![]() When Justinian decided to reconquer the Vandal lands, his victorious general Belisarius continued along the coast, making Septem a westernmost outpost of the Byzantine Empire around 533. Their king Gaiseric focused his attention on the rich lands around Carthage although the Romans eventually accepted his conquests and he continued to raid them anyway, he soon lost control of Tingis and Septem in a series of Berber revolts. Vandals, probably invited by Count Boniface as protection against the empress dowager, crossed the strait near Tingis around 425 and swiftly overran Roman North Africa. The Marinid Walls, built by Abu Sa'id Uthman II in 1328 Under Theodosius I in the late 4th century, Septem still had 10,000 inhabitants, nearly all Christian citizens speaking African Romance, a local dialect of Latin. Roads connected it overland with Tingis (Tangiers) and Volubilis. It subsequently was romanized and thrived into the late 3rd century, trading heavily with Roman Spain and becoming well known for its salted fish. After the Battle of Thapsus in 46 BC, Caesar and his heirs began annexing north Africa directly as Roman provinces but, as late as Augustus, most of Septem's Berber residents continued to speak and write in Punic.Ĭaligula assassinated the Mauretanian king Ptolemy in AD 40 and seized his kingdom, which Claudius organized in AD 42, placing Septem in the province of Tingitana and raising it to the level of a colony. Punic culture continued to thrive in what the Romans knew as "Septem". Other good anchorages nearby became Phoenician and then Carthaginian ports at what are now Tangiers and Cádiz.Īfter Carthage's destruction in the Punic Wars, most of northwest Africa was left to the Roman client states of Numidia and-around Abyla- Mauretania. Beside Calpe, the other Pillar of Hercules now known as the Rock of Gibraltar, the Phoenicians established Kart at what is now San Roque, Spain. The Greek geographers record it by variations of Abyla, the ancient name of nearby Jebel Musa. The Phoenicians realized the extremely narrow isthmus joining the Peninsula of Almina to the African mainland makes Ceuta eminently defensible and established an outpost there early in the 1st millennium BC. Phoenician archeological site, dated to the 7th century BC, next to the Cathedral of CeutaĬontrolling access between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar is an important military and commercial chokepoint. These clipped forms continued as Berber Sebta and Arabic Sabtan or Sabtah ( سبتة), which themselves became Ceuta in Portuguese ( pronounced ) and Spanish (locally pronounced ). This was gradually shortened to Septem ( Σέπτον Sépton) or, occasionally, Septum or Septa. In particular, the Roman stronghold at the site took the name "Fort at the Seven Brothers" ( Castellum ad Septem Fratres). The settlement below Jebel Musa was later renamed for the seven hills around the site, collectively referred to as the "Seven Brothers" ( Greek: Ἑπτάδελφοι, translit. ![]() The name was hellenized variously as Ápini ( Greek: Ἄπινι), Abýla ( Ἀβύλα), Abýlē ( Ἀβύλη), Ablýx ( Ἀβλύξ), and Abilē Stḗlē ( Ἀβίλη Στήλη, "Pillar of Abyla") and in Latin as Abyla Mons ("Mount Abyla") or Abyla Columna ("the Pillar of Abyla"). The name of the mountain was in fact Habenna ( Punic: □□□, ʾbn, "Stone" or " Stele") or ʾAbin-ḥīq ( □□□□□, ʾbnḥq, "Rock of the Bay"), in reference to the nearby Bay of Benzú. ![]() The name Abyla has been said to have been a Punic name ("Lofty Mountain" or "Mountain of God") for Jebel Musa, the southern Pillar of Hercules. Spanish is the only official language, but Darija Arabic is prominent as well. There is also a small minority of Sephardic Jews and Sindhi Hindus, the latter of whom originate from current-day Pakistan. Its population consists mainly of Christians and Muslims. It was a regular municipality belonging to the province of Cádiz prior to the passing of its Statute of Autonomy in March 1995, henceforth becoming an autonomous city.Ĭeuta, like Melilla and the Canary Islands, was classified as a free port before Spain joined the European Union. It is one of several Spanish territories in Africa and, along with Melilla and the Canary Islands, one of only a few that are permanently inhabited by a civilian population. Ceuta ( UK: / ˈ sj uː t ə/, US: / ˈ s eɪ uː t ə/, Spanish: Arabic: سَبْتَة, romanized: Sabtah) is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.īordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
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