Scipio, Publius Cornelius

▪ Roman general

died 211 BC, at the Baetis River [now Guadalquivir River, Spain]

      Roman general, consul in 218 BC; from 217 to 211 BC he and his brother Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus (consul in 222 BC) were proconsuls (provincial governors) and commanders of the Roman expeditionary force in Spain. Publius was the father of Scipio Africanus the Elder.

      As consul in 218 BC, Publius was sent to Spain to stop the Carthaginian general Hannibal. Delayed by a Gallic revolt in Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy), Publius arrived at the Rhône River too late to prevent Hannibal's crossing (September 218). He sent his brother on to Spain with the bulk of his forces to keep reinforcements from reaching Hannibal, and he returned to Italy. After losing a cavalry skirmish near the Ticinus (now Ticino) River, in which he was wounded, he retreated to Placentia (now Piacenza) to await his colleague Tiberius Sempronius Longus. Their combined forces fought Hannibal at the nearby Trebia River and were soundly defeated, losing half of their men.

      In 217 Publius was sent as proconsul to join his brother in Spain. Gnaeus had secured Spain north of the Ebro River for Rome, had defeated the Carthaginian fleet at the mouth of the Ebro, and had attacked the Carthaginian forces as far south as Carthago Nova (now Cartagena) and Ebusus (now Ibiza); with Publius, he moved on Saguntum (now Sagunto). In 216 the Scipio brothers defeated Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal and succeeded in blocking Hannibal's reinforcements, and in 202 they captured Saguntum and Castulo (now Cazlona).

      In 211 Carthage sent three armies to Spain: two under Hannibal's brothers Hasdrubal and Mago and a third under Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo. The Scipio brothers decided to split their forces to meet the three-pronged attack. Publius was caught and killed by Mago and Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, near the Baetis River, and his army was destroyed. Hasdrubal persuaded Gnaeus's Spanish allies to desert at a crucial point and thus won at Ilourgeia (near present-day Cartagena) a decisive victory in which Gnaeus died.

      Even though they eventually met defeat, the Scipio brothers kept Carthage from reinforcing Hannibal during the crucial early years of his invasion of Italy. They won important naval and land battles and inflicted severe losses on the enemy. It took three armies to defeat them, yet the three victorious Carthaginian generals could not agree on a plan to advance on Italy, so Hannibal remained without reinforcements for years.

E. Badian

 

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