Hasdrubal Barca: Hannibal's brother

Left in charge of Carthaginian Spain when Hannibal invaded Italy in 218 BC, Hasdrubal fought the Romans there for about ten years. He lost a sea battle at the mouth of the Ebro in 217 BC and a land battle near Ibera in 216 or 215 BC, helped destroy the armies of the Scipios in 212 or 211 BC and escaped from Scipio Africanus at Baecula in 208 BC. His march to Italy ended at the Battle of the Metaurus in 207 BC.¹

Which Hasdrubal? Several Carthaginians of this time bore the name. This one was the son of Hamilcar Barca. He is not Hasdrubal the Fair, Hamilcar's son-in-law, who commanded in Spain until he was assassinated in 221 BC, nor Hasdrubal son of Gisco, who fought beside him in Spain.²

What was Hasdrubal Barca famous for?

He is remembered for three things. He held Carthaginian Spain against Rome for about ten years while Hannibal fought in Italy. He shared in the campaign of 212 or 211 BC in which both Roman commanders in Spain, the brothers Publius and Gnaeus Scipio, were killed. And he crossed the Alps in 207 BC, only to die at the Metaurus.³

Hamilcar Barca brought up his sons Hannibal, Hasdrubal and Mago in his army camps as heirs to his war with Rome; Mommsen writes that Hamilcar called them his “lion's brood.”⁴

When Hannibal set out for Italy in 218 BC, he left Hasdrubal in command of Spain with about 12,650 infantry, most of them Libyans, some 2,500 cavalry, among them 1,800 Numidians and Moors, 21 elephants (Livy says 14) and 57 warships, of which only 37 were manned. His task was to hold Spain against the Romans and keep it as a source of reinforcements for his brother.⁵

The Romans struck first. In 218 BC Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio landed in northeastern Spain and defeated Hasdrubal's subordinate Hanno before Hasdrubal could come up. Hasdrubal could only surprise and kill some of the crews of the Roman fleet near Tarraco before he withdrew south of the Ebro for the winter. In 217 BC his fleet was beaten at the mouth of the Ebro, and Publius Scipio soon joined his brother with reinforcements.⁶

Did Hasdrubal Barca ever lose a battle?

Yes, several times. He lost the naval battle at the mouth of the Ebro in 217 BC and was routed by the Scipios near Ibera in 216 or 215 BC. In 208 BC Scipio Africanus beat him at Baecula, although Hasdrubal escaped with part of his army, and in 207 BC he was defeated and killed at the Metaurus.⁷

The battle at Ibera followed an order from Carthage, sent after Hannibal's victory at Cannae, to take his army to Italy. The Scipios blocked him on the Ebro and his army was routed. Livy says the Spaniards in his center, who would rather be beaten in Spain than win and be dragged to Italy, gave way almost at once. The march to Italy was called off.⁸

How did Hasdrubal Barca defeat the Scipios?

He struck after they divided their forces and bought off their allies. In 212 or 211 BC, with Mago and Hasdrubal son of Gisco, he faced the Scipios, who had split their army. He paid the Celtiberian mercenaries in Gnaeus's camp to go home. Publius Scipio was then killed by the other two Carthaginian armies, and Gnaeus soon followed.⁹

Before this he had been called away to Africa to fight Syphax, a Numidian king allied to Rome, and he came back to Spain with a larger army; the Numidian prince Masinissa now fought on the Carthaginian side. After the Scipios fell, Carthage held all of Spain south of the Ebro, and the surviving Romans clung to the line of the river.¹⁰

Rome sent Gaius Claudius Nero with fresh troops. Nero trapped Hasdrubal in a defile that Livy calls the Black Stones. Hasdrubal offered to leave Spain, drew out the talks for days while his men slipped away by night, and got away before Nero saw through the ruse. Mommsen calls this an “ignoble stratagem”; the Enciclopedia Italiana speaks of Punic cunning.¹¹

Why did Hasdrubal leave Spain for Italy?

Spain was slipping away from Carthage and Hannibal needed men. After Scipio Africanus took New Carthage and then beat Hasdrubal at Baecula in 208 BC, Hasdrubal left the defense of Spain to the other Carthaginian generals and took his army toward Italy, where, joined with Hannibal's, it might still turn the war.¹²

The new Roman commander was the young Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of the fallen Publius and the future Scipio Africanus. In 209 BC he took New Carthage, the Carthaginian capital in Spain, by surprise, while the three Carthaginian armies were more than ten days' march away.¹³

In 208 BC Scipio found Hasdrubal near Baecula, in the district of Castulo, camped on a ridge with a river behind him. Scipio sent his light troops straight up the slope and led half of his heavy infantry around one flank while Laelius took the other. Hasdrubal, as he had planned in case of defeat, left the field with his money, his elephants and as many fugitives as he could gather; Polybius counts some 12,000 prisoners.¹⁴

Scipio did not follow him. Hasdrubal marched to the northern coast of Spain, crossed the western Pyrenees and wintered in Gaul. In the spring of 207 BC he crossed the Alps far more easily than Hannibal had, because the Gallic peoples let him through and some joined him. He then lost time in a fruitless siege of the Roman colony of Placentia.¹⁵

From Placentia he sent Hannibal a letter proposing that the brothers meet in Umbria. Roman troops intercepted it and brought it to the consul Gaius Claudius Nero, the man Hasdrubal had fooled at the Black Stones, who was facing Hannibal in the south. Nero marched north with 7,000 picked men to join his colleague Marcus Livius Salinator at Sena.¹⁶

How did Hasdrubal Barca die?

He was killed at the Battle of the Metaurus in 207 BC. Both Roman consuls caught his army near the Metaurus River in central Italy and destroyed it. When the battle was lost he rode into a Roman cohort and died fighting, as Livy puts it, as befitted the son of Hamilcar and the brother of Hannibal.¹⁷

Facing two consuls, Hasdrubal tried to avoid battle and slip away, but his guides deserted him, and his army lost its way along the river until the Romans caught it.¹⁸

Hasdrubal placed his ten elephants in front, his Spaniards on the right facing Livius and his Gauls on the left behind difficult ground. Nero, unable to reach the Gauls, led troops around behind the Roman line and fell on the flank and rear of the Spaniards, and the Carthaginian army broke.¹⁹

The losses are disputed. Polybius gives no fewer than 10,000 Carthaginians and Gauls killed against 2,000 Romans; Livy gives 56,000 enemy dead and 5,400 prisoners.²⁰

Nero hurried back south and had Hasdrubal's head thrown in front of Hannibal's outposts. Hannibal gave up Apulia and Lucania and withdrew into Bruttium, the toe of Italy.²¹

How do historians judge Hasdrubal Barca?

Ancient writers praised his courage; modern historians are divided on his generalship. Polybius admired how he guarded his own safety while there was hope and chose to die once the battle was lost. Mommsen judged him worthy to be Hannibal's brother, while the Enciclopedia Italiana argues that, with large resources, he failed the task Hannibal gave him.²²

Dodge blames the Metaurus on slowness: the delay in leaving Spain, the siege of Placentia and an unsafe way of writing to his brother. Liddell Hart argues that Scipio's victory at Baecula forced Hasdrubal to rebuild his army in Gaul, a delay he calls fatal to the Carthaginian cause. Mommsen writes that after the Metaurus everyone in Rome felt the danger of the war had passed.²³

Scipio went on to complete the conquest of Carthaginian Spain, carried the war to Africa and defeated Hannibal at Zama in 202 BC.²⁴ › The Greatest Commanders of Carthage

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