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Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus (died 211 BC) 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 to keep them from reinforcing Hannibal.
Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus was a member of the patrician family of the Cornelii Scipiones. His father was Lucius Cornelius Scipio, consul of 259 BC, the son of the patrician censor of 280, Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus. His younger brother was Publius Cornelius Scipio, consul of 218 and father of the famous Scipio Africanus (the most famous of the Scipios). Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio was nicknamed Calvus (the bald) to distinguish him from his uncle, another Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, who was nicknamed Asina (donkey) and who had been consul twice during the First Punic War.
Gnaeus Cornelius was elected consul for 222 BC with Marcus Claudius Marcellus as his co-consul. Both consuls led their armies against the Insubres of Cisalpine Gaul. Scipio laid siege to Acerrae, while Marcellus engaged the Insubres at Clastidium. After Acerrae fell, Scipio marched towards Mediolanum, drawing the Gauls out and routing them. He took that city and thereby forced the Gauls to submit to the Romans. [1]
Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus fought in the Second Punic War. Though he never faced Hannibal himself, he played a major part in defeating him. At the start of the Second Punic War Gnaeus served as a legate in the army of his younger brother Publius, who was consul at the outbreak of the war in 218 BC. From 218 BC until his death in 211 BC he fought against the Carthaginians in Spain.
In 218, Gnaeus and his brother sailed with Publius' consular army to the allied Greek city of Massilia in southern Gaul. From there they planned to start operations against Hannibal and the Carthaginian holdings on the Iberian peninsula. Publius was informed Hannibal was to the north in Gaul, so he sent a cavalry force north up the eastern bank of the Rhone River, which clashed with a similar force of Numidian light cavalry. After a hard-fought skirmish, they managed to drive off the Numidians. [2] Publius then marched his entire force north intending to do battle with Hannibal in Gaul. Meanwhile, Hannibal had marched east towards the Alps. Arriving at the deserted Carthaginian camp, Scipio learned that Hannibal was three days' march away and decided to send his army to the Iberian peninsula under the command of his elder brother Gnaeus, while he himself returned to Northern Italy to organize the defences.
Gnaeus, with 20,000 infantry (2 Roman legions and 2 allied alae), 2,200 cavalry and 60 quinqueremes, sailed from Massilia and landed in eastern Spain at Emporion. The Greek cities of Emporion and Tarraco welcomed the Romans, and Gnaeus began to win over the Iberian tribes north of the Ebro. Hannibal had left a certain Hanno with 10,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry to garrison the newly conquered territory north of the Ebro, he was seriously outnumbered so Hasdrubal Barca, who had been left in command of the Carthaginian army in southern Spain, decided to reinforce him and marched north with 8,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. [3]
Hanno, afraid he would lose the Iberians and all of the Cartiginian territory north of the Ebro if he waited any longer, marched and attacked the Romans just north of Tarraco, near a place called Cissa or Kissa. [4] He fought a pitched battle, in which there were no brilliant maneuvers or ambushes; the armies just formed up and faced off. Being outnumbered two to one, Hanno was defeated relatively easily, losing 6,000 soldiers in battle. Furthermore, the Romans managed to capture the Carthaginian camp, along with 2,000 soldiers and Hanno himself. The camp contained all the baggage left by Hannibal. [5] The prisoners also included Indibilis, an influential Iberian chieftain. The Romans also stormed the town of Cissa, though to the frustration of the Romans it did not contain any valuable booty. [6]
In spring 217 BC Gnaeus commanded a fleet of 55 warships (probably quinqueremes) during a naval battle near the mouth of the Ebro River. [7] The Carthaginian naval contingent of 40 warships facing him was totally defeated after a surprise attack by the Roman ships. The Carthaginians lost 29 ships and the control of seas around the Iberian peninsula. Furthermore, the victory enhanced Roman prestige among the warlike Iberians.
In early 215 BC the Romans, under the joined command of the brothers Gnaeus and Publius Scipio, crossed the Ebro River. Hasdrubal marched north with his field army, and after some maneuvering the two armies faced of on the south bank of the Ebro River across from the town of Dertosa. The armies were about similar in size with the Scipio brothers having 30,000 infantry and 2,800 cavalry against Hasdrubal's 25,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry and 20 elephants. Hasdrubal tried to emulate his brother Hannibal's envelopment tactic (see: Cannae) but failed because the Roman cavalry held out and he could not close the trap. The Scipio brothers continued with their policy of subjugating the Iberian tribes and raiding Carthaginian possessions. After losing most of his field army, Hasdrubal had to be reinforced with the army that was to sail to Italy and reinforce Hannibal. Thus, by winning this battle, the Scipios had indirectly prevented the situation in Italy from getting worse in addition to improving their own situation in Iberia.
