 Romans said of the Iapydes that they were a warlike race addicted to plundering expeditions, but other archaeological documentation confirms their main economical activity was the mining and metallurgy.That attracted the pragmatic Romans to conquer their country, whose river valleys were also a natural way for strategic communications between the Adriatic and Pannonia.Therefore, induced conflicts started from 171 BC, when consul Gaius Cassius Longinus first attacked Iapydes.