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Showing posts with the label Isidore

History of Christianity in Spain before 711 AD

Indigenous peoples and languages of the Iberian peninsula pre-dated Greek and Phoenician colonies, and conquests by Carthage and later Rome. For example, the languages spoken in the dark orange areas on the map (right) are classified as "Iberian" (non-Indo-European).  Roman domination replaced Carthaginian during the Second Punic War in 218 BC, although there were wars of resistance to Roman rule into the 100s BC, and the process of Romanisation lasted into the first century BC. The Romans called the peninusula "Hispania". Under the Romans Latin became the dominant language, by the 800s evolving into what is now Spanish (and Portuguese).  Writing the letter to the Romans sometime around 57-59 AD, the Apostle Paul expressed his desire to preach in what is now Spain. Based on references in Clement of Rome and the Muratorian Fragment, Paul may well have fulfilled his ambition, perhaps sometime between AD 63 and AD 67. A far less reliable tradition claims James the Gre...