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the capture of new carthage allowed scipio to seize a large amount of money, equipment, and military supplies. in addition, there were hostages held in the city by the spanish allies of the carthaginians. scipio respected the captives very much and treated them very kindly. he agreed that as long as these tribes allied with rome, he would release the hostages of the tribe.

scipio did not forget to replenish manpower. he ordered the 2,000 captured craftsmen to serve in the roman army and set them free after the war. he also selected strong men from the people of the city to supplement the oarsmen of his fleet.

among the captives, there was an extremely beautiful spanish girl. scipio was young and could not help but be attracted to her. but when he heard that the girl was engaged to a prince of a spanish tribe, he immediately found the prince and returned his fiancée to him. the prince was so grateful that he immediately expressed his willingness to go through fire and water for the romans and sacrifice his life...

after occupying new carthage, scipio did not take military action immediately, but worked hard to train his army and waited quietly for good diplomatic policies to slowly take effect. the spanish tribes saw the enlightenment, wisdom, and kindness of the new general and turned to rome. in the winter of that year, considering the lack of manpower, scipio disbanded his fleet to strengthen his army. after leaving part of the garrison in new carthage, he returned to the ebro river defense line.

in 208 bc, the carthaginians were extremely uneasy when they saw the spanish tribes turning to rome, because most of their army was made up of spanish people. they planned to fight scipio, who also planned to fight. the three carthaginian generals who were at odds with each other did not work together. the first to encounter scipio was hannibal's second brother hasdrubal. hasdrubal intended to wait for his third brother mago and hasdrubal gisco to join him, so he occupied the high ground and defended it. hasdrubal's intention was clear, waiting for reinforcements; if scipio attacked, with his strong force and solid fortifications, the romans would surely lose soldiers and generals.

scipio was afraid that the other two carthaginian armies would come, so he decided to launch a strong attack. the romans had a slight advantage in total strength, so in order to prevent carthaginian reinforcements from suddenly arriving during the battle, scipio deployed several thousand elite soldiers to monitor the direction where the reinforcements might come.

the battle was about to break out. the romans formed into the traditional three-row horizontal battle formation. scipio used light troops and the first row of infantry to engage in frontal combat with the enemy. unlike usual practice, the second and third rows did not wait for rotation with the first row of troops. instead, they changed their formation from horizontal to vertical, forming two wings and advancing from the left and right. after reaching the designated position, the columns changed into horizontal and deployed battle formations to encircle the enemy.

this tactic is very similar to hannibal's use of libyan infantry in the battle of cannae.

hasdrubal saw that the situation was not good, so he quickly led his main force to retreat, and his army suffered nearly 10,000 casualties or prisoners. scipio was afraid that the other two carthaginian armies would join forces with hasdrubal, so he did not pursue hasdrubal.

hasdrubal marched northward, replenishing some troops along the way. after reaching the northern coast of spain, he headed east along the coast, thus avoiding the ebro river defense line and reaching the pass in the western pyrenees where there were basically no guards. he headed northward to gaul, preparing to march into italy.

after hasdrubal left spain, scipio's war in spain went more smoothly. although a lot of reinforcements came from carthage, scipio won one victory after another with his extraordinary generalship and good diplomatic policy. in 206 bc, in order to reverse the decline in the spanish battlefield, carthage assembled a large army for a last-ditch effort, and the two armies prepared for a decisive battle at ilipa.

carthage had 50,000 to 60,000 infantry, 4,500 cavalry, and 32 war elephants. the cavalry had outstanding combat effectiveness, while the infantry's combat effectiveness was uneven. among them, the libyans had relatively strong combat effectiveness and were the core force. the spaniards were quite weak in combat effectiveness, and many spanish troops were hastily recruited.

scipio had four understrength legions under his command, and he also had to defend various places, so he was at a clear disadvantage in terms of military strength. for this reason, he made large use of the spaniards, bringing the number of infantry to 45,000 and the number of cavalry to 3,000.