ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on certain aspects of the Greek presence in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the interactions that took place between the Greek world and this area. Iberia was a peripheral territory within the general imaginary of the Greek world. Written sources, archaeology and epigraphy all confirm that from the end of the seventh century and during the sixth century BC, Greek presence in the Peninsula became stronger. The presence of Greeks in Iberia, which became more and more significant throughout the sixth century, in both emporia and in the city that developed from one of these emporia, now known as Empúries, means that the first-hand knowledge that was accurate was passed on to different Greek centres in the central Mediterranean and the Aegean. My aim is to look into not only the information at hand but also the people who were behind this information and who contributed, not always consciously, towards making the lands at the furthermost western shores of the Greek world known. The presence of sailors, traders, emigrants and settlers served as a basis for poets, geographers, periplographers and historians to spread their visions of the region. These are the accounts that, despite their distortions, were of the greatest influence at the time and have reached us, albeit in a fragmentary manner.
