BÆTICA, a province of ancient Spain, so called from the famed river Bætis, afterwards Tartessus, now Guadalquivir, or the great river. It was bounded on the west by Lusitania; on the south by the Mediterranean and Sinus Guaditanus; on the north by the Cantabric sea, now the Bay of Biscay. On the east and north-east, its limits cannot be so well ascertained, as they are very reasonably thought to have been in a continual state of fluctuation, as each petty monarch had an opportunity of encroaching upon his neighbour. The province was divided in two by the river Bætus already mentioned. On the one side of which, towards the Anas, were situated the Turdetani, from whence the kingdom was called Turdetania, though more generally known by the name of Bæturia. On the other side were situated the Bafuli, Bæletani, and Contestani, along the Mediterranean coasts. The Bafuli were supposed to be of Phœnician extract, and dwelt along the coasts of the Mediterranean, till, driven from thence by the Moors, they fled into the mountainous parts of Galicia, which they then called from their own name Bæfulia. The Bæletani were seated higher up, on the same coasts. The territories of both these made part of what has since become the kingdom of Granada; in which there is a ridge of very high mountains, called from the above-mentioned people the Bæletanean mountains. Mention is also made of their capital Bæletana; a place of such strength, that King Ferdinand was six months besieging it before he could take it from the Moors.—The whole province of Bætica, according to the most probable account, contained what is now called Andalusia, part of the kingdom of Grenada, and the outward boundaries of Estremadura.