In 212 BC, the Scipio brothers captured Castulo, a major mining town and the home of Hannibal's wife Imilce. [8] They then wintered at Castulo and Ilugia. [8]
Over the last couple of years the strength of the Scipios army had been reduced by losses and the need to garrison their recently conquered territories [9] Therefore, the brothers had hired around 20,000 Celt-Iberian mercenaries to supplement their field army to 40,000 men. [9] With a large army at their back and observing that the Carthaginian commanders had deployed separately from each other the Scipio brothers decided to divide their forces. Publius led an army of Roman and allied soldiers to attack Mago Barca near Castulo, while Gnaeus took one-third of the Romans and all of the mercenaries to attack Hasdrubal Barca. This stratagem would lead to two battles which took place within a few days of each other; the Battle of Castulo and the Battle of Ilorca.
As Publius neared Castulo, he was harassed day and night by Numidian light cavalry under Masinissa. [9] When informed that Indibilis was moving across his line of retreat with 7,500 Iberians, Publius decided not to face Mago but to attack the Iberian chieftain. [9] Leaving 2,000 soldiers in his camp under the legate Tiberius Fonteus, he marched out at night, to evade Masinissa's cavalry, and launched an attack on the Iberians in the early morning. He caught Indibilis and his men by surprise and, with a numerical superiority, began to gain the upper hand in the ensuing action. The Iberians managed to hold off the Romans just long enough for Masinissa to arrive.
With the Numidian horse attacking their flank, the Roman assault on the Iberians began to slacken. Then Mago and Hasdrubal Gisco arrived with their combined armies. The Romans, after a grim struggle, broke and fled, leaving Publius and most of their comrades dead on the field. Mago gave the Numidians enough time to loot the dead before force marching the army towards Hasdrubal Barca's position. A handful of Roman survivors managed to reach Fonteus's camp.
Gnaeus Scipio had arrived at his objective first. Hasdrubal Barca decided to refuse battle and stayed within his fortified camp, he then managed to bribe the Celt-Iberian mercenaries to desert Gnaeus. [9] This led to Hasdrubal's army outnumbering that of Gnaeus. Still Hasdrubal bided his time, avoiding any battles with the Romans.
Gnaeus, having lost his numerical advantage, decided to withdraw north after Mago and Hasdrubal Gisco arrived with their armies. The Romans moved out of their camp, leaving their camp fires burning, and made for the Ebro at night. The Numidians located them the following day; their attacks forced the Romans to take position for the night on a hilltop near Ilorca. The combined Carthaginian armies arrived during the night. As the ground was too stony for digging the Romans tried to create a defensive wall with baggage and saddles. The Carthaginians easily overran these makeshift fortification, destroying Gnaeus's army.
Gnaeus died in battle, fighting the Carthaginians who had overrun his makeshift camp during the battle of Ilorca. His death did not end the Scipios’ war against the Carthaginians. His nephew Publius would play an even greater part[ citation needed ] in bringing down Hannibal and in establishing Roman rule over the Iberian peninsula.
His son was Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica (nicknamed Nasica for his pointed nose), who was consul in 191 BC. He was the first Scipio Nasica and founded the Nasica branch of the Scipiades. Scipio Nasica's son, another Scipio Nasica (nicknamed Corculum, with his full name being Publius Cornelius P.f. G.n. Scipio Nasica Corculum), married his second cousin Cornelia Africana Major, the eldest daughter of Scipio Africanus, and thus united the two lines. Their descendants in the male line continued until at least 46 BC, in the person of Metellus Scipio (who was adopted into the Caecilii Metelli family).
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.
This article concerns the period 219 BC – 210 BC.
Year 211 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Maximus and Maximus. The denomination 211 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.
Publius Cornelius Scipio was a general and statesman of the Roman Republic and the father of Scipio Africanus.
The battle of the Trebia was the first major battle of the Second Punic War, fought between the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal and a Roman army under Sempronius Longus on 22 or 23 December 218 BC. Each army had a strength of about 40,000 men; the Carthaginians were stronger in cavalry, the Romans in infantry. The battle took place on the flood plain of the west bank of the lower Trebia River, not far from the settlement of Placentia, and resulted in a heavy defeat for the Romans.
Mago Barca was a Barcid Carthaginian 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.
