Iberian revolt
The Iberian revolt was a rebellion of the Iberian peoples of the provinces Citerior and Ulterior, created shortly before in Hispania by the Roman state to regularize the government of these territories, against that Roman domination in the 2nd century BC.
From 197 BC, the Roman Republic divided its conquests in the south and east of the Iberian Peninsula into two provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, each governed by a praetor. Although several causes have been put forward as possibly responsible for the conflict, the most widely accepted is that derived from the administrative and fiscal changes produced by the transformation of the territory into two provinces.
The revolt having begun in the Ulterior province, Rome sent the praetors Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus to the Citerior province and Marcus Helvius Blasio, to Ulterior. Shortly before the rebellion spread to the Citerior province, Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus was killed in action. However, Marcus Helvius Blasion, who upon arriving in his province ran headlong into the revolt, won an important victory over the Celtiberians at the Battle of Iliturgi. The situation was still far from under control, and Rome sent the praetores Quintus Minucius Thermus and Quintus Fabius Buteo in a further attempt to settle the conflict. However, although the latter achieved some victories, such as at the Battle of Turda, where Quintus Minucius even managed to capture the Hispanic general Besadino, they also failed to fully resolve the situation.
It was then that Rome had to send in 195 BC. the consul Marcus Porcius Cato in command of a consular army to suppress the revolt, who, when he arrived in Hispania found the entire Citerior province in revolt, with Roman forces controlling only a few fortified cities. Cato established an alliance with Bilistages, king of the Ilergetes, and had also the support of Publius Manlius, newly appointed praetor of Hispania Citerior and sent as assistant consul. Cato headed for the Iberian Peninsula, disembarked at Rhode and put down the rebellion of the Hispanics occupying the square. He then moved with his army to Emporion, where the greatest battle of the contest would be fought, against an autochthonous army vastly superior in numbers. After a long and difficult battle, the consul achieved total victory, managing to inflict 40 000 casualties on the enemy ranks. After Cato's great victory in this decisive battle, which had decimated the Hispanic forces, the Citerior province fell back under Roman control.
On the other hand, the Ulterior province remained uncontrolled, and the consul had to head towards Turdetania to support the praetors Publius Manlius and Appius Claudius Nero. Cato tried to establish an alliance with the Celtiberians, who acted as mercenaries paid by the Turdetani and whose services he needed, but failed to convince them. After a show of force, passing with the Roman Legions through Celtiberian territory, he convinced them to return to their lands. The submission of the autochthonous army was only an appearance, and when rumor spread of Cato's departure for Rome, the rebellion resumed. Cato had to act again with decision and effectiveness, defeating the rebels definitively in the battle of Bergium. Finally, Cato sold the captives into slavery and the autochthonous of the province were disarmed.
Historical background
The Second Punic War was in its final stretch. The Carthaginian generals Magon Barca and Hasdrubal Gisco had retreated towards Gades, which allowed Scipio Africanus to take over the entire southern Iberian Peninsula. Scipio then crossed into Africa to hold a meeting with the Numidian king Syphax, whom he had previously encountered in Hispania, with the intention of forging an alliance.Shortly thereafter, Scipio became seriously ill and seizing the opportunity, 8000 Roman soldiers, who were dissatisfied at having received lower pay than usual, and, moreover, lacked authorization to plunder enemy towns, revolted and started a mutiny; this mutiny was the perfect occasion seized by the Ilergetes and other Iberian peoples to revolt, led by the leaders Indibilis and Mandonius, a rebellion directed above all against the proconsuls Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Lucius Manlius Acidinus. Lucius Manlius succeeded in defeating the Ausetani and the Ilergetes, who had rebelled against the Republic in the absence of Scipio Africanus. He returned to Rome in 199 BC, but was not granted the ovation that the senate had awarded him because of opposition from the tribune of the plebs Publius Porcius Laeca. Publius Scipio succeeded in putting down the mutiny and brought the Iberian revolt to a bloody end. Mandonius was captured and executed, while Indibilis managed to escape.
Magon Barca and Hasdrubal Gisco left Gades with all their ships and troops to go to the Italian Peninsula in support of Hannibal, and after the departure of these forces, Rome was master of all southern Hispania. Rome now dominated from the Pyrenees to the Algarve, following the coast. The territory controlled by the Roman armies reached as far as Huesca, and from there southward to the Ebro and eastward to the sea. The victory of the Republic of Rome over Carthage in the Second Punic War left Hispania definitively in their hands.
