Illiberis
ILLI´BERIS (Ἰλλιβερίς, Ptol. 2.4.11), or ILLI´BERI LIBERINI (Plin. Nat. 3.1. s. 3), one of the chief cities of the Turduli, in Hispania Baetica, between the Baetis and the coast, is identified by inscriptions with Granada. It is probably the Elibyrge (Ἐλιβύργη) of Stephanus Byzantinus. (Inscr. ap. Gruter, p. 277, No. 3; Florez, Esp. S. vol. 5. p. 4, vol. 12. p. 81 ; Mentelle, Geogr. Comp. Esp. Mod. p. 163; Coins ap. Florez, Med. vol. 3. p. 75 ; Mionnet, vol. 1. p. 15, Suppl. vol. 1. p. 28 Eckhel, vol. 1. p. 22.) [P. S COIN OF ILLIBERIS (I SPAIN).
ILLI´BERIS or ILLIBERRIS (Ἰλιβερίς), a town in the country of the Sordones, or Sardones, or Sordi, in Gallia Aquitania. The first place that Hannibal came to after passing through the Eastern Pyrenees was Illiberis. (Liv. 21.24.) He must have passed by Bellegarde. Illiberis was near a small river Illiberis, which is south of another small stream, the Ruscino, which had also on it a town named Ruscino. (Strab. p. 182.) Mela (2.5) and Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.4) speak of Illiberis as having once been a great place, but in their time being decayed. The road in the Antonine Itin. from Arelate (Arles) through the Pyrenees to Juncaria passes from Ruscino (Castel-Rousillon) to Ad Centuriones, and omits Illiberis; but the Table places Illiberis between Ruscino and Ad Centenarium, which is the same place as the Ad Centuriones of the Itin. [CENTURIONES, AD.] Illiberis is Elne, on the river Tech.
Illiberis or Illiberris is an Iberian name. There is another place, Climberris, on the Gallic side of the Pyrenees, which has the same termination. [AUSCI] It is said that berri, in the Basque, means a town.T he site of Illiberis is fixed at Elne by the Itins; and we find an explanation of the name Elne in the fact that either the name of Illiberis was changed to Helena or Elena, or Helena was a camp or station near it. Constans was murdered by Magnentius not far from the Hispaniae, in a castrum named Helena.( Eutrop. 10.9.) Victor's Epitome (100.41) describes Helena as a town very near to the Pyrenees; ,and Zosimus has the same (2.42; and Orosius (Oros. 7.29). It is said by some writers that Helena was so named after the place Was restored by Constantine's mother Helena, or by Constantine, or by some of his children; but the evidence of this is not given. The river of Illiberis is the TICHIS of Mela, and TECUM of Pliny, now the Tech. In the text of Ptolemy (Ptol. 2.10) the name of the river is written Illeris.
Some geographers have supposed Illiberis to be Collioure, near Post Vendre, which is a plain mistake.
[G.L](Ἰλλιβερίς). (1) The modern Tech, called Tichis or Techum by the Romans, a river in Gallia Narbonensis in the territory of the Sardones, rising in the Pyrenees and falling, after a short course, into the Mare Gallicum.
(2) A town of the Santones, on the above-mentioned river, at the foot of the Pyrenees. Constantine changed its name into Helĕna, whence the modern Elne.
Iberian oppidum built on an isolated butte in the plain of Roussillon, near the coastal river Iliberis (Strab. 4.1.6), now the Tech, at the foot of the Albère Massif. The importance and prosperity of the town is said to have declined under the early Empire (Plin. 3.32), but under Constantine it regained its role as a fortified place guarding the principal routes across the E Pyrenees. At this time it took the name of Castrum Helenae (Elne) in honor of the mother of Constantine. It was the see of a diocese from the 6th c. on.
The ancient settlement is directly under the mediaeval and modern town, and there is evidence of continuous human occupation since the 6th c. B.C. Recent emergency excavation has uncovered modest structures and pre-Roman storage pits in the upper town, and in the lower town a necropolis of the Early Christian era. The archaeological artifacts are preserved nearby in a museum in the cathedral buildings.
BIBLIOGRAPHYE. Espérandieu, Répertoire archéologique des Pyrénées-Orientales (1936) 28-29; “Informations,” Gallia 20 (1962) 611; 22 (1964) 473; 29 (1971) 369.
G. BARRUOL