The Iberian devotio It was a custom of pre-Roman peoples (Iberians, Celts, Cantabria, Celtiberians, Lusitanians...) through which a warrior (devotus ) swelled the clientele of an important character (patronus ), committing to defend him and not survive him in combat. It is believed that there was some kind of ritual or ceremony for its consecration, but what it consisted of is unknown. The devoti they had to defend their patronus to death, and if they failed, they had to take their own lives. Clear examples of the implementation of this figure are Sagunto, Numancia and the Cantabrian wars. The Carthaginians and the Romans suffered its consequences, but later they knew how to take advantage of it. They knew that by killing the chieftains they had won the battles or by using them as hostages they would have the loyalty of their subjects. So, the pre-Roman tribes allied themselves with one or the other depending on the wind that blew with more force. An extreme case of these alliances was that of Indíbil , the king of the ilergetes (Iberian tribe that occupied a large part of the current provinces of Lleida and Huesca).
Initially, Indíbil chose to support the Carthaginians. His pact with Carthage forced him to place himself under the command of Hanno , the Punic commander who Hannibal Barca left to control Hispania while he undertook his legendary Italian campaign. What Indíbil did not calculate was that the war between Rome and Carthage would spread so soon to Hispania, and less than a military expert, Gneo Cornelio Escipión , recently landed in Ampurias, battled Hanno at the head of his two legions and defeated him against Cissa , a place very close to present-day Tarragona. The Punic setback was considerable:six thousand dead and two thousand captured, including Hanno himself and Indíbil. Asdrubal Barca , who arrived late to the battle with his reinforcements, could only harass the Roman fleet and maintain the Ebro as a natural boundary between the two powers. The liberation of Indíbil supposed the delivery of tributes and ilergetes hostages to Rome, being expelled from a good part of the territories that he ruled until that moment. The following year he resumed his propunic operations harassing various Celtiberian tribes related to the interests of Rome. His renewed alliance with Asdrúbal gave him free rein to expand his power among other less warlike neighboring Regulos, and more so after the defeat and death of the two Scipios at Cástulo and Ilorci (Jaen). Carthaginian friendship was not gratuitous for the ilergete oligarch. He had to hand over a good amount of silver and his own wife as his hostage.
Perhaps tired of the infinite greed of the Bárcida, or perhaps attentive to the change of winds that was taking place in Hispania, in 209 B.C. Indibil made a pact with Publio Cornelio Escipión , son of one of the Scipios and a new legate sent by the Senate of Rome to tackle the Punic problem. The Roman brought together under his command many Iberians dazzled by his good fortune, something that might have led Indíbil to change loyalties. The ilergete help would come in exchange for the return of the hostages that were still in Hasdrubal's hands and the confirmation of his status as a vassal king of the Republic once Carthage was expelled from Iberia.
The causes are not known with certainty, perhaps the Iberians saw that Rome was a lion dressed as a lamb, or perhaps the Barcid agents bribed the indigenous régulos, but the fact is that only one year he kept his new pact of fidelity to Rome, Well, in 208 B.C., Indíbil again forms, together with the Iberian allies, in the ranks of Asdrúbal. The battle of Baécula it was settled, like that of Cissa, against the interests of Carthage. Asdrúbal managed to flee, the Punics were defeated, Indíbil was once again captured and released in exchange for large tributes.
Indibile and Mandonio
The third was not the winner. The following year, Indíbil supported a new Hispanic revolt against Rome promoted by the Carthaginian Magón . Another Iberian régulo, Mandonio of the Ausetians, who was perhaps his brother-in-law, also attended the battle that took place in 206 BC. and that meant the definitive consolidation of Rome in the peninsula. Scipio and his faithful Gaius Lelio massacred twenty thousand rebels in a narrow indeterminate valley of Sedetania. This time, Indíbil and Mandonio managed to flee. Scipio's departure for Africa gave new wings to the stubbornness of the régulo ilergete. Once more the malcontents rose against Rome, and were again defeated; Indíbil fell in combat and Mandonio was handed over to the Romans as part of the unconditional surrender, dying executed shortly after.