In the 3rd century BC, Rome started its conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. The Roman conquest of Iberia began during the Second Punic War, when the senate sent an army to Iberia to block Carthaginian reinforcements from helping Hannibal in the Italian Peninsula. This began Roman involvement in 250 years of subsequent fighting throughout Iberia, resulting in its eventual conquest in 19 BC with the end of the Cantabrian Wars. The Lusitanian War is one of the most well documented episodes of the conquest.