Numantine War in the context of Scipio Aemilianus Africanus

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus (185 BC – 129 BC), known as Scipio Aemilianus or Scipio Africanus the Younger, was a Roman general and statesman noted for his military exploits in the Third Punic War against Carthage and during the Numantine War in Spain. He oversaw the final defeat and destruction of the city of Carthage. He was a prominent patron of writers and philosophers, the most famous of whom was the Greek historian Polybius. In politics, he opposed the populist reform program of his murdered brother-in-law, Tiberius Gracchus.

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (/ˈɡrækəs/; c. 163 – 133 BC) was a Roman politician best known for his agrarian reform law entailing the transfer of land from the Roman state and wealthy landowners to poorer citizens. He had also served in the Roman army, fighting in Africa during the Third Punic War and in Spain during the Numantine War.

His political future was imperilled during his quaestorship when he was forced to negotiate a humiliating treaty with the Numantines after they had surrounded the army he was part of in Spain. Seeking to rebuild that future and reacting to a supposed decline in the Roman population which he blamed on rich families buying up Italian land, he carried a land reform bill against strong opposition by another tribune during his term as tribune of the plebs in 133 BC. To pass and protect his reforms, Tiberius unprecedentedly had the tribune who opposed his programme deposed from office, usurped the senate's prerogatives over foreign policy, and attempted to stand for a consecutive tribunate. Fears of Tiberius' popularity and his willingness to break political norms led to his death, along with many supporters, in a riot instigated by his enemies.

The Celtiberian oppidum of Numantia was attacked more than once by Roman forces, but the siege of Numantia refers to the culminating and pacifying action of the long-running Numantine War between the forces of the Roman Republic and those of the native population of Hispania Citerior. The Numantine War was the third of the Celtiberian Wars and it broke out in 143 BC. A decade later, in 133 BC, the Roman general and hero of the Third Punic War, Scipio Aemilianus Africanus, subjugated Numantia, the chief Celtiberian city.

Lucius Licinius Lucullus was a Roman politician who became consul in 151 BC.

Lucullus was sent to Hispania Citerior (Nearer Spain, on the east coast of Hispania) when the senate rejected a proposal for a peace treaty with the Celtiberians by Marcus Claudius Marcellus to end the Numantine War (154–152 BC). However, Marcellus went ahead with his plan and quickly concluded a treaty before Lucullus got there. Lucullus was disappointed and, "being greedy of fame and needing money because he was in straitened circumstances", he attacked the Vaccaei, a Celtiberian tribe which lived further north and who were not at war with Rome, and did so without the authorisation of the senate. He claimed that they had mistreated the Carpetani as an excuse.

Numancia was a Spanish Navy armored frigate in commission from 1864 to 1912. Her long and active career included stints with the Spanish Royal Navy (Armada Real), the navy of the First Spanish Republic, and several months of operations in support of the Canton of Cartagena. She saw combat in the Chincha Islands War in 1865–1866, the Cantonal Rebellion in 1873–1874, the First Melillan campaign in 1893–1894, and the Second Melillan campaign in 1909. Between 1864 and 1867 she made the first circumnavigation of the Earth by an ironclad warship, and in 1877 she became one of the first two Spanish Navy ships to be electrified. Converted into a coastal defense ship between 1896 and 1898, she was decommissioned in 1912 and was wrecked in 1916 on her way to the shipbreakers for scrapping.

Numancia was named for the Siege of Numantia of 134–133 BC, the culminating event of the Numantine War, in which the native population of Hispania Citerior on the Iberian Peninsula resisted the forces of the Roman Republic.