Impact of accessibility and saturation of the Roman transport network in the urban development of the Iberian Peninsula

•Roman roads in the Iberian Peninsula were built over a long period of two centuries and the main cities were created along those routes. •Land transport accessibility did not guarantee the economic success of any individual Roman town, though it gave them more alternative strategies. •The Early Empire documents network saturation in some key critical points (i.e. ports) solved with the creation of close alternative routes and cities. •Large cities in the Mediterranean coast suffered lost in population in the Late Empire due to high connectivity in terms of health (i.e. pandemia) and security (i.e. raids).