Indibilis and Mandonius

[5] In 217 BC, Indibilis regained his freedom and, with his younger brother Mandonius, decided to harass neighbouring Iberian tribes who were friendly to, or in alliance with, Rome.

This harassment was fended off by Scipio Calvus by counter measures that involved killing some of Indibilis' tribesmen, taking some prisoner, and disarming the others.

[4] When Hasdrubal Barca, who was in north-western Spain, heard of this, he returned to help out his Iberian allies south of the Ebro River.

He also required that the wife of Mandonius and the daughters of Indibilis be held at New Carthage in pledge for their fathers' fidelity.

However, when a rumour spread in 206 BC that Africanus was seriously ill and possibly dead, they started a rebellion aimed at getting the Romans to leave Iberia.

[16] Africanus recovered and returned to good health and ultimately defeated the mutiny with the thirty-five ringleaders beheaded.

The next year, Africanus left Spain in the hands of his generals L. Lentulus and L. Manlius and returned to Rome to prepare for an attack on Carthage.

Since Africanus was the only Roman general of whom Indibilis and Mandonius were afraid, they roused the Iberian tribes and assembled an army of 30,000 foot soldiers and 4,000 cavalry and decided to rebel again.