hannibal and his army crossing the alps

They hired Spartan mercenaries, led by Xanthippus, to command their troops. [299], Roman religious authorities were unconcerned with personal beliefs or privately funded cults, unless they offended natural or divine laws, or undermined the mos maiorum (roughly, "the way of the ancestors"); the relationship between gods and mortals should be sober, contractual, and of mutual benefit. Hannibal spent the winter of 219218 at Cartagena in active preparations for carrying the war into Italy. The Aventine seems to have functioned as a place for the introduction of "foreign" deities. Hannibal departed Cartagena, Spain (New Carthage) in late spring of 218BC. [1], He took action to protect himself from a revolt, pulled his troops from the walls, and secretly organized them behind the gates. According to Livy, Varro was a man of reckless and hubristic nature and it was his turn to command on the day of battle. The ultimatum was rejected, and the senate then passed a resolution which declared that if Caesar did not lay down his arms by July of that year, he would be considered an enemy of the Republic. Although the ageing Hannibal was suffering from mental exhaustion and deteriorating health after years of campaigning in Italy, the Carthaginians still had the advantage in numbers and were boosted by the presence of 80 war elephants. [198] This chaos reached a climax in January of 52 BC, when Clodius was murdered in a gang war by Milo. He also incorporated these freedmen in the rural tribes. Mahaney, W. C. 2016. [356] Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura includes several recipes and his suggested "Rations for the hands". In 118, its king, Micipsa, died. Please select which sections you would like to print: Did Alexander the Great conquer Iran? Scipio was rather nettled by this, but nevertheless he asked Hannibal to whom he would give the third place, expecting that at least the third would be assigned to him; but Hannibal replied, "to myself; for when I was a young man I conquered Hispania and crossed the Alps with an army, the first after Hercules.". In the 1st century, Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar made competing claims for Venus' favour.[305][306][307]. [26] The fortunes of the two sides fluctuated, but from 314, Rome was dominant, and offered progressively unfavourable terms for peace. In, Orlin, Eric. Unlike the Pax Romana of the Roman Empire, the Republic was in a state of quasi-perpetual war throughout its existence. The third, or left, column crossed the Ebro where it touches with the Sicoris River and proceeded along the river valley and into the mountain countries. It was the principal route for crossing the Alps between France and Italy until the 19th century. This, he wrote, made Hannibal believe that he would die in Libya, but instead, it was at the Bithynian Libyssa that he would die. At first, his Sicilian campaign was an easy triumph; he was welcomed as a liberator in every Greek city on his way, even receiving the title of king (basileus) of Sicily. This crossing was made more famous because he also brought a large number of elephants with him. [60], After camping at Placentia (modern Piacenza), a Roman colony founded earlier that year,[note 7] the Romans created a pontoon bridge across the lower River Ticinus and continued west. "Lost in Translation or Can We Still Understand What Polybius Says about Hannibal's Crossing of the Alps?A Reply to Mahaney (. [53][57] More colonies were being established in the Po region, and this caused the Boii and Insubres to arise afresh who were now aware that Hannibal was heading to them. On 7 January of 49, the senate passed a senatus consultum ultimum, which vested Pompey with dictatorial powers. The Carthaginians supposedly sued him for peace, but his conditions were so harsh that they continued the war instead. After initial successes, the slaves led by Eunus and Cleon were defeated by M. Perperna and P. Rupilius in 132 BC. [77][78] However, the city of Saguntum, located in the south of the Ebro, appealed to Rome in 220 to act as arbitrator during a stasis. [168], In 73, a slave uprising started in southern Italy under Spartacus, a gladiator, who defeated the local Roman garrisons and four legions under the consuls of 72. Hannibal capitalized on the eagerness of the Romans and drew them into a trap by using an envelopment tactic. The march to the Rhne after the descent through the Pyrenees was mostly uneventful for the Carthaginians, who had just spent the previous July and August subduing numerous fierce peoples living in the Pyrenees. Early Roman literature was influenced heavily by Greek authors. In, Errington, RM. In wartime, plebeian farmers were liable to conscription. What Hannibal achieved in extricating his army was, as Adrian Goldsworthy puts it, "a classic of ancient generalship, finding its way into nearly every historical narrative of the war and being used by later military manuals". With Victor Mature, Gabriele Ferzetti, Rita Gam, Milly Vitale. [31] In 224BC, the Boii submitted to Roman hegemony, and the next year the Anari also submitted to the Romans. This overhang was an excellent place from which to attack an enemy while it was marching in column through the pass. [92] Publius' son, the future Scipio Africanus, was then elected with a special proconsulship to lead the Hispanic campaign. [261] Each century comprised 10 "tent groups" of 8 men. In this day there were no compasses, and it was the habit of navigators to sail their ships along the coast and to stop at night for victuals. [267][268][269], Slaves were simultaneously family members and family property. This theory is supported by the fact that, after Varro survived the battle he was pardoned by the Senate, which would be peculiar if he were the sole commander at fault.)