Ancient History and Literature Seamus Burke 3/21/13 Word Count: 333 Week 23

The Second Punic WarThe Second Punic War, also known as the Hannabalic War, lasted from 218 to 201 BC. This

was the second of three major conflicts between Rome and Carthage. The war is famous for Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. The conflict was ignited by a dispute over the city of Sargentum.

The city of Sargentum was located in Spain. After prominent supporters of the city of Carthage were assassinated, Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar, laid siege to it. Sargentum was a Greek colony allied with Rome, which responded by declaring war. Sargentum fell to the Carthaginian army under the command of Hannibal after a prolonged siege in 219 BC. A Roman fleet, under the command of Scipio, landed on the Iberian Peninsula to confront Hannibal, but the Carthaginian army evaded them and escaped.

In 218, Hannibal led his army over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy. The crossing of the Alps was necessitated by the Roman control of the sea, and Hannibal's desire to strike at the Romans on their home ground. Along the way he conquered the land from the Ebro river to the Pyrenees, leaving behind a portion of his army to garrison the land. Hannibal brought elephants with him over the mountains, although only 7 survived of the 34 which began the journey. In November, the Carthaginians were intercepted by a Roman army under the command of Scipio, whom Hannibal had evaded earlier. The Battle of Ticinus ensued, where the Romans were defeated by Hannibal's cavalry. Scipio was injured in the battle, and the Romans retreated across the Trebia river. As news of Hannibal's victory spread, almost all of the Gallic tribes revolted across northern Italy. In December, Hannibal defeated the Roman forces under the command of Consul Sempronius Longus, in the battle of the Trebia.

In the spring of 217 BC, Hannibal tried to draw the Roman army under the command of the consul Flaminius into a decisive battle by devastating the surrounding countryside Flaminius was ordered to protect. Upon the failure of that strategy, Hannibal marched around the Roman army, cutting them of from Rome--no reinforcements or messages could get past. Provoking Flaminius into pursuing him, Hannibal hid his army in a narrow pass on the shore of Lake Trasimenus. Hannibal sent a small force to draw part of the Roman army away, splitting their forces. Then the general attack began. The Carthaginian cavalry and infantry attacked from their concealed positions and engaged the Romans. The ambush succeeded spectacularly, the Roman army was annihilated.

Hannibal then marched south, hoping to win over allies in the Greek and Italian populations there. The Roman senate, in a panic over the defeat at Lake Trasimene appointed an acting dictator, Quintus Fabius Maximus. Realizing the pre-established strategies weren't working, Fabius invented the Fabian strategy. An essential element of the Fabian strategy was avoiding open battle with large armies, instead skirmishing with smaller enemy detachments. Minucius, Fabius's second-in-command, was against the adoption of the Fabian strategy. As soon as Minucius won a minor skirmish, the Roman Senate promoted him to the same rank as Fabius. Hannibal lured Minucius's forces into an ambush at Geronium, but when Fabius rushed to Minucius's aid, Hannibal withdrew.

Fabius became unpopular with the Roman public, as there was no clear end in sight to the war. In 216, Gaius Terentius Varro was elected as consul, and pursued a much more aggressive strategy. In the spring of 216, Hannibal seized a supply depot located at Cannae, cutting the Romans off from an important supply source. Varro marched for the Carthaginian army with the intent to destroy it. Hannibal took advantage of Varro's eagerness for a decisive battle and drew him into a trap. Hannibal arrayed his forces in a semicircle, with the cavalry on the edges. Once the battle was joined, the

cavalry encircled the Roman army. Only a small fraction of the Roman army escaped the ensuing battle. Polybius says "How much more serious was the defeat of Cannae, than those which preceded it can be seen by the behavior of Rome’s allies; before that fateful day, their loyalty remained unshaken, now it began to waver for the simple reason that they despaired of Roman power." Following the Battle of Cannae, the city of Capua defected to join Hannibal, and served as his base.

Hannibal then tried to take the city of Nola, but was repulsed. He tried again in 215, but was pushed back a second time. Hannibal tried a third time in 214, but again failed, and finally gave up on taking Nola. The tide of the war slowly starts to turn when the Roman legions under the command of Claudius Marcellus lay siege to the city of Syracuse and capture it. The Carthaginian expansion reached it's apex in 212 when Hannibal captured the city of Tarentum, at the time the largest port in Italy.

In 211, Carthaginian forces defeat more Roman armies, giving them control over the entire Iberian Peninsula south of the Ebro river. Hannibal marches on Rome in hope of diverting Roman forces from besieging Capua, but fails. Capua falls to the Romans in 211. In 209, Scipio invades Spain and captures New Carthage. Hannibal is away in Italy and defeats a Roman army under the command of Claudius Marcellus. In 208, Hasdrubal Barca, Hannibal's younger brother is defeated by Scipio at the Battle of Baecula. Hasdrubal and the remains of his army cross the alps into Italy to meet up with Hannibal. Before they can meet, Hasdrubal is killed and his army is destroyed by the Roman army commanded by Claudius Nero and Livius Salinator.

Scipio continues through Spain and defeats the Carthaginian's commanded by Mago Barca at the Battle of Ilipa in 205. Scipio then proceeds to land his army in Africa, and defeats two Carthaginian armies in the Battle of the Great Plains in 203. Hannibal rushes back to Carthage to defend it. In 202, as a last desperate defense against the Romans, Hannibal tries an Elephant charge, but fails. The Carthaginian's are completely defeated in the battle of Zama, and Carthage surrenders. A peace is signed requiring Carthage to surrender all of her conquests in Spain, Italy, and North Africa, and destroy her army and Navy.

The second Punic War had far-reaching consequences. Carthage lost the Iberian Peninsula forever and Rome firmly established it's power throughout the region. Carthage was forbidden from raising an army. When it did so to protect its citizens from the Numidians, Rome destroyed Carthage in the Third Punic War. Carthage would never be a major power again. Rome, in contrast, had taken a major step towards its eventual domination of the Mediterranean World.

BibliographyPolybius. The Histories of Polybius,http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/1*.html