NARRATOR: He was born to
fight, raised to accept nothing less than victory
on the battlefield. He is the great military
commander from Carthage-- Hannibal. [yelling] Hannibal's lifelong mission--
destroy Rome, or die trying. Hannibal battles his way
across the frozen Alps. Bloodies the ground
with tens of thousands of Rome's fiercest warriors,
and makes military history on a battlefield where he
slaughters 70,000 men in one day. Hannibal is a killer. Hannibal is a conqueror. Hannibal is the annihilator. The year 219 BC. The man, Hannibal
Barca of Carthage, one of history's greatest
and deadliest generals. Hannibal burns the Roman town
of Saguntum to the ground. These smoldering flames
are just the initial sparks of the raging inferno that will
soon engulf Europe as Hannibal the Annihilator launches a
bloody reign of vengeance aimed to crush mighty Roman. Hannibal's home of Carthage
is a commercial beacon on the northern coast of Africa. Their trade and
military influence reverberates throughout
the Mediterranean. They traded far and wide,
as far off to the Eastern Mediterranean. There's even some evidence
that they traded as far west through the Straits of
Gibraltar to England. NARRATOR: 400 short miles
from Carthage is Rome. Though not yet the colossal
empire they will become, their military might threatens
Carthaginian commercial dominance in the region. The Romans are very much
a war-like imperial people. They're not an empire yet. But you could definitely
see this republic starting to expand its borders. It was only a matter of time
before Rome and Carthage bumped into one another. NARRATOR: Hannibal's personal
and brutal destruction of Saguntum is a bloody
invitation hand delivered to Rome, inviting them to join
his deadly game of butchery and annihilation. The Siege of Saguntum lasted
eight months as far as we know. Pretty much lacking in detail
from a historical perspective. What we do know, however,
is that once the walls were breached and Carthaginian
troops went in, they went house to house
and hunted down almost all of the Roman families. Killed the Roman males and
sold the women and children into slavery. NARRATOR: Through the smoke
and stench of scorched earth and torched Roman corpses
comes Rome's response-- capture Hannibal
and crucify him. It's a very famous scene by
the Greek historian Polybius where the Roman
ambassador grabbed his toga, a fold in
each hand and says, Rome offers you peace or war. Choose, it matters not to Rome. NARRATOR: Hannibal and
the Carthaginian gladly choose to fight. It is war, the seeds of which
were planted nearly half a century earlier. Then, Carthage and Rome
bloodied the Mediterranean Sea in what is called the
First Punic War, named for the Latin term
for Carthage-- Punica. 400,000 casualties, almost
15% of the military manpower of the entire country of
Italy was lost in that war. It was a terribly bloody war. NARRATOR: The war eventually
ends in a military draw. But for Carthage, the peace
treaty is especially costly. Part of the deal
they make with Rome is that Carthage will limit
their navy to 100 ships. This is pretty crippling
to an empire that was a naval and
commercial trading power. NARRATOR: With most of
their commercial fleet gone and their pockets
empty, Carthage uses its military power to
exploit the riches of Spain. Turns out that Spain's
got vast silver mines. And the Carthaginians
quickly gain a hold on them and amass a fortune. They decide to build up
their land defenses instead of their navy, which had
been pretty much depleted in the First Punic War. NARRATOR: Hannibal's
father, Hamilcar Barca, one of Carthage's
most accomplished and battle-hardened men,
leads the army into Spain. Now, Hamilcar
Barca is the founder of a great military dynasty
in Carthage called the Barcids after the name Barca. And he really hated the Romans. NARRATOR: Young
Hannibal is immersed in a violent and bloody world as
he watches his father, teacher, and role model engage in
fiercely brutal combat. Hannibal is only nine when
Hamilcar takes over Spain. So he essentially grows
up on the battlefield. NARRATOR: Hamilcar
provides young Hannibal with a hands-on education
in brutality and warfare. But by the time he's
19, his whole life has been in a military camp. And here he watches his father
and other general officers and learns how to command men. NARRATOR: Hannibal
