METAURUS (Mod. Metauro), a river of Italy which flows into the Adriatic a little south-east of Fanum Fortunae (mod.
Fano). In 207 B.C. (see PUNIC WARS and HANNIBAL) Hasdrubal had marched from Placentia to the aid of his brother Hannibal, and, on reaching the Cesano, the next stream south of the Me taurus, halted and encamped. The forces of Livius Salinator and the praetor Porcius Licinus, the latter of whom had previously been watching his movements, were encamped near Sena Gallica (mod. Sinigaglia) only about half a mile away from him (no doubt on the opposite bank of the Cesano). He was about to at tack them, when he discovered that the other consul, Nero, who had been watching Hannibal's movements at Canusium had brought his army to swell the Roman forces, having, as a fact, in tercepted Hasdrubal's message to Hannibal that he would meet him "in Umbria" i.e. at this very place—for the name Umbria ex tended to the coast before the time of Augustus. Hasdrubal then attempted to retreat to the Metaurus and cross it, but his guides deserted him, and he was unable to hit on the ford without them; he then marched up the tortuous stream to find another, but had only reached the hills of Sant Angelo, some two or three miles from the coast, where he tried to pitch his camp, when he found the Romans, who had started their pursuit at dawn, too close on his heels, and was obliged to halt and give battle. His left wing
was protected by the terrain, but there was room for fighting on the right, where he drew up his Spanish troops in deep formation, with his ten elephants in front of them, taking position himself in the centre. He then attacked the advancing Romans and the clash was a violent one ; but the fighting was indecisive, until Nero, who at first remained inactive on the right wing, with a deep stream bed in front of him, decided to pass behind Livius' position and advance on his left, thus taking the enemy on their right flank; the distance he had to traverse was less than a mile, and the move was a decisive one. Hasdrubal, who had seen that he must win or perish, sought and found the death of a hero. Livy's statement that 56,000 of his army fell and only 5,400 prisoners were taken, is probably an exaggeration ; and if we reckon his whole force very roughly at 30,000, we may accept Polybius' figure of io,000 killed, and assume i o,000 prisoners; while the other third of the army, the Gauls and Ligurians, who had either taken no part in the battle or escaped, was allowed to make off undisturbed. The defeat ended Hannibal's hopes of success in Italy.
See Kromayer, Antike Schlachtfelder iii. i. (1912) 424 sqq. for an authoritative treatment of the whole question. (T. A.)