Following Hannibal Barca — the Second Punic War

Hannibal Barca (247 – c. 183 BC), Carthage. Son of Hamilcar, sworn at nine to enmity with Rome. Fifteen years in Italy without a decisive defeat; beaten once, at Zama, by the man who studied him.

Commander-in-chief in Spain.

Recalled to Africa in 203; defeated at Zama; suffete of Carthage in 196; exile and suicide in Bithynia, c. 183 BC.

The itinerary — 38 stops, Winter 218 BC to Winter 201 BC

  1. Carthago Nova — Late spring 218 BC: Hannibal marches out of New Carthage with ~90,000 foot, 12,000 horse and 37 elephants. The war of his father’s oath begins. (Polybius 3.33–35; Livy 21.21–22)
  2. Saguntum — Spring 218 BC (sacked 219): The army passes the ruins of Saguntum, the Roman ally Hannibal starved and stormed after an eight-month siege — the spark of the war. (Polybius 3.17; Livy 21.7–15)
  3. Crossing the Ebro — Midsummer 218 BC: Crossing the treaty line. Hannibal subdues the Ilergetes, Bargusii and the tribes between the Ebro and the Pyrenees in weeks of hard fighting. (Polybius 3.35; Livy 21.23)
  4. Over the Pyrenees — Late summer 218 BC: Hanno is left behind with 11,000 men; 10,000 wavering Spaniards are sent home. At Ruscino Hannibal buys passage from the Gallic chiefs with gold. (Polybius 3.35; Livy 21.23–24)
  5. Crossing of the Rhône — Late September 218 BC: The Volcae hold the far bank until Hanno’s flanking column fires their camp. The elephants cross on earth-covered rafts. Scipio’s cavalry arrives three days too late. (Polybius 3.42–46; Livy 21.26–28)
  6. The Island — Early October 218 BC: At the “Island” Hannibal arbitrates a royal succession among the Allobroges; the grateful Brancus re-equips the army for the mountains. (Polybius 3.49; Livy 21.31)
  7. Ambush in the gorges — Mid-October 218 BC: Allobrogian highlanders roll boulders onto the column in a defile; Hannibal seizes their hill-town by night and feeds the army from its stores. (Polybius 3.50–51; Livy 21.32–33)
  8. Summit of the Alps — Late October 218 BC: Nine days up. Snow at the setting of the Pleiades, a two-day halt at the top, and the speech pointing down at Italy. The descent costs more than the enemy ever did — the famous fire-and-vinegar rock. (Polybius 3.53–55; Livy 21.35–37)
  9. Taurasia stormed — November 218 BC: Down in Italy with 20,000 foot and 6,000 horse — half the army gone. The Taurini refuse friendship; their chief town falls in three days and the lesson brings the Gauls flocking. (Polybius 3.56, 3.60; Livy 21.38–39)
  10. Battle of the Ticinus — Late November 218 BC: A cavalry clash: the Numidians envelop the Roman horse, P. Cornelius Scipio is wounded and — by tradition — saved by his 17-year-old son, the future Africanus. (Polybius 3.64–65; Livy 21.45–46)
  11. Battle of the Trebia — December 218 BC: Sempronius takes the bait: breakfastless legions ford the freezing river into Mago’s hidden ambush. Rome’s first consular army is wrecked; Cisalpine Gaul goes over to Hannibal. (Polybius 3.70–74; Livy 21.54–56)
  12. Winter among the Boii — Winter 218/217 BC: A sullen winter among allies he does not trust: Hannibal wears a series of wigs and disguises against assassination. The cold and a failed first push over the Apennines kill every elephant but one — Surus, his own last mount. (Polybius 3.78; Livy 21.58, 22.2)
  13. Through the Arno marshes — Spring 217 BC: Four days and three nights through flooded fenland, the army sleeping on dead pack animals. Hannibal, riding the last elephant, loses an eye to ophthalmia. (Polybius 3.78–79; Livy 22.2)
  14. Ambush at Lake Trasimene — 21 June 217 BC: The whole army hidden in the hills above a foggy lakeshore road. Flaminius and ~15,000 Romans die in three hours; Maharbal then destroys Servilius’ cavalry. The largest ambush in military history. (Polybius 3.83–86; Livy 22.4–8)
  15. Repulse at Spoletium — Late June 217 BC: Days after Trasimene the road to Rome lies open — until the Latin colony of Spoletium slams its gates and bloodily repels the assault. A taste of what every walled Latin town would cost; Hannibal turns away east. (Livy 22.9)
  16. Refit on the Adriatic — Summer 217 BC: A slow, plundering march brings the army to an Adriatic coast overflowing with abundance. Men and horses fatten and heal — the horses bathed in old wine for the scurf — the Libyans are re-armed with captured Roman equipment, and from a seized port Hannibal sends his first despatch to Carthage since Spain. (Polybius 3.86–88)
  17. The Shadow War begins — Midsummer 217 BC: In the hills of Daunia a new Roman army appears — under Quintus Fabius Maximus, dictator, who camps six miles off and refuses every offer of battle. No more consular gambles: Fabius clings to the high ground, shadows every march, cuts off every straggler. Hannibal has met the one Roman way of war he cannot break. (Polybius 3.88–90; Livy 22.12)