learns that to build an army of loyal fighters
willing to march by his side into the horrors of war, he
must sometimes punish his own. If a Carthaginian
officer fails in battle, he is crucified in
the public square. Carthaginian rule in
Spain is downright cruel. It's based on fire,
sword, and crucifixion. NARRATOR: But Hannibal
also motivates his men by sleeping where they
sleep, eating what they eat, and fighting where they fight. They obediently follow
his words, his sword, and his deep seated
desire for revenge against Rome, which he
inherits from his father. But Hamilcar will
never taste revenge. In 228 BC he dies suddenly,
some say assassinated. His place is taken
by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal the Splendid, who
continues on again for about another six years building
Carthaginian power, increasing its scope. And then finally,
he's assassinated too. And there's some
question historically of whether or not Hannibal
had a hand in this. NARRATOR: It is finally
Hannibal's hour. He's only 26 years
old, but commands the entire Carthaginian Army. But he is fierce, battle
tested, and driven. Legend has it that Hamilcar
made the young Hannibal swear an oath on the Altar of
Baal that he would spend his life in opposing and then
ultimately destroying Rome. NARRATOR: In 219 BC. With his father's hunger for
revenge burning inside him, and with Saguntum aflame,
Hannibal launches his attack against Rome. The Second Punic War is on. Hannibal amasses a strike
force of about 50,000 soldiers. But because he has no navy, he's
got to invade Italy by land. NARRATOR: Hannibal
is on the move. From Spain, he leads his
fighting force of about 50,000 north along the Mediterranean
coast toward Rome. A grueling two and
1/2 months later, an exhausted but
battle-ready Hannibal reaches the Rhone River. But Hannibal is shocked to
discover the Romans had caught wind of the advance and launched
a strike force to intercept. The Romans had caught wind of
Hannibal's movements in Spain. But instead of heading directly
to Spain, they were smart-- they looked at a map, figured
out where Hannibal was going to march, and tried to
block the land route to the Italian peninsula on
the coast to the Mediterranean. NARRATOR: It is the great
military Roman General Publius Cornelius Scipio who leads
the attack against Hannibal. Scipio's those force,
10,000 men strong, is in Massalia, a Roman ally
on the Mediterranean coast. Hannibal's force,
five times as large, has crossed the Rhone river. Scipio sends 300 of his cavalry
up the Rhone to find Hannibal. Hannibal orders 500 cavalry
to scout the Roman advance. The two reconnaissance
units collide. War between Rome and
Carthage rages once again. This is a small skirmish
between scouting parties. In this particular
skirmish, Hannibal's forces take the brunt of the
attack and then retreat. Scipio orders his
entire force to follow. Hannibal knows Scipio is
only a few days march away. And Scipio is a
talented commander. He should be able to give
Hannibal a run for his money. But when Scipio arrives at the
location where Hannibal's army should be, they're gone. It's as if Hannibal's whole
army has vanished into thin air. NARRATOR: Scipio forced
Hannibal to change his plan. Now, instead of marching
along the Mediterranean coast to Rome, Hannibal's attack
will come from the north through the Alps. The reason why Hannibal
came by land through Spain and over the Alps
was not because it was a great strategic choice. It was, in fact, the route
that was forced upon him by essentially Roman events
by the situation he confronted at the time. NARRATOR: Hannibal reaches
the Alps in autumn of 218 BC. At this altitude, he
and his 50,000 soldiers face freezing temperatures
and treacherous ice on a narrow rocky terrain. The men are hungry. Their supplies are limited. And he's leading more
than just infantry. He's also leading 9,000
cavalry and 37 elephants. All the major armies had
a few elephants in them. When the Greeks
fought Carthage in one of their little skirmishes,
the Carthaginians used to have chariots. And they were driven
from the battlefield by the elephants, at which
point they said, well, let's get rid of the
chariots and replace them with elephants. And so as a consequence, by
the time of the Punic War, Carthage has just
in their home base, he has 300 trained elephants
