Alfaro
Town in the upper Ebro valley 22 km SE of Calahorra, founded in 179 or 178 B.C. by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus on the site of the Iberian Illurci (Livy, Per. 41; Pomp. Festo 86.4). Its name is frequently mentioned in the war against Sertorius in 76 B.C. (Livy) and Pliny (3.24) describes it as oppidum Latii veteres within the Conventus juridicus Caesaraugustanus. During the agrarian reform of 133 B.C. an agricultural colony is also thought to have been established there. No inscriptions or remains have been found.
Coins were minted here, although they do not appear until the time of Tiberius, denoting that the town was a Latin municipium. The asses bear the bull and the semisses a bull's head with the laurel-crowned head of the emperor and the name Gracchurris.
BIBLIOGRAPHYFontes Hispaniae Antiquae III, 223ff; iv, 189; VIII, 134; RE VII, 1687; A. García y Bellido, “Las colonias romanas de Hispania,” Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español 29 (1959) 448ff.
A. BELTRAN