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Hannibal Barca Tactics

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Hannibal Barca was possibly the only general during the 200 BC era, had successfully defeated Rome countless of times, not through mass amounts of men and weapons, but though military tactics. Hannibal had played a massive role in the second punic war as he was the leading military general of Carthage and was well known for his victories in Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae. With Hannibal's brilliant military tactics, he was able defeat the Romans through uneven ratios in men, but still come in victory due to his thoroughly planned strategic tactics in Trebia, lake trasimene and Cannae. The battle at River Trebia was the first in a string of three major victories obtained by Hannibal against the Romans during the second punic war. Before …show more content…

All of these battles were significant, but trasimene was special, it has the distinction of the largest ambush in military history. The ambush at Lake Trasimene conducted by Hannibal was bigger than any world war or the battle of teutoburg forest. Hannibal had sent scouts to view for any Roman’s in the distance, the scouts reported of a Roman army that was searching for Hannibal and his army. Hannibal believed it was the perfect time to attack as his army had grown in size due to his stunning victory at Trebia, he had gained the attraction of Gauls and that time, he had a total of fifty thousand men, forty thousand infantry to whom seventeen thousand were Gauls and ten thousand cavalry, whereas the Romans for once had a less amount than Hannibal, reaching at roughly thirty thousand men and a few cavalry. Hannibal had told his scouts to gain the Roman attention and draw them towards Lake Trasimene. But Hannibal did not send them right away, he had waited for a specific day, a day when fog occurred, which was common in Lake trasimene, this would bring the element of surprise into place. Lake Trasimene was a place where there was a road and on the right side of the road was the lake itself and on the left side was a mountain, on that mountain, it contained a vegetation environment and trees. The Romans disliked scouting and they believed it was boring and undignified, but with the following events that was going to occur, it would prove a massive disadvantage for the Romans. The Roman commander blindly led his army along the road through the fog, without sending any scouts ahead to try to obtain vision on any carthaginians, but little did the Romans know, Hannibal was on top of the mountain, watching the Roman legionnaires blindly march through the fog. The Roman legionaries stopped in the middle of the fog. Hannibal had assigned a road block

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