Gadir/Gades, hinge among two worlds: maritime trade dynamics between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean (4th-1st C. BC).

Abstract

During the 4th and 3rd centuries BC the city of Gadir underwent a time of transition from an expansive and flourishing economic model to a more regional, limited and “Atlantic-oriented” one, which forced the local elites to reorganize their alliances, their lifestyle and their role facing Carthage and its allies, and other cities in the south of Iberia and in the Straits of Gibraltar area. However, the literary sources of the late Republican period emphasize the prosperity of the city at that time. Gades was indeed one of the most important ports of that period, in particular due to the activity of its wealthy elite of merchants and ship-owners. In the last two decades new archaeological discoveries have allowed a better understanding of how the Punic city (and its economic structures) transited towards the once again flourishing late-Republican bay, which was able to produce some of the greatest fortunes of the Augustan period. Our contribution aims to offer a panoramic view and an update of the interpretation of the role of the Bay of Cadiz as an essential intermediary in the economic and cultural dialogue established between the Mediterranean world and the Atlantic region between the late Punic and late Republican periods. Focusing on various case studies and the examination of the maritime trade dynamics, the paper analyses how the geostrategic position of the city, at a crossroad between two maritime realms and two continents, was decisive in consolidating its role as a regional power between the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. and how it became even more important in the context of the Roman expansion, a process that the ancient Phoenician elites were able to guide and exploit to their advantage.