PENTRU CE ERA CUNOSCUT SCIPIO-AFRICANUL !

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2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1.

“I swear with all the passion in my heart that I will never desert our homeland or permit any other citizen of Rome to leave her in the lurch. If I willfully break my oath may Jupiter, Greatest and Best, bring me to a shameful death, with my house, my family, and all I possess! Swear the same oath, Caecilius! And the rest of you, swear it too. If anyone refuse, against him this sword is drawn.”

That was the oath made by Scipio the Younger after the Battle of Cannae had wiped out a generation of Roman soldiers and left the Second Punic War on the precipice – only Roman belligerence would save the republic from defeat. Scipio had rescued his father at Ticinus, survived the Trebia, and then been among the (relatively) few to escape from the bloodbath at Cannae alive.

The following years had seen his fortunes plummet further, as the defeat of the legions in Hispania at the Battle of Upper Baetis saw his father and uncle die and left the peninsula on the cusp of Punic domination.

In this painting by Tiepolo, Scipio Africanus is shown releasing the nephew of the Prince of Numidia after he was captured by Roman soldiers.

Then 25-year-old Scipio was the only member of the Senate to accept the seemingly poisoned chalice of commanding the Iberian legions, and although he started well and seized New Carthage, before ostensibly defeating Hasdrubal Barca, his incomplete victory allowed the second Barcid son to escape with his army to Italy. His blushes were spared by Claudius Nero’s victory at the Metaurus preventing Hasdrubal from reinforcing Hannibal, but Scipio had still failed in his task of preventing the Punic troops from leaving Iberia. Scipio would soon be presented with an opportunity for redemption, as instead of reinforcing Hannibal in Italy, the merchants of Carthage instead decided to make one last attempt to secure their grasp of Iberia.

Punic reinforcements which landed in early 207 BC under Hanno were soon joined by the youngest Barcid brother Mago, and they began extensive recruitment among the Celtiberian mercenaries to raise an indomitable force. Hasdrubal Gisco advanced from Gades to Andalusia, leaving Scipio facing two concentrated enemy forces, one of which could attack his rear if he advanced on the other – a precarious situation.

After careful planning, Scipio chose to send a detachment under Marcus Junius Silanus to attack Mago. Marching at pace, he was able to surprise the youngest son of Hamilcar as he attacked their camps, scattering the Celtiberians and capturing Hanno. Hasdrubal was thus left along to face Scipio, though he avoided battle by instead splitting his troops among the various cities as garrisons, leading to that campaigning year of 207 BC to end without any further action. 

The following Spring saw the last great effort launched by Carthage to reclaim Iberia.

Mago was joined at Ilipa by Hasdrubal, creating a force of between 54,000 and 74,000 – considerably larger than the 48,000 men under Scipio, which itself was lacking in legionary veterans and largely comprised of Celtiberian mercenaries. As soon as the legions arrived, Mago launched a cavalry attack on his camp with his Numidians under Masinissa, though Scipio had anticipated this. Hiding his own cavalry behind a hill, he was able to unleash them on the Punic flank, routing them and causing heavy losses.

The next few days were spent with the two sides testing and probing one another, with Scipio always allowing the Carthaginians to lead their troops out of camp to form up before he did. Each day he presented a solid and typical Roman fighting line, with his legions in the centre and Celtiberian mercenaries on the wings. Mago and Hasdrubal understood that he would adopt this formation and look to punch through the Punic centre, as the legions had done at the Trebia.

After several days of this, Scipio was confident that the Carthaginian commanders were assured of his formation. He sent his cavalry and velites (light infantry javelin skirmishers) against the Punic camp at daybreak, advancing his main force behind. This time hie legions stood on the wings, with his Celtiberian mercenaries in the centre – reminiscent of Hannibal’s formation at Cannae. Surprised by the sudden attack, the Carthaginians rushed to arms and sallied out without breakfast – Scipio’s experience of Hannibal’s tricks and mind games was now being used against his own countrymen.

