| Battle of Petelia | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Punic War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Carthage |  Roman Republic | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Hannibal | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
5,000 3,000 infantry 2,000 cavalry | 3,500+ | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | 3,500 2,000 killed 1,500 captured | ||||||
The Battle of Petelia was an ambush during the Second Punic War that took place in the summer of 208 BC near Petelia. The Carthaginian general Hannibal surprised and destroyed a large Roman detachment.
In the summer of 208 BC, the Roman consuls Marcus Claudius Marcellus and Titus Quinctius Crispinus ordered a part of the Roman garrison of Tarentum to move up and assist in an offensive against the Carthaginian-allied town of Locri. [1] Hannibal received word from the people of Thurii of the Roman move and laid an ambush along the road from Tarentum with 3,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. [1]
The Carthaginian force was hidden at the foot of the hill of Petelia. [1] The Romans failed to conduct a reconnaissance and the Carthaginians achieved complete surprise. [1] They killed 2,000 Romans and captured 1,500. [1] The rest of the Roman force fled cross-country back to Tarentum. [1]
The Second Punic War was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Italy and Iberia, but also on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and, towards the end of the war, in North Africa. After immense materiel and human losses on both sides, the Carthaginians were once again defeated. Macedonia, Syracuse and several Numidian kingdoms were drawn into the fighting, and Iberian and Gallic forces fought on both sides. There were three main military theatres during the war: Italy, where Hannibal defeated the Roman legions repeatedly, with occasional subsidiary campaigns in Sicily, Sardinia and Greece; Iberia, where Hasdrubal, a younger brother of Hannibal, defended the Carthaginian colonial cities with mixed success before moving into Italy; and Africa, where Rome finally won the war.
Marcus Claudius Marcellus was a Roman general and politician during the 3rd century BC. Five times elected as consul of the Roman Republic. Marcellus gained the most prestigious award a Roman general could earn, the spolia opima, for killing the Gallic king Viridomarus in single combat in 222 BC at the Battle of Clastidium. Furthermore, he is noted for having conquered the fortified city of Syracuse in a protracted siege during which Archimedes, the famous mathematician, scientist, and inventor, was killed, despite Marcellus ordering the soldiers under his command not to harm him. Marcus Claudius Marcellus died in battle in 208 BC, leaving behind a legacy of military conquests and a reinvigorated Roman legend of the spolia opima.
Mago Barca was a Carthaginian, member of the Barcid family, who played an important role in the Second Punic War, leading forces of Carthage against the Roman Republic in Iberia and northern and central Italy. Mago was the third son of Hamilcar Barca, was the brother of Hannibal and Hasdrubal, and was the brother-in-law of Hasdrubal the Fair.
The Battle of Lake Trasimene was fought when a Carthaginian force under Hannibal Barca ambushed a Roman army commanded by Gaius Flaminius on 21 June 217 BC, during the Second Punic War. The battle took place on the north shore of Lake Trasimene, to the south of Cortona, and resulted in a heavy defeat for the Romans.
Titus Quinctius Flamininus was a Roman politician and general instrumental in the Roman conquest of Greece.
Hasdrubal Barca, a latinization of ʿAzrubaʿal son of Hamilcar Barca, was a Carthaginian general in the Second Punic War. He was the brother of Hannibal and Mago Barca.
The Battle of the Metaurus was a pivotal battle in the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, fought in 207 BC near the Metauro River in Italy. The Carthaginians were led by Hasdrubal Barca, brother of Hannibal, who was to have brought siege equipment and reinforcements for Hannibal. The Roman armies were led by the consuls Marcus Livius, who was later nicknamed the Salinator, and Gaius Claudius Nero.
The Battle of Baecula was a major field battle in Iberia during the Second Punic War. Roman Republican and Iberian auxiliary forces under the command of Scipio Africanus routed the Carthaginian army of Hasdrubal Barca.
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 praetor in 212 BC, propraetor in 211 BC during the siege of Capua, before being sent to Spain that same year. He became consul in 207 BC.
The Battle of the Upper Baetis was a double battle, comprising the battles of Castulo and Ilorca, fought in 211 BC during the Second Punic War between a Carthaginian force led by Hasdrubal Barca and a Roman force led by Publius Cornelius Scipio and his brother Gnaeus. The immediate result was a Carthaginian victory in which both Roman brothers were killed. Before this defeat, the brothers had spent seven years campaigning against the Carthaginians in Hispania, thus limiting the resources available to Hannibal, who was simultaneously fighting the Romans in Italy.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tiberius Sempronius Longus was a Roman consul during the Second Punic War and a contemporary of Publius Cornelius Scipio. In 219 BC, Sempronius and the elder Scipio were elected as consuls for 218 BC. At the outbreak of the war in 218 BC, he was ordered to conduct the war effort in Sicily and Africa, while Scipio was sent to the Iberian Peninsula to attack Hannibal himself. Sempronius was allocated two Roman legions, 16,000 allied infantry, 1,800 allied cavalry, 160 quinqueremes and 20 lighter vessels. As soon as his army was assembled he moved his forces to Sicily. Striking from Lilybaeum Sempronius captured Malta from the Carthaginians.
The Battle of Tarentum in March 212 BC was a military engagement in the Second Punic War.
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.
This section of the timeline of Hispania concerns Spanish and Portuguese history events from the Carthaginian conquests to before the barbarian invasions.
Lucius Veturius Philo was a curule aedile in 210 BC, praetor of Cisalpine Gaul in 209 BC, propraetor of the same province in 208 BC, consular legate in 207 BC, consul in 206 BC, and magister equitum in 205 BC. He was renowned for having been the first to announce to the Roman Senate the news of the great victory won over Hannibal Barca at the Battle of Zama, which ended the Second Punic War.
