A history of Lorca, part 2: the Romans, the Moors and the Christian Reconquista

Lorca from the 1^st century BC to the 13^th Century AD

By the time of the last years before the birth of Christ permanent settlements had existed for many centuries at the site of the current city of Lorca and in other parts of the municipality.

Early pre-history had given way to the cultures of the Argar people and the Iberians, and Lorca had become important due to the defensive impregnability of the hill on which the castle now stands, the fresh water supply provided by the Guadalentín and other rivers and the fertility of the surrounding farmland on the Guadalentín plain. For further information regarding pre-history in Lorca see the first part of this series of articles outlining the history of Lorca.

However, in Lorca as elsewhere in Spain it was not the Iberians who would continue to exploit the natural resources: first the Romans, then the Visigoths and the Moors took control of the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, and by the time the latter were expelled by Christian forces in the 1240s Lorca was fully equipped to become a heavily fortified frontier town between Christian and Moslem kingdoms…

Lorca, or Eliocroca, in the Roman Empire

Iberian domination of Lorca was unsettled by events further along the coastline in Cartagena, as the Punic wars between the Romans and Carthaginians in the Mediterranean led to a chain of events which culminated in the invasion of Cartagena by the Romans.

To summarise as coherently as possible: The Carthaginians were colonists from Phoenicia in the far east of the Mediterranean, on the coastline of what is now Lebanon, Syria and Israel, who established themselves in the city of Carthage on the African coast.

Around 1200 BC a great shift in the balance of power unsettled the ancient world and populations were displaced, and it was at this point that some of the Phoenicians migrated first to Egypt and then throughout the Mediterranean. This was when Carthage was founded, and from here trade was controlled across the French, African and Spanish coasts, where other Phoenicians settled. Amongst their settlements was one in Cádiz, further along the Andalucian coastline, the Phoenicians trading all along the Mediterranean coastline to become a powerful trading nation.

But eventually this power led to conflict with Rome, and as a result the Punic Wars were fought between the Carthaginians and the Romans in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC. After the first Punic War (264-241 BC) Rome annexed Sicily and took control of Corsica and Sardinia, and some of the Carthaginians retreated towards the Iberian Peninsula, where they tried to win back some of their lost prestige and increase their economic resources by expanding their influence and control in the south of the peninsula.

The south and east of the peninsula were under the control of the Barca clan, and it was a member of this clan, the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal, son-in-law of Hamilcar and brother-in-law of Hannibal, who "founded" the city of Cartagena in 227 BC giving it the name of Qart-Hadast. In effect, then, the Carthaginians almost certainly took over the trading city which already existed under the Mastians and Iberians.

After Hasdrubal’s death at the hands of a Celtic slave in 221 BC, Hannibal became the commander-in-chief of all Carthaginian forces in Hispania. He created a powerful army, encouraged the mining activity of the Sierra Minera in Cartagena and built a chain of watchtowers right along the coast to alert the citadel to any foreign ships.

After the first Punic War Rome and Carthage had signed a treaty by which Carthaginian influence was not to extend beyond the River Ebro. However, when Hannibal attacked Sagunto (just to the south of the Ebro) this sparked a second conflict which soon escalated into the second Punic War (218-202 BC).

Eventually Hannibal decided to confront the Romans on their own territory, and set off on the military expedition across the Alps, complete with elephants, which has cemented his name into history and legend. But in 209 BC, while he was away, the Roman Commander Publius Cornelius Scipio made a surprise attack on Cartagena, conquered the city and ousted the Carthaginians after just 18 years.

From this point on, the Romans gradually spread inland and further along the coast, cementing their dominance, establishing strong communications routes and exploiting the resources of their conquered territories.

When the Romans began their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula the town named "Eliocroca" was a well-defended trading post on two main communications routes; one linked eastern and southern Spain, while the other ran from the coast towards the centre of the Iberian Peninsula, and this latter road was to become the Via Augusta under Roman rule.

Myths surrounding the name of Eliocroca

It is most likely from the Romans and/or the Moors that the modern-day name of Lorca is derived, but there are other theories or legends regarding its origins.

