Malaca
Malaca, known today as Málaga, is a historic city situated on the southern coast of Spain, along the Guadalmedina River. Founded by Phoenician colonists around 500 BC, it served as a significant trading hub, leveraging its large harbor for industries such as fishing and fish-sauce production. The city's name may derive from the Phoenician words "malac," meaning "to salt," or "malaka," meaning "trading post." Following a period of Carthaginian control, Malaca came under Roman rule after the Second Punic War, becoming a civitas foederata, which allowed it some autonomy. Remarkably, it was the only city in Spain at that time to continue minting coins in Punic script without acknowledging Rome. In the late first century AD, Malaca was granted Latin city status under Emperor Vespasian, which conferred Roman citizenship to its officials. Today, remnants of its Roman heritage, such as an ancient theater, offer glimpses into its storied past, although many archaeological traces are scarce. The city's rich history reflects the diverse cultural influences that shaped it over millennia.
Subject Terms
Malaca
(Málaga)
A city on the south coast of Spain, founded by the Phoenicians on the Guadalmedina river soon after 500 BC, and occupied by their colonists, described by the ancient authors as Libyphoenicians. Providing a market for the tribesmen of north Africa, they made use of their large harbor to develop substantial fishing and fish-sauce and salt-meat industries; some derive the city's name from malac, to salt, though malaka, trading post, is an alternative etymology.
A period of Carthaginian suzerainty followed in the third century BC. After the defeat of the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War (218–201), the town came under Roman control, but maintained the status of a treaty community (civitas foederata), loosely attached to the province of Further Spain (Hispania Ulterior, later Baetica). In the first years of the Principate Malaca was the only non-Roman and non-Latin (peregrine) city in Spain to continue to issue money without any reference whatever to Rome or to the imperial house, inscribing its coins in Punic characters. Its transfer by Vespasian (AD 69–79) to the status of Latin city (in which the annually elected officials obtained Roman citizenship) is recorded by a bronze tablet (the Lex Malacitana), which gives details of the legislation involved. In the 170s, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a group of African raiders attacked Malaca and a wide surrounding area, but were suppressed by the governor of Lusitania in 179. A bishop of Malaca was present at the Council of Illiberis (Elvira) c 310/315. Traces of ancient Malaca are scarce, but a theater of the Augustan period is in a good state. Elsewhere in the provinces there are remains of large Roman villas at Faro de Torrox and Rio Verde (Marbella).