Hannibal by Patrick N Hunt

Author:Patrick N Hunt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2017-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

BATTLE OF BAECULA

After Cartagena, Scipio had one decisive battle where he defeated Hasdrubal Barca at Baecula (Baelen) in 208, his first victory in Spain. Now controlling vast reaches of Spain south of the Ebro and Cartagena, this last battle was also in the upper Baetis (Guadalquivir River) region, not far from the disasters that had wiped out his father and uncle. Scipio had an army of about thirty-five thousand soldiers compared with Hasdrubal’s twenty-five-thousand-plus Iberians. This time the Carthaginians and Iberians were trapped in a steep valley when Scipio closed both the road to Baecula and the valley entrance. Hasdrubal moved his army to the heights, but after a few days, he was surprised when attacked on three sides by so many Romans climbing up the ridge. Scipio had pretended it was only a feint or a skirmish of a few troops, and yet Hasdrubal, abandoning his camp, managed to retreat with most of his men. Hasdrubal lost the battle along with many of his Iberian mercenaries and light troops, as well as his baggage and supplies when his camp was overrun by the Romans.

Hasdrubal’s losses were possibly about six thousand dead and up to ten thousand captured, while Scipio lost fewer than two thousand at the Battle of Baecula. Scipio did not pursue the retreating Hasdrubal Barca, who moved west with his remaining army, although Hasdrubal still had a large reserve of precious metal, including gold and silver, to pay his mercenaries. The news of this last defeat reached Carthage, which now knew Spain was lost. Carthage then ordered Hasdrubal to go to Italy and assist Hannibal. Hasdrubal avoided Roman territory and moved as far west and north as possible in late 208, to Galicia near the Atlantic, passing over the western Pyrenees to Gaul. He was also ordered to take his remaining money with him to hire as many Celt mercenaries as he could. Scipio now controlled the Cartagena silver mines and their prolific production, and without Cartagena and the mines, there would be no more revenue from most of Spain, severely diminishing Punic revenue.32

Hannibal still reigned in direct combat on the open battlefield and was capable of similar ambushes that took out senior Roman leadership such as Marcellus and Crispinus or Roman troops daring to confront him. The death of the Scipio brothers in Spain was another Roman tragedy impacting Spain in the short run, but it may have motivated young Scipio, quickly leading to the conquest of Cartagena and Carthaginian control in Spain.

The loss of Cartagena—Carthage’s precious metal depot—and subsequently the loss of all Spain soon after Gades surrendered in 20633 was almost incalculable, with both its wealth in gold and silver as well as its supply of allied Iberian soldiery gone forever. Hannibal would be forced to survive on his own. His presence in Italy would now be a burden on a region severely strained by war. No new numismatic Barcid or Punic presence in coin finds in South Italy after 207 is evidence to some extent of this loss of Spain.

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