Articles tagged with Carthage
+ + +Trebia Trasimene Cannae and Zama
+
From 1a4746a791624b604cbe9360661e0d7f35ca721d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Trent Palmer Archives for Attention Span History
What are the four major Battles of the +Second Punic War?
+If you said, "Trebia, Trasimene, Cannae, and Zama", you are correct!
+In 218 BC, Carthaginian General Hannibal, with an army of 40,000 +and more than 30 war elephants, crossed the +Pyrenees Mountains, +then crossed the +Rhone River, +and then crossed +The Alps in winter, +and invaded Northern Italy, otherwise known as +Cisalpine Gaul.
+In December, on a floodplain of the +Trebia River, +Hannibal decisively defeated a Roman Army led by +Roman Consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus.
+Hannibal's Numidian Cavalry +were instrumental in victory, and the Carthaginian Light Infantry out-flanked the Roman +Infantry. But the battle was decided when a hidden Carthaginian unit ambushed the +Roman Army from behind while they were engaged.
+In the Spring of 217 BC, Hannibal crossed the +Apennine Mountains, +marched for four days through the swamps near the mouth of the +Arno River +(which flows through modern Florence and Pisa), and ambushed a Roman Army which was led by +Roman Consul Gaius Flaminius, +as it marched along the shore of +Lake Trasimene.
+This was (and still is), the greatest ambush in human military history. And once again +the Roman Army was wiped out.
+Rome scrambled to rebuild it's army, and once again on August 2 216 BC, met Hannibal at the +Battle of Cannae. This time the +Roman Army was led by both Consuls: +Gaius Terentius Varro, and +Lucius Aemilius Paullus.
+Once again, Hannibal had more and better Cavalry. +However the Carthaginian Army was outnumbered by the Roman Army nearly two to one. But +through clever and deceptive battle-field deployment and maneuver, Hannibal's more-experienced infantry +managed to completely surround the Roman Infantry, which consequently fell-in on itself, and unable to fight or maneuver, +was almost completely wiped out.
+The Battle of Cannae was (and still is), one of the bloodiest days in human history with perhaps 50,000 - 70,000 +casualties in the span of just a few hours.
+By waging war against Carthage, +Roman General +Publius Cornelius Scipio +compelled Hannibal to return with his Army to Africa, where the two met in 202 BC at the +Battle of Zama.
+This time Rome had the superior Cavalry as Numidia was now allied with Rome. Hannibal's 80 war +elephants spooked and were inneffective.
+At first, the Carthaginian Cavalry attempted to lure the Roman Cavalry away from the Battle Field +by fleeing. However, Hannibal's tactic of placing his veterans in the rear back-fired, because about the +time that the first two lines of Carthaginian Infantry were wiped out and the third line was engaged, +the Roman Cavalry returned to the Battle Field and rolled-up the Carthaginians from behind.
+Carthage was routed from the Battle Field and the fleeing troops were easily pursued and killed by the +Roman Cavalry in the flat terrain. On the Ancient Battle Field, you were a winner ... until you were not.
+Hannibal would regret not having attacked the City of Rome following the Battle of Cannae.
+The Second Punic War earned for Rome the reputation of refusing to give up and refusing to accept defeat.
+