THE FIRST CAMPAIGNS IN SPAIN. by Mary Elizabeth Kerr B.A., University of Britisn Columbia, 1966. A Thesis Submitted.in Partial Fulfilment of The Requirements for the degree of, Master of, Arts in the Department of Classics We accept this thesis as conforming to the I j required" standard. The University of British Columbia May, 1969. In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and Study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thes,is for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada ABSTRACT This thesis considers one theatre of the Second Punic War for a limited number of years. The period of the Spanish theatre extends from the beginning of Hannibal's career in 221 B.C. until the deaths of Gnaeus and Publius Scipio in 211 B.C. The following chronology is adopted: 237 - Hamilcar begins the reconquest of Spain. 231 - A Roman embassy visits Hamilcar; an agreement is reached between Saguntum and Rome. 229 - Hamilcar dies; Hasdrubal acclaimed commander. 226 - The Ebro treaty. 222/221- Hasdrubal murdered; Hannibal new leader in Spain. 220 - Roman political intervention at Saguntum. 219 - Hannibal attacks and captures Saguntum. 218 - War declared between Rome and Carthage. 218 - Hannibal marches overland from New Carthage to northern Italy. Publius to Spain to meet Hannibal; turns back at Rhone River; sends Gnaeus and troops to Spain. 217 - Romans victorious at sea off mouth of Ebro. Publius1 command in Spain extended; Romans obtain hostage's from Saguntum. 216 - Hasdrubal occupied in south; minor Roman advances south of Ebr 215 - Siege of Ibera. 214 - Romans recover Saguntum. 213-211- Gradual Roman advance into Carthaginian territory. 211 - Death of Scipios; retreat of Remans to Ebro River. -ii- TABLE OP C ONTENTS CBAPTER ONE THE STAGE IS RESET • CHAPTER TWO THE PRE-WAR YEARS 221 to 218 CHAPTER THREE THE SCIPIOS IN SPAIN CHAPTER FOUR THE LAST CAMPAIGN CHAPTER FIVE THE OBJECTIVES -ii'i- LIST OP MAPS ILLYRIA - FACING PAGE 5. NORTHERN ITALY - FACING PAGE 7. SPAIN AND AFRICA - FACING PAGE 11. \ -iv- ACKN OWLED GMENT I am greatly Indebted to PROFESSOR W.J. DUSING for his help, patience and understanding in writing this thesis. I am also indebted to PROFESSOR M.F. McGREGOR for his encouragement and help. (1) CHAPTER I Humiliated by their defeat by the Romans and exhausted by a savage war with their own allies and mercenaries, the Cartha• ginians, in 237, B.C., had to look beyond the coast of North Africa to restore their fallen fortunes.1 Asa in the Barcid family came to the fore to lead the people. With the approval of the home government, Hamilcar led the remnants of the army back to the former possessions in Spain. But rather than guiding his people away from their late antagonists, Hamilcar only suc• ceeded in bringing the two nations back into mortal conflict. This study proposes to look at only a small section of the second and greater ocnfliot. Tho particular theatre ia Spain in the ysara 221-211 - the years of Hannibal's rise and Rome's early campaigns outside Italy against the Carthaginian. Before we begin the story of Hannibal, the stage in Spain must be set and a look must be taken at certain Roman relations on the international scene. When Hamilcar set out for Spain he was not facing a great unknown. Spain had once been the most lucrative possession of the Carthaginian empire. Tradition has it that Carthage itself was 2 founded by a princess of the Phoenicians in 814. Then in the eighth, or perhaps the seventh century, the Phoenicians estab• lished a colony at Gades, on the southwest coast of Spain. The island of Gades was the perfect trading post - well-protected, with good harbour, and at the estuary of a large river coming from the wealthy interior. In an age of metals, Spain, with her silver, gold, copper, and iron deposits as well as her access to 1. All dates, unless otherwise noted, are B.C. 2. See Warmingtcn, Carthage, p. 22. (2) the tin of Britain, was a trader's paradise. The Phoenicians were not the only adventurers from the east in this western area. The Greeks from the mainland and Asia Minor were quickly moving in. By 600 the Phocaeans had settlements at Himeroscopium and Mainake as woll as a large town at Massilia. About 600 Carthage began to rise to a position of power and preeminence in the west and assumed the leadership of the Phoenician territories when Tyre fell to Nebuchadnezzar in 573. The most prosperous area of Spain at the time was the king- 4 dom of Tartessus. For a time Tartessus flourished - for approx• imately 80 years, between 