Sagunto and Numancia

Recreation and archetype in the Spanish imaginary of the 20th century

Abstract

After long siege the Iberian towns of Sagunto and Numancia were conquered, the former by the Carthaginian army (218 BC.), the other by the Romans (133 BC). From ancient times both towns were seen as examples of resistance and love of independence, and their memory remained as a subject in the Spanish literary tradition. From the early Nineteenth century they took a stronger meaning as national symbols of courage and sacrifice against the foreign enemy, a process similar to examples from other countries, such as Alésia or Masada as national “Lieux de Mémoire”.