 As a result, most historians consider these engagements to be ahistorical.The Scipios had persuaded Syphax, a Numidian king, to open hostilities against Carthage with an army that had been trained by Statorius, a Roman centurion, in 213 or 212 BC.On the whole, the situation in Iberia was stable enough for Hasdrubal Barca to shift his attention to Africa in 213/212 BC in order to put down this rebellion.