[54]. [265] Citizenship offered legal protection and rights, but citizens who offended Rome's traditional moral code could be declared infamous, and lose certain legal and social privileges. [79] Prusias agreed, but the general was determined not to fall into his enemy's hands. While assuming this order of march, Hannibal marched towards the Insula. The approximate extent of territory controlled by Rome and Carthage immediately before the start of the Second Punic War. Personal Names in the Phoenician and Punic Inscriptions. Roman society under the Republic was primarily a cultural mix of Latin and Etruscan societies, as well as of Sabine, Oscan, and Greek cultural elements, which is especially visible in the Roman Pantheon. The light infantry consisted of 1,200 unarmoured skirmishing troops drawn from the youngest and lower social classes. He destroyed or captured 44 ships, and was the first Roman to receive a naval triumph, which also included captive Carthaginians for the first time. Despite mutual admiration, negotiations floundered due to Roman allegations of "Punic Faith," referring to the breach of protocols that ended the First Punic War by the Carthaginian attack on Saguntum, and a Carthaginian attack on a stranded Roman fleet. [1] After this, Marcellus decided his situation was not sustainable. A cavalry force of 4,000 from the other Roman army were also engaged and wiped out. The favorite, and perhaps last surviving, elephant of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps was an impressive animal named Surus ("the Syrian"), which may have been of Syrian stock, Legolas, the Hobbits, Merry and Pippin and his Rohan and the King and his Army of the Dead in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and Minas Tirith. [26], Hannibal sent the booty from Saguntum to Carthage, a shrewd move which gained him much support from the government; Livy records that only Hanno II the Great spoke against him. [246] Maniples were units of 120 men each drawn from a single infantry class. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Omissions? Barca (Punic: , BRQ) is a Semitic cognomen meaning "lightning" or "thunderbolt",[7] a surname acquired by Hamilcar on account of the swiftness and ferocity of his attacks. [9] Modern historians occasionally refer to Hannibal's brothers as Hasdrubal Barca and Mago Barca to distinguish them from the multitudes of other Carthaginians named Hasdrubal and Mago,[citation needed] but this practice is ahistorical and is rarely applied to Hannibal. [117] Two other theses have challenged this thesis. Appian writes that it was Prusias who poisoned Hannibal. [177] After defeat forced the Romans from large parts of Armenia and Pontus in 67, Lucullus was replaced in command by Pompey. [106], In 179, Philip died. They were typically deployed into three discrete lines based on the three heavy infantry types: The three infantry classes[248] may have retained some slight parallel to social divisions within Roman society, but at least officially the three lines were based upon age and experience rather than social class. [16][17][18][failed verification] By the end of this period, Rome had effectively completed the conquest of their immediate Etruscan and Latin neighbours, and also secured their position against the immediate threat posed by the nearby Apennine hill tribes. Hannibal, discovering that the castle where he was living was surrounded by Roman soldiers and he could not escape, took poison. Publius Valerius Laevinus, the consul sent to face him, rejected the king's negotiation offers, as he had more troops and hoped to cut the invasion short. [87], Appian wrote of a prophecy about Hannibal's death, which stated that "Libyssan earth shall cover Hannibal's remains." [362] Many types of drinks involving grapes and honey were consumed as well. For the earliest likely development of Roman public bathing, see Fagan, Garrett T.. "The architecture of the ancient Romans was, from first to last, an art of shaping space around ritual:" Lott, John. [39] If Hannibal had ascended the Col de la Traversette, the Po Valley would indeed have been visible from the pass's summit, vindicating Polybius's account.