The Protracted Roman Conquest of Iberia

In 219 BC the Carthaginians, who had been expanding their control of Iberia, besieged and destroyed the city of Saguntum, about 30 km north of modern Valencia. Some time before this the Saguntines and Romans had concluded some sort of alliance, and the fall of the city touched off the Second Punic War. That ended in 218 BC, with Carthage defeated, and Rome controlling large areas of the Iberian peninsula, but by no means most of it. Total Roman dominion over Iberia was not attained until two centuries later, in 19 BC, under the Emperor Augustus. Though well garrisoned for centuries, Iberia ultimately became almost a second Italy, giving Rome some of her greatest emperors, in Trajan and Hadrian. There is a vast body of work in Spanish and Portuguese on the Roman conquest of Iberia, but aside from the campaigns of Scipio Africanus and some campaigns during Roman civil wars, this protracted struggle for Hispania has been little covered in English.

In this book, Spanish historian and film maker Herrero Giménez gives us what is the only work in English that covers the full story of the Roman conquest of Iberia.

Drawing on literary and archaeological evidence, Herrero Giménez addresses an extraordinary number of campaigns, including many little-known and ill-documented. We get to see how remarkably diverse the peoples of Hispania were; numerous tribes and city-states loosely connected into several linguistic groups. We also learn of brilliant campaigns and utter disasters, and many commanders, some skillful and some completely inept, many of whom on both sides are not very well known.

The principal flaws of The Roman Occupation of Iberia are a desperate need of more and better maps, sometimes seemingly interminable paragraphs, and some occasional redundancy. This is an immensely importance read for anyone with an interest in the rise of Rome.

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Note: The Roman Occupation of Iberia is also available in e-editions.

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