living in the walls of the city of Carthage. So that that's how you get the
elephant introduced in warfare. NARRATOR: The crossing of the
Alps with such a large force is a difficult military feat. For Hannibal and his army,
it has horrific consequences. Men freeze, men starve. At one point, a landslide
completely blocks their way. It's absolutely hellish. Supplies are even running low. And they're not even to the most
difficult part of the crossing yet. Well, they happened
upon this Gallic village where the Gauls offer
provisions and supplies. Hannibal accepts the
help, but he definitely is suspicious of their motives,
because he knows that sometimes the Gauls are friendly and
sometimes they are not. NARRATOR: Hannibal doesn't
fully trust the Gauls, but eventually
accepts their help. The Gauls direct
Hannibal to a narrow path which leads to a gorge. Hannibal's original
suspicions were right on. The guides suddenly bolt. [men shouting] NARRATOR: 218 BC, Hannibal
leads his Carthaginian Army over the treacherous
Alps to invade Rome. Along the way, marauding Gauls
ambush Hannibal with a barrage of boulders and arrow fire. Hannibal encounters different
tribes throughout his campaign. They were mainly Gauls. This is a tribal people
who lived in what's now modern day France. They're not a unified people and
usually don't ally themselves against a common enemy. So sometimes they'll
join his war on Rome. And other times
they'll attack him. In this case, the
Gauls are out for blood. The gorge turns into
a gauntlet of death. Gauls block both
ends of the gorge. But Hannibal's troops
fight their way out, leaving the butchered
enemy in their wake. After some 30 grueling
days, Hannibal and his men emerge from the Alps. When they finally arrive on
the Northern Plains of Italy, nearly a third of Hannibal's
army has perished. They lose about 18,000
infantry, about a third of the cavalry, which
would be maybe 4,000 horse. And you arrive with
like 27 elephants. You lose a third
of the elephants. NARRATOR: But Hannibal has
always known the crossing would be costly. From the very
beginning of the war, he's had a plan to replenish
his forces, a plan that relied on his elephants. Part of Hannibal's
strategy in crossing the Alps was that he understood that
he didn't have enough manpower to fight the Romans. Therefore, he would
have to acquire it once he got into Italy. How is he going to do that? He was going to do that by
attracting to his standard the Gauls, the Celts and
Gauls, who hated the Romans because they've been fighting
one another for 500 years, and hopefully, as well, get some
Roman allied states to defect. So the reason for bringing
the 37 elephants over the Alps was really to impress, in a
political sense, both the Gauls and the Allied states that
this was a serious army. NARRATOR: Hannibal's elephants
thunder into Northern Italy. They successfully
lure Gallic tribes to the Carthaginian side. By November 218 BC, Hannibal's
numbers swell to nearly 40,000. Rome answers with 40,000
of its own soldiers to face Hannibal's threat. Both armies are now
on a collision course that will rock the ancient world
and rewrite military history. The armies of
Carthage and Rome couldn't be more different. Hannibal's men are mercenary
soldiers from all over the map. NARRATOR: Hannibal's army
is from different parts of the region, many of
them mercenaries, drawn to his legendary
leadership in battle. The light infantry
are from Libya. These men carry a small
round shield and fight with a small sword or javelin. Heavy infantry are warriors from
Gaul, men who run into battle naked, intimidating
their enemies with their deadly
two-handed broad swords. Heavy cavalry is from
Spain and Northern Europe. Their weapon of choice is either
a bowed sword called a falcata or a deadly long sword. Hannibal's ability
to orchestrate these different types of
forces in a coordinated attack is what makes him truly
a remarkable general. The Roman army is much different
than Hannibal's forces. Where the Carthaginians
are very diverse, the Romans are quite uniform. NARRATOR: Roman soldiers
are ablaze in armor. Bronze helmets
protect their heads. Chain mail or brass breastplates
defend their bodies. Each soldier carries one of
history's deadliest throwing spears-- the pilum. That long metal rod was made
of soft metal with a hook. When it went through the shield,
the weight of the wooden body would bend it. You couldn't take the
