Editing Iberian Peninsula (section)

===Roman names===
{{main|Hispania}}
According to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use ''Hispania'' and ''Hiberia'' (Greek: ''Iberia'') as synonyms. The confusion of the words was because of an overlapping in political and geographic perspectives. The Latin word ''Hiberia'', similar to the Greek ''Iberia'', literally translates to "land of the Hiberians". This word was derived from the river ''Hiberus'' (now called [[Ebro]] or Ebre). ''Hiber'' (Iberian) was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro.<ref name="Ebel1976" /><ref name="Gaffiot1934">{{cite book|author=Félix Gaffiot|title=Dictionnaire illustré latin-français|url=https://archive.org/stream/FelixGaffiotDictionnaireIllustr.LatinFrancais/DictionnaireIllustr-Latin-Franais#page/n773/mode/2up|year=1934|publisher=Hachette|page=764}}</ref> The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet [[Ennius]] in 200 BCE.<ref name="Woolf2012">{{cite book|author=Greg Woolf|title=Rome: An Empire's Story|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wb13HpLmecgC&pg=PA18|date=8 June 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-997217-3|page=18|author-link=Greg Woolf}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Berkshire Review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WJ4xAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Quintus%20Ennius%22|year=1965|publisher=Williams College|page=7}}</ref><ref name="Vega2003">{{cite book|author=Carlos B. Vega|title=Conquistadoras: Mujeres Heroicas de la Conquista de America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=60n1RxTE94EC&pg=PA15|date=2 October 2003|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-8208-5|page=15}}</ref> [[Virgil]] wrote ''impacatos (H)iberos'' ("restless Iberi") in his [[Georgics]].<ref name="Virgil1846">{{cite book|author=Virgil|title=The Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil|url=https://archive.org/details/ecloguesandgeor02virggoog|year=1846|publisher=Harper & Brothers|page=[https://archive.org/details/ecloguesandgeor02virggoog/page/n342 377]|isbn=9789644236174}}</ref> 

Roman geographers and other prose writers from the time of the late [[Roman Republic]] called the entire peninsula ''[[Hispania]]''. In Greek and Roman antiquity, the name ''Hesperia'' was used for both the Italian and Iberian Peninsula; in the latter case ''Hesperia Ultima'' (referring to its position in the far west) appears as form of disambiguation from the former among Roman writers.{{Sfn|Vernet Pons|2014|p=307}} Also since Roman antiquity, Jews gave the name ''[[Sepharad]]'' to the peninsula.{{Sfn|Vernet Pons|2014|p=297}}

As they became politically interested in the former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names ''Hispania Citerior'' and ''Hispania Ulterior'' for 'near' and 'far' Hispania. At the time Hispania was made up of three [[Roman province]]s: [[Hispania Baetica]], [[Hispania Tarraconensis]], and [[Hispania Lusitania]]. Strabo says<ref name="III.4.19"/> that the Romans use ''Hispania'' and ''Iberia'' synonymously, distinguishing between the ''near'' northern and the ''far'' southern provinces. (The name ''Iberia'' was ambiguous, being also the name of the [[Kingdom of Iberia (antiquity)|Kingdom of Iberia]] in the Caucasus.)

Whatever languages may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the [[Vascones]], which was preserved as a [[language isolate]] by the barrier of the Pyrenees.