Battle of Cissa

Overview

The Battle of Cissa was part of the Second Punic War. It was fought in the fall of 218 BC, near the town of Tarraco in north-eastern Iberia. A Roman army under Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus defeated an outnumbered Carthaginian army under Hanno, thus gaining control of the territory north of the Ebro River that Hannibal had just subdued a few months prior in the summer of 218 BC. This was the first battle that the Romans had ever fought in Iberia. It allowed the Romans to establish a secure base among friendly Iberian tribes, and due to the eventual success of the Scipio brothers in Spain, Hannibal looked for but never received reinforcements from Spain during the war.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle of Cissa, fought in the fall of 218 BC near Tarraco in north-eastern Iberia, was the first engagement Roman forces ever fought on the Iberian peninsula. A Roman army under Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus defeated a Carthaginian force under Hanno, inflicting approximately 8,000 casualties on a numerically inferior opponent and seizing control of territory north of the Ebro River that Hannibal had only recently subdued in the summer of 218 BC. The victory gave Rome a secure foothold among friendly Iberian tribes and established the operational base from which the Scipio brothers would prosecute the Iberian theatre throughout the war. Its strategic consequence extended directly to events in Italy: because Roman forces maintained persistent pressure in Spain, Hannibal was never able to draw reinforcements from that region during his Italian campaign, a deprivation that shaped the trajectory of the entire Second Punic War.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)