[40][41]. [citation needed] In the countryside, pastimes included fishing and hunting. The basic Roman garment was the Greek-style tunic, worn knee-length and short-sleeved (or sleeveless) for men and boys, and ankle-length and long-sleeved for women and girls. Still on Campania's fertile plains he thought, Food surpluses, no matter how obtained, kept prices low. In the campus, the youth assembled to play and exercise, which included jumping, wrestling, boxing and racing. In the treaty between Rome and Carthage subsequent to the First Punic War (264241), the Ebro had been set as the northern limit of Carthaginian influence in the Iberian Peninsula. Drinking on an empty stomach was regarded as boorish and a sure sign for alcoholism, the debilitating physical and psychological effects of which were known to the Romans. [343] Convention also dictated the type, colour and style of calcei (ankle-boots) appropriate to each level of male citizenship; red for senators, brown with crescent-shaped buckles for equites, and plain tanned for plebs. Girls generally received instruction[366] from their mothers in the art of spinning, weaving, and sewing. Despite their established tactical system (formations and troop evolutions, etc. Turner Contemporary is located on a prominent seafront, where a guesthouse frequented by His preparations were designed to draw their attention away from their northern flank and focus their attention on his own preparations. [e][f] His tribal reforms were nonetheless rescinded by the next censors, Quintus Fabius Maximus and Publius Decius Mus, his political enemies. Both De Beer and Siebert had selected the Col de la Traversette as the one most closely matching the ancient descriptions. [39] Hannibal openly scorned the Roman offer in the hopes that it would drive the commission to declare war. Religious negligence, or lack of virtus, provoked divine wrath and led to military disaster. Recalling the memory of his brother, he induced the plebs to reinforce rights of appeal to the people against capital extrajudicial punishments and institute reforms to improve the welfare of the people. Beginning in the summer of 54, a wave of political corruption and violence swept Rome. [104] The Seleucids were much stronger than the Macedonians had ever been, because they controlled much of the former Persian Empire, and by now had almost entirely reassembled Alexander the Great's former empire. [53] Once the Roman Senate resumed their consular elections in 216BC, they appointed Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus as consuls. The victory, while not decisive enough to end Hannibal's fighting potential, was a boost to Roman morale. [42], Hannibal could not achieve the ends that he had hoped for, and in the end he sent news to Carthage (where the peace party, his political enemies, were in power)[43] to the effect that the Saguntines were aggressively handling one of their subject tribes, the Torboletes,[39] and encamped in front of Saguntum to besiege it without awaiting any reply from Carthage. According to Polybius, it was a fertile densely populated triangle bounded by hills, by the Rhne, and by a river that is probably the Isre. He then ordered this town to be destroyed, in order to demonstrate to the Barbarians of this country what would happen if they opposed him in the same fashion as this tribe had. This was the most costly ambush that the Romans ever sustained until the Battle of Carrhae against the Parthian Empire. The Hannibal Route Controversy and Future Historical Archaeological Exploration in the Western Alps. In May 218, he crossed the Ebro with a large army of about 100,000 soldiers and 37 elephants. Eventually the strain told and the units of Latin allies and Gauls on the flanks and the velites to the rear started to break up. [242][243], The phalanx was effective in large, open spaces, but not on the hilly terrain of the central Italian peninsula. He sent 500 Numidian cavalry down the eastern bank of the river to acquire better information concerning the forces massed to oppose him. When the dictator's term ended, constitutional government would be restored. The city of Narbo was founded there in 118 by Lucius Licinius Crassus. [citation needed] He stood for election to a third term in 121 but was defeated. ), the Romans were used to fighting by marching their troops to their enemies' army, forming their army up and attacking. [9] While the terms of the peace treaty were harsh, the Romans did not strip Carthage of her strength; Carthage was the most prosperous maritime trading port of its day, and the tribute that was imposed upon them by the Romans was easily paid off on a yearly basis while Carthage was simultaneously engaged by Carthaginian mercenaries who were in revolt. In each case they would be a combination of Africans, Iberians and Gauls; the proportions in each case are not known, other than that 8,000 of the close-order infantry were Gauls. [83], While waiting to see what Sempronius would do, Hannibal came to believe some of the Gauls in the immediate area were communicating with the Romans. [117], In spring 217BC, probably early May,[121] the Carthaginians crossed the Apennines unopposed, taking a difficult but unguarded route. In Hannibal Crossing the Alps (1812), an emphasis on the destructive power of nature has already come into play. Rome's military confederation with the other peoples of the Italian peninsula meant that half of Rome's army was provided by the Socii, such as the Etruscans, Umbrians, Apulians, Campanians, Samnites, Lucani, Bruttii, and the various southern Greek cities. The painting was left to the nation in the Turner Bequest in 1856, and held by the National Gallery until it was transferred to the Tate Gallery in 1910. [228] The powers of a magistrate came