Battle of Rhone Crossing - Roman Preparations

Roman Preparations

Both Carthage and Rome were in the process of mobilizing their resources for the coming conflict. Hannibal directed the Punic effort, while the Roman Senate decided on the Roman deployment of forces.

The Roman navy had already been mobilized by 218 BC, having launched 220 quinqueremes, perhaps for the Second Illyrian War during 220/219 BC. Consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus had received 2 legions (8,000 infantry and 600 cavalry) plus 16,000 allied infantry and 1,800 allied cavalry with instructions to sail for Sicily in 160 great warships and 12 light galleys and from there to Africa provided the other consul could keep Hannibal out of Italy. (He never got to Africa.) Publius Cornelius Scipio received 2 legions of the same number of infantry and cavalry plus 14,000 allied infantry and 1,600 allied cavalry with 65 banked ships for transport. Lucius Manlius was given 2 legions with 10,000 allied infantry and 1,000 cavalry. Gauls of the Boii and Insubres tribes in north Italy had attacked the settlers intended to build the Roman colonies of Placentia and Cremona, and had penned them and a small Roman relief force in Mutina. Two of the four legions originally intended for Scipio were diverted to Praetor Lucius Manlius Vulso for the relief of Mutina and the building of the colonies, which were to be walled castra. (Just in time, as Scipio had to fall back on Placentia after the Battle of Ticinus and on Cremona after the Battle of the Trebbia.) Fresh legions were raised to replace these, delaying Scipio's departure.