The combined Roman force met Hasdrubal at the River Metaurus on the Adriatic south of Ariminum.Nero's plan for a surprise attack in force was thwarted when Hasdrubal's scouts reported that the trumpets had sounded twice that morning at the consul's tent. Hasdrubal was also told that some of the soldiers and horses were dusty as if from a long march. Aware that he was facing both consuls and that he was outnumbered by the combined Roman armies, Hasdrubal attempted to march off secretly to the north but missed his way or was led astray by his guides and was brought to bay by the pursuing Romans.

Forced to give battle, Hasdrubal deployed his army of 30,000 so to take as much advantage of the local terrain as possible. His left wing rested on the river Metaurus along a stretch that was too deep to cross. Hasdrubal formed his Gauls along a ravine that covered their front. He placed his Ligurians in the center with his best troops, the Spanish, on his right wing. The Elephants were placed in front of his Ligurians and Spanish. There appears to have been little cavalry and their position is unknown.

Facing him was the Consul Livius with about the same of troops and Nero with his 7,000. Livius deployed his legions opposite the Ligurians and Spanish and Nero deployed facing the Gauls. The Romans appear to have been unaware of the ravine when they advanced.

Hasdrubal attacked with the elephants, followed by his right wing and centre. The battle was hard fought and hung in the balance. Meanwhile Nero found he could not get at the Gauls across the ravine. He therefore took 2,000 infantry and marched them across the Roman rear to fall on the Spanish flank. This decided the battle. About 20,000 Carthaginians were killed including Hasdrubal. Livius restrained his men from killing the fleeing Gauls so that they would tell people what happened. This was the decisive battle of the war.

Nero returned south and had Hasdrubal's head flung into Hannibal's camp as an announcement of his defeat. Hannibal's hope of support in Italy was dashed.

What you think? I don't believe in luck but in this batlle the luck was a good ally with the romans.

 I dont see how luck played any part in this battle, it was a pretty unremarkable battle until Nero realised the broken ground meant his right wing could not engage the Gauls and the Gauls could not engage him, instead of allowing the right to stand idle as the battle raged he got behind the right flank of the Carthaginians and routed them.

 I dont understand how that was lucky, remember the Romans were expecting Hasdrubal and 2 legions were waiting for him. Livy claims 57,000 Carthaginians were killed and 5400 captured, which is a massive exaggeration, Polybius offers a number of 10,000 Carthaginian dead and 2000 captured with 8000 Roman and allied troops killed. Which is far more realistic a sum than what Livy offers as usual.

 Hannibals goal to break up the Roman confederation was dead long before this battle IMO, had Carthage made a real effort to assist Hannibal immediately after Cannae then the Romans would not have recovered and Hannibal would have retained the initiative and he wouldnt have had to go through years of taking Roman cities then relieving them then having to criss cross southern Italy from one crisis to another.

 This was to little to late. Rome had already won the war in Sicily, held onto Sardinia and dealt with the Illyrian problem and Philip of Macedon and a year later the Spanish war was won by Scipio. River Metaurus should never have happened I think Hasdrubal should have stayed in Spain where really the war was being decided since Hannibal was unable to strike decisively at the heart of Rome and break up the confederation in Italy.

This batlle was one of greatest decisive battle it end the hannibal dream to detroy Rome  ,It decided the result of second punic war ,Nero was face Hannibal when his troops captured the messenger betwwen brothers with message said dont attack Nero and wait for me then Nero knowed the plan and left some of his troops against Hannibal .

Nero attacked hasdrubal suprisely hasdrubal thought it is only Livius troops .

 It didnt decide the second punic war, it decided the fate of the italian campaign but Scipio was about the bring the war to Carthage, I dont think if Hasdrubal had won itd of made any lasting difference. Rome had suffered worse defeats and the confederation had stuck together why would this one be that much different?

 Hasdrubal would have suffered immense casualties had he won anyway, had things got worse for Rome theres no reason why Scipio wouldnt of invaded Africa anyway or possibly returned to Italy and fought the Carthaginians. The problem Rome had is it hadno general upto Hannibals standard in italy, but Scipio was more than a match for Hannibal, I believe had Scipio fought in Italy and united the Roman armies he'd of defeated Hannibal and the war ended anyway.

 The second punic war was decided at Zama officially, had Scipios army been crushed and Scipio himself killed and then Hannibal carried the war to Sicily again the war may have reached a stalemate that meant neither side really won as theyd both suffered horribly.

It is known to me that the arms of the punic african infantry was changed to roman in Italy. But what kind of arms did they have before this. Acording to the book Hannibal by Serge Lancel they were light infantry with javelins and small shields (this part of the text is rather obscure to me), but this sound me strange, because every othe soucre mentions them as heavy infantry.

 The African contingents in Hannibals army did change yes, the backbone of Hannibals army the Libyans always fought in the Phalanx formation a wall of spears. Hannibal changed this though, he gave the Libyans swords from the Roman dead and formed them into Speirai they were far more flexible than they used to be and could unlike the phalanx fight over broken ground and adapt far quicker.

 Libyans were also be used as light skirmishers, but the Libyan infantry was the heavy infantry in Hannibals army.

 There were also the Sacred Band of 3000 heavy infantry made up from Carthaginians themselves though they wernt used in Hannibal campaign infact ive found very little mention to them anywhere.

 I dont have any sources specifically on that topic sorry, the place I found out something about the Speirai and such was a book called "The punic was: Rome and Carthage and the struggle for the Mediterranean" By Nigel Bagnall which by the way is an excellent book.

 However this covers all the punic wars etc so it doesnt focus on that aspect your looking for, it mentions the changes Hannibal made but nothing to indepth. Sorry.

 Im sure somebody knows some good sources though.

Constantine XI:

Is this Goldsworthy the same who wrote The Comlete Roman Army?