Punic Wars

Second Punic War

218 - 201

Hamilcar

Between the first and second Punic Wars, Rome took Corsica. Meanwhile, Hamilcar Barca, who had conquered much of Spain, arose as a hero of Carthage. Hamilcar longed to get revenge against the Romans, but realizing that wasn't to be, he taught hatred of Rome to his son, Hannibal.

Hannibal

Hannibal marched on Rome when he was 25. He didn't have as much manpower as the Romans, but he counted on the support and alliance of Italian tribes unhappy with Rome.

The Second Punic War broke out in 218 when Hannibal took control of the Greek city and Roman ally, Saguntum (in Spain). Rome thought it would be easy to defeat Hannibal, but Hannibal, leaving 20,000 troops with his brother Hasdrubal, went further north on the Rhone River than the Romans expected and crossed the river with his elephants on flotation devices.

Hannibal reached the Po Valley with less than half his men. He had also encountered unexpected resistance from local tribes, although he did manage to recruit Gauls. This meant he had 30,000 troops by the time he met the Romans in battle.

Hannibal's Greatest Victory:
The Battle of Cannae (216 B.C.)

Hannibal won battles in Trebia and at Lake Trasimene, and then continued through the Apennine Mountains. With troops from Gaul and Spain on his side, Hannibal won another battle, against Lucius Aemilius, in which the Romans lost thousands of troops, including their leader. The historian Polybius describes the both sides of this, the Battle of Cannae, as gallant, and says of the losses:

Of the infantry ten thousand were taken prisoners in fair fight, but were not actually engaged in the battle: of those who were actually engaged only about three thousand perhaps escaped to the towns of the surrounding district; all the rest died nobly, to the number of seventy thousand, the Carthaginians being on this occasion, as on previous ones, mainly indebted for their victory to their superiority in cavalry: a lesson to posterity that in actual war it is better to have half the number of infantry, and the superiority in cavalry, than to engage your enemy with an equality in both. On the side of Hannibal there fell four thousand Celts, fifteen hundred Iberians and Libyans, and about two hundred horse.
(http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/polybius-cannae.html) Polybius - The Battle of Cannae 216 B.C.

Besides trashing the countryside (which both sides did in an effort to starve the enemy), Hannibal started to terrorize the towns of southern Italy in an effort to gain allies.

The next general to confront Hannibal was more successful; that is, there was no decisive victory. But the senate in Carthage refused to send in enough troops to enable Hannibal to win. So Hannibal turned to his brother Hasdrubal for help. Unfortunately for Hannibal, Hasdrubal was killed en route to join him, in the first decisive Roman victory. More than 10,000 Carthaginians died at the Battle of Metaurus in 207 B.C.

Scipio

Meanwhile, Scipio invaded North Africa. As a result, the Carthaginian Senate recalled Hannibal.

At the Battle of Zama, Hannibal, who no longer had an adequate cavalry, was unable to follow his preferred tactics. Instead, Scipio routed the Carthaginians using the same (http://www.roman-empire.net/army/cannae.html) strategy Hannibal had used at Cannae.

Ending the Second Punic War, Hannibal advised the Carthaginians to surrender and accept Scipio's terms that Carthage

• hand over all warships and elephants
• not make war without permission of Rome
• pay Rome 10,000 talents over the next 50 years.

and that

• should armed Carthaginians cross a border the Romans drew in the dirt, it automatically meant war with Rome.

Pictures of Hannibal

Some Primary Sources

• Polybius, 2.1, 13, 36; 3.6-15, 17, 20-35, 39-56; 4.37.
• Livy, 21
• (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/12*.html) Dio Cassius
• Diodorus Siculus, 24.1-16.

Next page> > Punic War III >Page 1, 2, 3

Also see: Major People in Ancient History

More of This Feature

• The First Punic War
• The Third Punic War

Read What Livy Writes About the 2d Punic War

Related Resources

• Punic War POWs
• Hannibal Barca
• Hannibal of Carthage - Why Is He Considered Such a Great Leader?
• Punic Wars
• Battle of Cannae