There are Roman documents which refer to the town of “Eliocroca,” which is specified as being 44 miles from Cartagena and on the Via Augusta, but since no remains of that town have been identified the link between Eliocroca and modern-day Lorca can only be assumed. This lack of certainty, and a similar absence of any indication of where the Roman name comes from, have led to some speculation and a variety of different theories.

One of these, put forward in 1649, is that Eliocroca was actually founded centuries before the arrival of the Romans by a Trojan prince named Elio and a Greek whose name was Crota. Echoes of this idea are found in more versions: one talks of a Trojan named Elio-Urzues, while another specifies that “in the year 4018 after the creation of the world” Elio founded a city which he called Ilorci.

It has also been posited that the name of Eliocroca was a combination of the Greek words Helios (sun) and Kraton (government), a combination which would tie in nicely with the adopted nickname of “Ciudad del Sol”, or city of the sun.

But although the reason for the Romans referring to Eilocroca is not certain, what can be surmised is that the Moors later adapted it to “Lurqa”, which in their language meant “the battle”, possibly commemorating a conflict between the Christian forces and the invading north Africans in the early 8^th century.

Eliocroca was very close to the Roman road, which followed the Guadalentín to the river Corneros, and on one of the banks a milepost commemorating the Emperor Diocletian (284-305 AD) has been discovered: this is one of the main pieces of evidence which links the settlement referred to as Elicroca with the city of Lorca.

So although it is difficult to prove unequivocally that the Iberian settlement in Lorca is that known as Elicroca, the Roman remains found and subsequent documentation point to this being the case and the Romans were certainly active in the area, farming and exploiting the natural agricultural resources and acting as an important trade settlement on the Vía Augusta.

At the same time, commercial activity was complemented by activities such as agriculture, cattle farming, earthenware pottery and metallurgy, especially work with silver, and from the first century AD onwards the inhabitants of the centre of Lorca lived side by side with the populations of the Roman agricultural villas and other enclaves scattered around the fertile land of the Guadalentín valley.

No doubt the town grew as a result of the intensive trading activity carried out by the Romans throughout their occupation of the area, bringing with them new roads, along which other settlements sprung onto existence. The importance of the Roman period of Eliocroca, even though it was always overshadowed by Cartagena, is borne out by its having its own bishop as Christianity spread throughout Europe, a situation which is chronicled in the 4^th century.

In addition, an extensive Roman burial ground has been found in the outskirts of Lorca, in the area now known as the Casa de las Ventanas in La Torrecilla, and this has been named the “Eliocroca cemetery”. This was one of many villas where farming and agricultural production were managed from the 2^nd century AD onwards, when there was a high level of stability in the rural population with more than 40 villas distributed around what is now the municipality.

The most important of these were the ones in Los Villares, on the banks of the River Turilla, La Torre de Sancho Manuel in Cazalla, La Hoya de la Escarihuela, and the Casa de las Ventanas. Life in these Roman villas centred on the agricultural exploitation of the plains next to the River Guadalentín, and most of the larger ones in Lorca were near springs or streams, which favoured the development of structured farming at the same time as providing a water supply for baths and ponds.

At the same time as the great villas of the Lorca countryside there also appeared small farms on the plains near sources of water, which were home to more modest settlements and lower levels of production. The excavations in La Quintilla, in the foothills of Peña Rubia, have made it possible to document one of the more important of these, which is known to have belonged to a wealthy and important member of local society under Roman rule, and among the items unearthed here are some spectacular mosaics.

Artefacts found during the period of Roman occupation can be seen in Salas 7 and 8 of the Municipal Archaeological Museum.
 

The impregnability of Lorca in the age of the Visigoths

From the little of which we can be certain the fifth century was an unsettled time, as the bloated western Roman Empire fell, paving the way for a series of raids across Europe by the Barbarians and other tribes.

