Siege of Utica
203 BCE.
Shown on the map at 37.057°, 10.062°.
The siege of Utica took place from 204 to 201 BC when a Roman army under Publius Cornelius Scipio attempted to seize the port of Utica to use as a secure base from which to defeat the Carthaginian Empire in its North African homeland. The First Punic War was fought between Carthage and Rome for 23 years, from 264–241 BC. After a 23-year interbellum, war broke out again in 218 BC as the Second Punic War. After a further 13 years of war, the Roman general Scipio, who had recently expelled the Carthaginians from Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), was assigned to Sicily with the intention of invading the Carthaginian homeland in North Africa. Scipio's army landed in North Africa in 204 BC, pillaged a large area and laid siege to the port city of Utica, located in the northeast of present day Tunisia, intending to use it as a permanent base and a harbour proof against the winter weather. Scipio expected the city to surrender readily, but despite being attacked fiercely from land and sea it held out; the garrison and citizens assumed they would be relieved from Carthage.
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