Quote Originally Posted by vpapako View Post
That's why it was so easy for the Romans to just "grab" Sardinia and Corsica from Carthage during th mercenaries war.
Actually, no.
Romans had an easy time taking Sardinia and Corsica because Carthage was too afraid to do anything more than a formal protest, so they basically surrendered the islands.

Sardinia especially was a special case.
During the mercenary war the cities there chose mostly to "wait and see how it goes", basically staying on the defensive until reinforcements would came from Africa.
In that case the local nuragic tribes waged their most successful military operation since 500BC, kicking the mercenaries out and forcing them to appeal to Rome for help, basically selling them the island.

Later on the romans faced a stubborn guerrilla resistance which gave them a taste of what iberia would later look like, with the last tribes in the interior being subdued during the early empire.