pilum out of the shield. Now the enemy had a choice
of fighting with a shield with a spear stuck into
it, or what they foolishly did very often, they simply
throw the shield away. Not a good move
against Roman infantry. NARRATOR: Slaughter also comes
in the form of a straight sword forged of iron, ideal for up
close and personal combat. Their scutum shield provides
almost complete protection from missile attacks. While Hannibal's army
is cobbled together, his opponent is a much more
cohesive fighting force. The Roman army was
a true national army. They all spoke
the same language. They all had the same equipment. And they were all trained
to the same tactics. NARRATOR: But the most
significant difference is their style of battle. So you have this Roman force
of highly disciplined citizen soldiers equipped and trained
to go straight at the enemy, against a group of
professionals that can hit you in any number of ways. NARRATOR: At the Ticinus River,
these radically different fighting styles clash in
a hurricane of violence. [swords clanging] Hannibal's light cavalry
surround the Romans, slash at the Roman cavalry,
then back off, then re-attack. [swords clanging] It's chaos and confusion, not
what the Romans are used to. NARRATOR: The blood of
2,000 slain Roman soldiers drenches the ground. It is a shocking defeat. The key point about the little
skirmish at the Ticinus River was that Publius
Scipio was wounded. The Romans replace Scipio with
General Sempronius Longus, a strong leader with an
even stronger temper. Sempronius is a hothead. He's desperate for glory. And his one-year term as
army commander is almost up. He's champing at the bit to
fight, and Hannibal knows it. Some evidence of
Hannibal's brilliance as a military
commander was the fact that he studied his
adversaries closely. Now where he got this
information isn't clear. Surely, the number
of Roman commanders was relatively small. And so they would
have been well known. But also my guess is
that the truly excellent Carthaginian intelligence
may be at work here. So that whenever he was
prepared for battle, he knew who was in
command on the other side. And he studied them closely,
knew their strengths and weaknesses. And in the case of Sempronius,
he knew Sempronius well. He knew he was a hothead and
he played him like a fiddle. NARRATOR: The two
enemy armies camp on opposite sides of
the Trebbia River, about 70 short yards apart. It's not much of an
obstacle in a physical sense. But it can become an
obstacle when you realize that if you have to cross
it, it's November, it's gray, and it's snowing. And so that's going
to be-- any army that tries to cross that river
under those conditions is going to suffer somewhat. NARRATOR: Hannibal's
strategy-- take advantage of the frigid temperatures, the
Roman commander's fiery temper, and use the element of surprise. He sends 2,000 or 3,000
cavalry in the early morning dawn across the river to
attack the Roman camp. The Romans are shocked awake. They stumble around
the cold with no food. The Roman General
Sempronius is furious. He orders the men to cross
the river and attack. So they plunge into the icy
water to chase Hannibal's men. Not the best way
to start your day. NARRATOR: 40,000 Roman
infantry and 4,000 cavalry cross the river. They line up for battle in a
formation called a legio, made up of several maniples. Maniple literally
means a handful of men. Each maniple consists
of about 120 soldiers. NARRATOR: The Romans
arrange themselves in a checkerboard configuration. This is a force specifically
designed to move forward and crush its enemy. But Hannibal has his
own crushing machines-- pachyderms, the heavy tanks
of the Carthaginian army. They charge at the flanks
of the Roman cavalry. Nearly impervious to
spears, the elephants' earthshaking assaults
scatters the allied horsemen in sheer terror. NARRATOR: Hannibal's
cavalry, 10,000 strong, far outnumbers the Romans. His Numidian cavalry is so
fast and natural that they appear to be everywhere at once. Hannibal's heavy Spanish
and Celtic cavalry slam with such force,
they demolish what's left of the Roman cavalry. NARRATOR: Hannibal's
Carthaginian cavalry turns inward and
smashes the Roman flanks. Hannibal surrounds the
Romans on three sides. But he is not done yet. Hannibal has just
crossed the Trebbia River and has a bloody surprise