Hasdrubal arranged his African veterans in the centre, believing they would be countering the legions, with his Celtiberian mercenaries on the wings to counter their countrymen. As the formations advanced towards one another, the Carthaginians learnt too late of the change in Roman formation as they closed on the Punic camp and were thus unable to rearrange their own accordingly. Arranging an ancient army of tens of thousands for battle could take hours and was never and easy of quick manoeuvre. 

Scipio held back his infantry behind the skirmishers, making his enemy grow hungrier and wearier in the day wore on. As the bulk of the Roman army advanced, the velites fell back between the spaces of the maniples to flank the legions who, now on the flanks themselves, advanced at a faster pace than their Celtiberian comrades in the centre in a concave line – this was essentially a reverse Cannae formation, marching with a withheld centre and protruding wings, rather than Hannibal’s protruding centre which lured the legions into the middle of his line. The addition of the velites to the flanks expanded the line further, with the cavalry supporting them in enveloping the whole Punic line. 

Scipio’s velites and cavalry engaged the ill-disciplined Celtiberian mercenaries on their flank, while his veteran legions now crashed into their front. The African veterans in the Punic centre was helpless to support them, as the Roman refused centre was looming close, but still not engaging them. The contest on the wings was a complete mismatch, and the Roman legions bulldozed through the stunned Celtiberians.

The Punic centre was further hampered when their own elephants – which by now the Romans were quite capable of countering – were driven through their own centre by the cavalry attacking the flanks.

The Carthaginians began to withdraw as hunger and fatigue took its toll, initially maintain the bulk of their force in good order. Before they could organise a retreat, Scipio advanced his Iberian centre to engage them and now, with them attacking from the front and the legions marching at them having folded the wings, the Punic army broke. Scipio had hoped for a massacre to avenge Cannae but was thwarted from turning the conflict into a complete bloodbath by a sudden downpour, which brought the engagement to a halt and enabled the Carthaginians to find refuge in their camp.

Despite this, the Battle of Ilipa was still a crushing defeat for Carthage.

The Punic forces were unable to rest easy in their camp, knowing that morning would bring a renewed Roman assault and they would thus need strengthened defences. As they set to fortifying the encampment, more and more of the surviving Celtiberian mercenaries, wishing to test the legions no further following their mauling, deserted in droves as chunks of the army melted away. Hasdrubal sought to slip away in darkness with what remained of his force, but Scipio called an immediate pursuit.

Led by the cavalry, the entire Roman host was now giving chase to the battered remnants of the Carthaginian army. When the legions finally closed with their beleaguered foe, the butchery began. From his formerly huge army, Hasdrubal was soon left with little more than 6,000 men. They would surrender to Rome soon after, though Hasdrubal and Mago made good their escape. 

Carthage was now a broken force in Hispania.

With Hannibal isolated and ineffectual in Italy, the great maritime city would now turn its focus to home defence. Hispania would become one of Rome’s earliest provinces, though would not be fully conquered for almost two centuries, when the first Emperor Augustus pushed the boundaries of Rome to the Atlantic. Hasdrubal Gisco would sail for Africa and the Numidian king Syphax, where he would meet with, and compete with, his enemy Scipio for the favour of the African leader.

The feast at Syphax: After having reconquered Spain, Scipio leaves for Africa. He goes to Syphax king of the Masaesulians to obtain his alliance. There he meets his enemy Hasdrubal whom he charms with his good manners. Purchase 1995.

Mago Barca made for the Balearics and would then sail to Liguria in an attempt to support Hannibal in northern Italy. Although Rome was now the undisputed power in Iberia, there was still work to be done in pacifying the warlike tribes to ensure republican support. Although he still faced a struggle to pacify the peninsula, Scipio was already forming his designs to lead an invasion of Africa that would bring the Second Punic War to its epic conclusion and bring two of antiquity’s greatest generals to the battlefield to settle the titanic contest.