My Crap

HANNIBAL

A military family: 241-219 BC
Hannibal's boyhood is passed in a context of stirring adventure. Carthage has lost much valuable territory to Rome in the First Punic War, but a new empire is being created in Spain by Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca. After Hamilcar's death, in 228 BC, the command is taken by Hasdrubal - keeping it in the family, for he is Hannibal's brother-in-law. The boy's early career is spent campaigning with these two relations. When Hasdrubal is killed, in 221, Hannibal succeeds to the command.
The Carthaginian successes in Spain alarm the Romans, who claim that Hannibal's attack on Sagunto in 219 violates the peace treaty made after the war. A diplomatic protest is soon followed by military preparations.

The Second Punic War: 218-201 BC
The speed with which the crisis escalates into war suggests that both sides regard another conflict as inevitable. Hannibal forces the pace, taking the bold decision that his best chance of victory is to carry the war into Italy - where the ability to sustain a long campaign on Roman soil has been proved, in recent history, by Pyrrhus.
In May of 218 Hannibal marches north from Cartagena with an army of perhaps 32,000 infantry, 8000 cavalry and thirty-seven elephants. His ferrying of the elephants across the Rhone on rafts, then getting them through the icy passes of the Alps, in both cases in the face of hostile tribesmen, has provided the basis of popular tales ever since. By October Hannibal's army is in north Italy.

Battles with Celtic tribesmen and the hazards of the journey have taken a heavy toll. The army now numbers only 20,000 infantry and 6000 cavalry (the ancient historians fail to report how many of the thirty-seven elephants have survived).
Yet by December, two months later, after the defeat or tactical withdrawal of various Roman forces, the Carthaginian army has swelled again to 28,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. The reason is a significant one in the development...