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 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. Carthaginian and Numidian casualties were heavy.
The Carthaginians reformed their army in an area known as the Great Plains, from Utica. They were reinforced by 4,000 Iberian warriors to a total of about 30,000 men. Hearing of this, Scipio immediately marched most of his army to the scene. The size of his army is not known, but it was outnumbered by the Carthaginians. After several days of skirmishing, both armies committed to a pitched battle. Upon being charged by the Romans all of those Carthaginians who had been involved in the debacle at Utica turned and fled; morale had not recovered. Only the Iberians stood and fought. They were enveloped by the well-drilled Roman legions and wiped out.
Syphax and his Numidians were pursued, brought to battle at Cirta, and again defeated; Syphax was captured. The Roman ally Masinissa took over his kingdom. Scipio moved his main army to Tunis, within sight of the city of Carthage. Scipio and Carthage entered into peace negotiations, and Carthage recalled armies from Italy commanded by Hannibal and Mago Barca. The Roman Senate ratified a draft treaty, but because of mistrust and a surge in confidence when Hannibal arrived from Italy, Carthage repudiated it. The following year the Carthaginians raised another army, incorporating Hannibal and Mago's recalled veterans. This was also defeated by Scipio, at the battle of Zama. Carthage sued for peace and accepted a humiliating treaty, ending the war.
Background First Punic War
The First Punic War was fought between the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC: Carthage and Rome. The war lasted for 23 years, from 264 to 241 BC, and was fought primarily on the Mediterranean island of Sicily, its surrounding waters and in North Africa. The Carthaginians were defeated and by the terms of the Treaty of Lutatius evacuated Sicily and paid Rome an indemnity of 3,200 silver talents over ten years. Four years later, Rome seized Sardinia and Corsica on a cynical pretence and imposed a further 1,200 talent indemnity, actions which fuelled Carthaginian resentment. The near-contemporary Greek historian Polybius considered this act of bad faith by the Romans to be the single greatest cause of war with Carthage breaking out again nineteen years later.
From 236 BC Carthage expanded its territory in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal). In 226 BC the Ebro Treaty with Rome established the Ebro River as the northern boundary of the Carthaginian sphere of influence. A little later Rome made a separate treaty of association with the city of Saguntum, well south of the Ebro. In 219 BC Hannibal, the de facto ruler of Carthaginian Iberia, led an army to Saguntum and besieged, captured and sacked it. In early 219 BC Rome declared war on Carthage, starting the Second Punic War.
Second Punic War
In 218 BC Hannibal led a large Carthaginian army from Iberia through Gaul, over the Alps and invaded mainland Italy. During the next three years Hannibal inflicted heavy defeats on the Romans at the battles of the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae. At the last of these alone, at least 67,500 Romans were killed or captured. The historian Toni Ñaco del Hoyo describes these as "great military calamities", Brian Carey writes that they brought Rome to the brink of collapse. Hannibal's army campaigned in Italy for a further 14 years before the survivors withdrew.
There was also extensive fighting in Iberia, Sicily, Sardinia and North Africa. In 211 BC the Romans suffered a severe reverse at the battle of the Upper Baetis and were penned back by the Carthaginians to the north-east corner of Iberia. In 210BC Roman reinforcements stabilised the situation; later that year Publius Cornelius Scipio arrived with further Roman reinforcements to take command in Iberia. In a carefully planned assault in 209BC he captured the centre of Carthaginian power in Iberia, New Carthage. During the following four years Scipio repeatedly defeated the Carthaginians and drove them out of Iberia in 205 BC.
Opposing forces
Roman
Most male Roman citizens were liable for military service and would serve as infantry, a better-off minority providing a cavalry component. Traditionally, when at war the Romans would raise two legions, each of 4,200 infantrythis could be increased to 5,000 in some circumstances, or, rarely, even more.and 300 cavalry. Approximately 1,200 of the infantrypoorer or younger men unable to afford the armour and equipment of a standard legionaryserved as javelin-armed skirmishers known as velites; they each carried several javelins, which would be thrown from a distance, a short sword and a shield. The balance were equipped as heavy infantry, with body armour, a large shield and short thrusting swords. They were divided into three ranks, of which the front rank, known as , also carried two javelins; the second and third ranks, known as and respectively, had a thrusting spear instead. Both legionary sub-units and individual legionaries fought in relatively open order.
