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Rome
A new culture
The arrival of the Romans at the end of the 3rd century BC set in motion the Romanisation of the Iberian mainland, a process of adapting the indigenous communities towards a new culture and new social and economic organisation. For more than 700 years Rome maintained a huge empire around the Mediterranean and present-day Catalonia was an important component within this empire.
The territory known as Hispania was of interest to the Romans both in terms of expanding their dominion as well as the valuable metals that could be mined there, and also the large amounts of cereals grown in its fields. The Romans structured the country through building networks of roads where before there had only been dirt tracks, founding new towns and establishing small farms to grow crops and rear animals. The Iberian population was gradually absorbed and became integrated within this new social, political and economic structure.
Roman towns were the political, religious, administrative and economic centres of the territory and reproduced, on a small scale, the role played by Rome, the great urbs, in relation to the Empire.
