HASDRUBAL, has'droo-bal, Carthaginian general. He was the son of Hamilcar Barca, and brother of Hannibal (q.v.), and on the departure of the latter for Italy, 218 was left in command of the army in Spain. Hanno, who had charge of the province north of the Iberus, was defeated and dispossessed by Cn.
Scipio before Hasdrubal could come to his aid. Scipio, reinforced by his brother, now crossed the Iberus, and in 216 defeated Hasdrubal near that river. The Carthaginians then sent a force, intended for the assistance of Hannibal, to the relief of Hasdrubal under the command of his brother Mago. In 212 Cn. Scipio was defeated and killed by the Carthaginidns. Pub lius Scipio was sent into Spain in 211, and after seizing New Carthage defeated Hasdrubal in his camp at Bxcula in 209. Hasdrubal, with drawing to the northern provinces, determined to proceed to Italy, leaving his colleagues, Has drubal, the son of Gisco, and Mago, to make head against Scipio. He crossed the Alps in
207, accompanied by Gallic allies, and descended into Italy, and sent messengers to concert a junction with Hannibal in Umbria, but his dis patches fell into the hands of the consul, Claudius Nero, who joined his colleague, M. Livius, at Sena, and forced Hasdrubal to give battle on the right bank of the Metaurus. Being outnumbered, and ill-supported by his Gallic allies, he was defeated, after an obsti nate engagement, in which both sides suffered severely. When he saw the battle irretrievably lost he rushed into the midst of the enemy, and perished fighting sword in hand. Nero hastened back to Apulia, and is said to have announced to Hannibal the defeat of his brother by causing Hasdrubal's head to be thrown into his camp, 207 B.C.