620 and 540 - and supplied the wants of the Phoenicians at Gades, A.bdera and Sexi as well as the Phocaeans at Himerosc opium and Mainake. But about 540 the Phoenicians des• troyed Tartessus and with it Mainake. The Phocaeans soon found themselves driven north of Cape Palos on the east coast of Spain. Not to be beaten they developed overland routes to the tin trade but were never quite successful. In 535 the Phocaeans found themselves faced, outside the harbour of Alalia, by the combined Carthaginian and Etruscan fleets. Although the Phocaeans won the battle, they lost the day and were forced to give up Alalia. The Carthaginians took Sar• dinia and the Etruscans Corsica. For the next two centuries the Phocaeans contented themselves with developing settlements and trading posts along the north and west shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Etruria's days as a partner of the Carthaginians against the Greeks were numbered. By 509 the Carthaginians were making com- 3. See Y/armington, op. cit., p. 21. 4. Whether Tartessus'was a city, state, kingdom, or the name of a tribal chieftain remains an unsettled question. For the purpose of this paper it was a tribe of people living along the Baetis river. • Their rich mines and tin routes attracted traders. (3) mercial treaties with a small settlement on the Tiber, a set• tlement, which was slowly to engulf Etruria.^ In 472, the Etrus• cans were overcome by the Cymearis at sea. In the commercial field only Carthaginians and the Sicilian Greeks, were left. • Once they came to the leadership of the old Phoenician ter• ritories in the west, the Carthaginians gradually closed off the far west from intruders, notably the Greeks. On her own Carthage spread over the north coast of Africa, to the straits, whence it was a short day's travel to Gades. Por many years there had been posts on the Balearic Islands and the island.of Ebusus belonged to the empire. After Alalia there was Sardinia to add to the chain of stepping stones. Greeks and Carthaginians had for some• time managed to co-exist and even trade on Sicily, but after Himera (480) this was impossible. These boundaries - the straits of Gibraltar, Balearic islands, western Sicily and Carthage itself, enabled the African Phoenicians to keep all others from the extreme west. The quarantined area was rigidly guarded until just before the outbreak of the first Punic War. During the years of the war itself interest in and upkeep of Spain were forgotten in the face of more pressing problems. With this past history in mind, Hamilcar sailed to Spain in 237 to reconquer what had belonged to Carthage since her founding. But it was not only wealth in a monetary sense that he was after; Spain was the home of numerous mountain tribes who were often wil• ling to volunteer for military service. Within the old Cartha• ginian sphere there were countless subject people who could be 5. The problem of dating is still undecided. See Walbank, Commentary on Polybius; p. 337-345 and H. Last, Cambridge • Ancient History, VII, p. 859.-862. 6. Polybius, III, 10, 5. (4) drafted. Great sources of money to hire mercenaries would come from other areas. And, too, in a rather unobtrusive manner, the Carthaginian commander hoped to weld together a great army trained 7 in some of the most rugged territory available. Landing at Gades, Hamilcar proceeded to reorganize the old Spanish territory, which at its height extended from Andalusia in the west to Cape Nao in the east, from the southern coast to the Sierra Morena Mountains in the north. The oldest of Phoenician areas - Gades, Sexi, Abdera - came back to the Carthaginian al• legiance with no hesitation. Neither Polybius nor Livy allotted o much space to the Spanish exploits of Hamilcar. He operated in Spain from hisx crossing in 237 to his death in 229 - ten years before the beginning of the Second Punic War. Polybius said: In this country he spent about nine years during which he reduced many Iberian tribes -to obedience either by force of arms or by diplo• macy, and finally met with an end worthy of his high achievements, dying bravely In a battle against one of the most warlike and powerful tribes, after freely exposing his person to q danger on the field. Livy placed Hamilcar»s death at Castrum Album, Alicante, and Diodorus suggested Alicante as the limit of Hamilcar's advance.^® Prom the subsequent exploits of Hasdrubal and Hannibal, Hamilcar's conquests appear to have been confined to the older province, per• haps not as far into the interior as formerly.