While Hannibal ranged across Italy, it fell to his brother Hasdrubal to hold Carthaginian Spain and, in the end, to make the desperate march to join him. His failure to arrive, cut down at a river in Italy, is one of the great turning points of the war with Rome.
Holding Hispania
Left in command in Hispania when Hannibal set out for Italy in 218 BC1, Hasdrubal spent years defending the family's Iberian base against Roman armies sent to cut Hannibal off from reinforcement. In 211 BC he and his fellow commanders defeated the two Roman brothers Publius and Gnaeus Scipio2, both of whom were killed, a victory that for a time left Carthage master of Spain south of the Ebro.
The rise of Scipio
The tide turned when the young Scipio Africanus, son and nephew of the fallen brothers, took command in Hispania. He stormed the great base of New Carthage3, and in 208 BC met Hasdrubal at Baecula4. Hasdrubal fought his way clear and, rather than be pinned in the peninsula, resolved on a bold stroke: to march his army over the Alps and join Hannibal in Italy.
The march to the Metaurus
In 207 BC Hasdrubal crossed the Alps1, as his brother had, and moved south to link up with Hannibal. But his messengers were intercepted2, and the Roman consuls concentrated against him before the brothers could unite. At the Battle of the Metaurus his army was destroyed and Hasdrubal was killed4. By tradition his severed head was thrown before Hannibal's outposts2, the news that no help would come.
Note that several Carthaginians bore the name Hasdrubal; this is Hasdrubal Barca, the son of Hamilcar, not Hasdrubal the Fair, his brother-in-law5, or the Hasdrubal who later defended Carthage itself.
Meet the rest of the family among the great commanders of Carthage.
Sources and notes
Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.
- World History Encyclopedia (Joshua J. Mark), “Hasdrubal Barca” ↩ a b
- Livy, History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita), Book 25, 32 to 36 (defeat and death of Publius and Gnaeus Scipio, 211 BC); Book 27, 17 to 20 (Baecula), 39 to 51 (march to Italy, the intercepted letters, the Metaurus; Hasdrubal's head thrown before Hannibal's outposts at 27.51). ↩ a b c
- Adrian Goldsworthy, The Punic Wars (Cassell, 2000). ↩
- Polybius, Histories, Book 10, 38 to 40 (Baecula); Book 11, 1 to 3 (the Metaurus). Loeb translation online at LacusCurtius: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/home.html. ↩ a b
- Dexter Hoyos, Hannibal's Dynasty: Power and Politics in the Western Mediterranean, 247-183 BC (Routledge, 2003). ↩
- Wikipedia, “Hasdrubal Barca, Wikipedia”