- Also known as
- Balbo, Cornelius Balbus, Lucius Cornelius Balbus
Lucio Cornelio Balbo (Lucius Cornelius Balbus, known as Balbus the Elder) was born in Gades, as Cádiz was then called, around 100 BCE. He is generally considered to have been of Phoenician origin. Pompey gave Roman citizenship to him and his family for their service against Sertorius in Spain, and Balbus went on to become one of the chief financiers in Rome.
He attached himself to Julius Caesar, who appointed him chief of staff in his praetorship in 62 BCE, took him to Spain the next year and to Gaul in 58 BCE as chief engineer. In 56 BCE he was prosecuted for illegally assuming the rights of a citizen; Cicero, Pompey and Crassus spoke for him and he was acquitted. In 40 BCE he became consul, the first naturalized Roman to hold the office. He kept a diary of the main events in his own and Caesar's life, which has not survived, and he died after 32 BCE.
The visible trace in Cádiz belongs to his nephew and namesake, Balbus the Younger, who had the Roman Theatre built in the 1st century BCE. It is known as the Theatrum Balbi, and the streets of El Pópulo grew over its remains. For a wider walk through the Roman and medieval layers of the old town, see things to do in Cádiz.
Places to see
In their time
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Roman Gades
237 BCE–5th century CE
After Carthaginian rule and the Roman takeover, Gades became a municipium under Julius Caesar and Augustus, famed for its fish sauce, merchants and dancers. Its theatre, built in the 1st century BCE, is among the largest known in Hispania.
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Roman Theatre of Cádiz (Theatrum Balbi)
50 BCE Monument
Cádiz's Roman Theatre is the oldest in Iberia: a first-century BCE Gades theatre under El Pópulo, free to enter, with the dig closed during expansion works.
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Columela
c. 4–70 Historical figure
Columela (Columella, c. AD 4 to c. 70) was the Roman farming writer from Gades. Read about his twelve-book De re rustica and the Roman Gades he wrote from.
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