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27-19 BCEReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Augustus Completes the Conquest in the Cantabrian Wars

Ten years and 70,000 troops to subdue the last free corner of Iberia

On the timeline · around 27-19 BCE · Ancient and Roman IberiaAncient and Roman IberiaAugustus Completes the Conquest in the Cantabrian Wars300 BCE200 BCE100 BCE1 CE100 CE200 CE300 CE

Quick facts

War duration
27-19 BCE (decade-long)
Roman troop strength
Six legions, 70,000+ legionaries and auxiliaries
Provinces created afterward
Baetica, Lusitania, Tarraconensis
Resource driving the campaign
Cantabrian gold and mineral mines

What happened

Two centuries after Rome first landed in Spain, the mountainous north remained unconquered. The Cantabri and Astures, described by the World History Encyclopedia as the last independent Celtic nations of Hispania, resisted Roman rule so fiercely that Emperor Augustus personally commanded six legions, more than 70,000 legionaries and auxiliaries, against them starting in 27 BCE. The war dragged on for a decade before the major fighting ended in 19 BCE, with Rome forced to station a legion in the region for another seventy years to hold it. Augustus reorganized the whole peninsula afterward into the provinces of Baetica, Lusitania, and Tarraconensis.

Why it matters

The Cantabrian Wars completed Rome's conquest of Iberia after roughly two centuries of intermittent fighting, finally bringing the entire peninsula, including its most stubborn interior region, under a single imperial administration that would last for the next four centuries.

How we know

The Cantabrian Wars are documented in Roman historical sources of the Augustan period and in modern military-historical analysis of the Roman legions deployed, which the World History Encyclopedia lists by name and troop strength.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Spain27 events · Iberian tribes, Roman emperors, a caliphate at Cordoba, and a Reconquista that took nearly 800 years to finishView all →
Augustus Completes the Conquest in the Cantabrian Wars · History of Spain · SourcedStory