When Scipio Africanus left after his Hispanic campaigns, the Iberian chiefs who had supported him, and who still enjoyed a certain political structure and capacity to react, considered that they were only linked by a personal relationship with their rex Scipio and had no duty to the Roman Republic, so they took up arms against the latter. Other causes for the uprising have been proposed, however, such as the death of Indibilis and Mandonius at the hands of the Romans; or the most widely accepted, the high tributes that the Hispaniids had to pay to Rome, especially after the transformation of the territory into two provinces.
Forces in combat
First confrontations
The Roman Republic divided in 197 BC. its conquests in the south and east of the Iberian Peninsula into two provinces: Hispania Citerior, later called Tarraconensis with capital in Tarraco, and Hispania Ulterior, with capital in Corduba, each governed by a praetor. The transformation of the territory into two provinces caused important administrative and fiscal changes, and the imposition of the stipendium was not accepted by the local tribes, so that in 197 BC, just after the Second Macedonian War was over, a great revolt broke out throughout the conquered area in Hispania because of the republican spoliation.The new provinces needed rulers, so the Republic sent the praetors Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus to Hispania Citerior and Marcus Helvius Blasion to Hispania Ulterior with a total of 8000 infants and 800 horsemen to discharge veterans, and the order to delimit the borders of the provinces. When Marcus Helvius arrived in his corresponding province he encountered a large revolt, whereupon he informed the senate. Numerous local chiefs had revolted in Hispania Ulterior, among them the regula Culcas at the head of the armies of 17 cities, and the Regulus Luxinio, commanding the forces of the cities of Carmo and Bardo. The cities of Malaca, Sexi and all of Baeturia had also joined the revolt.
Shortly thereafter, the war, which had begun in the Ulterior province, spread also to Citerior, in which its praetor, Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus, had died of wounds suffered in battle, along with many soldiers, at the end of 197 BC; and the province was left without a praetor until the following year. It is likely that Marcus Helvius himself, praetor of the Ulterior, also assumed control of the Citerior until the arrival of Sempronius' successor.
Quintus Minucius Thermus and Quintus Fabius Buteo were the praetores elected in 196 BC to take charge of Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior respectively. They were given reinforcements consisting of two legions, 4000 infantry and 300 horsemen, and ordered to leave in haste for the provinces to continue the war. Quintus Minucius Thermus defeated the insurgent Budar and Besadines at an undetermined place called Turda, caused 12 000 casualties in the Hispanic ranks, and trapped general Besadines. Quintus Minucius consequently received the honor of triumphus upon his return to Rome in 195 BC
Roman victory at Iliturgi
Given the limited success of the praetor of 196 BC in Hispania Citerior, the Roman Senate had declared it a "consular province", since the intervention of a consular army was necessary to control the situation. Elected consul in 195 BC together with his friend Lucius Valerius Flaccus it fell to Marcus Porcius Cato, the Elder by lot to take charge of Hispania Citerior. Also elected were the praetores for Hispania Ulterior and Hispania Citerior, Appius Claudius Nero and Publius Manlius, respectively, with their allotted forces, although, due to the emergency situation, they were allowed 2000 more infantrymen and 200 more horsemen, to be added to the legions their predecessors had disposed of. The consul Marcus Porcius Cato, who had been unable to prevent the annulment of the Oppian Law, embarked with his troops for Hispania to take charge of the Citerior province with Publius Manlius as assistant, leaving the Ulterior to Appius Claudius.Marcus Helvius Blasion, although he had already handed over the government of the province to his successor, had to stay in Hispania due to a long illness. Now recovered, with a guard of 6000 soldiers posted for him by the praetor Appius Claudius Nero, he was attacked by 20 000 Celtiberians near Iliturgi. Marcus Helvius managed to repel the attackers, defeated them, and inflicted about 12 000 casualties on them. Iliturgi was occupied by the Romans, and this victory earned Marcus Helvius Blasion an ovatio granted by the senate in 195 BC; however, he was ineligible for the triumphus, having fought in a province that belonged to another praetor. Upon his arrival in Rome Marcus Helvius made delivery to the Republic of 14 732 pounds of uncoined silver, 17 023 coined and 119 439 of oscensian silver. Marcus Helvius was thus arriving in Rome two years later than planned. Such quantities of wealth taken from Hispania give an idea of the unrest of the autochthonous peoples, the probable cause of the uprising.