Caesaraugusta

Caesaraugusta or Caesar Augusta was the name of the Roman city of Zaragoza, founded as a Colonia Inmune from Rome in 14 BC, possibly on December 23, on the intensely Romanized Iberian city of Salduie. Its foundation occurred in the context of the reorganization of the provinces of Hispania by Caesar Augustus after his victory in the Astur-Cantabrian wars.

The new city received the name of "Colonia Caesar Augusta". It enjoyed the privilege of bearing the full name of its founder, who entrusted its deductio, like many other tasks of the Empire, to his general and close friend Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.

Veteran soldiers of the legions IV Macedonica, VI Victrix and X Gemina, discharged after the hard campaign against the Asturians and Cantabrians, participated in the foundation of the city, with the double intention of guaranteeing the defense of the territory at the same time as establishing the presence of Rome in it. Zaragoza had the status of an Colonia Inmune, granting it certain privileges such as the right to mint coins or the exemption from paying taxes. The new citizens were attached to the Aniense tribe.

In the process of reorganization of Hispanic territories, three provinces were created, Tarraconense, Baetica and Lusitania, divided into juridical convents, minor districts with judicial and administrative functions; of these, the one governed by Caesaraugusta, the conventus juridicus Caesaraugustanus, was one of the largest of the seven into which the province of Tarraconense was divided. Caesaraugusta assumed from the beginning the role of regional head, replacing the colony Victrix Ivlia Celsa (in the current Velilla de Ebro).

The period of the city's greatest apogee in the first and second centuries brought many of the great public works, some of which can still be seen today: the forum, the river port, which made Caesaraugusta the main redistributor of goods in the Ebro valley, the public baths, the theater or the city's first bridge, located on the site of the current Stone Bridge and which was probably a work of ashlar or a mixture of stone and wood.

Water also played an important role in Roman Zaragoza, both for its location on the banks of the Ebro River and next to the mouth of the Huerva and Gállego rivers, as well as for its complex supply and irrigation systems. In addition to the aforementioned baths, a multitude of cisterns, fountains, sewers and various sections of lead and sanitation pipes have been documented.