His impact on minds of future generations was so great that Napoleon (another contender for the title of 'Greatest General in History') said that he learnt from him, and General George Patton of the US army during World War II, thought of himself as a re-incarnation of Hannibal. When German military commanders wanted to come up with a plan to invade France in early 1900 (before WWI), they came up with a large scale re-enactment of Hannibal's Battle of Cannae, also known as the Schlieffen Plan. They tried a version of the plan in the initial stages of WW1, but couldn't pull it off. Later, Hitler's generals also used a version of this plan when planning an attack on France again in WW2, but this time succeeding.
But before we get to the Battle of Cannae, I want to talk about Hannibal and his march into Italy. When he came into Italy after crossing the Alps he defeated Roman armies in two impressive battles at Trebia and Trasimene. These two battles lay the groundwork for Cannae. We will start with them...
Hannibal and his march into Italy
Hannibal was born in Carthage as the son of Hamilcar Barca, a powerful general and statesman. Carthage was a city state in North Africa on the coast of the Mediterranean, in present-day Tunisia. Carthage used to have control over Sicily and Sardinia, but when Rome took them in 3rd century BC, a war broke out between Carthage and Rome called the First Punic War. After distinguishing himself in the First Punic War, Hamilcar Barca rose to become a powerful general in Carthage. Legend has it that when fighting the Romans in Spain (called Iberia then), he founded a town called Barcino which has now become Barcelona.
His father taught Hannibal how to fight and command armies as well as to hate Romans. Legend has it that he made his son swear on his death bed, that Hannibal will fight the Romans to his death. After his father died, Hannibal took charge of the Carthagian forces and attacked the coastal Spanish town of Saguntum in 219BC after the previous treaty with Rome fell through. The siege of Sagantum was hard for Hannibal and it took eight months. After this experience Hannibal was always vary of laying sieges to cities. This could be one of the reasons he didn't lay siege to the city of Rome directly when he was in Italy.
Hannibal was now determined to take the fight right to the Romans inside their own country. He had greatly admired Pyrrhus, a great Greek military leader who attacked Italy (and whose name dons the phrase 'Pyrrhic Victory'), and he was convinced that it was possible to fight Rome inside Italy. He decided to invade Roman territories of Iberia (Spain) and Gaul (France).
Hannibal took 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry and 37 war elephants with him to cross the Pyrenees and Alps to attack Italy from the North. Even the thought of such a feat had never crossed anyone before, but here was Hannibal who was determined to do it. After braving harsh weather, ambushes from local tribes, problems with food, water and shelter, Hannibal was able to make it to the plains of Northern Italy. Only 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry and 30 elephants could make it through the journey.
On reaching the other side, the first thing Hannibal did was make some treaties with the chiefs of the local Gallic tribes, before Rome had a chance to talk to them. He got a lot of them to join his army and thus bolstered his army back to 40,000.
Battle of Trebia
When Publius Cornelius Scipio, the Roman General who was sent to track and fight Hannibal in Spain, found out that Hannibal was crossing over the Alps to Italy, he hurried his army though the sea route to Italy to stop him. In a small confrontation at Ticinus, his army was defeated and he got severely injured.
When the Roman Senate heard of this, they sent Sempronius Longus, a consul (there used to be two consuls in the ancient Roman republic who ruled the country - chosen by the senate) to fight Hannibal and give support to Scipio. But, Sempronius had his own agenda. The consul elections were coming up, and he wanted all the credit of defeating Hannibal for himself. He wanted to defeat Hannibal before Scipio and his army could recover so that he would look good in the eyes of the Senate back home. As you can figure, he was an arrogant and an impetuous man.
Unfortunately for Sempronius, Hannibal knew of his impetuosity and impatience. Gallic spies that Hannibal had sent into the Roman camp were giving him all the information about Sempronius, his camp's location, their strength, their strategy and even rumors about the general Sempronius. Hannibal decided to use this weakness and exploit it by setting up a trap for Sempronius' army. In the cover of the night, he sent his brother Mago along with 1000 light cavalry and 1000 Numidian cavalry to hide amongst the dense trees and cliffs further along the river. In the morning, Hannibal sent his cavalry across the Trebia river to harass the Roman soldiers and then retreat, so that hot-headed Sempronius would follow them and walk right into their trap.
And as Hannibal had expected, Sempronius obliged. When Hannibal's cavalry came to harass him, he first sent all his cavalry after them, and then later sent all his infantry after them too. By the time they had crossed the Trebia river, Roman infantry was cold on the winter morning, hungry(as they had not eaten) and unprepared to fight. Meanwhile, the Carthagian soldiers taken all night to prepare and Hannibal had setup his army formations at a place of his liking.
Head-to-head, Hannibal had a slightly smaller infantry (30,000 compared to Roman 40,000) but a relatively much larger cavalry (10,000 vs 4,000). So, Hannibal's strategy was to break the Roman cavalry flanks (left and right) with his stronger cavalry and then attack their infantry centre.
When the battle began and the two infantry centers were battling it out, Hannibal's cavalry started destroying the Roman cavalry flanks and then turned to their infantry. Hannibal also sent all his war elephants against the Roman allies, the Gallic light cavalry. The allies were so surprised, and afraid after seeing the mighty beasts that they got demoralized and retreated, thus leaving a large portion of the Roman center vulnerable.
And to top it all off, Mago's unit hit the Roman legions from behind in an ambush, and thus giving them no place to run. Surrounded from all sides, cold and hungry, the Roman infantry was cornered, trampled and butchered. Some of the cornered Roman soldiers were able to break the Carthagian line and escape ahead to a nearby town of Placenta. But, in all 20,000 roman soldiers were killed that day (more than one third of the Roman army).
Sempronius was shamed and sacked when he returned to Rome. The Roman Senate appointed two new generals as Consuls: Gnaeus Servilius Geminus and Gaius Flaminius, the second of whom lead the Roman army during the second battle at Lake Trasimene.
Hannibal on the other hand, headed on into Italy.
This marked the first decisive victory for Hannibal in Italy over Rome. But this was just the start for him....
Next up: Battle of Lake Trasimene (or how to lay an even bigger trap)
Image Source: The Department of History, United States Military Academy
Update: Others in the series: Battle of Lake Trasimene, Battle of Cannae
1 comment:
Warfare is a fascinating subject. Despite the dubious morality of using violence to achieve personal or political aims. It remains that conflict has been used to do just that throughout recorded history.
Your article is very well done, a good read.
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