local indigenous settle-
ments, attracting emulation and ultimately assimilation. They could
also, with their veterans, serve as military centres should Roman rule
be opposed, although in practice indigenous resistance ended with
the conclusion of the wars of conquest. There was no Spanish Boudicca
or Vindex.
Distinctions in origin, appearance and character between Roman
and Celt-Iberian settlements were eroded in the period of the early
Empire, which is less surprising when it is considered that some of
the former, such as ltalica, had already existed for over two centuries.
Roman styles of country life and the villa economy also clearly estab-
lished themselves over older forms throughout most of the peninsula
at the same time. Compared to those effected by Rome the transfor-
mations that resulted from the subsequent history of early medieval
Spain are, however turbulent, less fundamental and all-embracing.
Perhaps though the most significant contribution of the Roman
period to the history of Spain came in the form of the introduction
of a religion. Although in the Epistle to the Romans St Paul had ex-
pressed a desire to go and preach in Spain, little more can be said
about Christianity in the peninsula before the third century.9 It is
thought that the influence of the African Church played the greatest
role in spreading the new religion into the Spanish provinces. By the
middle of the third century bishoprics can be found in Merida, Leon
and Zaragoza, and it was to the Church in Carthage they tuml.-J for
guidance rather than Rome.1O
Even after the conversion of Constantine in 312, which fundamen-
tally altered the status of Christianity inside the Empire, it is uncer-
tain how rapidly the classical paganism of the Roman cities and
surviving pre-Roman cults of the Iberian population gave way before
the imperially sponsored faith. At the end of the century a small
group of Spanish Christians around the emperor Theodosius I are