A Greater than Napoleon by Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart

In the spring of 206 B. C. the Carthaginians made their last great effort. Hasdrubal, encouraged by Mago, Hannibal's brother, raised and armed fresh levies, and with an army of seventy thousand foot, four thousand horse, and thirty-two elephants moved north to Ilipa (or Silpia), which was not far from where Seville stands to-day. Scipio advanced south from Tarraco to meet the Carthaginians, collecting auxiliaries at Becula on his way. When he drew near the Betis and got fuller information of the opposing force, he appreciated the formidable nature of the problem. He felt convinced that with the Roman legions only he would not be a match for so large an enemy army, yet to use a large proportion of allies and rely on their support was to risk the fate of his father and uncle, whose downfall was due to the sudden desertion of their allies. Therefore he decided to use them for the purpose of impressing and misleading the enemy "by an imposing show," but leave the main fighting rôle to his own legions. He had learnt, like Wellington two thousand years later, that it was wiser not to place reliance on the co-operation of his Spanish allies. The French in Morocco have imbibed it afresh. Advancing towards Ilipa with a total force, Romans and allies, of forty-five thousand foot and three thousand horse, he came in sight of the Carthaginians, and encamped on certain low hills opposite them. It deserves notice that his advance was on a line which, in the event of victory, would cut them off from the nearest road to Gades, this road running along the south bank of the Betis river.

Mago, thinking this a favourable chance for a sudden disorganising blow, took most of his cavalry as well as Masinissa with his Numidian horse, and attacked those engaged in forming the camp. But Scipio, as usual, imbued with the principle of security, had foreseen such a possibility, and had posted his own cavalry ready in concealment under shelter of a hill. These charged the forward part of the Carthaginian horse in flank and threw them into disorder, and though the rear echelons, coming up to reinforce the attack, restored the balance for a time, the issue was settled by the sortie of a large body of legionaries from the Roman camp. At first the Carthaginians fell back in good order; but as the pursuit was vigorously pressed, they broke up and fled to the shelter of their own camp. The result gave Scipio an initial moral advantage.