Romans
Lucius Porcius Licinus the Praetor of Gaul.
Rating: Good general.
Two legions, one Roman (Legio), one
Allied (ala), 300 Roman heavy horse, 600
allied heavy, medium, or light horse.
(Legions can number anywhere from 3,000-
3,800 heavy infantry. The Legions have their
light infantry contingent at 1,200 Velites per
legion.)
Marcus Livius Salinator, Consul of Etruria.
Rating: Average General.
Consular army consisting of 4 legions,
two Roman, two Allied. Cavalry consists of
600 heavy horse. 1,200-1,800 heavy or
medium horse. Scipio sent from Spain. 2,000
veteran legionnaries. 1,800 light horse, all
Numidian or Numidian and Spanish. There
were an additional 3.000 Greek and Sicilian
archers, armed with a bow that played little
part in the battle.
Q. Claudius Nero. Consul of Apulia.
Rating: Good General.
Picked force of one overstrength legion
of 4,800 heavy infantry, 1,200 Velites (There
may be more velites and less infantry. but the
area Nero marched through supplied Rome
with close order troops.) Horse was
composed of 1,000 Greco-Italian light horse.
TOTAL ARMY
Seven Legions that consisted of 25,800-
27,600 heavy infantry and 9,400 light
infantry, also 3,006 Greek& Sicilian archers.
Total foot comes to 37,200-39,000. The
Cavalry contained: 900 Legion heavy horse,
1,900 allied heavy or medium horse, 1,900
Numidian Spanish light horse, 1,000 Greco-Italiot light horse, for a total horse of 5,500.
Carthaginians
Hasdrubal Barca, the Commander of the Carthaginian Northern Italian invasion army. Rating-. Good General. Army of Spain consists of 5,000 African heavy infantry (they are not mentioned in the accounts of the battle, but they were mentioned being and escaping at Baecula. Since crossing the Alps was not as strenuous as Hannibal's journey, most of the force would still be intact). They would fight as hoplites in a Phalanx.
There was also 7,000-8000 Spanish, 30% of these perhaps being light infantry, the rest were close order Scutarii. They may had have armor, and they were armed with Pila and sword, since sources indicted that they fought Roman style. (This also might mean that they fought in three lines and used the battlefield relief system, but I doubt it.) Of course there had to be at least 1,000 Belaric stingers and ten elephants. No Barca would fight without them.
The cavalry had been cut up at Baecula, but Hasdrubal had recruited 1,000 Numidians before leaving Spain, and had 500 Liby- Phoenicians and 500 Spanish heavy horse.
Total: 5,000 heavy infantry, 6,000 Spanish medium infantry, 2 400 light; infantry. 1,000 Belarics for grand total of 14,400 foot, 2,000 horse, and ten elephants. There are no mention of any additional commanders in the army but their must have been some. Rate any additional commander, Average. Recruits included 9,000 Ligurians who were fierce fighters, armed with javelins and swords, fighting as medium close order infantry. Gauls are a puzzle. Supposedly 30,000 joined Hasdrubal, once he descended into the Puda Valley, but there not even close to that number when the battle is fought. It was this large number of Gauls that kept Livius at bay, otherwise he would have advanced upon Hasdrubal sooner.
The only answer is the fickle Gauls left the camp at the Sena because they were not getting any action. If there were 9,000-10,000 Gauls at the battle as sources hint, then that means at least 20,000 Gauls vanished before the battle. It also might be that large numbers of them were unsuited to fight that day, we read that many were intoxicated before the battle. In fact Hasdrubal was so uncertain of his Gauls he left them on the ridge of his camp, overlooking the San Angleo valley. Only the cavalry of the nobles, 1,000 strong, he trusted, incorporating them into his bodyguard. Maybe 1,000 Gauls could be used as skirmishers, rest fought in loose lines armed with sword and javelins. The total numbers of recruits were 38,000 foot, 1,000 horse.
By the time of the battle this had declined to 18,000 foot and 1,000 horse. The total force was 32,000 foot, 3,000 horse, and 10 elephants.
More Battle of Metaurus 207 BC
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