the Ebro, and the Andalusian, and each of these was presumably subdivided into various branches:  this writing seems to have originated at a very early period, and to be traceable rather to the old Greek than to the Phoenician alphabet.  There is even a tradition that the Turdetani (round Seville) possessed lays from very ancient times, a metrical book of laws of 6000 verses, and even historical records; at any rate this tribe is described as the most civilized of all the Spanish tribes, and at the same time the least warlike; indeed, it regularly carried on its wars by means of foreign mercenaries.  To the same region probably we must refer the descriptions given by Polybius of the flourishing condition of agriculture and the rearing of cattle in Spain—­so that, in the absence of opportunity of export, grain and flesh were to be had at nominal prices—­and of the splendid royal palaces with golden and silver jars full of “barley wine.”  At least a portion of the Spaniards, moreover, zealously embraced the elements of culture which the Romans brought along with them, so that the process of Latinizing made more rapid progress in Spain than anywhere else in the transmarine provinces.  For example, warm baths after the Italian fashion came into use even at this period among the natives.  Roman money, too, was to all appearance not only current in Spain far earlier than elsewhere out of Italy, but was imitated in Spanish coins; a circumstance in some measure explained by the rich silver-mines of the country.  The so-called “silver of Osca” (now Huesca in Arragon), i. e.  Spanish -denarii- with Iberian inscriptions, is mentioned in 559; and the commencement of their coinage cannot be placed much later, because the impression is imitated from that of the oldest Roman -denarii-.

But, while in the southern and eastern provinces the culture of the natives may have so far prepared the way for Roman civilization and Roman rule that these encountered no serious difficulties, the west and north on the other hand, and the whole of the interior, were occupied by numerous tribes more or less barbarous, who knew little of any kind of civilization—­in Intercatia, for instance, the use of gold and silver was still unknown about 600—­and who were on no better terms with each other than with the Romans.  A characteristic trait in these free Spaniards was the chivalrous spirit of the men and, at least to an equal extent, of the women.  When a mother sent forth her son to battle, she roused his spirit by the recital of the feats of his ancestors; and the fairest maiden unasked offered her hand in marriage to the bravest man.  Single combat was common, both with a view to determine the prize of valour, and for the settlement of lawsuits; even disputes among the relatives of princes as to the succession were settled in this way.  It not unfrequently happened that a well-known warrior confronted the ranks of the enemy and challenged an antagonist by name; the defeated champion then surrendered his mantle