Battle of New Carthage

Battle of New Carthage
Part of the Second Punic War
Date Early 209 BC Location New Carthage, Iberia 37°36′N 0°59′W / 37.600°N 0.983°W / 37.600; -0.983 Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Rome	Carthage
Commanders and leaders
Publius Cornelius Scipio	Mago (POW)
Strength
27,500  • 25,000 infantry  • 2,500 cavalry  • 35 galleys	More than 3,000  • 1,000 soldiers  • 2,000 civilian levies
Casualties and losses
Unknown	All soldiers and civilians killed or captured
class=notpageimage| The location of New Carthage, shown on a map of modern Spain

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. They fought their way to the east gate, opened it from inside and let in their comrades. New Carthage fell and was sacked, and Mago surrendered the citadel and the last of his troops. Vast amounts of precious metal and war materiel were seized. New Carthage became the logistics centre of the Roman war effort in Iberia and by 206 BC the Carthaginians had been expelled from the peninsula.