There are two legends about the founding of Barcelona. Both are associated with the Carthaginian war captain Hamilcar Barca, the father of Hannibal, future commander of the Punic War. The first legend claims that it was Barca who rebuilt the city in the 3rd Century BC, which according to the myth was founded by Hercules four centuries before Rome. He named it Barcino after his family. The second legend attributes the founding of the city directly to the captain.

The Romans converted the town into a military camp around 15 BC. It was located on a hillock called Mons Taber, which is near the city hall nowadays. During Roman times, the town was a colony called Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino, as it was under the reign of Emperor Augustus. It didn’t play a key role in those days – nearby towns like Tarraco (present-day Tarragona) were far more significant.

Gradually, its wealth and prestige grew thanks to its strategic location and its port. The empire did not levy taxes on Barcelona, and the town minted its own coins, some of which have been discovered during excavations. Other remnants from Roman times include items found under the modern Placa del Rei. There are traces of the grid-like urban layout, which was characteristic of the Romans, in the city’s historical quarter (Barri Gotic). Sections of the Roman walls remain in La Seu Cathedral, which may have been built as early as 343.

In the early 400s, the Visigoths from northern Europe captured the city, renamed it Toledo and contributed to its overall decline. Two centuries passed, and then it was conquered again by the Moors in the 700s and re-conquered by the Franks led by Charlemagne’s son Louis I in 801. It was the latter who made Barcelona the seat of the Spanish March, a buffer zone under the rule of the Count of Barcelona. At the time, the mountains and plains north and northwest of the city were populated by Catalans. Later on in 985, another ruler, Al-Mansur of Moorish Iberia, sacked the city. But it still remained a Christian frontier territory. Officially separated from the Franks in 988, the city became the capital of an independent state.