- Hasdrubal
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/haz"droo beuhl, haz drooh"-/, n.1. died 207 B.C., Carthaginian general (brother of Hannibal).2. died 221 B.C., Carthaginian general (brother-in-law of Hannibal).
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▪ Carthaginian general [died 207 BC]died 207 BCCarthaginian general who unsuccessfully attempted to sustain military ascendancy on the Spanish peninsula in the face of Roman attacks.Hasdrubal, the second son of Hamilcar Barca, was left in command of Spain when his brother Hannibal went to Italy (218 BC), and he fought for seven years against Publius Cornelius Scipio and his brother Gnaeus. The war began poorly for Hasdrubal. In a naval battle during the early summer of 217 BC on the Ebro River at Tarraco, Hasdrubal's fleet was largely destroyed by a daring surprise Roman attack.In 215 BC Hasdrubal battled the Scipios at Dertosa, a city on the banks of the Ebro. The Carthaginian forces took very heavy losses in that battle when their centre broke. Four years later, Hasdrubal struck back, crushing the Roman armies, killing the Scipio brothers, and driving the Romans from most of Spain south of the Ebro. The younger Publius Cornelius Scipio (Scipio, Publius Cornelius), who was only 25, was then given command of the Roman armies in Spain. He arrived in 210 and in a daring attack seized the key Carthaginian base at New Carthage (now Cartagena). In 208 Scipio defeated Hasdrubal at Baecula (now Bailen), but Hasdrubal escaped with most of his army and marched to Italy in an attempt to join Hannibal. He was ultimately defeated in 207 at the Metaurus River, his head being thrown into Hannibal's camp by order of the Roman general Gaius Claudius Nero.▪ Carthaginian general [died 221 BC]died 221 BCCarthaginian general, the son-in-law of Hamilcar Barca.Hasdrubal is known for his political opposition to the Carthaginian aristocracy and for the unusually wide support that he enjoyed from the city's ordinary citizens. Hasdrubal assisted Hamilcar in successful campaigns of conquest against local tribes on the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain) from 237 BC until Hamilcar's death during the winter of 229–228 BC. When he succeeded to the governorship, he made immediate policy changes, emphasizing the use of diplomatic rather than military methods for expanding Carthaginian Spain and dealing with Rome, most notably by marrying a Spanish princess. He founded New Carthage, a capital city that is today called Cartagena, and in 226–225 BC negotiated a treaty with the Romans that placed the northern limit of Carthaginian expansion at the Ebro River. Hasdrubal was murdered by a Celtic assassin in 221 BC.▪ Carthaginian general [died circa 202 BC]died c. 202 BCCarthaginian general customarily identified as the son of Gisco.Hasdrubal and two brothers of Hannibal named Mago and Hasdrubal commanded three separate Carthaginian armies in Spain from 214 through 206 BC. Considerably reinforced from Africa, they routed the Roman armies and killed their commanders, Publius Cornelius Scipio and his brother Gnaeus, in 211.Late in 210 BC, Publius Cornelius Scipio the younger (later called Scipio Africanus (Scipio Africanus the Elder)), the son of Publius Cornelius, arrived in Spain. He made many military gains, and Hasdrubal adopted a strategy of avoiding confrontations with him. In the early spring of 206 BC, Hasdrubal realized that he must stand and fight. The armies met at Ilipa (now called Alcalá del Río, north of Sevilla, Spain), where Hasdrubal was outgeneraled, defeated, and forced to retreat to the coast. He found his way to North Africa, where he gave Syphax, king of the Massaesyli, his daughter in marriage to formalize their military alliance. During the period from 205 to 203 Hasdrubal and Syphax fought Scipio on African soil. In 204 Hasdrubal and Syphax forced Scipio to end his siege of Utica, but in the spring of 203 Scipio burned their camps; he then defeated both of them at the Battle of the Great Plains (in present-day Tunisia). Hasdrubal committed suicide before the Battle of Zama, following his conviction on charges of treason.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
