Caesaraugusta

Caesaraugusta was a Roman city at the site of the modern city of Zaragoza in present-day Aragon, Spain. It was founded in the late first century BCE during the reign of Emperor Augustus and named in his honor as a colonia for veteran troops. The settlement marked a deliberate reorganization of the region’s Roman urban network.

It became an important urban center in the province of Hispania Tarraconensis and served as the capital of the conventus Caesaraugustanus, an administrative district within the province. The city was laid out on a typical Roman grid with a main north–south cardo and a cross-town decumanus, and it evolved with public buildings and infrastructure that supported its role as a regional hub.

Public facilities included a theatre, a forum with official buildings, baths, temples, and water-management infrastructure such as an aqueduct and bridges over the Ebro River. The architectural remains indicate a municipial status and the city’s importance for trade, law, and culture in the early Roman Empire.

Archaeological remains are dispersed through Zaragoza’s historic center, and excavations have uncovered the theatre, the forum precinct, bath complexes, and other public spaces. Many fragments are preserved in on-site exposure or housed in the city’s museums, providing insight into daily life and urban planning in Caesaraugusta.

After the mid–3rd century, the city experienced decline as Roman authority waned, but it continued to be inhabited through Visigothic and Moorish periods. The modern city of Zaragoza grew upon the Roman street layout, and the name Caesaraugusta remains primarily in scholarly and archaeological contexts as a historical reference to the ancient city.