Hannibal’s Tactical Defeat of The Roman Army at Cannae Essay

Many of the states of Italy that Rome had conquered a century before now joined Hannibal. This was a threat to Rome, so the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio took a Roman army to north Africa and then Hannibal went back to defend Carthage. In the battle at Zama, near Carthage, in 202 BC the Romans finally defeated Hannibal.

In the battle of zama, in 202 BC the power of great hannibal barca had ended. Both armies numbered 35,000 to 40,000. Hannibal had a strong animal elephant corps, and infantry were untrained. In the battle of zama both armies meet and the rome drew up their forces in three lines creating an effective reserve in the rear. Hannibal aligned all of his troops in three lines.

They swiftly maintained support of the Scipios campaign in Spain as well as re-establishing their dwindling army to 250,000 strong by the end of 216 BC through expanding recruitment. Two urban legions were formed from volones, young men (17) and criminals in addition to allies increasing their quota of troops. The senate ingeniously payed for such a force by issuing an edict where, for the first time, troops were provided at the expense of private citizens. Additionally, the senate learnt from their failures of fighting Hannibal in the field and agreed to adopt the once ridiculed ‘Fabian Strategy’ to keep Hannibal under control for the next 16 years. The cutting of Hannibal's supply lines and conducting raids and ambushes thinned out his reach, resulted in the loss of his allied land. Additionally, the Carthaginian Government failed to both maintain reliable manpower and support Hannibal. Throughout the course of the Second Punic War, “The Carthaginian Government’s failure to support Hannibal was extremely costly, especially considering they

Rome’s main military opposition was Carthage, a kingdom located on the northern coast of Africa. Carthage and Rome fought in a series of three wars known as the Punic Wars. The second Punic War, fought from 218-202 BC was led by Hannibal on the Carthaginian side and Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus with Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus on the Roman side. The Battle of Lake Trasimene 217 BC was a major battle in the Second Punic War. Under Hannibal, the Carthaginian army defeated the Romans, who were lead by the consul Gaius Flaminius. This battle helped the Carthaginians to bring the Romans close to defeat, Hannibal was able to execute his father Hamilcar’s strategy perfectly in this battle. In the Battle of Cannae, the Carthaginians were just as lucky. Rome’s larger army, under Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro, was efficiently and easily defeated by the Carthaginian forces. Though Carthage surprised Rome with many victories, the Punic War ended in 202 BC with the The Battle of Zama. Scipio lead the Roman army and defeated the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal. Though Hannibal's army had more men than Scipio's, and he had eighty elephants, Rome showed their superiority and skill in ending the Second Punic War with this battle. Many years after this, another kingdom of North Africa, Numidia, fostered a connection with Rome. King Jugurtha of this region was able to benefit from the Roman soldiers through bribery and connections with them.

Hannibal was very successful in the numerous battles but he knew he would not take Rome. Hannibal turned to politics to gain the support of Rome's allies, but he did not receive enough. While Hannibal was moving through Italy Rome was preoccupied on another front. They had enter their Macedonian wars and were spread thin. For several years the two empire engaged in open battles, raids, and skirmishes. By 202 B.C., Hannibal's resources were depleted and he had no choice but to return and hold a defensive position against Rome. Rome regained a large amount of land through the peace treaty and Carthage lost the advantages they once

After these events the Carthaginian Empire decided to use their Navy as one of the strategies to win the war. What they didn’t know is that the Romans had built many ships and armed them with a

One trait every army must have to be successful is the willingness and drive to dominate. The Roman army took these traits to a whole different level. The Romans were very extreme in battle as well. They often enjoyed humiliating other city-states by burning them to the ground. In 264 B.C.E. a battle between other Greek city-states forced Rome and Carthage, who dominated the western part of the Mediterranean, into conflict. The First Punic War was for the control of Sicily.4 This battle lasted twenty-three years.4 The Romans were losing a lot of men, but they continued to battle on.4 Finally, the persistence paid off.4 The Romans learned how to fight by sea and cut off the Carthaginian supply line into

Finally on the 15th day, after a journey of five months from Cartagena, with 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and only a few of the original 38 elephants, Hannibal descended into Italy, having surmounted the difficulties of climate and terrain, the guerrilla tactics of inaccessible tribes, and the major difficulty of commanding a body of men diverse in race and language under conditions to which they were ill fitted (wsu.edu).      Hannibal's forces were now totally inadequate to match the army of Scipio, who had rushed to the Po River to protect the recently founded Roman colonies of Placentia (modern Piacenza) and Cremona. The first action between the two armies took place on the plains west of the Ticino River, and Hannibal's Numidian cavalry prevailed. Scipio was severely wounded, and the Romans withdrew to Placentia. After manoeuvres failed to lead to a second engagement, the combined armies of Sempronius Longus and Scipio met Hannibal on the left bank of the Trebia River south of Placentia and were soundly defeated (December 218). This victory brought both Gauls and Ligurians to Hannibal's side, and his army was considerably augmented by Celtic recruits. After a severe winter (in which he contracted an eye infection), he was able to advance in the spring of 217 as far as the Arno River (wsu.edu). Although two Roman armies were now in the field against him, he was able to outmanoeuvre that of Gaius Flaminius

Around 60 B.C there was a powerful empire in Europe called Rome. The all mighty Roman empire stretched all around the Mediterranean Sea. They had a powerful army that conquered anything in it’s way to become part of the Roman empire. As Rome grew bigger and the population expanded situations in Rome started to happen. In 476 C.E Rome fell, but why did this happen?

