From 264 to 261 B.C.E., Rome and Carthage engaged in combat during the First Punic War. Rome's displeasure with Carthaginian expansion into Sicily was the root of that battle, and in the end, Rome forcibly reclaimed Africa for Carthage. Rome perceived a Carthaginian attempt to reestablish its influence in Spain in 218 BCE as a threat to Roman interests, leading to Carthage's second declaration of war. Roman success was modest early in the competition. Hannibal, the renowned Carthaginian general, did in fact wreck havoc on the Italian countryside. The Roman Senate decided it needed new leadership and set up the election of Scipio Africanus, the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio, as proconsul to Spain.
He, unlike most Romans, understood that the key to defeating Hannibal lay in Spain.
New Carthage (modern-day Cartagena) was Scipio's initial objective in Spain. The capital and the only Spanish port sufficient to accommodate a sizable navy was New Carthage. Other strategic benefits were a direct sea link to Carthage, where the Carthaginians stored much of their gold bullion and military hardware, and the provision of Scipio with a crucial base from which to launch his campaign into the peninsula's south.
Scipio's capacity for duplicity contributed to his success at Carthage. Cartagena was surrounded by water on three sides: a bay and the open sea on the south, a lagoon to the north, and a canal to the west. Scipio carefully researched the area's topography during the winter before launching his attack. The lagoon was readily forded at low tide, he had learned from the neighborhood fishermen. He launched a frontal assault on the city's gates that faced east in the spring of 209 BCE in order to divert their forces. Then he sent across the lagoon a force of 500 men carrying ladders.
Spain accumulated considerable wealth throughout the Roman era thanks to its agricultural and commercial triumphs. One of the most important contributions to Spanish society made during Roman control was the undertaking of public works projects. The people of Spain were able to connect freely with one another like never before thanks to new roads and bridges, some of which are still in use today. Aqueduct construction was both a necessity and a convenience for growing urban areas. With structural ideas from the Etruscans and decorative forms from the Greeks, Roman architecture in Spain had the characteristics of massiveness and strength. Theaters, amphitheaters, temples, triumphal arches, and tombs were where these characteristics were most noticeable.
By the time the Visigoths conquered Spain in 409 CE, most Roman characteristics had already become ingrained in Spanish society. Roman control persisted despite successive incursions by barbarians from the north and Muslims from the south. Whether or not Rome had a specific cause for initially conquering and occupying Spain, they were so effective in establishing their culture and institutions over their six centuries of rule that much of it is still in place today.
References:
Chapman, Charles E., A History of Spain (New
York: Free Press, 1966); McDonald, A. H., Republican
Rome (New York: Praeger, 1966); Scullard, Howard
H., A History of the Roman World: From 753 to 146
B.C.E. (London: Methuen & Co., 1969).
