Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. (January 2019) This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The talk page may contain suggestions. (January 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Part of a series on the
Military of ancient Rome 753 BC – AD 476
Structural history Army Unit types and ranks Decorations and punishments Legions Auxilia Generals Navy Fleets Admirals
Campaign history Wars and battles
Technological history Military engineering Castra Siege engines Triumphal arches Roads
Political history
Strategy and tactics Infantry tactics
Frontiers and fortifications Limes Walls Limes Britannicus Antonine Wall Hadrian's Wall Saxon Shore Limes Germanicus Alb Limes Lauter Valley Limes Lower Germanic Limes Main Limes Neckar-Odenwald Limes Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes Wetterau Limes Danube–Iller–Rhine Limes Norican Limes Claustra Alpium Iuliarum Pannonian Limes Limes Alutanus Limes Moesiae Trajan's Wall Anastasian Wall Limes Sarmatiae Limes Arabicus Limes Tripolitanus Limes Mauretaniae
Ancient Rome portal
v t e

The Roman Republic conquered and occupied territories in the Iberian Peninsula that were previously under the control of native Celtic, Iberian, Celtiberian and Aquitanian tribes and the Carthaginian Empire. The Carthaginian territories in the south and east of the peninsula were conquered in 206 BC during the Second Punic War. Control was gradually extended over most of the Iberian Peninsula without annexations. It was completed after the end of the Roman Republic (27 BC), by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, who annexed the whole of the peninsula to the Roman Empire in 19 BC.

This conquest of the peninsula started with the Roman acquisition of the former Carthaginian territories in southern Hispania and along the east coast as a result of their defeating the Carthaginians (206 BC) during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), after which the Carthaginian forces left the peninsula. This resulted in an ongoing Roman territorial presence in southern and eastern Hispania. Four years after the end of this war, in 197 BC, the Romans established two Roman provinces. These were Hispania Citerior (Nearer Spain) along most of the east coast (an area roughly corresponding to the modern Spanish autonomous communities of Valencia, Catalonia and part of Aragon) and Hispania Ulterior (Further Spain) in the south, roughly corresponding to modern Andalusia.

Over the next 170 years, the Roman Republic slowly expanded its control over Hispania. This was a gradual process of economic, diplomatic and cultural infiltration and colonization, with campaigns of military suppression when there was native resistance,^[1] rather than the result of a single policy of conquest. The Romans turned some of the native cities outside their two provinces into tributary cities and established outposts and Roman colonies (settlements) to expand their control. Administrative arrangements were ad hoc. Governors who were sent to Hispania tended to act quite independently from the Senate due to the great distance from Rome. In the latter part of this period, the Roman Senate attempted to exercise more control in Hispania, but this was to try to curb abuse and extortion by some Roman officials based in the peninsula. During this period, conquest was a process of assimilation of the local tribes into the Roman culture and its economic system and laws.

This changed after the end of the Republic and the establishment of rule by emperors in Rome. After the Roman victory in the Cantabrian Wars in the north of the peninsula (the last rebellion against the Romans in Hispania), Augustus conquered the north of Hispania, annexed the whole peninsula to the Roman Empire and carried out an administrative reorganisation in 19 BC.

The Roman province of Hispania Citerior was significantly expanded and came to include the eastern part of central Hispania and northern Hispania. It was renamed Hispania Tarraconensis. Hispania Ulterior was divided into the provinces of Baetica (most of modern Andalusia) and Lusitania, which covered present day Portugal up to the River Durius (Douro), the present autonomous community of Extremadura^[2] and a small part of the province of Salamanca in today's Spain.