The Battle of Cannae

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.

Carthage gained her power through the wealth of trade and commere, bringing the northern African colonies and cities of Sicily under control, solidified her dominance in the Mediterranean. Through wealth comes strength and the ability to obtain more wealth by expanding one’s territory, which brought Carthage to desire the Greek cities of Italy also (Morey, 1901). The very cities bordering Rome, leading to the beginning of hostilities between Carthage and Rome.

In 262 B.C., multiple sieges and short conflicts ended with the Roman victory at the battle of Agrigentum. This pushed the Carthaginians out of Sicily but they were far from defeat. Carthage had assembled their fleet and waited for the battle to come to them. The Romans countered this by building their own navy and crafting a new way to attack the Carthaginians. The superior ships of Carthage would fight by building speed and ramming the enemy ships. Seeing this, Rome created a small bridge that would allow infantry to board and seize opposing ships. This proved to be extremely effective during the naval engagements. Other than the major loss at the Battle of Tunis, Rome triumphed and ended the first Punic

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

Hannibal was born in 247BCE, he was the son of a Carthaginian general named Hamilcar Barcareerred, who rallied his North African nation-state from defeat in the First Punic War (264–241 BC) to conquer much of Iberia. Hannibal grew up in military service, and following the 221 BC assassination of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal, who had replaced Hamilcar, Hannibal took charge of the Carthaginian army. He soon proved a brilliant field commander who applied his intellect and martial skills to the singular end of winning battles. Hannibal, a sworn enemy of all things Roman, declared war against them and this was the start of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). Victory in Italy was Hannibal’s sole objective. To achieve it, he marched the bulk of his army in Iberia across southern Gaul and over the Alps into the Roman heartland. Hannibal’s strategy was to attack Rome. Although his tactics for battle were superior he had strategic failures which would eventually lead to his campaign in failure.

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.

The second Punic War was fought in 218 BC with Rome and Carthage. In the second Punic War carthage attacked and captured Saguntum, which was a Spanish city allied with Rome. Hannibal marched his huge Army through Spain and Gaul and through the Alps to attack the Romans in Italy. Hannibal led his army through dangerous mountains. In 216 BC, hannibal won two victories at Lake Trasimeno and the town of Cannae, then reached southern

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

The alternate outcome for the Battle of Lake Trasimene is that the Roman army was able to defeat Hannibal and his army. The key factor that will be analyzed will be the use of the Intelligence Warfighting Function combined with the use of reconnaissance and surveillance from the Movement and Maneuver Warfighting Function. The reason for this combination is because the capabilities of the reviewed time period. While there is risk in making this assumption, it is reasonable to assess that at the time of the Battle of Lake Trasimene, reconnaissance and surveillance and intelligence would have been complimentary, if not similar, functions.

With the introduction of the hoplite phalanx to the Roman army, came a multitude of wars and long drawn out campaigns that the Romans were involved in throughout the republic period. One such campaign or campaigns that set the Roman republic as the uncontested superpower in the Mediterranean was the Punic Wars. Rome fought three wars against Carthage between 264 and 146 BCE. These wars constituted major events in the history of Rome and the Mediterranean basin (Marcel Le Glay 2009) p. 73. Though these wars were fought for reasons such as competing economics, revenge (most notably the Carthaginian general Hannibal), and a fear that could be related in today’s terms of opposing forces such as (the United States and Soviet Union feared each other during the Cold War) the fact is in the end Rome defeated the Carthaginians, not only were the Carthaginians defeated, but the city of Carthage was demolished and the people massacred or sold into slavery so as not to threaten the Romans ever again. In the fall of the city, in obedience to the Senate’s orders the inhabitants were reduced to slavery or forced to emigrate, the town was burnt and soil was

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

the strongest of the two in this field. This superiority was met by a large scale Roman construction of the navel fleet after their land forces captured one of the Carthaginian ships. Soon this was reflected in the fightings, and in 256 Carthage was besieged, but the Romans were defeated. Then for some years Carthage was the most successful who was commanded by Hamilcar. However, at the battle at the Aegates Islands in 241, the Carthaginians were beaten so badly that they requested peace. This agreement involved leaving

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

The second Púnic war (herein after referred to as, “the War”) came to a close in 201 BCE, following Scípio’s victory over Hánnibal at the battle of Záma. After seventeen years of warfare, and at a great loss of life on both sides, Rome defeated Cárthage and came out on top as the new superpower in the Mediterránean region. The outcome of this war brought consequences to Cárthage and created opportunities for Rome (Morey, 1901).