It was the long-standing Roman procedure to elect two men each year as senior magistrates, known as consuls, who in time of war would each lead an army. An army was usually formed by combining a Roman legion with a similarly sized and equipped legion provided by their Latin allies; allied legions usually had a larger attached complement of cavalry than Roman ones. By this stage of the war, Roman armies were generally larger, typically consisting of four legions, two Roman and two provided by its allies, for a total of approximately 20,000 men. The Roman army which invaded Africa consisted of four legions, each of the Roman pair reinforced to an unprecedented 6,200 infantry and with a more usual 300 cavalry each. Modern historians estimate the army to have totalled 25,000–30,000 men, including perhaps 2,500 cavalry.
Carthaginian Carthaginian citizens only served in their army if there was a direct threat to the city of Carthage. When they did they fought as well-armoured heavy infantry armed with long thrusting spears, although they were notoriously ill-trained and ill-disciplined. In most circumstances Carthage recruited foreigners to make up its army. Many were from North Africa and these were frequently referred to as "Libyans". The region provided several types of fighters, including: close order infantry equipped with large shields, helmets, short swords and long thrusting spears; javelin-armed light infantry skirmishers; close order shock cavalry (also known as "heavy cavalry") carrying spears; and light cavalry skirmishers who threw javelins from a distance and avoided close combat. (The latter were usually Numidians.) The close order African infantry and the citizen-militia both fought in a tightly packed formation known as a phalanx. On occasion some of the infantry would wear captured Roman armour. As well both Iberia and Gaul provided experienced but unarmoured infantry who would charge ferociously, but had a reputation for breaking off if a combat was protracted. Slingers were frequently recruited from the Balearic Islands.
Battles Pitched battles were usually preceded by the two armies camping apart for days or weeks; sometimes forming up in battle order each day. If either commander felt at a disadvantage, they might march off without engaging. In such circumstances it was difficult to force a battle if either of the commanders was unwilling to fight. Forming up in battle order was a complicated and premeditated affair, which took several hours. Infantry were usually positioned in the centre of the battle line, with light infantry skirmishers to their front and cavalry on each flank.
Prelude
In 206 BC Scipio left Iberia and returned to Italy. He was denied the triumph he would normally have expected on the grounds that he had not occupied any of the magistracies of the cursus honorum, the sequential mixture of military and political administrative positions held by aspiring Roman politicians. Aged 31 he was elected to the senior position of consul in early 205 BC, despite not meeting the minimum age for the position of 42. Scipio was already anticipating an invasion of North Africa and while still in Spain had been negotiating with the Numidian leaders Masinissa and Syphax. He failed to win over the latter, but made an ally of the former.
Opinion was divided in Roman political circles as to whether an invasion of North Africa was excessively risky. Hannibal was still on Italian soil; there was the possibility of further Carthaginian invasions, shortly to be realised when Mago Barca landed in Liguria; the practical difficulties of an amphibious invasion and its logistical follow up were considerable; and when the Romans had invaded North Africa in 256 BC during the First Punic War they had been driven out with heavy losses, which had re-energised the Carthaginians. Eventually a compromise was agreed: Scipio was given Sicily as his consular province, which was the best location for the Romans to launch an invasion of the Carthaginian homeland from and then logistically support it, and permission to cross to Africa on his own judgement. But Roman commitment was less than wholehearted: Scipio was not allowed to conscript troops for his consular army, as was usual, but could only call for volunteers.
In 216 BC the survivors of the Roman defeat at Cannae had been formed into two legions and sent to Sicily. They still formed the main part of the garrison of Sicily and Scipio used the many men who volunteered to increase the strength of each of these to an unprecedented 6,500. The total number of men available to Scipio and how many of them travelled to Africa is unclear; the Roman historian Livy, writing 200 years later, gives totals for the invasion force of either 12,200, 17,600 or 35,000. Modern historians estimate a combat strength of 25,000–30,000, of whom more than 90 per cent were infantry. With up to half of the complement of his legions being fresh volunteers, and with no fighting having taken place on Sicily for the past five years, Scipio instigated a rigorous training regime. This extended from drill by individual centuriesthe basic Roman army manoeuvre unit of 80 mento exercises by the full army. This lasted for approximately a year. At the same time Scipio assembled a vast quantity of food and materiel, merchant ships to transport it and his troops, and warships to escort the transports.