While the 1st century BCE represents an era of expansion and maturity for the Castro Culture, under Roman influence and with the local economy apparently powered more than hindered by Roman commerce and wars, during the next century the control of Roma became political and military, and for the first time in more than a millennium new unfortified settlements were established in the plains and valleys, at the same time that numerous hill-forts and cities were abandoned. Strabo wrote, probably describing this process: ""until they were stopped by the Romans, who humiliated them and reduced most of their cities to mere villages"" (Strabo, III.3.5).