Battle of the Great Plains 203 BC
_-_Glyptothek_-_Munich_-_Germany_2017.jpg){kind=link}
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 203 BC | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | Ancient (before 500) | derived from year |
| Location | Tunisia | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Africa | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Second Punic War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 37.0579, 10.0626 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The battle of the Great Plains was fought in 203 BC in modern Tunisia between a Roman army commanded by Publius Cornelius Scipio, and allied Carthaginian and Numidian armies commanded by Hasdrubal Gisco and Syphax respectively. The battle was part of the Second Punic War and resulted in a heavy defeat for Carthage.
In the wake of its defeat in the First Punic War (264–241 BC) Carthage expanded its territory in south-east Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal). When the Second Punic War broke out in 218 BC a Roman army landed in north-east Iberia. After a disastrous Roman setback in 211 BC, Scipio took command in 210 BC and cleared the peninsula of Carthaginians in five years. He returned to Rome determined to carry the war to the Carthaginian homeland in North Africa. Appointed consul in 205 BC Scipio spent a year in Sicily training his army and accumulating supplies. In 204 BC the Romans landed with four legions near the Carthaginian port of Utica and besieged it. The Carthaginians and their Numidian allies each set up their own camps about 11 kilometres (7 mi) from the Romans but close to each other. After several months of little activity Scipio launched a surprise night attack on both camps, overrunning them and setting fire to much of both.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Great Plains (revision 1370599794), 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.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Utica (49 BC) 49 BC · 0 km
- Battle of Utica 240 BC · 0 km
- Siege of Utica 204 BC · 0 km
- Battle of Utica (203 BC) 203 BC · 0 km
- Battle of the Bagradas River (240 BC) 240 BC · 8 km
- Raoued Operation 2014 · 16 km
Other battles of the Second Punic War
- Battle of Carteia 206 BC
- Battle of Carteia (naval) 206 BC
- Battle of Ilipa 206 BC
- Battles of Kroton 204 BC
- Siege of Utica 204 BC
- Battle of Cirta 203 BC
- Battle of Insubria 203 BC
- Battle of Utica (203 BC) 203 BC
- Battle of Zama 202 BC
All 50 battles of the Second Punic War →
Browse more: battles in Tunisia · Africa · Ancient battles