Lusitanian War
Background
The territory that the Romans won in Spain during the course of the second Punic war was divided into two general provinces; the first province was formerly Carthaginian and included the districts of Andalusia, Granada, Murcia and Valencia; the second province included the Ebro (Aragon and Catalonia). Out of these two territories were formed the provinces of Further and Nearer Spain.
In Spain, the Greek and Phoenician towns along the coast—Emporiae, Saguntum, New Carthage, Malaca, and Gades—submitted to Roman rule more readily. It helped that they were aware of the fact that left to their own resources these towns could not have withstood the encroachments of the native populations. Mommsen, T. The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5). Translated by William Purdie Dickson. E-text prepared by David Ceponis. Project Gutenberg. Available at www.gutenberg.net. Accessed June 25, 2014. PDF Page 375.
The native Spaniards gave the Romans endless trouble. Julius Caesar is supposed to have said about the Spanish that “they never showed themselves quiet in peace or strenuous in war.”
We don’t know much about national Iberian culture. But we do know that they had a written alphabet, traceable to the old Greek or Phoenician alphabet, depending upon which part of the peninsula you came from. The Turdetani, considered the most advanced Iberian tribe, had a book of lays (of 6000 verses from very ancient times) and written historical records. These people were the least warlike of the Spanish tribes and carried on their conflicts by employing mercenaries.
AncientScripts.com. Available at http://www.ancientscripts.com/
ws_timeline.html. Accessed July 13, 2014.
Mommsen, T. The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5). Translated by William Purdie Dickson. E-text prepared by David Ceponis. Project Gutenberg. Available at www.gutenberg.net. Accessed June 25, 2014. PDF Page 375.
Certain Spanish tribes, such as the Turdetani, readily accepted certain Roman practices such as frequent bathing and Roman coinage.
cannot be placed much later, because the impression is imitated from that of the oldest Roman -denarii-. But, while in the southern and eastern provinces the culture of the natives may have so far prepared the way for Roman civilization and Roman rule that these encountered no serious difficulties, the west and north on the other hand, and the whole of the interior, were occupied by numerous tribes more or less barbarous, who knew little of any kind of civilization—in Intercatia, for instance, the use of gold and silver was still unknown about 600—and who were on no better terms with each other than with the Romans. A characteristic trait in these free Spaniards was the chivalrous spirit of the men and, at least to an equal extent, of the women. When a mother sent forth her son to battle, she roused his spirit by the recital of the feats of his ancestors; and the fairest maiden unasked offered her hand in marriage to the bravest man. Single combat was common, both with a view to determine the prize of valor, and for the settlement of lawsuits; even disputes among the relatives of princes as to the succession were settled in this way. It not unfrequently happened that a well-known warrior confronted the ranks of the enemy and challenged an antagonist by name; the defeated champion then surrendered his mantle and sword to his opponent, and even entered into relations of friendship and hospitality with him. Twenty years after the close of the second Punic war, the little Celtiberian community of Complega (in the neighborhood of the sources of the Tagus) sent a message to the Roman general, that unless he sent to them for every man that had fallen a horse, a mantle, and a sword, it would fare ill with him. Proud of their military honor, so that they frequently could not bear to survive the disgrace of being disarmed, the Spaniards were nevertheless disposed to follow any one who should enlist their services, and to stake their lives in any foreign quarrel. The summons was characteristic, which a Roman general well acquainted with the customs of the country sent to a Celtiberian band righting in the pay of the Turdetani against the Romans—either to return home, or to enter the Roman service with double pay, or to fix time and place for battle. If no recruiting officer made his appearance, they met of their own accord in free bands, with the view of pillaging the more peaceful districts and even of capturing and occupying towns, quite after the manner of the Campanians. The wildness and insecurity of the inland districts are attested by the fact that banishment into the interior westward of Cartagena was regarded by the Romans as a severe punishment, and that in periods of any excitement the Roman commandants of Further Spain took with them escorts of as many as 6000 men. They are still more clearly shown by the singular relations subsisting between the Greeks and their Spanish neighbors in the Greco-Spanish double city of Emporiae, at the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees.
The Roman conquest of Spain is one of the most shameful episodes in Roman imperial expansion; characterized by greed, mendacity and mass homicidal behavior. The Lusitanian War constitutes the second round of Roman aggression against native Spanish tribes, the first taking place during the second Punic War; the third and final war (Cantabrian), taking place during the reign of Augustus. It took 200 years to conquer the Iberian Peninsula.
Why conquer Spain when it took so much effort and time to not only defeat the various Spanish tribes but also to keep peace on the peninsula? At least three full legions had to be stationed there for 70 years. There were two major reasons; 1) prestige for the military leader in a militaristic state that rewards conquest, and 2) economic opportunity. Aside from covering themselves with glory, Roman aristocrats could make money from plunder; especially the selling of conquered populations into slavery. Furthermore, offering their legionnaires the opportunity for plunder bound soldiers to their military leaders with feelings of personal loyalty and mutual advantage.
The other opportunity, one of governing and maintaining control of the peninsula, resulted in government by corruption; bribes for various services rendered, especially representing provincial interests in Rome itself; loans made at usurious levels of interest to cover ruinous taxes; commandeering various resources such as wheat for the military at artificially low prices or for no compensation at all. And of course, silver mines for the minting of money as well as lead, copper, zinc and iron.
Economically, Spain offered manpower (for military and economic exploitation), metals, salt, salted fish and meat, olive oil and wine. Also, a translucent stone called Lapis Specularis was mined for window making and building ornamentation.
With the Roman conquest and the advent of roads and peninsula-wide stability, commerce flourished, thus leaving only one question left unanswered: who did well economically, the native elite and Spanish population in general or the visiting Roman aristocrats, Equites and merchants? A preliminary answer to this question may be found in the fact that the city of Gades (Cadiz in Spanish) contained the largest number of Roman equestrian families (about 500) after Patavium (Modern Padua; in Cisalpine Gaul) and Rome itself. One could draw an analogy with the arrival of Northern Carpetbaggers in the American South after the Civil War and the appearance of the Chinese Han after the conquest of Tibet. Rapacious foreigners backed by the army were pretty much able to have their own way.
War with the Lusitanians and Vettones 155 BC
In 153 BC, the Lusitanians under the leadership of Punicus, invaded Roman territory. They were accompanied by the Vettones.