from the people of Rome (both plebeians and patricians). There was an additional class of troops who followed the army without specific martial roles and were deployed to the rear of the third line. The Romans went on the attack against the reduced force which had survived the rigours of the march and Publius Scipio personally led the cavalry and light infantry of the army he commanded against the Carthaginian cavalry at the Battle of Ticinus. [46] The victory was minor, but it encouraged the Gauls and Ligurians to join the Carthaginian cause. Debt is once again mentioned by ancient authors, but it seems that the plebs revolted over the distribution of the land conquered on the Samnites. ), "Af first, he would drink once after supper and then leave the table; but as time went on he would allow himself to drink very generously, so that he often tarried at his wine till early morning. [157], In 83, he returned from the east with a small but experienced army. [295] Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, had established Rome's basic religious and political institutions after direct instructions from the gods, given through augury, dreams and oracle. [73] He had ordered his infantry to get a head start, and it marched to the Isre in six days, marching .mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}20 kilometres (12+12 miles) per day. [166] After rumours of a pact between Sertorius' ostensible republic-in-exile,[167] Mithridates, and various Mediterranean pirate groups, the Sullan regime feared encirclement and stepped up efforts against the threats: they reinforced Pompey in Spain and fortified Bithynia. After leaving a record of his expedition engraved in Punic and Greek upon bronze tablets in the Temple of Juno Lacinia at Crotona, he sailed back to Africa. Clodius attempted to try Cicero for executing citizens without a trial during the Catiline conspiracy, resulting in Cicero going into self-imposed exile and his house in Rome being burnt down. A semi-public atrium typically functioned as a meeting-space, and a vehicle for display of wealth, artistic taste, and religious piety. [98] In addition, the Italian side of the Alps is much steeper;[98] many men lost their footing down this side of the Alps and died. Hannibal moved to capture the city of Nola due to some leaders in the city offering to open their gates to him. During this time, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military advisor to Antiochus III the Great in his war against Rome. He had several sisters whose names are unknown, and two brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago. See Stone. [320] Every matron of a family (the wife of its pater familias) had a religious duty to maintain the household fire, which was considered an extension of Vesta's sacred fire, tended in perpetuity by the chaste Vestal Virgins. They made some headway, at the cost of no small portion of the pack animals that were left, before Hannibal came to appreciate that this route was impossible for an army to traverse. [note 3][21] Other sources include coins, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions such as the trireme Olympias. Roman conservatives deplored the apparent erosion of traditional, class-based dress distinctions, and an increasing Roman appetite for luxurious fabrics and exotic "foreign" styles among all classes, including their own. The power, privilege and influence of leading families derived from their wealth, in particular from their landholdings, their position as patrons, and their numerous clients. Virtually all of these barbarians died in the ensuing combat, as they were fighting with their backs to a steep precipice, trying to throw their arrows and darts uphill at the advancing Carthaginians. The well-being of each Roman household was thought to depend on daily cult to its Lares and Penates (guardian deities, or spirits), ancestors, and the divine generative essence embodied within its pater familias. The attrition campaign had indeed worked well: Hannibal's troops were now depleted; he only had one elephant left (Surus) and retreated to Bruttium, on the defensive. [90], Carthage usually recruited foreigners to make up its army. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Having reduced this area, he left his general Hanno in command of this area, specifically over the Bargusii, whom he had reason to distrust due to their affiliation with the Romans. Many Romans, being required to serve at some point, spent portions of their youth training to serve in the legions. This stab-in-the-back led to permanent bitterness in Carthage. [73] This was the direction that he assumed that the Romans would be most likely to advance from (that is from the west) as he had some idea that they were behind him. The navy thereafter declined in size.[249]. He married a Spanish princess, Imilce, and then conquered various Spanish tribes. It contains the first appearance in Turner's work of a swirling oval vortex of wind, rain and cloud, a dynamic composition of contrasting light and dark that will recur in later works, such as his 1842 painting Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth. Each magisterial office would be held concurrently by at least two people. However, the multitude in Carthage was too much in support of the conflict to order a stop to the war.