How did Rome come to Hispania in the Second Punic War?
Rome lands in Hispania
Roma llega a Hispania
218–19 BC. The Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage began after Hannibal took Saguntum, a city allied to Rome.
Where: Spain, Catalonia
What happened
The Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage began after Hannibal took Saguntum, a city allied to Rome. In 218 BC a Roman army under Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio landed at Emporion, today's Empúries in Catalonia, to cut Hannibal's supplies. The Romans came to fight Carthage and stayed for six centuries. Conquering the whole peninsula took about two hundred years: the last to give in were the peoples of the far north, in the Cantabrian wars, which ended in 19 BC under Augustus. Rome called the land Hispania, the origin of the word España, and left roads, cities, law and the Latin from which Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Portuguese grew.
Say it
La palabra España viene de Hispania, el nombre romano.
The word España comes from Hispania, the Roman name.
Why it matters
This is the moment the ancestor of Spanish arrives: spoken Latin, brought by soldiers and settlers, would replace every local language but Basque.
Read about it
Connected
- Greeks settle at Emporion (c. 570s BC)
- Greeks settle at Emporion (c. 570s BC)
- Hannibal takes Saguntum (219 BC)
- Hannibal takes Saguntum (219 BC)
- From Vulgar Latin to Castilian (c. 218 BC–1250)
- From Vulgar Latin to Castilian (c. 218 BC–1250)
- The Romanisation of Hispania (218 BC–409)
- The fall of Numantia (133 BC)
- Augustus founds Mérida (25 BC)
- Before: Hannibal takes Saguntum
- After: The fall of Numantia
Sources
- Second Punic War — World History Encyclopedia
- Jaciment – Conjunt arqueològic d'Empúries — Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya
- Las Médulas: vocabulario y conceptos – Guerras Cántabras — Museo Virtual de la Ciencia, CSIC