Battle of Magnesia
Encyclopedia : B : BA : BAT : Battle of Magnesia
| Roman war against Antiochus III the Great |
|---|
| Thermopylae – Eurymedon – Myonessus – Magnesia |
The Battle of Magnesia was fought in 190 BC near Magnesia ad Sipylum, between the Romans, led by the consul Lucius Cornelius Scipio and his brother, the famed general Scipio Africanus, with their ally Eumenes II of Pergamum against the army of Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid Empire. The resulting decisive Roman victory ended the conflict for the control of Greece.
The Battle
After being driven out of Greece, the threatre of war moved to Asia where the consul Publius Cornelius Scipio followed the retreating Seleucids into Asia Minor. After his defeat in Greece Antiochus had raised a new army, with which he enjoyed a numerical superiority and decided to wage everything in a single battle.The battle began with a charge by the Seleucid cavalry wing on the right commanded by the king himself. The charge drove their counterparts from the field and lead to a pursuit by the Seleucid horse, in fact leaving the field. The Roman ally Eumenes, commanding the right of the Roman-Allied army then counterattacked the Seleucid left and broke it. In the centre of the battle line, the Seleucids had arrayed their pike phalanx with elephants in the intervals. The Roman attack ultimately managed to drive off the elephants in order to outflank and destroy the phalanx.
Trivia
- Before the battle Antiochus asked Hannibal, who had fled to him, wether the vast and well-armed formation would be enough for the Roman Republic, to which Hannibal replied, "Yes, enough for the Romans, however greedy they may be."
External link
- http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/battles/magnesia.html
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.