TravelTill

History of Minorca Island


JuteVilla
The island is known for its collection of megalithic stone monuments: navetes, taules andtalaiots, which speak of a very early prehistoric human activity. Some of the earliest culture on Minorca was influenced by other Mediterranean cultures, including the Greek Minoansof ancient Crete (see also Gymnesian Islands). For example the use of inverted plastered timber columns at Knossos is thought to have influenced early peoples of Minorca in imitating this practice.

The end of the Punic wars saw an increase in piracy in the western Mediterranean. TheRoman occupation of Hispania had meant a growth of maritime trade between the Iberianand Italian peninsulas. Pirates took advantage of the strategic location of the Balearic Islands to raid Roman commerce, using both Minorca and Majorca as bases. In reaction to this, the Romans invaded Minorca. By 121 BC both islands were fully under Roman control, later being incorporated into the province of Hispania Citerior.

In 13 BC Roman emperor Augustus reorganised the provincial system and the Balearic Islands became part of the Tarraconensisimperial province. The ancient town of Mago was transformed from a Carthaginian town to a Roman town.

Jews of Minorca

The island had a large Jewish population. The Letter on the Conversion of the Jews by a 5th century bishop named Severus tells of the conversion of the island's Jewish community in AD 418. Several Jews, including Theodore, a rich representative Jew who stood high in the estimation of his coreligionists and of Christians alike, underwent baptism. The act of conversion brought about, within a previously peaceful coexisting community, the expulsion of the ruling Jewish elite into the bleak hinterlands, the burning of synagogues, and the gradual reinstatement of certain Jewish families after the forced acceptance of Christianity and its supremacy and rule in order to allow survival for those who had not already
previous1234next
JuteVilla