These tactics succeeded in frustrating Hannibal for a year, but by 216 BC the people of Rome were growing angry. He pursued a policy of attrition, while refusing to meet the Carthaginians in a pitched battle. Had Hannibal struck at Rome then, history could have been very different, but he had no siege weapons and was still waiting for Rome’s allies to defect to even up the numbers.Īmid these circumstances, Quintus Fabius was appointed an emergency dictator in Rome. This latter victory took Hannibal deep into the fertile lands of Italy and put Rome into a state of blind panic. His army was still heavily outnumbered, but it did not seem to matter as the Romans were soundly defeated at Trebia and Lake Trasimene. And he also had a plan to attract Rome’s reluctant southern and northern subjects to his cause.īy the time of his first major battle with Rome at Trebia in December, Hannibal’s army was back up to 40,000 infantry (though they were not well-armoured like their Roman foes). Hannibal, however, managed to win over the allegiances of many of the Alpine Gauls who had been troubling Rome with their raids for centuries. Hannibal is depicted crossing the Alps on none other than an elephant. Most generals would have given up at this stage, or at least limited their objectives. He had a 40,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry and 38 war elephants by the time he’d reached the foothills of the Alps – as well as boundless ambition.īut the crossing of the mountains in spring proved a disaster for Hannibal, costing him half of his men and almost all of his war elephants. He would continue his march north through Spain, all the way to the Alps, and on into Rome’s heartland. Hannibal’s reponse to the declaration of war was simple. In the eyes of the Romans, they had already given Carthage one chance and this time it was all or nothing. Rome demanded an explanation for Hannibal’s actions and by 218 BC the two empires were once again at war – but this time on a far greater scale. The government back in Africa had little choice but to support the decision.Ī brutal eight-month siege ensued before Saguntum’s eventual bloody fall. The young Carthaginian commander was popular enough at this stage to take politics into his own hands, and marched to besiege the city anyway, perhaps thinking of his promise to his father. Seven years after Hannibal captured the city in 219 BC, it was taken by the Romans. The remains of the Roman forum at Saguntum. But now the Roman government declared an alliance with the independent Spanish city of Saguntum, knowing that Hannibal was planning on attacking it.

The central government in Carthage had signed a peace treaty with Rome after their earlier defeat. His youth and energy made him popular with the multinational soldiers under his command, and a string of impressive victories helped subdue the Iberians and ensure that across the Balearic Sea the Romans were paying close attention to the revival of their old enemy.

After the death of his father, 26-year-old Hannibal took command in 221 and immediately made a name for himself. Taking his sons with him, he lead an invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in order to subdue the hardy tribes that resisted Carthaginian rule. Hamilcar’s revengeĪfter its defeat, the navy and finances of Carthage were in a sorry state. Barca made his nine-year-old son, Hannibal, swear that as long as he lived, he would never be a friend of Rome. In the end, however, the bloody-minded and determined Romans were victorious, much to the disgust of the Carthaginian commander, Hamilcar Barca. The first war between the two powers, known as the First Punic War, was fought over Sicily, and proved to be a see-sawing contest that took place on both land and at sea – the latter a theatre of war that the Carthaginians had previously dominated. How the western Mediterranean looked at the start of the First Punic War.

Carrot weather command line