  18. The lure through Samnium — Late summer 217 BC: To force the Delayer to fight — or disgrace him — Hannibal storms across Samnium, sacks Telesia, and orders his guide to lead him to Casinum, to cut the road to Rome. The guide, mishearing, leads him to Casilinum instead: down through Allifae into the Falernian plain, the richest land in Italy, which he burns under Fabius’ eyes. The mistake becomes the trap. (Livy 22.13–14)
  19. Trap in the Ager Falernus — Autumn 217 BC: Fabius the Delayer shadows and corners Hannibal in the burning Falernian plain — who escapes by night, driving 2,000 oxen with blazing faggots on their horns over the pass. (Polybius 3.92–94; Livy 22.15–17)
  20. Gerunium — Winter 217/216 BC: Granary-fortress winter quarters. Minucius, co-commander against Fabius, is lured into a trap and saved only by the Delayer he mocked. (Polybius 3.100–105; Livy 22.18, 22.24–30)
  21. Cannae — 2 August 216 BC: The double envelopment: ~86,000 Romans against 50,000, and by dusk the largest one-day slaughter in ancient history. A consul dead, the aristocracy gutted, Rome’s alliance system cracking. (Polybius 3.107–118; Livy 22.44–52)
  22. The morning after Cannae — August 216 BC: Maharbal begs to ride on Rome: “In five days you will dine on the Capitol.” Hannibal refuses. “You know how to win a victory, Hannibal; you do not know how to use one.” (Livy 22.51)
  23. Capua opens its gates — Autumn–winter 216 BC: Italy’s second city defects, followed by Samnites, Lucanians, Bruttians and much of Apulia. The army winters in Capuan luxury — which later moralists called Hannibal’s real defeat. (Livy 23.2–10, 23.18)
  24. Repulse at Nola — 216–214 BC: Three times Hannibal comes for Nola; three times Marcellus — the “Sword of Rome” — sallies and throws him back. The first cracks in the aura of invincibility. (Livy 23.14–17, 23.44–46, 24.17; Plutarch, Marcellus 10–12)
  25. Tarentum by treachery — Winter 213/212 BC: Philemenus’ hunting-trips prop open a gate; the great Greek port falls in a night almost without blood. But the citadel holds out, strangling the prize. (Polybius 8.24–34; Livy 25.7–11)
  26. First Herdonia — 212 BC: Praetor Fulvius’ army annihilated — one of a string of field victories (with Second Herdonia, 210) that prove Hannibal unbeaten even as the strategic noose tightens. (Livy 25.21; (Second Herdonia: Livy 27.1))
  27. Hannibal ad portas — Summer 211 BC: To break the siege of Capua he marches on Rome itself, rides up to the Porta Collina, and hurls a spear over the wall. The land his camp stands on sells at auction — at full price. (Polybius 9.4–7; Livy 26.7–11)
  28. Tarentum lost — 209 BC: Hannibal is away in Bruttium when Fabius strikes: a Bruttian officer in love betrays his wall-sector, and old Fabius storms the city, selling 30,000 into slavery. Force-marching to the rescue, Hannibal arrives a day too late and camps five miles from the walls he cannot retake: "Rome, too, has its Hannibal." (Livy 27.15–16; Plutarch, Fabius 21–23)
  29. Death of Marcellus — 208 BC: Both consuls ride into a Numidian ambush on a wooded hill. Marcellus — five times consul — dies; Hannibal gives his body funeral honours and uses his seal-ring for one last ruse. (Livy 27.26–27; Plutarch, Marcellus 29–30)
  30. The head of Hasdrubal — Summer 207 BC: Nero’s horsemen throw Hasdrubal’s severed head into the outposts of his brother’s camp. “I see there the fate of Carthage.” Hannibal withdraws into Bruttium. (Livy 27.51)
  31. The Bruttian redoubt — 207–203 BC: Four years penned in the toe of Italy, unbeaten and unsupplied, holding a shrinking corner with an army of Bruttians and veterans no Roman general dares meet head-on. (Livy 28.11–12)
  32. The altar at Cape Lacinium — Autumn 203 BC: Recalled at last. He engraves his campaigns in bronze in the temple of Juno — Polybius’ best source — and sails, “looking back at the shores of Italy like an exile.” (Polybius 3.33, 3.56; Livy 30.19–20)
  33. Return to Africa — Late 203 BC: After 36 years away, Hannibal stands on African soil, landing at Leptis Minor and gathering a last army at Hadrumetum. (Livy 30.25, 30.29; Appian, Punica 33)
  34. Camp at Zama — Summer 202 BC: Five days southwest of a panicking Carthage, Hannibal camps at Zama Regia and sends three spies to find Scipio. They are caught — and Scipio has them escorted around his camp, shown everything, and sent back fed and unharmed. Hannibal, reading the message, asks for a meeting. (Polybius 15.5; Livy 30.29)
  35. The parley — October 202 BC: The two greatest commanders of the age meet alone with interpreters. Hannibal offers terms; Scipio refuses. “Prepare to fight, for evidently you have found peace intolerable.” (Polybius 15.6–8; Livy 30.29–31)
  36. Zama — 19 October 202 BC: Eighty elephants funnelled through Scipio’s lanes, Masinissa’s cavalry returning at the fatal hour — Cannae inverted. Hannibal escapes to urge the peace he knows is lost. (Polybius 15.9–16; Livy 30.32–35)
  37. Hadrumetum — Autumn 202 BC: Reached Hadrumetum in two days and nights with a handful of horsemen. (Livy 30.35)
  38. Carthage — Autumn 202 BC: Summoned home after thirty-six years; argues in the council for accepting the peace. (Livy 30.35–37)

