8 EARLY MEDIEVAL SPAINsouth, and also created a hybrid Celt-Iberian civilisation in the centre
of the peninsula. Later the Carthaginians began to colonise the south-
eastern coasts and the Greeks, subsequently replaced by the Romans,
the north-eastern ones. This clash of interests was a major contribu-
tory cause of the Punic Wars, which in tum led ultimately to the
Roman conquest of the whole peninsula. This process took some two
centuries to complete and was often marked by bitter fighting. It was
finally completed during the reign of the first Roman emperor
Augustus (27BC-ADI4). Not until another four centuries had passed
was Spain to be subjected to another major migration or invasion.
Without minimising the Romans' achievement, it is important not
to overstress the degree of cultural and administrative unity that they
were able to impose upon the peninsula. Indeed some of the most
interesting of modem research has concentrated upon the limita-
tions of Romanisation. Whereas in Catalonia, the Meseta and the
river valleys of the south there appears to have been a large degree
of successful assimilation of Roman lifestyles both in new settlements
and in the older indigenous ones, in the far north, in Galicia, Cantabria
and the lands of the Basques, acceptance was much more limited.
Unlike the southern and eastern parts, very few Roman towns were
founded in the north, and those that were existed for military pur-
poses. Pre-Roman tribal organisation seems to have survived in these
northern regions and there are indications that nomadism, or rather
pastoral transhumance, continued to flourish, despite Roman pres-
sure for enforced settlement. The Basque language of course survived
right through the Roman period, and that of Lusitania still existed in
the second century, although it subsequently disappeared.^13 Again,
despite some later traditions, Christianity was much slower to take root
in the north and the ecclesiastical organisation of these territories
was still in a rudimentary state when Roman rule came to an end.
The degree of resistance to Roman social and economic organisa-
tion seems to have varied from area to area within this northern
region. The Basques appear to have been most successful in this
respect, despite Roman forts in the Pyrenean passes. They probably
retained a society very little different from that described by the early
first century Greek geographer Strabo (c. AD 15).14 On the other hand
Galicia and parts of the Asturias, where the Romans had interests in
mining silver, were more affected by the imperial presence and some
small villas and other traces of Romanised civil life have been found.