Toletum

• a town of Spain, now Toledo, Liv. 35, 7; 39, 30. — Hence, adj.: Tŏlētānus, a, um, of Toletum: culter, Grat. Cyn. 34. — As subst.: Tŏlētāni, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Toletum, Liv. 35, 22; Plin. 3, 3, 4, § 25.

TOLE´TUM (Τώλητον, Ptol. 2.6.57: Eth. Toletani, Plin. Nat. 3.3. s. 4; Orelli, Inscr. no. 980), the capital of the Carpetani, in Hispania Tarraconensis, situated on the Tagus, and on the road from Emerita to Caesaraugusta, and connected also by another road with Laminium. (Itin. Ant. pp. 438, 446.) It was a very strong town, though only of moderate size, and famed for its manufacture of arms and steel-ware. (Liv. 35.7, 22, xxxix, 30; Grat. Cyneg. 341; cf. Miñano, Diccion. viii, p. 453.) According to an old Spanish tradition, Toledo was founded in the year 540 B.C. by Jewish colonists, who named it Toledoch, that is, mother of people,w hence we might perhaps infer a Phoenician settlement. (Cf. Miñano, 1. c.; Puente, Travels, 1. p. 27.) It is still called Toledo, and contains several remains of Roman antiquities, and especially the ruins of a circus. (Cf. Florez, Esp. Sayr. 5. p. 22; Puente, 1. p. 165, seq.)

Now Toledo; the capital of the Carpetani in Hispania Tarraconensis, situated on the river Tagus, which nearly encompasses the town.

Town in Carpetania, first mentioned in 193 B.C. as small but strongly fortified (Livy), but captured by M. Fulvius. His strategy was based on the Tagus and the plateau roads.

Roman villas with mosaics have been unearthed in the Vega (the Tagus plain NW of the city). The most important monument is the circus (ca. 400 m x 95 m), with some foundations, arches, passageways, the main arch, and a lateral gate with external stairway like that of the theater of Pompeii. There were also an amphitheater in the suburb of Covachuelas, a theater N of the circus, stretches of an aqueduct with earthworks, channels, cleaning wells, and an arch. Inside the town is the so-called cave of Hercules, an underground construction with semicircular arches and large ashlar masonry, and the praetorium which occupied the highest part towards the E. Besides the mosaics, the scanty finds consist of coins, including some native ones, and Celtiberian and Roman pottery.

J. Ainaud, Toledo (n.d.); M. González, Toledo (1929).