Battles fought

  • Siege of Saguntum — Autumn 218 BC — victory
  • Battle of the Ticinus — Autumn 218 BC — victory
  • Storming of Taurasia — Autumn 218 BC — victory
  • Battle of the Trebia — Winter 218 BC — victory
  • Battle of Lake Trasimene — Summer 217 BC — victory
  • Escape from the Ager Falernus — Autumn 217 BC — victory
  • Battle of Geronium — Autumn 217 BC — inconclusive
  • Battle of Cannae — Summer 216 BC — victory
  • First Battle of Nola — Autumn 216 BC — defeat
  • Siege of Casilinum — Autumn 216 BC — victory
  • Second Battle of Nola — Summer 215 BC — defeat
  • Third Battle of Nola — Summer 214 BC — inconclusive
  • Fall of Tarentum — Winter 212 BC — victory
  • Battle of the Silarus — Summer 212 BC — victory
  • First Battle of Herdonia — Summer 212 BC — victory
  • Siege of Capua — Summer 211 BC — defeat
  • Second Battle of Herdonia — Summer 210 BC — victory
  • Battle of Numistro — Summer 210 BC — inconclusive
  • Battle of Canusium — Spring 209 BC — inconclusive
  • Ambush of the Consuls — Summer 208 BC — victory
  • Battle of Grumentum — Spring 207 BC — defeat
  • Battles of Croton — Summer 204 BC — inconclusive
  • Battle of Zama — Autumn 202 BC — defeat