ORDER OF BATTLE // -208 BCE
Battle of New Carthage
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 30,500 estimated
Rome
27,500
Medium-confidence figure
Carthage
3,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The assault on New Carthage in 209 BC delivered the capital of Carthaginian Iberia to Rome. Held by a garrison under Mago and assaulted by a Roman force under Publius Cornelius Scipio that outnumbered the defenders by more than nine to one, the city fell in what the overview characterizes as a successful assault. As the administrative and logistical center of Carthaginian operations in Iberia, its capture had direct consequences for the broader Second Punic War: the loss of this base deprived Carthage of a critical hub from which it had organized and supplied its Iberian campaigns. The operation was part of the Roman effort to dislodge Carthaginian power from the peninsula, a campaign that formed the western strategic theater of the Second Punic War while Hannibal's army remained in Italy.
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