The Roman Empire was now divided into two: it was the western part which was invaded and crumbled in 476, although the eastern (or “Byzantine”) Empire survived for another thousand years or so, with its capital in Constantinople. The Romans were ejected from Cartagena by the Vandals fifty years before the fall of the Empire in 409. In a subsequent battle which was won by the Visigoths in 425 the city was reportedly laid to waste, but the Byzantines occupied the area in 551 in an effort to re-take their former territories.

In a deal which resolved a Visigoth power struggle they took Cartagena and made it the capital of the province of Spania, which included land from Málaga to Cartagena and included Lorca.

This is a very confusing period of history in Spain – not for nothing is it referred to as the Dark Ages in northern Europe, but although there is very little documentary evidence of what happened during this period, there was relative peace until approximately 620, when the Visigoths returned.

Archaeological evidence confirms that Eliocroca continued as a town until beyond the 5th century.

One of the reasons for the town’s continuous existence may be that the strategically advantageous situation of Lorca made it an ideal place for the Byzantines to establish a frontier settlement to guard against the Visigoths, providing a first line of inland defence for Cartagena.

The small amount of tangible evidence gleaned from archaeological research confirms only that the economic influence of the town must have extended throughout the Guadalentín valley, which remained an important communications route surrounded by large rural areas, and goods and products imported through Cartagena reached these rural areas.

The near impregnability of the citadel of Lorca, atop the Cerro del Castillo, meant that realistically the only way it could be conquered was if the town surrendered, and this is probably the explanation for it never having fallen into the hands of the Visigoths. It was not until the Moors invaded that the rural and widespread society of the later Roman years was replaced by a more urban walled city, with gates that opened out onto the rich surrounding farmland, which was and indeed it is one of the cities mentioned in the Pact of Tudmir by which control was passed to the Moors in 713.
 

Lurqa, capital of Tudmir

The armies of Islam arrived from north Africa in the kingdom of the Visigoths in 711, transforming the social, economic and political landscape almost immediately during a rapid conquest which was sealed by pacts with the vanquished leaders. One of these was the Pact of Tudmir, which was signed in 713 by Theodomir, the Visigoth leader at the head of the south-east of Spain of that name, and the Emir Abd al-Aziz.

By the terms of this treaty the conquerors promised to respect the lives, possessions and customs of the Visigoths and other natives in exchange for merchandise and money, plus seven cities, among which was Lorca. The Moors referred to the city as Lurqa, and transformed it into one of the most important nuclei of population in eastern Al-Andalus.

After the invasion the city of Lorca was quickly Islamicized, and was one of the locations most frequently chosen by Arabs settling in the peninsula. In fact, Lorca became the capital of Tudmir, replacing Orihuela on the grounds that its geographical situation was more favourable, acting as a gateway to the south-east of the Levante coastline.

In the 9^th century, though, a series of internal conflicts combined with pressure from the natives of the area of Murcia to force the Emir Abd al-Rahman II to found a new city on the banks of the river Segura. This new settlement was Mursiya, the forerunner of the current city of Murcia.

Despite the growth of the new city, Lorca still enjoyed its position as the leading city in Tudmir for many years before Murcia outstripped it in terms of size and prestige, and became the new capital.

The Caliphate and the kingdoms of the Taifas

In the second half of the ninth century the political unity of Al-Ándalus began to show signs of cracking, and a number of local leaders grew in importance and power. In Lorca, power was assumed by a leader named Daysam, who created an independent state.

But this state of affairs was only temporary, and later the territory of Tudmir was reincorporated into a larger state which was to become the most prosperous and powerful in the West of Europe: the Caliphate of Córdoba.

When Abd al-Rahman III was made Caliph in the year 929, the way was opened towards a prolonged period of peace and prosperity throughout Al-Ándalus, and Lorca was to play an important role as one of the most important cities in the Caliphate. There was no serious military threat to the city, so it was not walled in at this point, except for the central “alcazar” (or castle). In the rest of the tenth century new irrigation channels and streams were channeled into the surrounding farmland, bringing about a regeneration of the rural areas.

