Editing Hamilcar Barca (section)

===Iberian political situation===
Hamilcar probably landed at Gades in the summer of 237 BC. Whatever direct territorial control Carthage had had in the past in Iberia,<ref>Strabo V. 158</ref> this had been mostly lost by this time as Hamilcar was "re-establishing Carthaginian authority in Iberia".<ref name="Polybius 2.1.6"/> Phoenician colonies were strung along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of southwestern Spain and exercised some degree of control over their immediate areas, but only had trading contacts, not direct control, over the tribes of Iberia at that time.<ref>Lancel, Serge, ''Hannibal'', pp. 30–31</ref> Iberian and Celtiberian tribes were not under any unified leadership at this time and were warlike, although some had absorbed varying degrees of Greek and Punic cultural influence.

====Ancient rivals: Punics and Phocaeans====
Carthage's failure to prevent the establishment of [[Marseille|Massalia]]<ref>Thucidides 1.13.6</ref> by [[Phocaean]] Greeks in 600 BC had created a rival that eventually came to dominate trade in Gaul and to plant colonies in [[Catalonia]], at Mainke near [[Málaga]],<ref>Strabo 3.156, 3.159</ref> three colonies near the mouth of Sucro, and at [[Aléria|Alalia]] in [[Corsica]]. Greek piracy had forced Carthage to team up with the Etruscans to drive the Greeks from Corsica, and destroy the colony at Mainke in Iberia. By 490 BC, Massalia had managed to defeat Carthage twice, and a boundary along [[Cape Nao]] in Iberia was agreed upon,<ref>Justin XLIII.5</ref> while Carthage had closed the Straits of Gibraltar to foreign shipping. Massalia had become friendly with Rome over the years, if not an outright ally by 237 BC, and this connection would become a significant factor in the power politics of the region.