[2] After losing control of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica in the First Punic War, Carthage began to expand into the south of the Iberian peninsula.

Hispania Ulterior consisted of what are now Andalusia, Portugal, Extremadura, Castilla y León, Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and the Basque Country.

As Appian claimed, “[the consuls] took the command not for the advantage of the city [Rome], but for glory, or gain, or the honour of a triumph.” [4] The area was largely conquered by the consul Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus in 138 BC, but war continued until 19 BC when Agrippa defeated the Cantabrians in Hispania Citerior and Hispania finally was completely conquered.

That same year, with the subjugation of all Hispania and the end of the Cantabrian Wars, Augustus reorganised the provinces in the peninsula.

The Roman Emperor Honorius commissioned his brother-in-law, the Visigoth king, Athaulf, to defeat the Vandals.

Members of the tribal elite of Hispania were introduced into the Roman aristocracy and allowed to participate in their own governance.