Hispania

In Cáceres and Trujillo the most striking influence is that of the conquistadors who ventured to the New World from this backwater and changed the course of history in Latin America, sweeping aside the great Inca and Aztec empires.

But in Mérida, the third city in Extremadura that we stayed in, there are traces of a much earlier all conquering empire - that of the Romans. It stands on the site of Emerita Augusta which was founded in 15 BC by the Emperor Augustus in order to strengthen the defence of Lusitania, the south- west region of the Roman territory of Hispania and provide a place for his legionaries to retire. Imagine the relief of a soldier at being pensioned off here after a hardship posting to Hadrian's Wall where you have to fend off revolting Scotsmen coming at you in skirts in the freezing rain.

Mérida's visible relics of its predecessor city include an amphitheatre, a theatre, a chariot racing circus, city walls and fortress, an arch, a couple of bridges and aqueducts, various mansion houses, a temple to Diana and the forum. There is also a museum of Roman Art which hosts the many treasures found across the city and gives a good idea of how these people lived.

The Aqueduct of Miracles, Merida

The infrastructure, jewelry, the size and grandeur of the houses and public buildings and the extent of leisure facilities shows a standard of living and wealth that a small part of the modern world has been able to exceed only in the last couple of hundred years. 30,000 people (the entire population) could watch chariot racing at the Circus while 15,000 could watch gladiators fight wild animals, the forerunner of bullfighting, at the amphitheatre.

Rehearsals at the Roman Theatre - still being used in its original purpose

Modern Mérida holds an annual drama festival in July and August which makes use of various ancient sites including the theatre where we saw rehearsals for a music and dance production. Then as night fell over the Temple of Diana, we watched a production of "The Trojan Women", a Greek tragedy written by Euripides nearly 2500 years ago and performed by a local group.

The Trojan Women, Temple of Diana

But within 400 years the Romans had lost control of Hispania and in turn Visigoths, Moors and Spanish Christians built their own fortifications, palaces and places of worship on top of the Roman ones, recycling the materials in the process.  So the city the Romans built lives on in Mérida, not only in the ruins they left but also in the subsequent buildings.  Of course all subsequent cultures here have owed something to their legacy, not least the various languages descended from Latin.  Politically and economically the Romans had such power that they achieved a degree of integration across Europe that no one has achieved since.  Ironically the current efforts to achieve European integration are turning into a modern Greek tragedy.