Appian's account of Rome's wars in Spain from the Second Punic War to the fall of Numantia.
Start ReadingRome's first encounters with the Iberian Peninsula, drawn in by the Punic Wars and discovering a land of fierce, independent peoples.
Early Roman campaigns in Spain meet determined resistance from Celtiberian and Lusitanian warriors skilled in guerrilla warfare.
Roman commanders struggle with the vast distances and rugged terrain of Iberia, where conventional tactics often prove useless.
The Celtiberian Wars intensify as Roman treaty violations and atrocities fuel ever-fiercer native resistance.
Viriathus, the Lusitanian shepherd turned warlord, humiliates Roman armies and becomes the most celebrated native leader in Iberian history.
Rome resorts to treachery, arranging Viriathus's assassination through his own envoys — a disgrace that the Senate refuses to reward.
The siege of Numantia begins, as this small Celtiberian city defies Rome with a ferocity that shames successive Roman commanders.
Multiple Roman generals fail before Numantia, some accepting humiliating treaties that the Senate repudiates.
Scipio Aemilianus arrives to end the Numantine War, imposing brutal discipline on the demoralised Roman army before the siege.
Scipio constructs an elaborate circumvallation around Numantia, starving the city into submission rather than risking assault.
The Numantines choose mass suicide over surrender, destroying their city and themselves rather than submit to Roman chains.
Sertorius, a Roman general turned rebel, establishes an independent Roman state in Spain and defeats every army sent against him.
Sertorius governs Spain with remarkable skill, winning native loyalty through justice and establishing a Roman-style senate in exile.
Pompey arrives in Spain to join the war against Sertorius, but finds the renegade general more than his match in the field.
Sertorius is assassinated at a banquet by Perperna, whose treachery succeeds where Roman armies had failed for a decade.
Pompey easily defeats Perperna and pacifies Spain, inheriting the credit for ending a war that assassination — not generalship — decided.