After disembarking in Emporiae (Empúries, Girona province) in the year 218 BC, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio began his conquest of the whole Catalan coast as far as the River Ebro (Hiberus), confronting the indigenous tribes who had previously been ruled by the Carthaginians. The first battle took place near Kesse (later Tarraco) and was won by the Romans. They occupied the town and established a garrison.

When the last of the Carthaginians had been expelled from this extensive coastal area, Tarraco became the winter camp for the Roman legions.

In 217 BC, with the troops installed and the defence of the new military base ensured by a fortified wall, the Romans began the conquest of the inland areas occupied by the Ilergetes, the Lacetani and the Ausetani, allies of the Carthaginians.

The role of Tarraco as a fortress was thus consolidated. Two elements were decisive in its subsequent urban evolution and marked to a great extent the later character of the city: the walls and the port. Both were built on the orders of the Scipio brothers, causing the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (1st century BC) to give the city the epithet Tarraco Scipionum Opus (Tarraco, work of the Scipios).