The Cantabrian Wars (29–19 BC) (Bellum Cantabricum), sometimes also referred to as the Cantabrian and Asturian Wars (Bellum Cantabricum et Asturicum),[2] were the final stage of the two-century long Roman conquest of Hispania, in what today are the provinces of Cantabria, Asturias and León in northwestern Spain.

During the reign of Emperor Augustus, Rome waged a bloody conflict against the Cantabri, the Astures and the Gallaeci still resisting Roman occupation, the last independent Celtic nations of Hispania.

These warlike peoples fiercely resisted Roman domination; ten years of war and eight legions with their auxiliary troops – more than 50,000 soldiers in total – were needed to subdue the region.

Sub occasu pacata erat fere omnis Hispania, nisi quam Pyrenaei desinentis scopulis inhaerentem citerior adluebat Oceanus.

("In the west almost all Spain had been subjugated, except that part which adjoins the cliffs where the Pyrenees end and is washed by the nearer waters of the ocean.

In this way, in the years preceding the wars in Cantabria and Asturias, the Roman military became familiar with the warlike characteristics of the peoples of northern Hispania.

Additionally, there is evidence that they fought alongside the Vaccaei in 151 BC, and helped break the Roman siege of Numantia.

[6] The Gallaeci faced the very first Roman incursion into their territory by consul Decimus Junius Brutus, whose campaign reached as far as the river Limia.

However, this did not stop several of the Gallaecian tribes to wage war on Rome alongside the rest of the Celtic resistance, and were only finally subdued when the Legates Gaius Antistius Vetus and Gaius Firmius waged further wars against resisting Oppida in the densely forested regions of western Gallaecia.

Lucan referred to this when he wrote, Cantaber exiguis et longis Teutonus armis (The Cantabrian with his short weapons and the Teuton with his long ones).

Once Lancia was besieged, the forces of the Astures took refuge in the Mons Medullius (some scholars locate it at Las Médulas basing their opinions on Florus who specifically names the site in his history of Rome).

Despite the mass deaths, local resistance was such that the Romans had to station two legions (X Gemina and IV Macedonica) there for seventy more years.

Through the Cantabrian War and the surrender of the Cantabri to Rome (it would be inexact to state that the Astures ever surrendered; Augustus refused the common victory celebration in his return to Rome), the Roman legions adopted from them the solar symbol of twin crosses and lunar symbols, such as the Cantabri lábaro.