for the Roman army. Using specially trained horses,
Hannibal has successfully hidden cavalry in
the tall grass. Trumpet blasts, and an elite
Carthaginian cavalry force charges from the swamp. The Romans turnaround
to see 2,000 horses storm up from behind. It must have an
absolutely terrifying. [horses neighing] NARRATOR: The Carthaginian
cavalry blindsides the Romans, who are then pushed
back toward the river and cut down mercilessly. Of the 40,000 men, Roman and
Allied, that took the field that day, 30,000 died. 30,000 met their deaths on
the bank of the Trebbia River. It was the worst
defeat that the Romans had suffered since the
defeat against the Gauls 125 years earlier. The Battle of the Trebbia is
an absolutely classic example of how to use tactical surprise
at a key moment in the battle. And the result was
complete slaughter. NARRATOR: Hannibal does
suffer losses at Trebbia. All but one of his elephants
die of starvation or exhaustion. He rides the lone
survivor named Surus. The horror of Trebbia
spurs the Roman Senate to race four new
legions, 20,000 men. Rome also appoints
two new councils to lead the men into battle-- Gnaeus Servilius Geminus
and Gaius Flaminius. Their target-- Hannibal. Their mission--
seek and destroy. In the spring of
217 BC, the Romans decide that the best way
to block Hannibal's advance southward is to
divide their forces. Geminus travels north
east to coastal Ariminus. Flaminius heads
northwest to Arretium. But they leave a
southern route open. Through the marshes of the
lower Arno River Valley. Now the marshes where
an enormously large swampy area created by the Arno
River I mean, it's full of muck, insects, snakes. It is a terrible,
natural barrier. So much so that neither of
the Roman commanders blocking the roads on either side thought
anyone would be crazy enough to try to march
through these marshes. Well, Hannibal is known
for doing the unexpected. And don't you know, he tries
to penetrate these marshes. The surprise maneuver does
prove costly for Hannibal. While riding atop Surus,
his last remaining elephant, Hannibal is supposedly stung
in the eye by an insect. It gets infected, and he
becomes blind in that eye. NARRATOR: But Hannibal
remains unstoppable. He slips through
the two Roman forces and arrives at
Tuscany, a Roman ally, and torches the landscape. Hannibal starts burning
the Tuscan plain-- houses, towns, slaughtering
animals, chopping down trees. NARRATOR: Hannibal's
plan-- destroy the area and infuriate the Roman
General Flaminius, who watches the devastation from
the city walls of Arretium. And Flaminius is
just horrified by it. He's horrified not only so
much that this area is being destroyed, but he knows
what Hannibal is doing. NARRATOR: Instead of attacking
Flaminius inside the city walls, Hannibal is sending a
message to other Roman allies. And what Hannibal
is saying to that ally is if you stay with Rome,
this is what you can expect. He's trying to woo
that ally away. And Flaminius also knows that
it's a sign of Roman weakness that you cannot stop this. NARRATOR: Hannibal knows his
enemy well and wants to lure Flaminius onto the battlefield. Why? That's his plan-- destroy
as many Roman armies, kill as many Romans as you can
until the Roman Senate tires of war and sues for peace. You can't do that
with siege warfare. You've got to draw the
enemy out into battle. NARRATOR: Hannibal
continues to taunt Flaminius by marching his army right
past the walls of Arretium, flaunting his courage and power. Hannibal is just far enough
away to tease Flaminius. He's really saying, come on. If you've got any
courage, you'll leave your little
protective fort and come and fight like a man. NARRATOR: Finally,
Flaminius takes the bait. Hannibal leads Flaminius on
a wild chase across Tuscany. He stays a day or
two ahead, which allows him to survey the terrain
and pick the most advantageous place to fight. NARRATOR: Moving quickly,
Hannibal and his 30,000 men race past the small
village of Passignano into a hilly forest
along Lake Trasimene. Flaminius is in hot pursuit. The road lead to Hannibal, now
on horseback, through what's known as a defile, a narrow
passage between the mountains and the lake's shoreline. By now, all of Hannibal's
elephants are dead. And as he marches into this
defile, this narrow passage between the cliffs
and the lake, he becomes immediately
