Helmantica
HELMA´NTICA [SALMANTICA] COIN OF HELMIANTICA.
Originally a fort inhabited by the Vetones tribe, Helmantica later belonged to the Roman province of Lusitania and is frequently mentioned in the sources. It was conquered by Hannibal (Polyb. 3.13.5-14, 9; Livy 21.5; Polyaenus 7.48, ΣαλματίδεςPtol. 2.5.7; Ant. It. 434.4; Ravenna Cosmographer 319.7).
It has a bridge of the Augustan period and mediaeval walls built over Roman walls dating from the end of the Republic. Incorporated in the mediaeval wall were various Roman funerary inscriptions of the Severan period which are unpublished and kept in a private collection. There are two boundary markers between Helmantica and Mirobriga, one in a private collection in Ciudad Rodrigo and the second in the Ledesma Church in Salamanca. No terra sigillata has been found, only pre-Roman pottery.
BIBLIOGRAPHYV. Bejarano, “Fuentes antiguas para la historia de Salamanca,” Zephyrus 6 (1955) 89-119.
J. M. BLAZQUEZ