Wars in Spain

The Romans, according to their custom, sent ten senators to the newly acquired provinces of Spain, which Scipio, or Brutus before him, had received in surrender, or had taken by force, to settle their affairs on a peace basis. [*](Y.R. 642) At a later time, other revolts having taken place in Spain, [*](B.C.112 ) Calpurnius Piso was chosen as commander. He was succeeded by Servius Galba. When the Cimbri invaded Italy, and Sicily was torn by the second servile war, the Romans were too much preoccupied to send soldiers to Spain, but sent legates who endeavored to settle affairs without war as far as they could. When the Cimbri were driven out Titus Didius was sent to Spain, and he slew about 20,000 of the Arevaci. He also removed Termesum, a large city always insubordinate to the Romans, from a place of security into the plain, and ordered the inhabitants to live without walls. [*](Y.R. 656) He also besieged the city of Colenda and captured it nine [*](B.C.98 ) months after he had invested it, and sold the inhabitants with their wives and children.

There was another city near Colenda inhabited by mixed tribes of Celtiberians who had been the allies of Marcus Marius in a war against the Lusitanians, and whom he had settled there five years before with the approval of the Senate. They were living by robbery on account of their poverty. Didius, with the concurrence of the ten legates who were still present, resolved to destroy them. Accordingly, he told their principal men that he would allot the land of Colenda to them because they were poor. Finding them very much pleased with this offer, he told them to communicate it to their people, and to come with their wives and children to the parcelling out of the land. When they had done so he ordered his soldiers to vacate their camp, and these people, whom he wanted to ensnare, to go inside, so that he might make a list of their names, the men on one register and the women and children on another, in order to know how much land should be set apart for them. When they had gone inside the ditch and palisade, Didius surrounded them with his army and killed them all, and for this he was honored with a triumph. At a later period, the Celtiberians having revolted again, Flaccus was sent against them and slew 20,000. The people of the town of Belgida were eager for revolt, and when their senate hesitated they set fire to the senate-house and burned the senators. When Flaccus arrived there he put the authors of this crime to death.

These are the events which I have found most worthy of mention in the relations of the Romans with the [*](Y.R. 672) Spaniards until that time. At a later period, when the [*](B.C.82 ) dissensions of Sulla and Cinna arose in Rome, and the country was torn with civil wars and hostile camps, Quintus Sertorius, one of Cinna's party, who had been chosen to the command in Spain, stirred up that country against the Romans. He raised a large army, created a senate of his own friends after the manner of the Roman Senate, and marched towards Rome full of confidence and high courage, for he had been renowned for valor elsewhere. The Senate in great alarm sent against him their most famous generals, first Cæcilius Metellus with a large army, and then Pompey with another army, in order to repel if possible this war from Italy, which was terribly distracted with [*](Y.R. 682) civil strife. But Sertorius was murdered by Perpenna, one [*](B.C.72 ) of his own partisans, who proclaimed himself general of the faction in place of Sertorius. Pompey slew Perpenna in battle, and so this war, which had greatly alarmed the Romans, came to an end; but I shall speak of this more particularly in my account of the civil wars of Sulla. [*](Y.R. 693)

After the death of Sulla, Gaius Cæsar was sent as prætor into Spain with power to make war wherever it was needful. All of those Spaniards who were doubtful in their allegiance, or had not yet submitted to the Romans, he [*](B.C.61 ) brought under subjection by force and arms. Some, who afterwards rebelled, were subdued by his adopted son Octavius, [*](Y.R. 729) surnamed Augustus. From that time it appears that [*](B.C.25 ) the Romans have divided Iberia (which they now call Hispania) into three parts and sent a praetor to govern each, two being chosen annually by the Senate, and the third appointed by the emperor to hold office during his pleasure.