The Caliphate of Córdoba, though, was not to last forever, and in the early 11^th century it began to disintegrate into “Taifas”, which were small independent Moorish kingdoms, with capital cities in the main Hispano-Muslim settlements of the time. During the age of the Taifas Lorca belonged successively to Almería, Valencia and Seville, as for long periods the city seemed to belong more to the west than to the area of Murcia.

There were no serious armed conflicts during this period of de-centralization, and as a result the growth in population and agriculture was maintained, supported above all by the irrigation systems of the “huerta” around Lorca.

Graudally, though, this stability was threatened by internal conflicts and by the growing pressure from the Christian kingdoms of Navarra, Castilla and Aragón in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, and it was against this backdrop that in 1147 Ibn Mardanis, one of the leading henchmen of the King of Zaragoza, proclaimed himself king of Murcia.

Known by the Christian population as the Rey Lobo (“Wolf King”), Ibn Mardanis built a powerful state within Al-Ándalus, halting the advance of the Almohad Caliphate through the south of the peninsula. During his reign Lorca was thus a frontier citadel, guarding Murcia from the Almohads, and there were hosts of Christian military allies housed in the city: this situation would later be mirrored after the Christian Reconquista, when Lorca was an outpost in Murcia close to the frontier with the Nasrid dynasty of Granada.

But Ibn Mardanix died in 1172, a year after Lorca was reincorporated into the Almohad Caliphate.

During the five centuries of Moorish rule which ended in 1243 Lurqa developed into a major city, its prosperity based on the rich farmland and the irrigation network, with large farms like those of Feli, Los Algüeces, La Quintilla and Torralba lying in the countryside.

It is known that the town itself was dominated by a fortress, below which the residents engaged in trade and craftwork. Where nowadays there are the bell-towers of the churches of San Juan, Santa María and San Pedro, under the Moors there would have been the minarets of mosques, and local trading took place in markets within the city walls.

These walls were not built until the reign of the Wolf King, and gates would have allowed traders in and out as they travelled between Lorca and Águilas, which at this point temporarily superseded Cartagena as the main trading port of Lorca.

Salas 9 and 10 of the Municipal Archaeological Museum hold a wide range of exhibits from this period in the history of Lorca.

The Christian Reconquista of the 13^th century

Eventually, in the first half of the 13^th century, the military might of the Christian kingdoms in the north proved too great to resist, and in 1243 the Treaty of Alcaraz was signed by Prince Alfonso of Castilla, representing his father Fernando III, and the authorities of Murcia.

By the terms of this treaty the Castilians received the fortresses of the area and a tax payment in return for respecting the Moors’ lives, property, customs and religion. Lorca initially resisted the authority of Murcia but was forced to capitulate in 1244, when it was finally taken over.

After the conquest Lorca continued to be the focal point of an area rich in agriculture and craftsmanship, but due to its location on the frontier with other kingdoms it was difficult for agricultural activity to grow any further. Lorca was a key element in strengthening the Christians’ rule over the south-east, and was also the base for military incursions into enemy territory, and this inevitably made it more of a military outpost than a stable agricultural community.

Consequently the population fell, with survival in the area becoming increasingly difficult due not only to the continual danger of war and captivity, but also to various epidemics, a lack of land maintenance, and the harshness of the semi-desert climate. Repeated raids by the Nasrids from Granada led eventually to a shift from crop farming to cattle farming, since it was easier to save at least some of a herd of cattle than it was to rescue a field of vegetable or cereal crops in the face of an enemy raid.

The dangers of life on the frontier also brought about changes in the urban life of Lorca, as the population, afraid for their lives, gradually moved inside the city walls and the fortress itself.

The frontier lifestyle also contributed to the formation of a new social order in Lorca, because in times of war it became a mine of opportunity for the under-privileged: a poor commoner could become a nobleman almost overnight through his military exploits, as in the last years of the Reconquista war was considered to be a socially prestigious occupation.

Sala 11 of the archaeological museum holds a model showing Lorca in 1266 as well as a range of exhibits from this period.

For the continuation of the history of Lorca see the third and final part of this historical summary.

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