Tarraco, modern Tarragona, at the east coast of Spain, is the oldest Roman settlement on the Iberian peninsula. It was the capital of the province Hispania Tarraconensis.
The Roman writer Pomponius Mela wrote in the first century AD about the city: "Tarraco is the richest harbour along this coastline". Numerous archaeological excavations carried out in the 1990s uncovered over 20 ha of the ancient harbour quarter. The commercial activity included trade in marble from imperial quarries, wine and flax.
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