Salamanca Essay

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Salamanca The origins of Salamanca are situated between the IV and III centuries BC. There were two different groups of settlers in Salamanca. On the one hand there were the Vettones, who was a farming community that lived off of the animals that they raised, and the Vacceos, who was an agrarian community that lived off of the crops that they grew. Both settlers believed in a God called ‘Helman’, and that is the most widespread explanation of why Salamanca was called ‘Helmatika’ at first. In the 2nd century BC, Hannibal defeated both settlers and conquered Helmantika. We know about this thanks to all the books that Latin writers, such as Plutarc or Tito Libio, wrote. These writers were the ones that started to change the name of the city. Some of them still used ‘Helmantika’ or some variations like ‘Hermandika’, but others started to use names more similar to Salamanca. Some of the names that were used to refer to Salamanca were ‘Salmantica’, used by Ptolomeo; ‘Salmatida’, a name given by Polienio or ‘Salmatides’, used by some Greek authors. The first text were ‘Salamanca’ is used is in a book written by Plutarc, where he talks about women in the Roman Empire. Apart from its name, Salamanca also has some history on its streets. Some of the names given to its streets refer to former artisan neighbourhoods like ‘Bordadores’, ‘Carniceros’ or ‘Herreros’. Some others are named after noblemen like ‘Sorias’ or ‘Cabrera’ (nowadays Espoz y Mina) or even after other places like ‘Gibraltar’. To sum up, Salamanca has always been a very important city for all of its settlers no matter the name they gave to it, a beautiful city full of both history and magic. Bibliography: - González Dávila, Gil. Historia de las antigüedades de la ciudad de Salamanca. Facsimil. Salamanca: Artus Taberniel, 1606. eBook. - Fernández Villegas, Francisco. Salamanca por dentro. Salamanca:
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