Lentulus and Acudinus were sent to Hispania without holding the usual public office, but they were given proconsular power so that they could command the armies in Hispania. This gave the Roman territory in Hispania a somewhat unofficial status. The two men had just the status of military commanders. The manner of their appointment in not known. This constitutional oddity continued for seven years, until 197 BC, when two provinces were created in Hispania and they were assigned to two praetors as per normal procedure. It looks like Rome may have improvised when she retained this new territory and that the status and form of administration was regularised after seven years. Cornelius Lentulus and Manlius Acidinus stayed in Hispania for an unusually long time. Livy wrote that their command was extended in 202 BC. He does not mention what the arrangements for the previous extra two years were. Probably the two men were sent without a clear term of stay and this was looked into when they had been there or quite a while. In 201 BC, the question of who should take their place was put to the assembly of the people. This was an unusual procedure and was probably a way to give a mandate to people being sent to Hispania without (elected) public office. The reason why this irregular system was continued is not known either. They were to be replaced by only one man, who was to take a legion and 15 cohorts there. The outgoing proconsuls were to bring back home the veterans who had spent a long time in Hispania. Livy did not say what the outcome of the vote was. Only Lentulus went back to Rome. He arrived in 200 BC. In a later passage, Livy wrote that in 200 BC Gaius Cornelius Cathegus was a propraetor in Hispania and defeated a hostile force in the territory of the Sedetani and 15,000 of the enemy died. The question of the replacement for Acidinus was put to the assembly of the people in 200 BC. Gnaeus Cornelius Blasio and Lucius Titus Stertinius were chosen and were sent to Hispania in 199 BC. Acidinus returned to Rome in 199 BC. The idea of having only one man in charge in Hispania might have been connected with the fact that Hannibal had been defeated the year before and with the end of the Second Punic War