212 BC

Last updated

Millennium: 1st millennium BC
Centuries:
Decades:
Years:
212 BC in various calendars
Gregorian calendar 212 BC
CCXI BC
Ab urbe condita 542
Ancient Egypt era XXXIII dynasty, 112
- Pharaoh Ptolemy IV Philopator, 10
Ancient Greek era 142nd Olympiad (victor
Assyrian calendar 4539
Balinese saka calendar N/A
Bengali calendar −804
Berber calendar 739
Buddhist calendar 333
Burmese calendar −849
Byzantine calendar 5297–5298
Chinese calendar 戊子年 (Earth  Rat)
2485 or 2425
     to 
己丑年 (Earth  Ox)
2486 or 2426
Coptic calendar −495 – −494
Discordian calendar 955
Ethiopian calendar −219 – −218
Hebrew calendar 3549–3550
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat −155 – −154
 - Shaka Samvat N/A
 - Kali Yuga 2889–2890
Holocene calendar 9789
Iranian calendar 833 BP – 832 BP
Islamic calendar 859 BH – 858 BH
Javanese calendar N/A
Julian calendar N/A
Korean calendar 2122
Minguo calendar 2123 before ROC
民前2123年
Nanakshahi calendar −1679
Seleucid era 100/101 AG
Thai solar calendar 331–332
Tibetan calendar 阳土鼠年
(male Earth-Rat)
−85 or −466 or −1238
     to 
阴土牛年
(female Earth-Ox)
−84 or −465 or −1237

Year 212 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Flaccus and Pulcher (or, less frequently, year 542 Ab urbe condita ). The denomination 212 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Contents

Events

By place

Greece

Thrace

Carthage

  • Syphax, king of the western Numidian tribe, the Masaesyli, concludes an alliance with the Romans and they send military advisers to help Syphax train his soldiers. He then attacks the eastern Numidians (the Massylii) ruled by Gala, who is an ally of the Carthaginians. The Carthaginian general Hasdrubal travels to northern Africa from Spain to stamp out the uprising by the Numidians.

Spain

Seleucid Empire

Roman Republic

  • Publius Licinius Crassus Dives is elected "pontifex maximus" over more distinguished candidates, despite never having held any major offices. He will hold this position until his death.
  • The Roman soldiers billeted in Tarentum so alienate the citizens of the city that conspirators admit the Carthaginian general Hannibal to the city. The conspirators then defeat the Roman contingent in it. Hannibal keeps control of his troops so that looting is limited to Roman houses. The citadel in Tarentum remains under Roman control, which denies Hannibal the use of the harbour.
  • The Roman consuls, Appius Claudius Pulcher and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, besiege Capua with eight legions. Hanno moves to Beneventum to try to help the inhabitants of Capua, but he is defeated by the Romans.
  • The Capuans then send an appeal for help to Hannibal. In response, Hannibal sends 2,000 Numidian cavalry as reinforcements to Capua. The combined Carthaginian forces defeat the Roman force led by Flaccus and Pulcher, the latter of whom will soon die of wounds he has sustained.
  • The Battle of the Silarus is fought between Hannibal's army and a Roman force led by praetor Marcus Centenius Penula. The Carthaginians are victorious, effectively destroying Centenius Penula's army.
  • The Battle of Herdonia is fought between Hannibal's Carthaginian army and Roman forces who are laying siege to Herdonia led by praetor Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus, brother of the consul, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. The Roman army is destroyed, leaving Apulia free of Romans for the year.
  • After a two year siege, Roman general, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, gradually forces his way into Syracuse and takes it in the face of strong Carthaginian reinforcements and despite the use of engines of war designed by the Greek mathematician and scientist Archimedes (such as the Claw of Archimedes).
  • Although Marcellus wishes to spare the lives of the Syracusans, he is unable to prevent the sack of the city by his soldiers, which includes the killing of Archimedes. Marcellus carries off the art treasures of Syracuse to Rome, the first recorded instance of a practice which is to become common.

China

Deaths

Related Research Articles

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Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus was a Roman general and statesman during the third century BC. He played a major part in the Second Punic War establishing Roman Rule in the east of the Iberian Peninsula and tying up several Carthaginian armies keeping them from reinforcing Hannibal.

Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, son of Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, was consul in 237 BC, fighting the Gauls in northern Italy. He was censor in 231 BC, and again consul in 224 BC, when he subdued the Boii. He was a praetor in 215 BC and in 213 BC Master of Horse in the dictatorship of Gaius Claudius Centho.

The gens Fulvia, originally Foulvia, was one of the most illustrious plebeian families at ancient Rome. Members of this gens first came to prominence during the middle Republic; the first to attain the consulship was Lucius Fulvius Curvus in 322 BC. From that time, the Fulvii were active in the politics of the Roman state, and gained a reputation for excellent military leaders.

Appius Claudius Pulcher was a Roman general and politician of the 3rd century BC, active in the Second Punic War.

Gaius Claudius Nero Roman general

Gaius Claudius Nero was a Roman general active during the Second Punic War against the invading Carthaginian force, led by Hannibal Barca. During a military career that began as legate in 214 BC, he was propraetor in 211 BC during the siege of Capua, before being sent to Spain that same year. He became consul in 207 BC.

Battle of Herdonia (212 BC)

The first Battle of Herdonia was fought in 212 BC during the Second Punic War between Hannibal's Carthaginian army and Roman forces led by Praetor Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus, brother of the consul. The Roman army was destroyed, leaving Apulia free of Romans for the year.

Battle of Herdonia (210 BC)

The second battle of Herdonia took place in 210 BC during the Second Punic War. Hannibal, leader of the Carthaginians, who had invaded Italy eight years earlier, encircled and destroyed a Roman army which was operating against his allies in Apulia. The heavy defeat increased the war's burden on Rome and, piled on previous military disasters, aggravated the relations with her exhausted Italian allies. For Hannibal the battle was a tactical success, but did not halt for long the Roman advance. Within the next three years the Romans reconquered most of the territories and cities lost at the beginning of the war and pushed the Carthaginian general to the southwestern end of the Apennine peninsula. The battle was the last Carthaginian victory of the war; all battles which followed were either inconclusive or Roman victories.

Battle of Capua

The First Battle of Capua was fought in 212 BC between Hannibal and two Roman consular armies. The Roman force was led by two consuls, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus and Appius Claudius Pulcher. The Roman force was defeated, but managed to escape. Hannibal temporarily managed to raise the siege of Capua. A tactical Carthaginian victory, it ultimately did not help the Capuans.

Battle of the Silarus

The Battle of the Silarus was fought in 212 BC between Hannibal's army and a Roman force led by centurion Marcus Centenius Penula. The Carthaginians were victorious, destroying the entire Roman army and killing 15,000 Roman soldiers in the process.

Battle of Numistro

The Battle of Numistro was fought in 210 BC between Hannibal's army and one of the Roman consular armies led by consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus. It was the fourth time they met in a battle. Previous encounters were located around the walls of Nola (Campania) in 216, 215, and 214 and had been favourable for the Roman side.

Marcus Valerius Laevinus was a Roman consul and commander who rose to prominence during the Second Punic War and corresponding First Macedonian War. A member of the gens Valeria, an old patrician family believed to have migrated to Rome under the Sabine king T. Tatius, Laevinus played an integral role in the containment of the Macedonian threat.

Battle of Canusium

The Battle of Canusium also known as the Battle of Asculum was a three-day engagement between the forces of Rome and Carthage. It took place in Apulia during the spring of 209 BC, the tenth year of the Second Punic War. A larger Roman offensive, of which it was a part, aimed to subjugate and to punish cities and tribes that had abandoned the alliance with Rome after the Battle of Cannae, and to narrow the base of the Carthaginian leader, Hannibal, in southern Italy.

<i>Punica</i> (poem) Poem by Silius Italicus

The Punica is a Latin epic poem in seventeen books in dactylic hexameter written by Silius Italicus comprising some twelve thousand lines. It is the longest surviving Latin poem from antiquity. Its theme is the Second Punic War and the conflict between the two great generals Hannibal and Scipio Africanus. The poem was re-discovered in either 1416 or 1417 by the Italian humanist and scholar Poggio Bracciolini.

References

  1. Smith, William (2006). A New Classical Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology and Geography. Whitefish, MT, USA: Kessinger Publishing, LLC. p. 423.