205 – 203 BC
Scipio lands in Africa
Elected consul for 205 BC at the age of 31, Scipio receives Sicily as his province and leave to cross to Africa, but may raise only volunteers. The two legions formed from the survivors of Cannae make up the core of his army, each brought up to 6,500 men, and he trains them for about a year. Modern historians put his invasion force at 25,000 to 30,000 men.
The ruins of Utica, drawn for a travel book of 1887Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (GRAHAM(1887) p085 RUINS OF UTICA.jpg)
In 204 BC, probably in June or July, 400 transports escorted by 40 galleys carry the army from Lilybaeum to Cape Farina, north of Utica. Masinissa, driven from his kingdom by Syphax, joins Scipio with 200 or 2,000 men, by different accounts. A Carthaginian force of 4,000 under Hanno is drawn into an ambush by Masinissa’s cavalry and destroyed.
Scipio besieges Utica. Hasdrubal Gisco camps about 11 km away with a reported 33,000 men, and Syphax, now married to Hasdrubal’s daughter Sophonisba, 3 km beyond him with a reported 60,000. Modern historians think both numbers too large, but accept that the Romans are outnumbered. Scipio pulls back for the winter to a fortified camp on a rocky headland, Castra Cornelia.
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 14, 1 to 2.
- Livy, History of Rome, books 29 and 30.
- Adrian Goldsworthy, The Fall of Carthage (2006).
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