Hasdrubal Barca

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Hasdrubal Barca (d. 207 BC) was a Carthaginian general in the Second Punic War. He was the second son of Hamilcar Barca, and younger brother of Hannibal.

Hasdrubal Barca

Hasdrubal was present when the Spanish ambushed the Carthaginian forces at Acre Luce. He, along with his brother Hannibal escaped, as Hamilcar led the Spanish in the opposite direction and drowned in the River Jucar.

Hannibal, when he set out for Italy, left a force of 13,000 infantry, 2,550 cavalry and 21 elephants in Spain. The Punic navy had a fleet of 50 Quinqueremes and 5 Triremes stationed there. However, only 32 Quinqueremes were manned at the start of the Second Punic War.

Left in command of Hispania when Hannibal departed to Italy in 218 BC, Hasdrubal was destined to fight for six years against the brothers Gnaeus and Publius Cornelius Scipio. The expedition Gnaeus Scipio in 218 BC had caught the Carthaginians by surprise, and before Hasrdrubal could join Hanno, the Carthaginian commander on the North of Ebro River, the Romans had fought and won the Battle of Cissa and established their army at Tarraco and their fleet at Emporiae. Hasdrubal raided the Romans with a flying column of light infantry and cavalry, which inflicted severe losses and on their naval crews and reduced the fighting strength to 35 ships. This loss was offset by the arrival of an allied Greek contingent from the city of Massilia.

In the spring of 217 BC, Hasdrubal led a joint expedition north to fight the Romans. He commanded the army, while his deputy commanded the fleet. The Army and the fleet moved north side by side and encamped on the mouth of the Ebro River. Carelessness of the Carthaginian fleet enabled Gnaeus Scipio to surprise the Carthaginians and crush their naval contingent at the Battle of Ebro River. Hasdrubal retreated without fighting the Roman army. The year 216 was spent quelling an uprising of Spanish tribes, possibility the Trudetanii around the area near Gades.

Hasdrubal was reinforced by 4,000 infantry and 500 cavalry and was ordered by the Carthaginian senate to march to Italy in the same year. He left Himilco in charge at Cartagena and marched for the Ebro river, but was heavily defeated in the Battle of Dertosa in the spring of 215 BC. This defeat prevented reinforcements reaching Hannibal from both Spain and Africa at a critical moment of the War, when the Carthaginians held the upper hand in Italy. The Carthaginians from now were forced to contest the Romans in the area between the Ebro and Jucor rivers.

This defeat also led to Mago Barca and Hasdrubal Gisco arriving in Spain with two armies and ending the undisputed command of the Barcid family in Spain. The Carthaginains fought the Scipio brothers and had on the whole the worst of the conflict between 215 and 212 BC, but managed to prevent the loss of any territory. At the instigation of the Romans, Syphax, one of the kings of the Numidian tribes, attacked Carthaginian territories in Africa in 213/212 BC. The situation in Spain was suffuciantly under control, because Hasdrubal and his Spanish army crossed over to Africa and crushed the threat of Syphax in a battle where 30,000 Numidians were killed. With his Roman trained army shattered, Syphax fled to Mauritania. The aid of Masinissa, a Numidian prince, was invaluable during this episode, and he crossed over to Spain with Hasdrubal after the African expedition ended with 3,000 Numidian cavalry.

In late 212 BC Hasdrubal acted with imagination and iniative, and with timely cooperation from Mago Barca and Hasdrubal Gisco, completely routed his opponents at the Battle of the Upper Baetis, destroying the majority of the Roman army in Spain and killing both the Scipios. Carthaginians gained control of Spain up to the Ebro as a result of this vicory. However, the lack of cooperation between the Carthginian generals after the battle led the surviving Roman force of 8,000 retiring north of the river Ebro safely. These troops somehow managed to keep the Carthaginian armies from gaining a foothold north of the Ebro River. The Romans reinforced this detachment with 10,000 troops under Cladius Nero in 211 BC and with another 10,000 soldiers under Scipio Africanus Major in 210 BC, who spent the year training his army and improving his diplomatic contacts.

The Carthaginian armies had dispersed in the interior of Spain in 209 BC, possibly to maintain control over the Spanish tribes, on which they were depeendent on for soldiers and provisions. The Carthaginian armies were subsequently outgeneralled by Scipio Africanus Major, who, taking advantage of the abscense of the three Carthaginian armies being away in 209 BC captured Carthago Nova and gained other advantages. Hasdrubal was defeated by Scipio at the Battle of Baecula, but managed to retreat with 2/3 of his army intact.

In the same year he was summoned to join his brother in Italy. He eluded Scipio by crossing the Pyrenees at their western extremity, and, making his way thence through Gaul and the Alps in safety, penetrated far into Central Italy in 207 BC. He was ultimately checked by two Roman armies, and being forced to give battle was decisively defeated at the Battle of the Metaurus. Hasdrubal himself fell in the fight; his head was cut off and thrown into Hannibal's camp as a sign of his utter defeat, in stark contrast of Hannibal's treatment of the bodies of fallen Roman Consuls.

It is hard to judge the true ability of Hasdrubal Barca as a general, as we know more about his defeats than his successes. Although not in the same class with Hannibal and Scipio, he was certainly better than the host of Carthaginian and Roman general who had fought the war.