[39]. [22] The patrician Senate was compelled to give them direct access to the written civil and religious laws and to the electoral and political process. Any bias attributed to Polybius, however, is more troublesome. When planning each of these marches, Hannibal ensured that the Rubrucatus river was athwart each of the columns' paths, so if any of the columns should be placed in a disadvantageous situation the other columns could march up and down the river in support of each other should one be placed in a perilous position by the Barbarians.[49]. It seems that the Romans lulled themselves into a false sense of security, having dealt with the threat of a Gallo-Carthaginian invasion, and perhaps knowing that the original Carthaginian commander had been killed. In, Lintott, A (1992b). This was due to the senate's explicit power over the state's budget and in military affairs. [35] With this victory, the Padane Gauls were unhappily subdued, and ripe for revolt. He had Gallic spies in every corner of the Roman Republic, even within the inner circles of the Senate itself. He had indeed bitter enemies, and his life was one continuous struggle against destiny. It flourished, becoming one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, and the largest and most important one in Africa. [1] The Carthaginian forces approached with ladders and machines useful for an assault. [61], Hannibal took advantage of the pre-existing hatred the Celts on the western bank had for the Romans, and persuaded them to aid him in his crossing of this formidable obstacle. This article about a battle or war of Ancient Roman history is a stub. In effect under a Carthaginian protectorate, the remaining Mamertines appealed to Rome to regain their independence. While the assemblies continued to meet, he submitted all candidates to them for election, as well as all bills for enactment. These spies found that the barbarians only maintained their position at the camp during the day, and left their fortified position at night. Many would be from North Africa (often referred to as "Libyans") which provided several types of fighters including: close-order heavy infantry equipped with large shields, helmets, short swords and long thrusting spears; javelin-armed light infantry skirmishers; close-order shock cavalry (also known as "heavy cavalry") carrying spears; and light cavalry skirmishers who threw javelins from a distance and avoided close combat (these were usually Numidian). So he laid siege to the city, which fell after eight months. [367], In the 3rd century, Greek art taken as the spoils of war became popular, and many Roman homes were decorated with landscapes by Greek artists. On 10 January, Caesar with his veteran army crossed the river Rubicon, the legal boundary of Roman Italy beyond which no commander might bring his army, in violation of Roman laws, and by the spring of 49 swept down the Italian peninsula towards Rome. [18], First major battle of the Second Punic War, Approximate location of the battle, shown on a map on modern north Italy. He fought against the Olcades and captured their capital, Althaea, and he quelled the Vaccaei in the northwest. The toga was distinctively Roman. Archaeometry, v. 52, no. In peacetime, most depended on whatever cereal crops they could produce on small farming plots, allotted to them by the state, or by patrons. [8][9][10] The accuracy of Polybius's account has been much debated over the past 150 years, but the modern consensus is to accept it at face value, and the details of the battle in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account. [56][62] This process of preparing to cross the Rhone took two days. Perseus initially had some success against the Romans. [61], Messina fell under Roman control quickly. However, Jugurtha eventually renewed his offensive, leading to a long and inconclusive war with Rome. [183], Pompey returned from the Third Mithridatic War at the end of 62BC. Living space was at a premium. [77], Formal battles were usually preceded by the two armies camping two to twelve kilometres (18 miles) apart for days or weeks; sometimes forming up in battle order each day. Hannibal opted to take the region in a swift campaign, and to that effect he divided his army into three columns, in order to subdue the entirety of the region at the same time. These multiple tensions led to a series of civil wars; the first between the two generals Julius Caesar and Pompey. [33] Carthage gained silver mines, agricultural wealth, manpower, military facilities such as shipyards and territorial depth; which encouraged it to stand up to future Roman demands. Snow-storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps, J. M. W. Turner Hypothermia has played a major role in the success or failure of many military campaigns, from Hannibal 's loss of nearly half his men in the Second Punic War (218 B.C. ) Hannibal marched his army to modern Chambery and took their city easily, stripping it of all its horses, captives, beasts of burden and grain. After the siege, Hannibal sold all the inhabitants as slaves, and distributed the proceeds from those sales to his soldiers.

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