5 - Roman expansion in the west

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Between the end of the second war against Carthage and the fall of Numantia in 133 Roman power engulfed northern Italy and vast territories in Spain, as well as defeating Carthage once more, destroying the city and establishing a province in northern Africa. These developments can conveniently be considered in a single chapter. This does not mean any detraction from the important differences which distinguished these three areas and Roman behaviour in them. In addition, due attention will be paid both to the internal workings of the state and society of the conquerors and to the expansion carried out in the east in the same period. Only when studied as a whole can the vastly complex process we call Roman imperialism be understood.

The Roman Senate had already made its crucial decisions about the Gallic area of northern Italy and about Spain before 202. In the case of the Gauls, the decision to exact obedience dated from before the Hannibalic War, and in 206 the two pre-war colonies in the plain of the Po, Placentia and Cremona, had been resettled. At about the same date the Senate had decided to begin sending a regular series of governors, two at a time, to Spain. In the year after Zama, with the Carthaginians now committed to a treaty which effectively prevented them from re-establishing their power in Spain, Rome could in theory have withdrawn from its Spanish possessions – though such an action would have had no appeal at Rome. Northern Italy, however, required attention more urgently.