Battle of New Carthage 209 BC
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 209 BC | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Ancient (before 500) | derived from year |
| Location | Spain | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Second Punic War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Ancient Carthage, Roman Republic | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 37.6000, -0.9825 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The battle of New Carthage took place in early 209 BC when a Roman army under Publius Cornelius Scipio successfully assaulted New Carthage, the capital of Carthaginian Iberia, which was defended by a garrison under Mago. The battle was part of the Second Punic War.
In 211 BC the Romans in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) were heavily defeated at the battle of the Upper Baetis. Reinforcements arrived in early 210 BC and Scipio brought further reinforcements when he took command late in the year. Scipio felt unable to draw into battle and defeat any of the three strong Carthaginian armies in the peninsula and so decided to strike at the material centre of Carthaginian power in Iberia: its capital, New Carthage. He arrived outside the city early in 209 BC and commenced his attack the next day. After defeating a Carthaginian force outside the walls, he pressed an attack on the east gate. Simultaneously men from the Roman ships attempted to escalade the wall to the south from the harbour area. Both attacks were repulsed.
In the afternoon Scipio renewed the attacks. Hard-pressed, Mago moved men from the north wall, which overlooked a broad, shallow lagoon. Anticipating this, Scipio sent a force of 500 men through the lagoon to scale the north wall, which they did unopposed.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of New Carthage (revision 1370270714), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the Second Punic War
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- Battle of Numistro 210 BC
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