What is today the Mediterranean port city of Tarragona, about fifty miles (eighty kilometers) southwest of Barcelona, has in the fifth through third centuries been settled by Iberians who have commercial contacts with the Greeks and Phoenicians who have settled on the coast.

The Iberian colonies are present particularly in the valley of Ebro.

The sources referring to the presence of Iberians in Tarraco are ambiguous.

Livy mentions a oppidum parvum (small colony) called Cissis, Polybius names a polis as Kissa.

Shortly after the arrival of Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus to Empúries (Emporion) in 218 BCE, in the Second Punic War, Tarraco is mentioned for first time.

Livy writes that the Romans conquered a field of Punic supplies for the troops of Hannibal near Cissis and took the city.

A short time later, the Romans were attacked "not far from Tarraco" (haud procul Tarracone), but it remains unclear whether Cissis and Tarraco was the same city.