#his stinted growth his lack of a solid people to represent or identify with while also absorbing their teachings and lifestyles...

[helianskies]

beautiful helia... I have a question for you, where do you think that Antonio was born?? In my head it makes sense that he's born in Sevilla ,I think that the reasons are obvious, but Tarragona as well, since it was an important city during the roman "colonisation" of iberia. What do you think?

anon if i could have it my way he'd be andaluz through and through. sevillano, cordobes, granadino, da igual. that's purely because of my personal affection for the south. but i think with the 'birth' of a nation, it largely depends on when you personally deem them to have been born in the first place.

you may... want to take a seat. have a drink. munch on a cookie 🍪 while i give you a nowhere-near straightforward answer, if even an answer at all...

happy birthday, toni! get cosy under the microscope! :D

so, i'll admit, i don't really worry too much about where nations were 'born'. it's never interested me in that way, and many of them probably wouldn't remember where they first popped into existence, so i don't know that they would be so bothered, either. and then you have a case like Antonio. Spain. where do you even begin...?

many people consider Antonio to have only come around in the 1400s with the formal unification of Castille and Aragon; others like myself enjoy seeing him as an ex-Roman province following in some questionable footsteps. i think both interpretations are perfectly valid* (and if there are any others, i'd be very intrigued!) but that naturally affects where you'd consider Antonio to have been born. if under Castille and Aragon, then... Toledo is a safe bet, i suppose. but the Romans? or even earlier? mmh...

(* also. can i add while i'm here. can we stop getting pissy when others don't agree with your own idea of a nation like Spain's 'age'? as i said here, people have different headcanons. if you don't agree, that's fine, but there's no need to be snotty about it or decide that everyone has to agree with you. because that's the point of a headcanon! just seen a fair bit of it lately and it's quite simply annoying!)

historically speaking, if we consider Portugal to have been (Hispania) Lusitania, then surely Spain would have started as (Hispania) Tarraconensis. all cool there. that would neatly place him in Tarragona, capital of Roman Hispania!... but then, prior to that, Lusitania was part of Hispania Ulterior (and not even called Lusitania, from what i gather) and Tarraconensis was made up of Hispania Citerior and other small provinces - so what about towns like Cartagena? Itálica? Mérida? Tarragona may be the oldest Roman city in Spain (as far as we know) but a personification doesn't necessarily have to have been born in a city... right?

moreover, prior to the Romans, Hispania was a melting pot of native tribes, Celts, Iberians, Celtiberians (ooh!), Carthaginians, etc. question is, if Antonio was around for the Romans, was he also there as a child amongst the Carthaginians? and where does mother Iberia, often depicted as the mother to both Spain and Portugal, come into it? and if she doesn't, then who would Antonio considers his parent(s) to be (if nations believe in having parents) let alone his birthplace?

it's confusing, isn't it? i can see the appeal of Antonio only coming into being in the 1400s for the ease alone.

truth be told, i don't know where would make most sense for Antonio to have been born. ni idea. like i said, andaluz Antonio gives me life and suits some aus, just like me making him galician every now and then, but in nationverse, when i consider my own preference that Antonio is already around when Rome shows up on his shores, even if only just, it only complicates matters.

consider this, however: he is, quite simply, a wilderness baby. a feral child. born up in the sierras, or in the middle of arid plains. like... most nations probably are. he was not born in a 'city' so much as just some random place in the area until he found his 'people', and that's as good as it gets. he could have come from anywhere, and i doubt he'd be able to pinpoint it himself beyond a vague gesture at the entire country.

still, if i had to give you a region, i'd say central-eastern Spain is where i'd place him. it's in the general area of what would have become Hispania Citerior and then Hispania Tarraconensis, which fits nicely with how i personally translate his character to that era. but i'd never be more specific than that. as far as i feel, many places in Spain have come to mean something to him, and his 'birthplace' is no more important to him than they are.

in conclusion: just go with your gut! i'm not here to validate anything or otherwise argue against your headcanons. he could be from Seville, he could be from Toledo, he could be from Tarragona - it only matters as much as you want it to matter. and that's all you should take away from this post!

hope that answers your question and hasn't been confusing in the least for you, beautiful anon! 💖