Rome Versus Carthage: The War at Sea by Steinby Christa

Author:Steinby, Christa [Steinby, Christa]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: Pen & Sword Maritime
Published: 2014-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

Barcid Power in Spain

Subsequent actions by Carthage until the new war concentrated on the expansion of Carthaginian territory in Spain. The revival of Carthaginian wealth and military power took place under the leadership of Hamilcar Barca, his son-in-law Hasdrubal and son Hannibal.

The events in Spain ignited the Second Punic War. This is the area where we see the massive Roman takeover of claims to be ‘in the right’. This is apparent both in the immediate causes and underlying reasons for the war that are offered in the ancient sources. To put things briefly, the wrath of the Barcids cannot have been the driving force in their relations with Rome as is claimed by Polybius; it was probably just another way of putting all the blame on Carthage. The idea that Hasdrubal had alienated the Carthaginian leaders at home is mostly a Roman invention, probably going back to Fabius Pictor, who had the agenda of freeing Rome of war guilt and so set up a dualism between the Barcids and Carthage. Hannibal’s conquest of Saguntum in 219 was seen as a breach of a treaty: one in a long list of Punic treaty breaches that we can find in Roman authors. Yet, we do not know when Saguntum’s relations with Rome began and what its status was. Moreover, the Romans did nothing concrete to help the city when it was attacked.32

To begin with, Carthage did not have any direct control of Spain. There were old Greek and Phoenician colonies on the coast. The local groupings of peoples included the Iberians, Celtiberians, Lusitanians, Cantabrians and Gallaecians, subdivided into smaller tribes. Many of them were prosperous. In politics and military matters, individual communities made their own decisions. The Carthaginians had hired mercenaries from Spain for centuries and used them together with soldiers from Libya to fight Syracuse.33

The Barcids never exercised any independent empire-building in Spain aimed at creating a Hellenistic state on their own but everything happened in cooperation with the government at home. Hamilcar Barca operated from 237 until his death in the winter of 229/8. He sailed along the African coast to the Straits of Gibraltar and landed at Gadir.34 He operated in southern Spain, especially in the lower and middle valley of the river Baetis, modern Guadalquivir. It has been estimated that his expeditionary army consisted of about 20,000 men, 2,000 or 3,000 cavalry and elephants. He could rely on the support of the Phoenician towns and use them as allies and could also find allies from Iberian states, as their disunion and quarrelsomeness made them relatively easy targets in Punic expansion. We know only a few details of his campaign. Together with the Celts, he made war on the Iberians and Tartessians and cut their whole force to pieces. This had been an anti-Punic coalition defending the richest region in Spain; Hamilcar was obviously interested in the silver and copper mines along the Rio Tinto. He took over and enrolled in his own army 3,000 survivors. Next, he besieged a chieftain called Indortes, slaughtered most of his force of 50,000 men and had him crucified.

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