Origins and Second Punic War
The municipality was inhabited in pre-Roman times by Iberians who had commercial contacts with the Greeks and Phoenicians who settled on the coast. The Iberian colonies were present particularly in the valley of Ebro. In the municipality of Tarragona, there are findings of colony since the 5th century B.C.
The sources referred to the presence of Iberians in Tarraco are ambiguous. Livy mentions a oppidum parvum (small colony) called Cissis, Polybius names a polis as Kissa (Κίσσα).(Κίσσα). Shortly after the arrival of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus to Empúries (Emporion) in 218 B.C. in the Second Punic War, Tarraco is mentioned for first time. Livy writes that the Romans conquered a field of Punic supplies for the troops of Hannibal near Cissis and took the city. A short time later, the Romans were attacked "not far from Tarraco" (haud procul Tarracone).) But it remains unclear whether Cissis and Tarraco was the same city. A coin found in Empúries has the Iberian bears the inscription Tarakon-salir (salir probably means silver). The coin, engraved following models of Empúries at an undisclosed location, is generally dated to 250 BC, for sure before the arrival of the Romans. The name Kesse appears on coins of Iberian origin of 1st and 2nd century BC. Were marked according to Roman weight standards. Kesse should be equated with Cissis, the place of origin of the Cissisians mentioned by Plinio.
In the year 217 B.C. Roman forces arrived by Scipio Africanus at Tarraco. Tarraco was the winter holiday between 211 and 210, and there Publius Cornelius met the tribes of Hispania in conventus. The population was largely loyal to the Romans during the war. Livy called them allies and friends of the Roman people (socii et amici populi Romani) and the fishermen of Tarraco (piscatores Tarraconenses) served with their boats during the siege of Carthago Nova.
The earliest Roman history of Tarragona linked to the Scipios, as Pliny the Elder said: Tarraco Scipionum opus, Tarraco was work by the Scipios as Carthage was by the Punics.
The conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans took over 200 years.
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