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A Note on the Battle of Ilipa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
The evidence on which any attempt to fix the site of the battle of Ilipa must be based is briefly as follows. Polybius records that Hasdrubal and Scipio advanced to contest the final mastery of Spain in 206 B.C. (or less probably 207). ‘Hasdrubal encamped not far from a town called Ilipa, entrenching himself just under the hills (πρὸς ταĩς ὑπωρείαις) with a plain in front well suited for a contest and battle’ (xi, 20, 1). ‘When Scipio got near the Carthaginians and was in full sight of them he encamped on some low hills (περί τινας γεωλόφονς) opposite the enemy“ (§9). When the Carthaginian cavalry attempted to take Scipio off his guard, the Roman cavalry, which had been stationed under a hill (ὑπό τινα βουνόν), charged the enemy so suddenly that many of the Carthaginians were unhorsed and the attack was repulsed. After several days of waiting the final battle was fought on the plain, the Carthaginian infantry being ‘at no great distance from the foot of the hill’ (οὐ πολύ τῆς παρωρείας xi, 22, 8), i.e. the hill on which their camp was placed (cf. xi, 24, 7). Polybius' account breaks off after the description of Scipio's victory, but Livy, who followed it very closely, adds two facts of importance :—(1) that after the battle the Carthaginians strengthened their rampart with large stones (xxviii, 15 ; which suggests that their original camp was an earthwork), and (2) that Hasdrubal did not have to cross the Baetis (Guadalquivir) on his retreat to the Atlantic, i.e. the battle was fought on the right bank of the river. Appian adds little of value : his statement that the two camps were ten stades apart is clearly false, since the space (less than 2 km.) is too small to permit the free deployment of two armies as large as these must have been.
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- Copyright ©Howard H. Scullard 1936. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
References
1 I am very grateful to Professor F. E. Adcock for reading this note and for his helpful comments. On the battle of Ilipa see Kromayer, J. and Veith, G., Antike Schlachtfelder, iv, 517–26Google Scholar; Scullard, H. H., Scipio Africanus in the Second Punic War, pp. 124–140Google Scholar; Taeger, F., ‘Zur Schlacht bei Ilippa,’ Klio, 1931, pp. 339–347Google Scholar; Neumann, A., ‘Ilippa,’ Klio, 1932, p. 255–6Google Scholar. The two last-named articles deal only with tactics, not with topography.
2 Cf. Kromayer and Veith, op. cit., p. 520.
3 That Ilipa lay in the neighbourhood of the modern Alcalá del Rio is shown by inscriptions (e.g. CIL ii, 1085, 1091) and coins; see CIL ii, pp. 141 sq. and 838 sq., and A. Schulten in P-W, s.v.
4 In this connexion it is perhaps worth referring to the one ancient site that I found in this district; it is not marked as such on the Ordnance map and, for all I know, it is unrecorded. It lies on a hill (119 metres), 1½ km. NW. of Burguillos and just to the west of the road running from Burguillos to the north, between the 21st and 22nd km. stones, I was informed by a local worker that a marble head, coins (imperial), and ‘galerias’ had been found there. This last item accords well with Strabo's remark (iii, 142): πλεῖστος δʹ ἐστίν ἂργυρος ἐν τοῖς κατά Ἰλιπαν τόποις καὶ τοῖς κατά Σισάπωνα.
5 Incidentally, is it too much to hope that local authorities might consider it worth while to examine the district by air? Air observation and photography might well reveal many Roman camps in the Guadalquivir valley between Seville and Bailen.
6 Any measurements given here are only meant to be rough approximations. Pacing and the use of a piece of string 50 yards long are scarcely conducive to scientific accuracy.
7 E.g. Hallward, B. L., CAH, viii, 88Google Scholar and De Sanctis, , Storia dei Romani III, ii, 456Google Scholar.
8 See R. G. Collingwood, The Archaeology of Roman Britain, p. 10.
9 It is a well-known difficulty that in his description of the Roman camp Polybius does not mention the lodgment of the velites. It has been supposed that they were quartered either outside the camp or along the intervallum or among the maniples of the heavy-armed infantry. Fabricius, E., JRS XXII, 1932, 85–6Google Scholar, has shown that the last was their true of position in Polybius' day, but this fact does not exclude the possibility of a different arrangement in the third century.