Ampurias

An ancient Greek trading settlement in Spain, 40 km northeast of present-day Gerona. It was originally a colony of Marseilles (Massalia), founded in the early 6th century BC. The town allied with Rome in the 3rd century BC and it became a Roman colony under Augustus (27 BC-14 AD). Ampurias was probably most prosperous between the 5th-3rd centuries BC, when it established extensive trading across the Mediterranean. Its commercial achievements were marked by the minting of coinage. But after Roman presence increased and the harbor began to silt up, the town declined. The end came at the destruction by the Franks in 265 AD.

[Roman Emporiae, from the Greek emporion: ‘market’]. A trading and staging post some 40 km northeast of presentday Gerona, in the Gulf of Rosas, Costa Brava, Spain, founded by Greeks from Massalia [now Marseilles] in the early 6th century bc. Ampurias was probably at its most prosperous in the 5th to 3rd centuries bc, when it established extensive trading links across the Mediterranean, especially with the towns of Magna Graecia, and marked its commercial achievements by minting its own coinage. The town became an ally of Rome in the 3rd century and was used by Scipio to land his army in 218 bc when he carried his offensive against the Carthaginians into Spain. Here as elsewhere, Greek settlement had from the beginning encountered considerable opposition from an indigenous community, and the new Roman presence seems to have brought some alleviation to the uneasy friction. But Roman reorganization was also instrumental in the town’s decline, by shifting the centre of administration to Tarraco. The original harbour had also begun to silt up, and was no doubt inadequate for the increased draught of Roman troops and merchant shipping. The end seems to have come with destruction by the Franks in 265 ad, after which no substantial rebuilding was attempted. Minor Christian communities used the area for burials and possibly settlement, and the deserted site suffered the usual fate of becoming a convenient quarry, in this case eventually for the village of L’Escala and the fortifications of Rosas and Perpignan. The last inhabitants seem to have been the monks of a small monastery, who continued the destruction by attempting to return the site to cultivation. The remains of the church and monastery underlie the present site museum. Three sites should be distinguished, (n) The original Greek settlement on what was an offshore island which, due to geological shift and alluvial silting, is now part of the mainland. It is believed to underlie the present village of Sant Marti d’Empuries. (Z>) The slightly later mainland Greek settlement, overlaid by subsequent Roman development. This site has been extensively excavated, and is now open to the public, (c) The indigenous settlement just inland, which was to become the basis for a later colony of Roman veterans. This site has only been partially excavated.