To speak of Baetica is to talk about the history of Rome itself. This province was, for almost three hundred years, where some of the most important issues affecting Rome as a state and civilization were decided. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight some of these relevant historical facts, which will allow the reader to grasp the importance of the region within that huge mosaic of territories that was the Roman Empire.

The Roman province of Baetica was created by the emperor Augustus from part of a large republican province, Hispania Ulterior, around 16 BC. (The rest of the territory formed the Roman province of Lusitania.) It comprised most of the contemporary Spanish region of Andalusia and the south of Extremadura. Definitely, the heart of the new Roman province was the valley of the Guadalquivir river, known as the Baetis in Antiquity, and its tributary, the Genil river (Singilis in Latin). Both these rivers were navigable in Antiquity. The territory surrounding them was very fertile, and the mountainous area that delimited the region currently contains significant examples of mines worked in Roman times. The region was inhabited by Iberians and Turdetans in the interior, by Celtic tribes in mountainous areas, and by Phoenician settlers on the coasts and major ports.

Since the battle of Baecula (208 BC), the territory had become entirely dependent on Rome, which thus managed to hold sway over the Carthaginian supply centre in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. After the battle of Ilipa (206 BC), effective control was absolute and Rome adopted a policy of conquest and subjugation of a region that enjoyed enormous agricultural and mineral wealth. Those lands, men, and resources that had enabled Hannibal to wage war against and almost annihilate Rome, were now available to the victors of the Second Punic War. Almost immediately, the founding of Roman and Italic settlements and cities helped control the newly conquered territory: Italica (206 BC), Carteia (171 BC), and Córdoba (152 BC). Hispania Ulterior Baetica was the first province outside Italy, and thus a true laboratory of design and administration later applied in other territories, creating a modus operandi: respect for local autonomy in cultural or religious matters, close economic control, and the absence of provincial administrative posts.