Editing Cáceres, Spain (section)

===Roman rule===
[[File:Cáceres - Estatua de Ceres en el Foro de los Balbos.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25| The Androgynous Genius, a Roman statue located in the Balbos Forum in Cáceres]]

The city was founded by the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] in 25 [[Common Era|BCE]]. Cáceres as a city was founded as ''Castra Caecilia'' by [[Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius]] and started to gain importance as a strategic city under Roman occupation. Remains found in the city suggest that it was a thriving center as early as 25 BCE. Some remains of the first city walls built by the Romans in the 3rd and 4th centuries still exist, including one gateway, the ''Arco de Cristo''.

During the 1st century BCE the Romans settled in camps (''Castra Cecilia'' and ''Castra Servilia'') permanently around the hill where the ''Norba Caesarina'' colony would be located next to the important communications route that would later be known as ''Vía de la Plata''.

The old municipality of Aldea Moret, 2&nbsp;km to the southwest, is currently a neighborhood of the same name integrated into the city, around which two Roman archaeological sites can be seen: Cuarto Roble and El Junquillo. The signposted Vía de la Plata can be traveled south of the city. An excavated section in Valdesalor, where the road crosses the Salor River through a recently restored medieval bridge, occupies the place of an ancient Roman bridge, now lost.

After the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]], the city was occupied by the [[Visigoths]], until the [[Arab]]s conquered Cáceres in the 8th century. The city spent the next few centuries mostly under Arab rule, although power alternated several times between Moors and Christians. During this time, the Arabs rebuilt the city, including a wall, palaces, and various towers, including the Torre de Bujaco. Cáceres was reconquered by the Christians in the 13th century (1229).

During this period the city had an important [[Jew]]ish quarter: in the 15th century when the total population was 2,000, nearly 140 Jewish families lived in Cáceres. The Jewish population was expelled by [[Isabella I of Castile|Queen Isabel I (Isabella I) of Castile]] and [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|Fernando II (Ferdinand II) of Aragon]] in 1492, but many remains of the Jewish presence of the period can still be seen today in the Barrio San Antonio.