CÁSTULO (Cazlona) Jaén, Spain.
An Ibero-Roman city of Baetica in the environs of Linares, inhabited from the end of the Neolithic Age on and famous for the nearby silver mines of Sierra Morena. It has produced fragments of Greek black-figure vases from the end of the 6th c. B.C., red-figure vases from the first half of the 4th c. B.C., and some kraters of the same date from Italy. It was the largest city in Oretania (Strab. 3.156) and closely tied to the Carthaginian party (Livy 24.41). Nearby was the Baebelo mine, which paid Hannibal 300 pounds of silver per day (Plin. 33.96).Castulo played a large part in the beginning of the Roman conquest (App. Iberia 16; Livy 26.19). The inscriptions on its coins were in native alphabets. It has contributed a few good Roman portraits, one in a toga of the Flavian period, many Hispanic sigillata and Roman gems, architectural fragments, Roman glass, and animalistic sculpture such as Iberian and Roman lions, all now in the Archeological Museum of Linares. Stelai with human figures in relief are in the Archaeological Museum of Madrid. Many inscriptions have been found there, one of them a fragment of an olive oil law of Hadrian. Iberian, Roman, and Visigothic necropoleis are well documented. Castulo was surrounded by walls and had several temples, a theater, and a circus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. D'Ors & R. Contreras, “Nuevas inscripciones romanas en Cástulo,” ArchEspArq 29 (1956) 118-27I; J. M. Blázquez, “Cástulo en las fuentes histórico-literarias anteriores al Imperio,” Oretania 21 (1965) 123-28; G. Trías, “Estudio de las cerámicas áticas decoradas de la necrópolis del Molino de Caldona (Cástulo),” ibid. 10-11 (1969) 222-33I.J. M. BLÁZQUEZ