On topic of the Spanish adventure I must make an aside on Marcus Porcius Cato. I love this man.
Porky Pies, as I like to call him, was a Harry Flashman kinda guy you'd like to have a beer with - but only one beer, before he got to talking too much. He was a politician very VERY good at blustering his way through confrontations. He successfully cowed the locals into submission barely even needing to come to blows. Unfortunately he also bragged his way through the Senate.
Porky in this had followed the fine example of Cornelius Scipio before him. But, frankly, Scipio had dealt with wiser Senators, who saw that the bluster was done for the rubes and not for the realists. The newer generation was... different.
The Senate rewarded Porky first by starving him of resources. Fine, said Porky; "war should pay for itself". He (somehow) got away with this without raiding too many Spaniards (those who mattered, anyway). Then the Senate flat cashiered him. And then the Senate wondered how come the locals weren't treating Rome with due respect.
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