Qualla: Battle of Saguntum https://qualla.com/battle-of-saguntum en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:38:46 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/p/c/battle-of-saguntum-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Saguntum https://qualla.com/battle-of-saguntum Battle of Saguntum: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-saguntum/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. To hold the hill, they tore down the theatre. In 1811, as a French army marched on the Valencian coast, Spanish workers scrambled to turn the crumbling old fortress atop Sagunto into a defensible stronghold. They needed stone, and the readiest supply lay at their feet: the Roman theatre on the slope below, still remarkably intact after seventeen centuries. On the advice of a British officer, they quarried the ancient monument for building blocks and patched the fortress walls with the bones of antiquity. The work was still unfinished when Marshal Suchet's soldiers appeared beneath the hill - and the Battle of Saguntum, fought on 25 October 1811, would decide who held the gateway to Valencia.

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/p/c/battle-of-saguntum-wp/ezpc-battle-of-saguntum-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Saguntum: A Rock Fought Over Across the Ages https://qualla.com/battle-of-saguntum/ Photo credit Nicolas Vigier from Madrid, Spain, CC0. This hill had heard war before. In 219 BC the ancient city of Saguntum, an ally of Rome, was besieged and destroyed by Hannibal - an act that ignited the Second Punic War and set Carthage and Rome at each other's throats. Rome rebuilt the city and, generations later, carved the g...

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Image: Nicolas Vigier from Madrid, Spain | CC0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/p/c/battle-of-saguntum-wp/ezpc-battle-of-saguntum-a-rock-fought-over-across-the-ages.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Saguntum: The Siege https://qualla.com/battle-of-saguntum/ Photo credit Société de militaires et gens de lettres, Public domain. Suchet hoped to take the castle in a rush. He could not. The garrison of some 2,600 men under Colonel Andriani threw back his first assaults, and a daring midnight escalade at the end of September ended in slaughter - the storming parties climbed their ladders into a wall of aler...

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Image: Société de militaires et gens de lettres | Public domain

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/p/c/battle-of-saguntum-wp/ezpc-battle-of-saguntum-the-siege.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Saguntum: The Relief That Failed https://qualla.com/battle-of-saguntum/ Photo credit Public domain. The Spanish commander, Captain General Joaquín Blake, distrusted his own army and had hoped to avoid open battle altogether. But the people of Valencia would not stand for a general who let their fortress fall without a fight, and to keep his command he had to march. On 25 Octobe...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/p/c/battle-of-saguntum-wp/ezpc-battle-of-saguntum-the-relief-that-failed.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Saguntum: The Cost https://qualla.com/battle-of-saguntum/ Photo credit Zakynto, CC BY-SA 4.0. Blake had placed himself too far to the rear to steer the battle; by one account he gave the order to advance and then simply let events run. When they ran against him, the retreat became a rout. A single battalion of the Walloon Guard turned to hold a village so the rest could e...

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Image: Zakynto | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/p/c/battle-of-saguntum-wp/ezpc-battle-of-saguntum-the-cost.mp3 0:06 5 full