Mastia (or Massia of the Tartessians ) is an ancient Iberian settlement, belonging to the Tartessian confederation, once located in southeastern Spain. It has traditionally been associated with the city of Cartagena (Spain). The association has been made principally from the analysis of classical sources in the early 20th century by Adolf Schulten .
6-457: The first description of the city of Mastia appears in a poem entitled Ora Maritima ( Sea Coasts ) by the Latin poet Rufius Festus Avienius from the 4th-century AD. The poem claims to contain borrowings from the mythic 6th-century BC Massiliote Periplus . The description of Avienus reads: ... then the port is Namnatio that from the sea opens its curve near the town of Massienos. And at the bottom of
12-471: Is not identical with the historian Festus . Avienius made a free translation into Latin of Aratus ' didactic poem Phaenomena . He also took a popular Greek poem in hexameters , Periegesis, briefly delimiting the habitable world from the perspective of Alexandria , written by Dionysius Periegetes in a terse and elegant style that was easy to memorize for students, and translated it into an archaising Latin as his Descriptio orbis terrae ("Description of
18-503: The Gulf rise the high walls of the city of Massia ... Rufius Festus Avienus, Ora Maritima . However, there is currently no conclusive evidence that the Mastia of Avienus refers to the same site where Cartagena will be founded. Context and other geographic descriptions that precede and follow these lines suggest that it could refer to the same location. Some scholars locate Mastia somewhere near
24-554: The World's Lands"). Only Book I survives, with an unsteady grasp of actual geography and some far-fetched etymologies: see Ophiussa . He wrote Ora Maritima , a poem claimed to contain borrowings from the 6th-century BC Massiliote Periplus . Avienius also served as governor of Achaia and Africa . According to legend, when asked what he did in the country, he answered Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lavo, caeno, quiesco : I dine, drink, sing, play, bathe, sup, rest. However this quote
30-667: The ancient city of Carteia (near modern Gibraltar), at the head of the Bay of Algeciras . In addition to the Ora Maritima , there is also a reference to Mastia in the treaty between Rome and Carthage of 348 BC, as Μαστια Ταρσειων ( Mastia of the Tartessians ), which marked the Roman boundary on the Iberian Peninsula . For Hecataeus of Miletus know that some cities were dependent on or under
36-574: The influence of Mastia field and mentioned: Its mineral wealth, fisheries, and agriculture was the cause of the Kingdom of Tartessos keeping it in their area of influence. Avienius Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius (sometimes erroneously Avienus ) was a Latin writer of the 4th century AD. He was a native of Volsinii in Etruria , from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi. Avienius
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