aware of the landscape's tactical advantages. NARRATOR: Hannibal has
discovered the perfect location for his next battle. It comes with its own
natural advantage. In the morning, a thick
fog comes off the lake and obscures the entire valley. It's made-to-order camouflage. NARRATOR: Hannibal
orders some of his men to camp at the far
end of the valley in plain view of all who
pass through the defile. We're told that Hannibal sends
scouts far ahead into the hills to light campfires. He wants to convince the Romans
that he's farther away than he actually is. NARRATOR: Still
chasing Hannibal, Flaminius reaches Passignano
and sends a reconnaissance team into the defile. They come back and
it's, it's too narrow. There can't be any
possibility of ambush. The next day around
dawn, the Roman army begins to move
through the defile. NARRATOR: As Flaminius
reaches the valley, the eerie lake fog
rolls in once again. In the distance, Flaminius
can see the fires of Hannibal's camp on the hill. Flaminius thinks,
I finally got him. I've got Hannibal trapped and
it's time to tear him apart. NARRATOR: Flaminius orders
6,000 Roman soldiers to rush up the hill and attack Hannibal. The legion double
times, gets out there, climbs the hill and smashes
into Hannibal's camp. NARRATOR: The Romans hack at
Hannibal's rear guard infantry in wild combat. Suddenly, Hannibal's men turn
and run, enticing the Roman soldiers to pursue. Hannibal then springs one
of the deadliest traps in military history. Hannibal Barca of Carthage
is about to spring one of military
history's greatest traps. 30,000 Carthaginian
infantry and cavalry rise out of the morning fog and
smash into the stunned Roman force. The bloodbath begins. The battle rages along the
shores of Lake Trasimene in Northwest Italy. Hannibal's Spanish and
African heavy infantry hit the Roman front. Wild Celtic tribesmen
strike at the center. Numidian light cavalry crush
the Romans from the rear. The Romans were trapped. And in this terrible--
they're in line of march. They're not even set
for combat formation. They're weapons aren't out. And they're taken right in
the flank by this large army. And it just slaughters them. It slaughters them. Hannibal makes two big
gambles at Trasimene. First is that the fog will
turn to hide his 30,000 men in the hills. Second, that Flaminius will
jump at his decoy camp. And he wins both bets. Out of 20,000 men, 15,000 die
in about three hours, including Flaminius himself. Hannibal's losses-- 1,500. That's a kill ratio of 10:1. NARRATOR: In one of the most
successful ambushes in history, another Roman army
has been wiped out. At age 27, Hannibal is already
a legendary military tactician. In less than two years,
Hannibal has handed Rome three catastrophic defeats. 2,000 men at Ticinus, 30,000
at Trebbia, and now 15,000 more at Trasimene. Rome had never seen
such a series of defeats in its history. NARRATOR: In the
face of this defeat, the Roman Senate makes a bold,
perhaps desperate decision. They vote to appoint a temporary
dictator over the military to put an end to
Hannibal's reign of terror. He is Quintus Fabius Maximus. Selecting a
dictator is extremely rare in Roman history. They highly value the Republic. And so the idea of handing
absolute power to one man isn't taken lightly. In fact, the position came
with an automatic time limit of six months. NARRATOR: Fabius raises an
army of 90,000 men, the largest yet in Roman history. But he isn't going to
use them in direct combat against Hannibal. Fabius is an excellent
strategic thinker. He takes one look around, looks
at the Roman manpower, Naval resources, food
resources, the geography, and then compares them with
Hannibal's small army, away from home, can't
resupply, no navy. He concludes quite correctly
that Hannibal can't win. That essentially
there's no point to continue to try to defeat
Hannibal in the field. And this becomes the
famous Fabian strategy-- do not engage the enemy
in head-to-head battle, harass him. When he sends foraging teams
to look for food, kill them. If anybody provides
sanctuary in a small town, burn the place down. NARRATOR: Fabius' strategy
leaves Hannibal and his men hungry and tired. They are constantly hunted
and harassed and never able to resupply. Fabius' strategies
were not only good, they were exactly the
strategy that Rome needed to stop a man like
Hannibal whose whole tactical and
