The 2nd Punic War

Part Three

By Terry Gore

Part One: Second Punic War
Part Two: Second Punic War: Spain to the Alps
Part Two: Second Punic War: First Battles in Italy

With Rome now left without a field army between Hannibal and itself, the Carthaginian commander thought of marching on the city and ending the war once and for all. Why didn't he? First of all, Rome would not be an easy conquest. The Carthaginian army was not of sufficient size to invest the city, much less lay siege to it. Rome could be supplied no matter what Hannibal did. Carthage did not control the seas. Besides that, the population of Rome could and would be mobilized en masse to fight. The adult male population were former soldiers and Hannibal had no illusions about the Roman ability to raise a new army. Hence, he made the decision to move east into southern Italy to recruit allies from the ancient enemies of the Romans, the Samnites.

It must be noted here that the Carthaginian army made full use of the thousands of captured sets of Roman armor found on the battlefields after the previous year's fights. Contemporaries noted that the Carthaginian army began to resemble a Roman one in looks. Hannibal took advantage of victories.

The Roman Response

The Romans fully expected to be attacked and the Senate voted to elect a dictator to run the war effort against Hannibal. Fabius Maximus, later known as "the delayer", had been chosen for this task, but would not enjoy a pleasant tenure. The dictator could serve for only six months, and as such had a very short time in which to accomplish anything. Many senators opposed his appointment and then refused to give him the powers he required to be successful, especially when he put forth a strategy of refusing to meet the Punic army in battle. The Senate therefore chose a firebrand, Minucius Rufus, as Fabius' second in command.

In a very short time, Rome had raised four new legions. Fabius marched with this force to join the surviving consul, Geminus, who still maintained his four legions. Once the armies had joined together, the Romans began to pursue the Punic forces.

The Carthaginians had moved to the coast of the Adriatic Sea, arriving there in July to rest and recuperate. Hannibal attempted to win the Italian allies over to his side, but did not succeed, as Fabius' army dogged his steps, promising the allies Roman protection from Punic depravations (and at the same time warning them that to sway form their old allegiances would be courting disaster).

The allies remained loyal to Rome and when Fabius caught up to Hannibal's army, the Romans did not march forth to offer battle, but remained in rough terrain where the Carthaginian cavalry could not make use of its superior cavalry. From time to time the Romans would send out groups of fighters to disrupt Carthaginian supplies. This caused Hannibal to come up with a new strategy in dealing with this new Roman policy of not offering battle. He could not win the war if he could not defeat the Roman armies. He was in an enemy land and his own army dwindled as losses accrued…and they could not be made up as the Roman losses were.

Hannibal Moves into Southern Italy

Hannibal embarked upon a massive march to Campania, taking all of the food the army could carry and destroying everything else in his path. Figuring that Rome's allies would see that their "protectors" were impotent in the face of his attack, they would defect. Again they stayed loyal.

The problems of the Carthaginians became acerbated when Fabius sealed off the pass through which Hannibal would leave the province he had ravaged so severely. Hannibal needed a miracle to escape so he created one. Gathering together herds of cattle, he had his troops tie torches to their horns and, as night fell, these were set alight. The cattle were sent up a parallel path past the Romans, who, figuring the enemy army was somehow outflanking them, left their defenses to attack this "army". Hannibal then moved his army through the now open pass to safety.

Heading into Apulia to winter, Hannibal soon heard that Fabius had been recalled to Rome. The Romans were not happy with his inability to defeat the Carthaginians. The Roman army had been left in command of Minucius. As Hannibal scattered his army to look for forage, Minucius launched an attack on some of the Carthaginians and actually defeated them. By the time word of this small victory reached Rome, it had been blown up into a full-scale decisive victory. Minucius had his status raised to that of Fabius (obviously he did nothing to dispel the stories of his great victory) so that when the two co-dictators were once again in command of the army together, they split it between them, each commanding half. Minucius wasted little time in losing his half.

The Situation in 216 B.C.

The dictatorship eventually ended and two consuls were once again in control of the army. Hannibal had not taken Rome and therefore, the emergency was assumed to be over. The Senate of Rome elected Gaius Terenius Varro and L. Aemilius Paullus to the consulship. The Senate also demanded a decisive battle to end the war and the Carthaginian presence once and for all. Fabian tactics could not and did not appeal to the warlike, used-to-victory Romans. They could not accept being inferior to any armed forces, much less one made up of former subjects and defeated enemies. The afront to Roman pride is readily apparent in the writings of Livy and Polybius.

The Roman Senate now set about placing a total of eight legions in the field so as to destroy Hannibal. Mercenaries were hired, including 1,000 missile troops provided Hiero of Syracuse. At her disposal, Rome now had an incredible 80,000 foot and 6,000 cavalry to field against Hannibal.

In June, Hannibal broke camp and made his way toward one of the major supply depots of the Roman army at Cannae. Forage seemed plentiful as well and it did not take long for the army to recover its strength after the grueling marches.

Rome was really being pushed to do something. With Hannibal sitting astride the supply lines, the Roman army had to move and force the issue. The Fabian tactics of the past would not work now. The Roman Senate sent orders to their armies to await the new consuls and the reinforcements that were being sent. Thus the consuls for 216, Varro and Paullus were joined together with the generals Regulus and Geminus. It has come down from Livy that as the consuls prepared to leave Rome, Fabius told them that they were due to face disaster if they confronted Hannibal. With those encouraging words, the Roman army set out to find the Carthaginian army.

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© Copyright 2000 by Terry Gore
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