The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən/,[a] also known as Iberia,[b] is a peninsula in the

southwest corner of Europe, defining the westernmost edge of Eurasia. It is principally

divided between Spain and Portugal, comprising most of their territory, as well as a small
area of Southern France, Andorra and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. With an
area of approximately 583,254 square kilometres (225,196 sq mi),[1] and a population of
roughly 53 million,[2] it is the second-largest European peninsula by area, after
the Scandinavian Peninsula.

The word Iberia is a noun adapted from the Latin word "Hiberia" originating in the Ancient

Greek word Ἰβηρία (Ibēríā), used by Greek geographers under the rule of the Roman
Empire to refer to what is known today in English as the Iberian Peninsula.[3] At that time,
the name did not describe a single geographical entity or a distinct population; the same
name was used for the Kingdom Kartli in the Caucasus, the core region of what would
become the Kingdom of Georgia.[4] It was Strabo who first reported the delineation of
"Iberia" from Gaul (Keltikē) by the Pyrenees[5] and included the entire land mass
southwest (he says "west") from there.[6] With the fall of the Roman Empire and the
establishment of the new Castillian language in Spain, the word "Iberia" continued the
Roman word "Hiberia" and the Greek word "Ἰβηρία".
The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from
the Phoenicians, by voyaging westward on the Mediterranean.[7] Hecataeus of
Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia, which he wrote about circa 500 BC.
[8] Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that "it was they who made the
Greeks acquainted with […] Iberia."[9] According to Strabo,[10] prior historians
used Iberia to mean the country "this side of the Ἶβηρος (Ibēros)" as far north as the
river Rhône in France, but currently they set the Pyrenees as the limit. Polybius respects
that limit,[11] but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, with
the Atlantic side having no name. Elsewhere[12] he says that Saguntum is "on the
seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia."
Strabo[13] refers to the Carretanians as people "of the Iberian stock" living in
the Pyrenees, who are distinct from either Celts or Celtiberians.
Roman names[edit]
Main article: 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 Ebro, which the Romans called Hiberus. Hiber (Iberian) was thus used as a term
for peoples living near the river Ebro.[5][14] The first mention in Roman literature was by
the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BC.[15][16][17] Virgil refers to the Ipacatos
Hiberos ("restless Iberi") in his Georgics.[18] The 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.[19]
See also: Hesperides
Also since Roman antiquity, Jews gave the name Sepharad to the peninsula.[20]
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 provinces: Hispania
Baetica, Hispania Tarraconensis, and Hispania Lusitania. Strabo says[10] 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 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.
Modern name[edit]
The modern phrase "Iberian Peninsula" was coined by the French geographer Jean-
Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent on his 1823 work "Guide du Voyageur en Espagne". Prior
to that date, geographers had used the terms Spanish Peninsula or Pyrenaean
Peninsula[21]