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 Ilipa was an engagement considered by many as Scipio Africanus’s most brilliant victory in his military career during the Second Punic War in 206 BC.
This is a historical timeline of Portugal.
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.
Hasdrubal Gisco, a latinization of the name ʿAzrubaʿal son of Gersakkun, was a Carthaginian general who fought against Rome in Iberia (Hispania) and North Africa during the Second Punic War.
The Battle of Cissa was part of the Second Punic War. It was fought in the fall of 218 BC, near the Celtic town of Tarraco in north-eastern Iberia. A Roman army under Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus defeated an outnumbered Carthaginian army under Hanno, thus gaining control of the territory north of the Ebro River that Hannibal had just subdued a few months prior in the summer of 218 BC. This was the first battle that the Romans had ever fought in Iberia. It allowed the Romans to establish a secure base among friendly Iberian tribes, and due to the eventual success of the Scipio brothers in Spain, Hannibal looked for but never received reinforcements from Spain during the war.
The Battle of Ebro River was a naval battle fought near the mouth of Ebro River in the spring of 217 BC between a Carthaginian fleet of approximately 40 quinqueremes, under the command of Himilco, and a Roman fleet of 35 ships, under Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus. Hasdrubal Barca, the Carthaginian commander in Iberia, had launched a joint expedition to destroy the Roman base north of the Ebro River. The Carthaginian naval contingent was totally defeated after a surprise attack by the Roman ships, losing 29 ships and the control of seas around Iberia. The reputation of the Romans was further enhanced in Iberia after this victory, causing rebellion among some of the Iberian tribes under Carthaginian control.
The Battle of Ibera, also known as the Battle of Dertosa, was fought in the spring of 215 BC on the south bank of the Ebro River near the town of Ibera and was part of the Second Punic War. A Roman army, under the command of the brothers Gnaeus and Publius Scipio, defeated a similarly sized Carthaginian army under Hasdrubal Barca. The Romans, under Gnaeus Scipio, had invaded Iberia in late 218 BC and established a foothold after winning the Battle of Cissa. This lodgement, on the north-east Iberian coast, between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, blocked the route of any reinforcements from Iberia for the army of Hannibal, who had invaded Italy from Iberia earlier in the year. Hasdrubal attempted to evict the Romans in 217 BC, but this ended in defeat when the Carthaginian naval contingent was mauled at the Battle of Ebro River.
The Roman Republic conquered and occupied territories in the Iberian Peninsula that were previously under the control of native Celtic, Iberian, Celtiberian and Aquitanian tribes and the Carthaginian Empire. The Carthaginian territories in the south and east of the peninsula were conquered in 206 BC during the Second Punic War. Control was gradually extended over most of the Iberian Peninsula without annexations. It was completed after the end of the Roman Republic, by Augustus, the first Roman emperor, who annexed the whole of the peninsula to the Roman Empire in 19 BC.
The battle of the Great Plains was fought in 203 BC in modern Tunisia between a Roman army commanded by Publius Cornelius Scipio, and allied Carthaginian and Numidian armies commanded by Hasdrubal Gisco and Syphax respectively. The battle was part of the Second Punic War and resulted in a heavy defeat for Carthage.
The Battle of Insubria in 203 BC was the culmination of a major war, carried out by the Carthaginian commander Mago, brother of Hannibal Barca, at the end of the Second Punic war between Rome and Carthage in what is now northwestern Italy. Mago had landed at Genoa, Liguria, two years before, in an effort to keep the Romans busy to the North and thus hamper indirectly their plans to invade Carthage's hinterland in Africa. He was quite successful in reigniting the unrest among various peoples against the Roman dominance. Rome was forced to concentrate large forces against him which finally resulted in a battle fought in the land of the Insubres (Lombardy). Mago suffered defeat and had to retreat. The strategy to divert the enemy's forces failed as the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio laid waste to Africa and wiped out the Carthaginian armies that were sent to destroy the invader. To counter Scipio, the Carthaginian government recalled Mago from Italy. However, the remnants of the Carthaginian forces in Cisalpine Gaul continued to harass the Romans for several years after the end of the war.
This section of the timeline of Hispania concerns Spanish and Portuguese history events from the Carthaginian conquests to before the barbarian invasions.
Indibilis and Mandonius were chieftains of the Ilergetes, an ancient Iberian people based in the Iberian Peninsula. Polybius speaks of the brothers as the most influential and powerful of the Iberian chieftains in that period. Livy calls one of the chieftains of the Ilergetes "Indibilis". at the same time, Polybius gives "Andobales" for the same person. They agree that his brother chieftain was Mandonius.