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Siege of Numantia
Part of the Numantine War
Numancia by Alejo Vera y Estaca, from 1881
Date 134 – 133 BC, lasting either eight or sixteen months Location Numantia, Iberia 41°48′34.51″N 2°26′39.33″W Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Rome	Celtiberians
Commanders and leaders
Scipio Aemilianus	Avarus †
Strength
20,000 legionaries 40,000 allies and mercenaries	4,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown
class=notpageimage| Location of Numantia within modern Spain

The Celtiberian oppidum of Numantia was attacked more than once by Roman forces, but the siege of Numantia refers to the culminating and pacifying action of the long-running Numantine War between the forces of the Roman Republic and those of the native population of Hispania Citerior. The Numantine War was the third of the Celtiberian Wars and it broke out in 143 BC. A decade later, in 133 BC, the Roman general and hero of the Third Punic War, Scipio Aemilianus Africanus, subjugated Numantia, the chief Celtiberian city.

Background

When the Second Punic War broke out between Rome and Carthage in 218 BC, a large part of Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) was controlled by Carthage or its allies. One of Rome's first actions of the war was to send an army to north-east Spain. After seven years of mixed fortunes, the Romans were heavily defeated in two separate battles in 211 BC, usually referred to jointly as the battle of the Upper Baetis. In 210 BC Publius Cornelius Scipio arrived to take command of Roman forces in Iberia. During the following four years Scipio repeatedly defeated the Carthaginians, driving them out of Iberia in 206 BC. Scipio went on to defeat Hannibal at the battle of Zama and end the 17-year-long war. To the disquiet of the locals, once the Carthaginians were expelled Rome established a permanent presence, creating two provinces: Hispania Citerior (Nearer Spain) in north-east Iberia and Hispania Ulterior (Further Iberia) in the south east.

There was near continuous warfare until the Roman consul Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus established a peace in 177 BC. This lasted until 153 BC when the Romans moved against the Celtiberian tribe the Belli, which they perceived as a developing threat.

Scipio Aemilianus arrives

The approximate extent of territory ruled by Rome at the time of the siege of Numantia

In late 135 BC, the Roman Senate reappointed Scipio consul on popular demand and sent him to Hispania to finish what lesser generals had failed to complete. Scipio found morale low among the troops stationed in Iberia. The chance of plunder being low, there were few enticements to enlistment. Scipio nevertheless raised an army of 20,000 with 40,000 allied and mercenary troops, especially Numidian cavalry and 12 elephants led by Jugurtha. The troops were trained hard by constant marching and there were several successful skirmishes before Scipio began to surround the city of Numantia itself. He planned only to starve it out and not to storm it.

Siege

A reconstruction of part of the encircling Roman fortifications

Scipio's army constructed two camps separated by a wall around the city (circumvallation). He dammed the nearby swamp to create a lake between the city walls and his own. From ten feet off the ground, his archers could shoot into Numantia from seven towers interspersed along the wall. He also built an outer wall to protect his camps (eventually five in total) from any relief forces (contravallation).

Scipio also engineered the isolation of the city from the Duero. He towered the river at the points where it entered and exited the city and strung a cable across, with blades, to prevent both boats and swimmers from leaving or entering the city.

Counterattack

The so-called "Hellenistic Prince", tentatively identified as Scipio Aemilianus

The Numantines attempted one failed sally before their greatest warrior, Rhetogenes, successfully led a small band of men down the river past the blockade. Heading first to the Arevaci, his pleas were ignored. He then went to Lutia, where he was positively received by the youth, but the elders of the tribe warned Scipio, who marched from Numantia and arrested the 400 Lutian youths and cut off their hands. After Scipio's return, Avarus, the Numantine leader, began negotiations.

Surrender

The first ambassadors sent by Numantia asked for their liberty in return for complete surrender, but Scipio refused. They were killed upon return by the incredulous populace, who believed they had cut a deal with the Romans. The city refused to surrender and starvation set in. Cannibalism ensued and eventually some began to commit suicide with their whole families. The remnant population finally surrendered only after setting their city on fire. Scipio took it and had its ruins levelled. This was late in the summer of 133.

Legacy

Some of the excavated ruins in 2010

The siege of Numantia was recorded by several Roman historians who admired the sense of freedom of the ancient Iberians and acknowledged their fighting skills against the Roman legions. Miguel de Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) wrote a play about the event c. 1582, La Numancia, which stands today as his most well-known dramatic work. More recently, Carlos Fuentes has written a short story about the event, "The Two Numantias", published in his 1994 collection The Orange Tree. In 2017, the Spanish authorities organized a commemoration of the 2150th anniversary of the siege.

Notes, citations and sources

Sources

• Filippo Coarelli, "La doppia tradizione sulla morte di Romolo e gli auguracula dell'Arx e del Quirinale", Gli Etruschi e Roma: atti dell'incontro di studio in onore di Massimo Pallottino, Rome, 1981, pp. 173–188.
• Coarelli, Filippo (1981). "La doppia tradizione sulla morte di Romolo e gli auguracula dell'Arx e del Quirinale". In Pallottino, Massimo (ed.). li Etruschi e Roma: atti dell'incontro di studio in onore di Massimo Pallottino (in Italian). Rome: G. Bretschneider. pp. 173–188. ISBN 9788885007512.
• Etcheto, Henri (2012). Les Scipions. Famille et pouvoir à Rome à l'époque républicaine (in French). Bordeaux: Ausonius Éditions. ISBN 978-2-35613-073-0.
• Edwell, Peter (2015) [2011]. "War Abroad: Spain, Sicily, Macedon, Africa". In Hoyos, Dexter (ed.). A Companion to the Punic Wars. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley. pp. 320–338. ISBN 978-1-119-02550-4.

• Goldsworthy, Adrian (2004). In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire. London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-7538-1789-6.

• Goldsworthy, Adrian (2006). The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265–146 BC. London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-304-36642-2.
• Miles, Richard (2011). Carthage Must be Destroyed. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-101809-6.

• Zimmermann, Klaus (2015) [2011]. "Roman Strategy and Aims in the Second Punic War". In Hoyos, Dexter (ed.). A Companion to the Punic Wars. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 280–298. ISBN 978-1-1190-2550-4.

Sources

• Davis, Paul K. Besieged: 100 Great Sieges from Jericho to Sarajevo. Oxford University Press, 2001.