strategic vision was based on fighting battles. To have a strategy
that's battle-centric, you have to have an
enemy who obliges. By refusing to
give battle, Fabius denied Hannibal to fight the
war that he wanted to fight. This is a strategy
that would work. But the problem is,
like all strategy, it depends on political will. Depends on the political
will of the Senate to essentially continue the
Fabian strategy, perhaps for three, four, or five years. Well, what happens is,
this is not the Roman way. NARRATOR: Despite the
strategy's success so far, the impatient
Roman Senate forces Fabius to resign
after six months. They return to their more
typical mode of government with the election of
two civilian co-consuls, Paullus and Varro are chosen,
and directed to defeat Hannibal as quickly as possible. Varro wants to fight
Hannibal in an all out war. Paullus, however, does not
want to be lured into battle. This is problematic, because
there's a combination of two Roman armies, the two
co-consuls, Paullus and Varro, trade command every other day. May sound insane. But one day, Paullus was the
supreme commander, the next day Varro. Hannibal's well aware of this
and knows who he'd rather fight. NARRATOR: Hannibal's strength
is in face-to-face combat, and he wants to
fight Varro's war. Hannibal gathers his
intelligence, lies in wait, then sends in a strike team
just as Varro takes command. Varro roars into action and
sends a fighting force to meet Hannibal near Cannae, Italy. Varro's colossal army is made
up of more than 80,000 Roman and allied foot soldiers
and 6,000 cavalry. It is the most massive
Roman fighting force ever to take the field at one time. Varro arranges his soldiers
in a typical Roman maniple formation, but adds a new
twist to the old formula. What they do is they pack
themselves a little tighter than before so that
the front is shorter, but the depth is thicker. NARRATOR: Only 300
feet away, Hannibal deploys his own infantry
force of 35,000, but in a unique configuration
never before used on any Western battlefield. Normally, an infantry line
would be deployed straight. He deploys it in a
concave bow with the belly of the bow facing closest
to the Roman lines in a kind of semicircle. NARRATOR: Hannibal himself
leads the infantry force from the middle of the line. The Battle of
Annihilation begins. [screaming] The infantry battle is fierce. But it's the
Carthaginian cavalry that scores the
first punishing blow. Heavy cavalry smashes
into the Roman cavalry with such incredible
force that it shatters it. I mean, between the
dead and the wounded and the dead horses, the
rest just take flight. NARRATOR: Trying to outrun
this tidal wave of death. The Romans are chopped
down in full stride. It is the beginning of one
of the greatest battles of all time. [swords clanking] [swords clanking] It's the Second Punic War
between Carthage and Rome. Two great armies slaughter each
other on the plains of Cannae, battling over who will control
the entire Mediterranean region. [swords clanking] Hannibal has configured his
army in a unique semicircle. On the flanks, the
Carthaginian cavalry commander detaches part of his force to
help the Numidian light cavalry on the opposite side
of the battlefield. With a nearly
four-to-one advantage, the Carthaginian cavalry makes
short work of the Roman cavalry at the flanks. NARRATOR: In the center, the
Roman infantry drives Hannibal back. But it's a ruse. Hannibal is giving
ground on purpose. And this is why Hannibal
originally assembled his men in a semicircle. He knew that the center
would give ground, and he knew his
flanks would hold. Slowly the center collapses. And the Romans would
think they're winning and commit more
troops in the center. NARRATOR: The original bow
shape of the Carthaginian line now resembles a V. As Hannibal's
infantry flexes inward, the Roman units are drawn deeper
and deeper into a V-shaped line. And as they go further, they
get completely packed together. NARRATOR: Pressed into
this V, the Roman infantry can only move in one
direction, straight ahead. Livy, one of the
Roman historians, tells us the pressure was so
great that Roman soldiers' arms were forced
against their bodies, they could not
lift their swords. NARRATOR: On Hannibal
signal, the African phalanxes turn in
toward the middle and crush the Romans
from the sides. Hannibal blocks in front. The African infantry
