Spanish History and Culture

Ancient History

17th February – 4th March

Elena Sol Jiménez
 Pre-roman Iberian Peninsula
and the Roman Conquest
1. Geography and Chronology of the Ancient IP
2. Documentary resorces available
3. Roman Presence in the IP
First Punic War (264-241 BC)
• Roman expedition to Africa (256 BC) military disaster

→HAMILCAR BARCA (c. 275-228 BC)

• He arrives to Sicilia in 247 BC.
• Roman victory in Egades Islands (241) → shameful peace for
Carthage
5th treatise between Rome and Carthage → huge war compensation
→ Sicilia becomes the first roman province
Inter-war period (241-218 BC)

• Hamilcar Barca dies in 228 BC → Hasdrubal the Fair (his son

in law)
• Foundation of Cartago Nova (228 BC)

❖Hasdrubal the Fair signs the “Ebro Treaty” in 226 BC (7th)

• Not to cross the river “Iber”
• Hasdrubal dies in 221 BC
Second Punic War (218-201 BC)
• HANNIBAL BARCA (247-c.182 BC)
• He attacks Sagunto→ casus belli

HAMILCAR
Barca

Hasdrubal HANNIBAL Hasdrubal Magon

the Fair BARCA Barca Barca
Second Punic War (218-202 BC)
- Casus belli: the siege (219-218 BC) of the Iberian city of
Saguntum by Hannibal.
- Conflict of enormous dimensions: Hispania, Italy, North Africa,
Sicily and Sardinia.
- Cartaginian armada had been already destroyed (First Punic
War) → Hannibal takes his army through the Pyrenees into Italy
- Cartaginians, Iberian mercenaries… and elephants
Cannae defeat (215 BC)
Scipio Family
• Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio
• Stays in Hispania to gain Roman control of the Ebro
valley
• Publius Cornelius Scipio
• Unable to stop Hannibal in the Alps, goes to Italy and
back to Hispania to help Gnaeus
• They both die in 211 BC

• Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus
• Hispania is the cartaginian base (resources, army) of Hannibal
• 217-206 Hannibal keeps fighting in Italy but not decisively
• Scipio takes Carthago Nova (209)
• Hasdrubal Barca faces Scipio in 207 BC → Hannibal is left alone in
Italy
→ Foundation of Italica (Santiponce, near Sevilla)
• Magon Barca tries to help Hannibal

→ Cartaginians are expelled from the Iberian Peninsula

Battle of Zama (202 BC)
• First defeat of Hannibal. Sign of peace:

• Give all elephants and ships to Rome

• Prohibition to declare war without Roman supervission
• Economical compensation
Battle of Zama (202 BC)
Third Punic War (147 BC)
• Economic recovery of Carthago → threat
• King of Numidia against cartaginians
• Marcus Porcius Caton → destruction of Cartago: Carthago delenda
est
• Scipio Aemilianus in 147 BC → Roman province of Africa
Creation of Roman
provinces in
Hispania (197 BC)
- Roman occupation of the Iberian
territories → two provinces:
- Hispania Citerior
- Hispania Ulterior
- Administration: two annual praetors
(civil and military powers).
- Permanent army of two or more
legions
- Gradual conquest of the inland:
- Lusitanian Wars (155-139 BC)
- Numantine War (154-133 BC)
The Roman Conquest of the Iberian
Peninsula (218-19 BC)
• Conquest of Hispania (218 BC) coincides with the period of the
republican system in Rome and it goes until the end of the 1st
century BC (beginning of the Roman Empire)
• Assimilation of the Latin culture took place from the beginning, but
most of all under the Empire (from the 1st century AD onwards.)

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

ROMAN REPUBLIC
ROMAN EMPIRE (27 BC – 476 AD)
(509- 1st cent. BC)

Foundation of Second Punic War Conquest Barbarian Invasions

Diocletian (284 AD)
Gades (1100 BC) (218 BC) (19 BC) (409 AD)
Roman explanation for the slowness of the
conquest
“Hispania, although it was the first mainland province to be entered by the
Romans, was the last to be completely subdued, and held out till our own times”,

(Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita 28.12.12.)

• Lack of overall strategy to conquer the whole Peninsula

• Rugged nature of the territory
• Lack of a single political organisation: small groups they had to fight
one after another
• Roman influence in 206
• Roman provinces in Hispania
(Second Punic War, against
during 1st century AD
Hannibal)