Toletum
Τώλητον
Toletum (Τώλητον, Ptol. 2.6.57: Eth. Toletani, Plin. Nat. 3.3. s. 4; Orelli, Inscr. no. 980), the capital of the Carpetani, in Hispania Tarraconensis, situated on the Tagus, and on the road from Emerita to Caesaraugusta, and connected also by another road with Laminium. (Itin. Ant. pp. 438, 446.) It was a very strong town, though only of moderate size, and famed for its manufacture of arms and steel-ware. (Liv. 35.7, 22, xxxix, 30; Grat. Cyneg. 341; cf. Miñano, Diccion. viii, p. 453.) According to an old Spanish tradition, Toledo was founded in the year 540 B.C. by Jewish colonists, who named it Toledoch, that is, mother of people,
whence we might perhaps infer a Phoenician settlement. (Cf. Miñano, 1. c.; Puente, Travels, i. p. 27.) It is still called Toledo, and contains several remains of Roman antiquities, and especially the ruins of a circus. (Cf. Florez, Esp. Sayr. v. p. 22; Puente, i. p. 165, seq.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.