The raid of the Po Valley in 203 BC was the culmination of a major war, carried out by the Carthaginian commander Mago, son of Hamilcar Barca, at the end of the Second Punic war between Rome and which location, that was a Phoenician city-state, during the 7th to 3rd centuries BC?
Po Valley raid The raid of the Po Valley in 203 BC was the culmination of a major war, carried out by the Carthaginian commander Mago, son of Hamilcar Barca, at the end of the Second Punic war between Rome and Carthage in what is now northwestern Italy. Mago had landed at Genoa, Liguria, two years before, in an effort to keep the Romans busy to the North and thus hamper indirectly their plans to invade Carthage’s hinterland in Africa (modern Tunisia). He was quite successful in reigniting the unrest among various peoples (Ligurians, Gauls, Etruscans) against the Roman dominance. Rome was forced to concentrate large forces against him which finally resulted in a battle fought in the land of the Insubres (Lombardy). Mago suffered defeat and had to retreat. The strategy to divert the enemy’s forces failed as the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio laid waste to Africa and wiped out the Carthaginian armies that were sent to destroy the invader. To counter Scipio the Carthaginian government recalled Mago from Italy (along with his brother Hannibal, who had been in Bruttium until then). However, the remnants of the Carthaginian forces in Cisalpine Gaul continued to harass the Romans for several years after the end of the war.
Cirta Cirta (from Berber: KRTN or Kirthan, Phoenician: "Tzirta" ) was the capital city of the Berber Kingdom of Numidia in northern Africa (modern Algeria). Its strategically important port city was Russicada. Although Numidia was a key ally of the ancient Roman Republic during the Punic Wars (264–146 BC), Cirta was subject to Roman invasions during the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. Eventually it went under Roman dominion during the rule of Julius Caesar. Cirta was then repopulated by Roman colonists by Caesar and Augustus and was surrounded by a "Confederation of free Roman cities" (Tiddis, Cuicul, Milevum, etc.) The city was destroyed in the beginning of the 4th century and was rebuilt by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, who gave his name to the newly constructed city, Constantine. Vandals damaged Cirta, but emperor Justinianus I reconquered and improved the Roman city. Arabs finally captured it in 698 AD.