city state · Iberia

Emporion

575 BCE – 195 BCE (approx.) · capital Emporion

The Greek trading city of Empúries in Catalonia, founded from Massalia, where the Romans first landed in Iberia in 218 BCE.

Origins

Around 575 BCE Phocaean Greeks from Massalia (Marseille) set up a trading post on a small island at the mouth of the Fluvià, now Sant Martí d'Empúries. Its name means 'market'. A larger new town, the Neapolis, soon grew on the mainland shore beside a native settlement of the Indigetes.

Rule and society

Emporion was a self-governing Greek polis trading wine, oil and fine pottery for grain, metals and textiles from the Iberian interior. It coexisted closely with its Indigetan neighbours, and from the 5th century BCE minted silver drachms, later with a Pegasus design that Iberian mints copied. Strabo notes a temple of Ephesian Artemis, and a famous statue of Asclepius was found in its sanctuary.

Decline and legacy

Allied with Rome, Emporion was the landing point of Gnaeus Scipio in 218 BCE and of Cato in 195 BCE, when he crushed the revolt of the north-east. A Roman town grew beside it, and under Augustus the two merged as the municipium of Emporiae.

Lineage

EmporionHispania Citerior 197 BCE – 27 BCE

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Emporion. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/emporion
MLA
“Emporion.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/emporion. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Emporion.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/emporion.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Emporion’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/emporion (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