The Battle of Carthage was a major battle of the civil war between Octavian's Rome and Lepidus' Rome which was fought in North Africa in 37 BC. Sextus Numerius Blaesus' Legio I Alaudae decisively defeated the Lepidian garrison of Carthage and the reformed Legio I Africana at the city gates, enabling him to capture the city, spelling the imminent defeat of the Lepidian cause.
Background[]
In 40 BC, the Second Triumvirate fell apart when Mark Antony refused to come to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus' aid against Sextus Pompey, and when Octavian went to war with Lepidus over the spoils of war from the quelling of Pompey's Sicilian revolt. By 39 BC, Octavian expelled Lepidus' forces from Sicily and held the island against Lepidus' attempts at reconquest, and he dispatched his general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa south from Sardinia with his Legio I Alaudae to land in North Africa and march on Lepidus' capital of Carthage. Agrippa faced heavy resistance along the road to Carthage, and, while he crushed Lepidus' larger army at the Battle of Thinisa on the Mediterranean coast in late 38 BC, he was wounded in battle and replaced by Sextus Numerius Blaesus. Blaesus resumed Agrippa's offensive against Carthage, mopping up the remnants of Lepidus' Legio III Apollinaris before chasing the remnants of Legio IV Victrix to the outskirts of Carthage and defeating both the legion and the garrison of Carthage at the Battle of Thuburbo. Legio IV Victrix's destruction at this second battle notionally cleared the way for Blaesus to advance on the great city of Carthage, but Lepidus' general Furius Tetricus Habitus vainly attempted to reconstitute the defeated Legio I Africana in Carthage, even as Octavian's forces reached the gates of the city. Undeterred by the creation of this new legion, which consisted only of Habitus and his bodyguards, Blaesus pressed the attack with his 1,563-strong legion, facing 724 Lepidians, most of them from Lucius Egnatius Cordus' Carthage garrison.
Battle[]
The two belligerents drew up their armies on a field outside Carthage, and Blaesus' mercenary Numidian cavalry skirmished with Habitus' cohort of veteran legionary bodyguards as Cordus' garrison arrived on the battlefield. The greatly outnumbered Lepidians were greeted by showers of javelins from Blaesus' skirmishers, who peeled away as the Lepidians charged into melee combat with Blaesus' legionaries. Blaesus' battle-hardened legionaries made short work of the inexperienced and outnumbered Lepidians, and Habitus and his veterans were encircled and massacred. The Lepidians were routed, and Blaesus proceeded to assault and capture Carthage with an additional 52 losses.
Aftermath[]
The capture of Carthage marked a watershed moment in the history of the Second Triumvirate. Lepidus lost his capital after three major field battles in North Africa, and Octavian was quick to consolidate his gains. Octavian and his Legio III Gemina crossed the Mediterranean from Sicily to Tunisia, while Blaesus enlisted several fresh cohorts composed of Roman colonists in Africa. Gaius Calvisius Sabinus' fleet moved into the harbor of Carthage, garrisoning the city, and enabling Octavian and Blaesus' legions to advance side-by-side and push eastward along the African coastline, intent on capturing Lepidus' last strongholds and firmly ejecting Lepidus from the Triumvirate.
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