Hasdrubal Barca

Biography

Hasdrubal Barca was Hannibal's younger brother and his most capable lieutenant — the general who held Spain for Carthage for over a decade after Hannibal left for Italy, fighting against Rome's best commanders including the young Scipio Africanus. He lost Spain when Scipio took Cartagena in 209 BC and then defeated him in open battle. His last great enterprise was following his brother's footsteps: crossing the Alps with a fresh army to bring Hannibal the reinforcements he had waited fifteen years for. Like Hannibal before him, he crossed in winter, losing many men to the cold and mountain tribes. Unlike Hannibal before him, he arrived in Italy to find two Roman consular armies already positioned to intercept him before he could reach his brother. At the Metaurus River in 207 BC he was caught, unable to manoeuvre in broken ground, and destroyed. He died in the fighting rather than surrender. The manner of his death's announcement to Hannibal is one of the most poignant moments of the war: Roman soldiers threw Hasdrubal's severed head into Hannibal's camp. Hannibal looked at it and reportedly said: 'I see there the fate of Carthage.' He knew the war was lost.

Key Battles