With the Iberian contingent of the Carthaginian navy shattered, Hasdrubal was forced to either call Carthage for reinforcements or build new ships.

Hasdrubal received orders from Carthage to move into Italy and join up with Hannibal in order to put pressure on the Romans in their homeland, but Hasdrubal delayed, arguing that Carthaginian authority over the Iberian tribes was too fragile and the Roman forces in the area too strong for him to execute the planned movement.

Hasdrubal was reinforced by 4,000 infantry and 500 cavalry and was ordered by the Carthaginian senate to march to Italy in the same year, and he spent 216 BC crushing the Iberian rebels near Gades.

Hannibal Barca had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Cannae in August of 216 BC, resulting in the defection of most of South Italy, and in the north the Gauls had wiped out 25,000[5] Roman and Italian soldiers[5] in the Battle of Silva Litana, putting Rome on the defensive in North Italy.

Hasdrubal left Cartagena in the spring of 215 BC and marched for the Ebro, besieged a pro-Roman town and offered battle at Ibera.

"[14] Klaus Zimmermann agrees: "the Scipios' victory ... may well have been the decisive battle of the war"[10] The Carthaginians from then on were forced to contest the Romans in the area between the Ebro and Jucar.

According to Livy, the Romans fought multiple battles against the Carthaginians south of the Ebro from 215 to 214 BC, at Iliturgi, Munda, and Orongi.

[15] Livy's chronology is confused and contradicted by Polybius, who explicitly states that the Scipio brothers did not venture south of the Ebro until 212 BC.

[15] At the instigation of the Romans, Syphax, one of the kings of the Numidian tribes, attacked Carthaginian territories in Africa in 213/212 BC.

The situation in Iberia was sufficiently under control, because Hasdrubal and his Iberian army crossed over to Africa and crushed the threat of Syphax in a battle where 30,000 Numidians were killed.

However, the lack of cooperation between the Carthaginian generals led to the surviving Roman force of 8,000 retiring safely to the north of the river Ebro.

The Carthaginian armies had dispersed into the interior of Iberia in 209 BC, possibly to maintain control over the Iberian tribes, which they were dependent on for soldiers and provisions.

[16] He secured alliances with many of the Iberian tribes, who switched sides after the Roman successes at Carthago Nova and Baecula.

It is included in Edward Shepherd Creasy's The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World (1851), the rationale being that it effectively removed the Carthaginian threat from Rome's ascendancy to global dominion by leaving Hannibal stranded in Italy.

Paul K. Davis sees its importance as the "Carthaginian defeat ended the attempt to reinforce Hannibal, dooming his effort in Italy, and Rome was able to establish dominance over Spain.