Late Roman Republic, Gaius Marius (fl.133-86 BC): War in Spain (114-93 BC) [6/7]

Although the Spanish wars had ended, the Romans continued to be drawn into sporadic conflicts on the peninsula. In 114 BC the governorship of Ulterior went to Gaius Marius (1) who temporarily rid the province of pirates, an endemic problem in Spain. He was replaced by ⁰⁸Calpurnius Piso who was killed while trying to suppress a revolt. His replacement (probably in 111 BC) ⁰⁷Sulpicius Galba squashed the revolt, but greater success was achieved by ⁰⁸Servilius Caepio (cos.106 BC) who triumphed over the Lusitani in 107 BC.

In 105 BC the Lusitani defeated a Roman army, but soon after this the Cimbri, following their defeat of Romans at Arausio in the summer, crossed the Pyrenees and did not return to Gaul until the spring of 102 BC. For between two and three years the Cimbri must have devastated the province of Hispania Citerior and fought against the Celtiberians, who finally forced their retreat from Iberia.

In 104 BC the town of ‘Seanoc..’ (near Alcantara in Lusitania) surrendered to Lucius Caesius, presumably the governor of Ulterior, and peace in the province was restored in 101 BC, an event usually associated with Marcus Marius (2) (possibly a younger brother of Gaius), who fought the Lusitani with the aid of the Celtiberians, and settled the latter near Colenda. 

In 99 BC a further revolt was suppressed by ³⁰Cornelius Dolabella (Ulterior), who triumphed over the Lusitani the following year. During that year the consul Didius (1) (Citerior) (fl.103-89 BC), who had triumphed over the Scordisci in Thrace in 101 BC; allegedly killed twenty thousand Arevaci, moved the town of Termes to an unfortified site in the plain, and successfully besieged Colenda. He then turned to the nearby town founded by Marcus Marius (2), offered the populace land confiscated from the Colendans and when they arrived to take up his offer he had them surrounded and killed.

In 97 BC the consul ¹⁰Licinius Crassus continued the war in Ulterior, triumphing over the Lusitani in 93 BC. Didius, who triumphed over the Celtiberi at the same time, was replaced in Citerior by ¹²Valerius Flaccus, who is reported to have killed twenty thousand Celtiberians and to have executed the rebels of Belgeda who had set fire to their own senate when the elders refused to join the revolt.