Description : Coca is a municipality in the province of Segovia, central Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile and Leon. It is located 50 kilometres northwest of the provincial capital city of Segovia, and 60 kilometres from Valladolid. Castillo de Coca, a 15th-century Mudéjar-style castle is located in the town. It was also the birthplace of Roman Emperor Theodosius I in 347 CE. The town had a population of 2,131 in 2009. In the Second Iron Age , from 500 a. C., the city of Cauca of the classic texts, is one of the most prosperous cities in the Duero Valley. It has between 6,000 and 8,000 inhabitants, fully developed urban planning, independent governing bodies, and a diversified economy (including commerce). It is, like the rest of the Vacceas cities, a city-state led by a warrior aristocracy, very powerful politically and militarily and, thanks to its particular strategic location, easily defensible as it is located between the deep gullies of the Eresma and Voltoya rivers . Complete this natural defense with a powerful wall as the Latin authors point out. Rome manages to break down its resistance in 151 BC. Only by means of a cruel deception, narrated by Appiano , who raises the number of its inhabitants to 20,000. Shortly after, in 134 a. C., Scipio , on the way to Numancia , allows to repopulate the city. Once again destroyed in the Sertorian Wars (74 BC) it manages to rebuild itself economically in subsequent centuries. The Bronze of Montealegre de Campos confirms how Cauca in the second century already enjoyed the privilege of being a Roman municipium . During centuries IV and V , Cauca will have a notable importance in the context of Hispania. Numerous Roman villas in its surroundings testify to the existence of a rich agricultural economy. It is now when a rich Roman aristocracy appears here, which will come to rule the destinies of the empire in its final stretch: Theodosius the Great is the reflection of the dominance in Rome of this Hispanic clan.
See on map »