Publius Cornelius Scipio, the later ‘African’, arrived in Hispania in 210 BC at the head of two legions. He did it at a critical time; His father and his uncle, Publius and Gnaeus, had given their lives a year before while trying to put a stop to the Carthaginians based on the peninsula. Now it was his turn to pick up the baton. On his 28,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry fell the responsibility of fighting the enemy armies that were in Iberia: two in Lusitania under the command of Magón and Gisco, and one in Carpetania, led by Hasdrúbal. They were big words, but that land, ours, was the heart of the efforts of the Republic.
The Roman general went step by step; slow but without pause. After directing his legionnaires to the winter quarters of Tarraco (Tarragona), he made an almost perfect diagnosis of the situation that was presented under his nose. The enemies had many more men, true, but they were also separated into three armies far apart. In addition, the Punics had made the mistake of straying too far from what was their jewel in the Iberian Peninsula: New Carthage. That city with high walls that the classical historian Tito Livio defined in his writings as the center of the Cataginian world; the great «capital of Hispania».
Like a patient sniper, Publius Cornelius Scipio chose prey: Carthago Nova. The logic was not bad. If he carried out a kind of primal ‘blitzkrieg’ –lightning war– against the very heart of the Carthaginians, he would obtain a triple prize: the conquest of the city, the beheading of the Punic hydra –now without a burrow in which to hide– and, with a touch of favor from the goddess Fortuna, the abandonment of the arms of the Hispanic peoples allied with the Africans. Ambitious, but not for that reason impossible. the classical historian Polybius (born in 200 BC) described his plans in this way in what was his great essay, ‘Histories’:
«He was instructed very thoroughly from the winter quarters by the prisoners of everything concerning Cartagena. He learned that it was almost the only place in Hispania that had a port capable of hosting a squadron and a naval army; that it was conveniently located, both to come from Africa, and to pass from the other side; that it was the warehouse for the money and baggage of all the armies, and that hostages from all of Hispania were kept there. And what was more important, that only a thousand men-at-arms defended the citadel, for there was not the slightest suspicion that, the Carthaginians being owners of almost all of Hispania, it would even occur to anyone to lay siege to it.
first follies
The coup took place in 209 BC, a year after his arrival. Scipio led the attack accompanied by three soldiers who, with their shields, covered him from the continuous shots of the enemy. The attack was carried out from the sea and, using high scales, from land. The tenacious resistance of the Carthaginians was overcome by the experience of the Roman legions and by the huge number of troops that the general had brought with him. The final blow was delivered by the soldiers who were sent from the east, through a swamp. The city fell in one day. The problem was that, later, barbarism began. This is how Polybius described it:
«Scipio, when it seemed to him that enough had entered, detached most of them against the neighbors according to custom, with orders to kill as many as they found, without giving notice to any of them or distracting themselves with looting, before the signal was given. In my opinion, they do so to instill terror. That is why it has been seen many times that the Romans, in the capture of the cities, not only take the lives of men, but also open the dogs in carcass, and tear the other animals to pieces; custom that they especially observed then, because of the great number they had captured. Having taken the citadel, the signal was given to stop the carnage and they gave themselves up to looting.
In return, the historian Manuel Alejandro Rodriguez de la Pena In ‘Empires of Cruelty, Classical Antiquity and Inhumanity’ he maintains that ‘the African’ knew how to win the affection of the survivors in the days that followed. While the tribunes distributed among the legionaries the spoils they had obtained from the looting, the general gathered the survivors –some of them Iberians– and offered them their freedom in exchange for their adherence to Rome. At the same time, he summoned three hundred children who had been taken hostage and showered them with gifts: jewelry for the girls, daggers for the boys. “This episode and others like it are part of a careful strategy that combined the horror of the massacre with clemency to win over the citizens of Iberia,” adds the expert.
Roman legions the Iliturgis
Scipio, far from being intimidated, replicated this barbarism in successive actions throughout the entire peninsula. Always in the words of Rodríguez, he was especially cruel to the cities that rejected their alliance with the Roman Republic and declared themselves loyal to Carthage. The bloodiest case, and never better said, was that of Iliturgis. Titus Livio narrates that the general had no mercy. After learning that its inhabitants had betrayed the ‘urbs’ and had led to the death of many Roman soldiers, he subjected the square to a harsh siege that culminated in a massive slaughter of men –armed and unarmed–, women and children.
After finishing off the entire population, he set fire to the houses. His objective was none other than to erase the city from the face of the earth and end the memory of him. And he would have succeeded if it hadn’t been for the Roman historian’s essay. According to Tito Livio, that barbarity was not accidental; the massacre was premeditated by a Scipio who lost what little patience he had left when he observed that the Hispanics had closed the doors of Iliturgis and had prepared themselves for defense. The speech he gave to the Roman legionaries about him leaves not an iota of doubt:
“Hispanics, by closing their doors, have shown how much they deserve the punishment they fear. We must treat them more severely than we used the Carthaginians; with the latter we fight for glory and dominance, with hardly any feeling of anger; but from the former we must demand the corresponding penalty for their cruelty, their treason and for murder. The time has come for you to avenge the heinous massacre of your comrades-in-arms and the treachery plotted against yourselves, if flight had led you there. You will make it clear forever, with this horrible example, that no one should ever consider ill-treating a Roman soldier or citizen, regardless of their situation.”
Apiano also records the massacre perpetrated by Scipio, although he calls it Ilurgy: “Because of her treason, Scipio destroyed her in a rage in four hours.” This historian explained that the fury of the Roman was such that, despite the fact that he was wounded in the neck, he did not want to retire to rest until he achieved victory and all the Hispanics were killed. “And the army, for their sake, without being ordered to, plundering aside, slew women and children alike until they had reduced the city to its foundations,” he wrote. It was so to such an extent that its exact location has not yet been found.
Astapa
Barbarism was effective from a practical point of view. And it is that, the neighboring city of castulo he surrendered without a fight after receiving the sad news from Iliturgis. In favor of Scipio, it should be noted that he was magnanimous with part of the citizens and his prisoners. And that he did the same with the Ilergetes tribe despite the fact that they had changed sides. Rodríguez is in favor of the fact that there was no proportionality, but that the general acted as an ‘imperator’, in an absolutely subjective way and without specific orders from the Senate.
With everything, and as Tito Livio well picked up, it also generated another type of more chilling reactions in places like Astapa, besieged by his lieutenant Marcio. After his army was defeated by the Roman legions, the citizens committed suicide. The very idea of falling into the tentacles of Scipio and his generals and, of course, the terrorist tactics of the Republic, pushed them to it:
“A horrible carnage took place in the city, where a weak and defenseless crowd of women and children was massacred by their own people; their bodies were thrown, still convulsed, onto the burning pyre, which was almost extinguished by the rivers of blood. And last of all, the men themselves, exhausted by the painful slaughter of their loved ones, threw themselves into arms with everything amidst the flames. They had all perished by the time the Romans arrived on the scene. At first they were horrified by such a frightful sight; but when they saw the molten gold and silver that flowed among the rest of the things that made up the pile, the greed of human nature impelled them to try to snatch what they could get out of the fire.