The general that controlled the Carthaginian's navy during the first Punic War, Hamilcar Barca, was not content with their defeat and made his son take a blood oath to one day defeat the Romans. Hamilcar's son was Hannibal Barca and Hannibal would get closer to defeating the Romans than anyone for a long time before and after him.
The Carthaginian general that controlled the Carthaginian's navy during the first Punic War, Hamilcar Barca, was not content with their defeat and made his son take a blood oath to one day defeat the Romans. Hamilcar's son was Hannibal Barca and Hannibal would get closer to defeating the Romans than anyone for a long time before and after him.
After crossing the Appalachians, Hannibal's first confrontation with the Romans happened at the battle of Trebia. The Romans viewed Hannibal and his army as weak and approached the battle in an arrogant manner. The Roman military commanders at the battle of Trebia made their troops wake up early, eat cold scraps, and cross a freezing river while wearing armor before the battle, unlike Hannibal who let his troops sleep in and fed them warm food before the battle. Hannibal also had a small detachment of his army go to swamp marsh during the night were they could wait and ambush the Roman army during the battle. When the battle began, the poorly prepared and arrogant Roman army was slaughtered by Hannibal's army. The battle was won due largely to three main elements. First, the Romans were poorly prepared for the battle. Second, the detachment of soldiers that Hannibal had sent out the night before was able to ambush the Roman flank and inflict heavy damage. Third, the Romans were frightened by the war elephants of Hannibal's army and were trampled under foot by them.
The second confrontation between Hannibal and the Romans happened at the battle of Lake Trasimene. Hannibal had fires set on Roman farmland hoping to anger the Romans and entice them into chasing him. He was successful and led the Roman army into a narrow passage of land between Lake Trasimene and some wooded hills. While the Romans thought that they had trapped Hannibal, they were actually the ones that were trapped because Hannibal had set up an ambush. Around a third of Hannibal's army came charging from the hills and Hannibal's cavalry came around to the Roman army's flank, effectively trapping the army. The battle was quickly over with an overwhelming victory for Hannibal.
After the Roman defeat at the battle of Lake Trasimene, the Roman Senate named Fabius Maximus dictator of Rome. Fabius decided that it was in Rome's best interest to not engage in any decisive engagements with Hannibal, and to instead just engage in quick hit and run attacks on the Roman army. These techniques became known as the Fabian Tactics, and while they were mostly successful, they were disliked by both Hannibal and the Romans because they were viewed as cowardly and dishonorable. After Fabius' six months as dictator of Rome were over, two new consuls were elected, Gaius Terentius Varro, a plebeian, and Lucius Aemilius Paullus, a patrician.
Hannibal was still and imminent threat to the Romans and needed to be dealt with. The two new consuls however had different ideas of how to deal with him. Lucius Aemilius Paullus wanted to continue with Fabian Tactics, while Gaius Terentius Varro wanted to engage in one final battle decisive battle against Hannibal. As a compromise they decided to alternate days on which the two consuls could control the army.
After much delay due to the consuls alternating command, the battle of Cannae happened in 215 b.c.e. The Roman army had around 70,000 soldiers in total while Hannibal's army only had about 40,000 soldiers remaining. The battle took place on the Apulian Plain. The Romans decided to form a very compact formation instead of their usual checkerboard formation. Hannibal had his army adopt a wedge shaped formation that enticed the Roman army to attack its center. While the Romans were slaughtering the front part of Hannibal's wedge shaped army, the rest of the sides of the wedge began to surround the Roman force on its sides and Hannibal cavalry which had just defeated the Roman cavalry came behind the Roman army. Hannibal had once again surrounded the Roman army and slaughtered it. After his victory, Hannibal only had about 25,000 soldiers left and was hesitant to attack the city of Rome.
Hannibal was supposed to be getting reinforcements from his brother Hasdrubal Barca in Spain, but Hasdrubal was busy fighting a Roman force in Spain. Hasdrubal was able to defeat the Roman force by luring a third of their army into a trap were they were slaughtered by the entirety of his army. The rest of the Roman army was actually made up mostly by non-roman citizen which deserted the army when they heard of the defeat, and the remaining Roman citizens were slaughtered. Hasdrubal and his army headed towards Rome so that they could reinforce Hannibal and lay siege to Rome, but on the way they were intercepted by a Roman army and defeated.
In 202 b.c.e. the newly elected consul Publius C. Scipio attacked the city of Carthage with a Roman army, forcing Hannibal to return back to Carthage were he was finally defeated. As victors of the war, The Romans made the Carthaginians pay them 660,000 pounds in gold, give them the land they owned in what is now Spain, and only allowed them to have 10 ships in their navy.