II.

Crossing the Alps

The march on Rome began in 218 bc. Hannibal left New Carthage (now Cartagena), Spain, with an army of about 40,000, including cavalry and a considerable number of elephants carrying baggage and later used in battle. He crossed the Pyrenees and the Rhône River and traversed the Alps in 15 days, beset by snowstorms, landslides, and the attacks of hostile mountain tribes. After recruiting additional men among the friendly Insubres, a Gallic people of northern Italy, to compensate for the loss of about 15,000 men during the long march, Hannibal subjugated the Taurini, a tribe hostile to the Insubres. He then forced into alliance with himself all the Ligurian and Celtic tribes on the upper course of the Po River. Late that same year (218 bc) he vanquished the Romans under Scipio Africanus the Elder in the battles of Ticinus (Ticino) and Trebia (Trebbia). In the following year, 217 bc, Hannibal inflicted a crushing defeat on the Roman consul Gaius Flaminius at Lake Trasimene. After his victory Hannibal crossed the Apennines and invaded the Roman provinces of Picenum and Apulia, recrossing thence to the fertile Campania, which he ravaged.

The Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator, sent from Rome to oppose Hannibal, adopted a highly cautious strategy. Avoiding any decisive encounter with the Carthaginian troops, he nevertheless succeeded in keeping Hannibal at bay, thus giving the Romans the opportunity to recover from their military reverses. Hannibal wintered at Gerontium, and in the spring of 216 bc he took up a position at Cannae on the Aufidus (Ofanto) River. There he almost completely annihilated a Roman army of more than 50,000 men under the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paulus, who was killed in the battle, and Gaius Terentius Varro (died after 200 bc), who escaped with the remnant. Carthaginian losses were fewer than 6000 men.

After the Battle of Cannae, the character of the war underwent a change. Hannibal needed reinforcements, which the Carthaginian government refused to furnish, and he also lacked siege weapons. He marched on Neapolis (Naples), but failed to take the city. The gates of wealthy Capua, one of the Italian cities that had fallen to Hannibal in consequence of his victory at Cannae, were opened to him, however, and there he passed the winter of 216-215 bc. In 211 bc Hannibal attempted to take Rome, but the Romans successfully maintained their fortified positions. The Romans then retook Capua. The loss of this second city of Italy cost Hannibal the allegiance of many of his Italian allies and put an end to his hopes of further replenishing his army from their ranks. After four years of inconclusive fighting, Hannibal turned for aid to his brother Hasdrubal, who forthwith marched from Spain. Hasdrubal, however, was surprised, defeated, and slain by the Roman consul Gaius Claudius Nero in the Battle of the Metaurus (Metauro) River.