Battle of the Great Plains

The Battle of the Great Plains
Part of Second Punic War
Date 203 BC Location Near Utica, North Africa Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Roman Republic Numidia	Carthage
Commanders and leaders
Scipio Africanus Masinissa Gaius Laelius	Hasdrubal Gisco Syphax
Strength
Unknown	30,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Rout of whole army

Roman Republic

The Battle of the Great Plains, also known as the Battle of Campi Magni or the Battle of Bagrades, was a battle fought between Scipio Africanus of Rome and a combined Carthaginian and Numidian army late in the Second Punic War, designed as diversionary tactic by Rome to disrupt Hannibal's attack on Italy. By defeating the Carthaginians, Scipio Africanus caused Hannibal to leave Italy and return to Africa, where he was later defeated at the Battle of Zama.

Hasdrubal and Syphax had both succeeded in escaping from their camps which the Roman general Scipio Africanus, and his Numidian allies Masinissa had destroyed. Hasdrubal and Syphax fell back, with a few followers who had also escaped the massacre at the Carthaginian camps. The arrival of four thousand mercenaries from Southern Iberia made the Carthaginians determined to make one more effort to stop the armies of Scipio Africanus from advancing across North Africa. New levies were raised in Carthage and in Numidia, and soon Hasdrubal and Syphax found themselves at the head of an army of 30,000 men. In 203 BC Scipio, whose command had been extended until the end of the war, marched from his camp at Utica to meet Hasdrubal and Syphax at a place called the Great Plains.

The battle was fought between a Roman army under the leadership of Scipio Africanus and a combined Carthaginian/Numidian army, supplemented by Spanish mercenaries (Celtiberians), of which the Carthaginian part was led by Hasdrubal Gisco and the Numidian part by Syphax.

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