Rome During The Second Carhaginian War

The Romans won the Second Punic war for a variety of reasons. These included the role and strategy of the Roman Senate and the failure of the Carthaginian government to support Hannibal. Rome’s strong control of the sea as well as Carthage's failure to rebuild their navy contributed greatly. The actions of Fabius Maximus and Scipio Africanus brought about the decline of Hannibal's momentum in Italy and his final defeat. Thus, there was no single reason as to why Rome were victorious against Carthage.

The Roman infantry in the center continued to engage Hannibal’s forces. The repeated attacks on Hannibal’s infantry forced them from a convex to a concave formation. Roman leadership, anticipating breaking the Carthaginian line, continued to push troops into the center. Roman

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

The wise tactics of Hannibal this time were that, they made a convex form, with the pressure of the Romans; it formed a half circle, where the Roman troops entered. The next step of Hannibal was to close that circle and surrounded the Roman troops with the horses and Carthaginians once again with the brilliant strategists of Hannibal win the battle again. There were a lot of deaths in this battle, one battle that Rome could never forget. After the winning of Hannibal, Roman allies switched sides, noticing the real power of Hannibal and his army. Also after the war many cities were in revolt against the Romans, cities such as Sicily and Sardinia.

     Hannibal was both forward thinking and a brilliant tactician. His journey across the north of Spain, across the Alps, and down into Italy was considered by the Romans and impassable. He chose not to approach by sea but to attack from the Roman's north by land. The journey was long and arduous. Hannibal chose strategic avenues to approach the Roman forces. Roman leaders had news of his approach and sent Legions to stop his advance. Hannibal set up ambushes at strategic avenues in the Alps rolling boulders down the valleys into the Roman forces.

Imagine the roman military with the hot libeccio winds blowing sand and rocks and whatever in there face a grave disadvantage on top of them already knowing they were surrounded and at a disadvantage. The romans had adopted a strategy called the Fabian strategy, of nonengagement, all the roman consuls all of which who lacked significant battle experience thought this was a good idea. Deciding to meet them at highly converted grain depot at Cansium they were hoping to end the great Carthaginian invasion of Italy in one blow without any problems. They thought overwhelming a force with sheer numbers was enough to win a battle, but little did they know that small blunder was actually the biggest mistake in there lives with a huge outcome. So, the battle begins the romans pour out into a deep and narrow formation hoping to overrun their army with sheer power and weight from the push this technique is not very useful in war. Hannibal knowing about this method set up a formation that was very elastic in the center were gallic and Spanish infantry, with African troops on their flanks and cavalry acting as the wings f the whole formation. The engaging Carth army was in a crescent shaped that way the romans had to flow into them and would be

Carthage, however, was able to establish a new base of influence in Spain beginning in 237 BC. This was due to their leadership of the powerful general Hamilcar Barca. In later years, leadership fell under Hamilcar’s son-in-law Hasdrubal. Hamilcar Barca made his younger son Hannibal swear a blood oath against Rome when Hannibal was a younger boy. Upon Hasdrubal’s death in 221 BC, Hannibal took command of the Carthaginian forces in Spain. Two years later, Hannibal marched his army across the Ebro River into Saguntum declaring war on Rome. Hannibal and his troops, 90,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry, marched from Spain across the Alps and into Italy. They won battles over Roman troops at Tiinus, Trebia, and Trasimene. Hannibal’s invasion of Rome reached its peak at Cannae in 216 BC. He used his cavalry to surround a Roman army twice the size of his own and inflict massive casualties. Rome, however, stood right back up to the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians lost hold in Italy as Rome won victories in Spain and North Africa under the general Publius Cornelius Scipio. In 203 BC, Hannibal’s forces were forced to abandon the struggle in Italy in order to defend North Africa. Hannibal’s losses in the Second Punic War put an end to Carthage’s empire in the western Mediterranean. This left Rome in complete control of Spain and allowing Carthage to retain its territory in North Africa. Carthage was forced to give up

The Roman commander on the island, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, amassed all the man power that was available to him, numbering only 10,000 men. Even though Paulinus was heavily outnumbered, he did have several advantages. His legionaries were well trained, properly equipped with weaponry and military experience gained throughout other battles. The Roman military was skilled at open combat due to their superior discipline and resources. The limited maneuverability of the British forces, combined with lack of military offensive tactics in the field, put them at a disadvantage to the Romans. Historians note that many of the rebels had no body armor and were provided with makeshift weapons, such as simple agricultural tools. Suetonius strategically selected a narrow gorge with a forest behind him, opening out into a wide plain. The gorge would serve as protection to the Roman flanks from attack, whilst the forest would block approach from the rear. This also prevented Boudicca from bringing considerable forces to bear on the Roman position, and the open plain in front made ambushes impossible. Before the battle began, Suetonius and the Romans had strategically gathered on a rocky landscape that offered good protection, forcing Briton troops to charge uphill. When the Britons reached the top of the hill they were out of breath and tactically vulnerable. The Romans saw their chance and

Even with his fast cavalry and strong infantry Hannibal knew that he did not have resources like Rome. In fact, he was always outnumbered in every battle. Yet despite of being outnumbered, his strategies helped the Carthaginians win most of the battles in the second Punic war. For example, in the battle of Lake Trasimene, Hannibal trapped the Romans in an ambush without an escape route. What he did was to draw the Romans in close ranks, then sneak attack them with his infantry, and block the way out with his fast cavalry. This lead to the death of 30,000 Roman soldiers plus a high ranking Roman general named Flaminius. In this battle, the casualties of Hannibal’s forces were only 2,500 soldiers.