Romans fought in a manner very similar to the Greeks. In early times they utilized the phalanx and a cavalry back-up, but around the 1st century BCE they began to form a “checkered board” pattern. This allowed them to cover more ground and allow men room to fight. In the first century they also retired using a cavalry (Cartwright). The form of foot soldiers only with no horseback cavalry was uncommon. In

The method of thrusting their sword rather than cutting allowed the soldiers much more manoeuvrability with their sword and made it much less unwieldy in a tight situation. It would take far less time for the soldier to thrust his sword than wield it back and chop downwards onto the enemy. A new recruit would have to learn to march at regulation pace for distances of up to 24 Roman miles (about 35km). Their physical training continued with swimming, running, jumping and by carrying heavy packs.

Edward Luttwak’s The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire from the First Century A.D. to the Third gives a militaristic analysis of the tactics used by the Roman Empire while also highlighting parallels between Rome and contemporary U.S. military policy. Luttwak divides his book into three chapters, a chapter for each of the 3 identified systems; the first chapter discusses Rome’s use of mobile armies and client states to defend her borders. The second chapter shows border defense as was provided by small groups of marching legionary troops. The third and final chapter details the transition from an offense stance to a more

In October of 218 BC, he crossed the Rhone river and ventured into what made him so famous. Snow was already on the high passes of the Alps. Hannibal started his march across the Alps with 40,000 men along with a calvary and a large number of war elephants carrying supplies. After the crossing only 26,000 of his troops were still alive due to the harsh weather and skirmishes with the local tribes. To make up for his losses, Hannibal recruited Gallic people of Northern Italy. In December 218 BC Hannibal got victories against Romans and secured the Padus Valley. In the spring of 217 BC Hannibal handed the Roman Counsel Gaius Flaminius, who was killed in battle, a huge loss at the battle of Lake Trasimene. After his victory Hannibal crossed the Apennines and invaded the Roman provinces of Picenu, and Apulia and then back into Campania. Instead of storming Rome, Hannibal marched through Italy in to Apulia and destroyed as he proceeded, but suffered heavy losses in manpower. Hannibal spent the winter of 217 BC in the Apulian plains and in the following summer faced a 54,000 strong Roman army. Hannibal circled around the Romans forcing them in to each other confusing the Romans, then easily destroyed then with his calvary. More than half of the Roman Army was lost. After that huge victory many Indian tribes aligned with Carthage. Syracuse left the Roman cause and Philip V of Macedon became an ally even though he never gave any aid. Many argue that Hannibal's

One of the first wars Julius Caesar encountered was the Gallic War. The city of Gaul was rising just like Rome. However, one day German troops took back their land forcing one Gaul tribe to retreat back their main city. To do this they would have to cross some Roman territory. Gaul thought that this wouldn’t be a problem as they thought of Romans as understanding people. Julius Caesar soon learned about the Gaul tribe’s plans and took an army to the area in which the Gaul tribe would be crossing. Gaul sent two of their leaders and discuss their problem. The Gaul leaders then left to find out what date they wanted to cross. In that time Julius Caesar wanted to show how much force the Roman army had. He ordered his troops to build a wall across the point in which Gaul wanted to cross. The leaders soon came back and were astonished by the Roman army’s creation. When Julius Caesar and Gaul leaders met this time Julius Caesar said that he wouldn’t allow them to cross. Gaul was not about to give up so easily, from then on they began to check for weak spots in the Roman’s defenses. The Gaul tribe finally gave up as they knew that there were not any weak spots. Gaul decided that they would take a more dangerous route. They would travel through a narrow valley even though enemy could attack from above. Julius Caesar learned of Gauls new plans and was fearful. He thought that if Gaul went back to its main city it would hold a grudge against Rome and come to destroy them. So Julius

Even with his fast cavalry and strong infantry Hannibal knew that he did not have resources like Rome. In fact, he was always outnumbered in every battle. Yet despite of being outnumbered, his strategies helped the Carthaginians win most of the battles in the second Punic war. For example, in the battle of Lake Trasimene, Hannibal trapped the Romans in an ambush without an escape route. What he did was to draw the Romans in close ranks, then sneak attack them with his infantry, and block the way out with his fast cavalry. This lead to the death of 30,000 Roman soldiers plus a high ranking Roman general named Flaminius. In this battle, the casualties of Hannibal’s forces were only 2,500 soldiers.