November and December 218 BC
From the Ticinus to the Trebia
In late November 218 BC Scipio crosses the Ticinus on a bridge of boats and leads his cavalry and velites west to find Hannibal. Hannibal’s heavy cavalry charge straight at them, and while the horsemen fight it out, his Numidians sweep round both ends of the line and fall on the Roman rear. Scipio is badly wounded, and by most accounts his 16-year-old son, the later Scipio Africanus, brings him out of the fight.
The wounded Scipio saved by his son at the Ticinus, engraving by Silvestre David Mirys, about 1800Wikimedia Commons, Silvestre David Mirys, Public domain (Défaite de Scipion près du Téssin (cropped).jpg)
The Romans fall back across the Po to Placentia. When 2,200 Gauls in the Roman army desert to Hannibal, Scipio withdraws again to a low hill east of the Trebia, and most of the Gallic tribes of the region declare for Hannibal. Hannibal camps on high ground across the river and wins the grain depot at Clastidium by bribery.
The Senate recalls the other consul, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, from Sicily, where he is preparing to invade Africa. His army reaches Ariminum 40 days later and joins Scipio’s camp, and Sempronius takes command. A large cavalry fight on the plain, which Hannibal breaks off, convinces Sempronius that his army can win a battle.
A Carthaginian heavy cavalryman of Hannibal’s army, drawing from Theodore Ayrault Dodge’s Hannibal, 1891Wikimedia Commons, Theodore Ayrault Dodge, Public domain (Sacred Band cavalryman.png)
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 3, 64 to 70.
- Livy, History of Rome, book 21, 45 to 54.
- Adrian Goldsworthy, The Fall of Carthage (2006).
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