squeezes the side. Hannibal's older
brother, Hasdrubal, uses cavalry to
slash from behind. The Romans are jammed
into a kill box. Hasdrubal the Brilliant
now rides around in back of the Romans,
hits them in the rear. This is the famous
double envelopment. It had never been done in the
history of warfare before. Never. And it's a brilliant maneuver. What Hannibal realized is that
while the Roman army is nearly unstoppable as it
attacks straight ahead, it's maniples can only
move forward and back. They cannot turn and
they cannot envelop. And if you know exactly how
your enemy is going to fight, it's not that hard to
figure out how to defeat it. [swords clashing] NARRATOR: By the
time the sun sets, Hannibal has slaughtered an
unbelievable number of Romans. The Battle of Cannae
was so full of death that it gave rise to a new
term in military terminology. It's called the Battle
of Annihilation. The Battle of Annihilation. The enemy wasn't defeated--
it was annihilated. NARRATOR: Cannae ranks as
one of the deadliest and most brutal battles in history. More than 70,000 Romans are
butchered in a single day. 70,000 dead, killed
in an area only twice the size of Central Park. Ask yourself, this is an age
before mechanical weapons. How long does it take to kill
70,000 human beings with swords and spears one at a time? The answer seems to
be about six hours. NARRATOR: Hannibal is on the
verge of realizing his dream of Rome's destruction. But the victory of
Cannae will actually mark the end of Hannibal's
military success on the Italian peninsula. After the battle,
the commander of the Numidian
cavalry, Maharbal, urges Hannibal to march
immediately on Rome. But Hannibal refuses. This leads Maharbal to
exclaim, Hannibal, you know how to conquer,
but you do not know how to use your victories. NARRATOR: Hannibal might
believe that Rome will finally bow before him and surrender
after their devastating defeat. Or maybe he realizes
a siege of Rome will be impossible to maintain
without reinforcements and supplies. Cannae is about 260
miles away from Rome. So he gets close,
but not close enough. NARRATOR: Whatever the reason,
the destruction at exclaimed is the closest
Hannibal ever gets to fulfilling the blood oath of
revenge he made to his father. Hannibal does try to negotiate
a peace deal with the Romans after Cannae. But the Romans refuse. In fact, the Romans actually
outlaw the word peace. No citizen could ever
consider it out loud. NARRATOR: Ultimately, the Romans
decide to return to the Fabian strategy of containment. Instead of trying to beat
Hannibal on the battlefield, they will try to outlast him. Think about this for a minute. Rome, with all their
imperial destructive ways, says, you know what,
we can't beat this guy. We can only harass him. We can only contain him. Hannibal was able to get many
of the Southern Italian towns to defect to him. So he was able to
live off the land. But try as he might, he
can never fulfill his oath to his father. He never burns
Rome to the ground. NARRATOR: For all his
triumphs on the battlefield, Hannibal's campaign must
be seen as a failure. He eventually abandons his quest
to destroy Rome and sails back to Carthage. If you want to think
about a more modern example, you could look at Robert E. Lee. During the American Civil
War, Lee won nearly every one of his battles, but
ultimately lost the war. No matter how many
battles you win, the ultimate goal of a
battle is a means to an end-- to win the war strategically. From that perspective,
Hannibal's campaigns were a failure. The individual battles
were victorious, but the strategy of
bringing Rome to heel and making it sign a
peace treaty had failed. You don't get any points
in warfare for trying. NARRATOR: The greatest
irony of Hannibal's invasion is that it sets in motion
the events that will turn the Republic of Rome into
an empire that will conquer the ancient world. Had there been no Hannibal,
had there been no Second Punic War, there's no reason to
suspect that Rome would ever have expanded to the
degree that it did. NARRATOR: Hannibal's tactics
and stealth, his bloodlust and determination, his
savagery and genius, are all taught to modern
military commanders throughout the world. But the greatest lesson might
be that while Hannibal could annihilate the armies of
Rome, he could not ultimately destroy Rome.
