Battle of Cissa
Coordinates: 41 ° 6 ′ 57 ″ N , 1 ° 14 ′ 59 ″ E
| date | Autumn 218 BC Chr. |
|---|---|
| place | Cissa in what is now Spain |
| output | roman victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Hanno |
|
| Troop strength | |
| 10,000 infantry and 1,500 horsemen | 20,000 legionaries and 2,200 horsemen |
| losses | |
|
6,000 dead, 2,000 prisoners |
unknown |
Saguntum - Lilybaeum II - Rhone - Ticinus - Trebia - Cissa - Lake Trasimeno - Ager Falernus - Geronium - Cannae - Nola I - Nola II - Ibera - Cornus - Nola III - Beneventum I - Syracuse - Tarentum I - Capua I - Beneventum II - Silarus - Herdonia I - Upper Baetis - Capua II - Herdonia II - Numistro - Asculum - Tarentum II - New Carthage - Baecula - Grumentum - Metaurus - Ilipa - Crotona - Large fields - Cirta - Zama
The Battle of Cissa was a skirmish between the Carthaginian forces under Hanno and Roman forces under Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus in 218 BC. At the beginning of the Second Punic War . The scene was Cissa in Spain, the battle ended in a Roman victory.
prehistory
Hannibal had in the summer of 218 BC BC conquered today's Spain between the Ebro and the Pyrenees and then marched with his army through southern Gaul towards Italy, while his brother Hasdrubal and a general Hanno, possibly also a relative of Hannibal, stayed behind to guard Spain.
The Romans sent one of the consuls in 218 BC. BC, Publius Cornelius Scipio , with four legions and sixty ships to Spain. Scipio tried to place Hannibal in southern Gaul, but could not prevent the Carthaginian army from crossing the Alps . He then returned to Italy, while his brother Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus continued with part of the armed forces to Spain, where he landed with about 20,000 men at Emporiae .
The battle
Hanno was completely surprised about a confrontation with the Romans, he had been assured by Hannibal that the mobilization of the Roman armies would take at least as long as the march across the Pyrenees. When he saw himself attacked by the Roman superiority, he let the entire foot troops rush in open formation towards the Roman main army, but the army, which was partly composed of Celtiberian mercenaries, was hopelessly inferior to the four Roman legions. On the Carthaginian side, 6,000 men were killed, 2,000, including Hanno himself, surrendered and were taken prisoner of war. The remainder tried to flee across the Ebro, but many of the infantrymen were carried away by the river or drowned in the floods; only almost all of the 1000 riders managed to flee and tell Hannibal of the defeat. The exact localization of the place Cissa , possibly the native name of the later Tarraco , cannot be clearly deduced from the sources (see Tarraco # Prehistory and Second Punic War ).
consequences
The first battle in the Second Punic War on Hispanic soil was a clear victory for the Romans, Scipio Calvus was able to establish himself in Spain.
swell
- Polybios : Historíai 3, 76, 6.
- Titus Livius : Ab urbe condita 21, 60, 1-9.
literature
- Peter Connolly: Hannibal and the enemies of Rome , ISBN 3-7886-0182-5 , page 72 ff
- Leonard Cottrell: Hannibal, the enemy of Rome , ISBN 978-0-03-030720-1 , page 173f