In October of 218 BC, he crossed the Rhone river and ventured into what made him so famous. Snow was already on the high passes of the Alps. Hannibal started his march across the Alps with 40,000 men along with a calvary and a large number of war elephants carrying supplies. After the crossing only 26,000 of his troops were still alive due to the harsh weather and skirmishes with the local tribes. To make up for his losses, Hannibal recruited Gallic people of Northern Italy. In December 218 BC Hannibal got victories against Romans and secured the Padus Valley. In the spring of 217 BC Hannibal handed the Roman Counsel Gaius Flaminius, who was killed in battle, a huge loss at the battle of Lake Trasimene. After his victory Hannibal crossed the Apennines and invaded the Roman provinces of Picenu, and Apulia and then back into Campania. Instead of storming Rome, Hannibal marched through Italy in to Apulia and destroyed as he proceeded, but suffered heavy losses in manpower. Hannibal spent the winter of 217 BC in the Apulian plains and in the following summer faced a 54,000 strong Roman army. Hannibal circled around the Romans forcing them in to each other confusing the Romans, then easily destroyed then with his calvary. More than half of the Roman Army was lost. After that huge victory many Indian tribes aligned with Carthage. Syracuse left the Roman cause and Philip V of Macedon became an ally even though he never gave any aid. Many argue that Hannibal's

The Carthaginian General Hannibal took an offensive approach and marched through the alps (because Rome controlled the sea) with his 20,000 infantry and 6,000 infantry and won battles on the Roman homeland. The Roman army were outmatched by Hannibal's ingenuity, thus Hannibal and his army were established in Nothern Italy. Hannibal was restricted

Another sizeable contributing factor to the expansion of the Roman Empire was the sacking of Rome by the Gauls in 390 B.C.. “The Romans were completely dumbfounded by the wild and undisciplined charge of the howling Gauls. The Roman’s tightly packed phalanx, a military formation they had adopted from the Greeks of

Rome conquered the territory of present Italy and was ready to join the battle with Carthage. Although the Italian Greeks and Romans did not have high-speed vessels – pentera - like the Carthaginians did, but their forces on the ground were equal. Carthage had a well-trained mercenary army, cavalry and elephants. However, the army was unreliable. Mercenaries served as long as they were paid. The Roman guard

With the introduction of the hoplite phalanx to the Roman army, came a multitude of wars and long drawn out campaigns that the Romans were involved in throughout the republic period. One such campaign or campaigns that set the Roman republic as the uncontested superpower in the Mediterranean was the Punic Wars. Rome fought three wars against Carthage between 264 and 146 BCE. These wars constituted major events in the history of Rome and the Mediterranean basin (Marcel Le Glay 2009) p. 73. Though these wars were fought for reasons such as competing economics, revenge (most notably the Carthaginian general Hannibal), and a fear that could be related in today’s terms of opposing forces such as (the United States and Soviet Union feared each other during the Cold War) the fact is in the end Rome defeated the Carthaginians, not only were the Carthaginians defeated, but the city of Carthage was demolished and the people massacred or sold into slavery so as not to threaten the Romans ever again. In the fall of the city, in obedience to the Senate’s orders the inhabitants were reduced to slavery or forced to emigrate, the town was burnt and soil was

Finally on the 15th day, after a journey of five months from Cartagena, with 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and only a few of the original 38 elephants, Hannibal descended into Italy, having surmounted the difficulties of climate and terrain, the guerrilla tactics of inaccessible tribes, and the major difficulty of commanding a body of men diverse in race and language under conditions to which they were ill fitted (wsu.edu).      Hannibal's forces were now totally inadequate to match the army of Scipio, who had rushed to the Po River to protect the recently founded Roman colonies of Placentia (modern Piacenza) and Cremona. The first action between the two armies took place on the plains west of the Ticino River, and Hannibal's Numidian cavalry prevailed. Scipio was severely wounded, and the Romans withdrew to Placentia. After manoeuvres failed to lead to a second engagement, the combined armies of Sempronius Longus and Scipio met Hannibal on the left bank of the Trebia River south of Placentia and were soundly defeated (December 218). This victory brought both Gauls and Ligurians to Hannibal's side, and his army was considerably augmented by Celtic recruits. After a severe winter (in which he contracted an eye infection), he was able to advance in the spring of 217 as far as the Arno River (wsu.edu). Although two Roman armies were now in the field against him, he was able to outmanoeuvre that of Gaius Flaminius