The Roman conquest of Hispania
Saguntum was an ally of Rome, so Hannibal's attack started a war between the Carthaginians and the Romans: the Second Punic War. The Romans arrived on the Iberian Peninsula in 218 BC. It was the beginning of the Roman conquest. The Romans called the Peninsula Hispania, and that is where the name España comes from!
The conquest took almost 200 years, in three phases
The Romans took all the Carthaginian territory. The general Scipio Africanus conquered Carthago Nova (209 BC) and won at Ilipa, near Seville (206 BC).
The Romans fought the Lusitanians and the Celtiberians. The Lusitanian leader Viriathus defeated several Roman generals, so the Romans bribed three of his men to kill him. The Celtiberian town of Numantia resisted for many years; in the end its people burned it rather than surrender.
The north was the hardest part to conquer: it is very mountainous and its peoples resisted strongly. The Romans finally conquered it in 19 BC.
A famous Roman general and politician. Before he became the ruler of Rome, he was the governor of Hispania (61–60 BC). You will read about him in the language lesson!