Hannibal Barca - The Second Punic Wars

welcome to the second installment of a free part video series on Hannibal Barca featuring myself Quill and link history and history house productions Quill has just done the first installment looking at Hannibal's early life so go and check that out now if you haven't already and this instalment i'm going to be looking at Hannibal's campaign in hispania and italy so stay tuned to the end for part 3 the fall of Saguntum sent shockwaves throughout the Mediterranean within a matter of weeks Rome had sent envoys to Carthage demanding that Hannibal be handed over to them to receive punishment for attacking an ally of Rome Carthage argued that Roman had been in violation of their treaty which stated that Roman influence was to remain to the north of the Elbo River Roman response simply said that the Elbo was another River entirely with negotiations failing Rome declared warned Carthage and so the second Punic War began with one Roman army being dispatched to espana under the command of skippy oh and never been sent to Sicily under the command of longus Hannibal now faced the daunting task keeping the Romans away from Carthage he and his brothers decided the best option to take was to take the fight directly to Rome thus denying them the chance to use Sicily as a stepping stone to attack Carthage before setting out Hannibal decided to swap his somewhat unreliable Iberian troops for more reliable African troops including his soon-to-be essential Libyan spearmen as well as this Hannibal gained a large number of Numidian cavalry with these preparations Hanwha left his brother hash-table in charge of defending Hispania and self on his journey to Rome with his brother may go he had 50,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry as well as a large detachment of elephants crossing the elbo Hannibal quickly subdued the Romans sympathizing tribes in the area and began his march to Wars gone leaving 20,000 troops to gousen and new territories and a further 11,000 who showed reluctance at leaving their homeland once there Hannibal found himself bribing a large number tries for safe passage through their territory marching through gaul Hannibal came across a tribe loyal to the Romans at the Rhone River this gaulic army called the cavaeres 's had blocked the crossing over the river directly in Hannibal's path with a camp just behind them Alibaug could hardly afford to delay and therefore sent a small detachment of cavalry on a huge flanking maneuver under the command of a man named hano during this time hannibal began to make preparations for the crossing the river while simultaneously keeping the goals fixated on his position rather than detecting Hanno's detachment after three days hana arrived at the tribute II of the Rhone River and sent out a signal smoke to Hannibal letting his command and know he was in position upon seeing the signal Hannibal led charged across the river the goals responded and began shouting at the approaching army soon a fist melee began with Hannibal in the thick of the action at this point Pano's detachment appeared sending a small detachment to burn the Kaveri scamp was the rest of this force landed the flank and rear of the enemy the gore soon broke with the entire engagement only taken a few minutes meanwhile in the Greek town of Mesilla the army of Publius Scipio had finally arrived had begun to stock up on provisions for the invasion into his Hispania Scipio was stunned when his Scouts accidentally bumped into hannibal scouts skip-bo quickly realizing hannibal was on his way across the alps therefore decided to return to italy and await the Carthaginians on the other side Hannibal had to hurry winter was fast approaching his supply lines were not secured and elephants needless to say are not really meant for snow once in the Alps Hannibal would find his army under near constant barrage from local tribes and hampered by the weather eventually Hannibal found his road blocked by a landslide after trying to go around the landslide unsuccessfully Hannibal returned set up camp and began to clear the road eventually what were made of Hannibal's army finally arrived on the other side of the Alps he had taken him from made slash june to october to reach this point finally he had entered italy scipio had arrived by a sea and begun preparing a new army to face Hannibal skippy oh now had a new agenda to push the invading army out of Roman territory Scipi and Hannibal quickly found each other and had a quick cavalry skirmish in which Scipio comming off the worse being wounded in the battle this battle convinced many of the goals in the north of Italy to side with Hannibal robbing Romans of a valuable ally with the enemy now on home soil Rome recalled longus from sicily to combine his army of that escapee owes longus was eager to engage the Carthaginians poorly because his consulship was close to coming to an end he was now december and northern italy was blanketed in snow longus and skippy oh set up camp on one side of the river Trebbia whilst Hannibal set up his camp a considerable distance from the river on the other side anna wa would send out regular detachments of Numidian cavalry to harass the roman camp eventually after one particularly daring raid longus again itching to get into a battle of hannibal and woke with his army without giving them a chance for breakfast marched them across the freezing Trebbia river animal calmly prepared his army with his cavalry on the flanks and his weaker troops in the middle long less arriving on the field of battle ordered a frontal attack straight at the weak point in the Carthaginian lines I will counter attacked with his cavalry and elephants quickly driving the Roman cavalry off the field with the Roman cavalry running from the battle the Carthaginian cavalry then turned and attacked the remaining Romans in the flanks the Romans now only had two ways to go backwards or forwards suddenly from the marshes and tall grass to the side of the battlefield mago Hannibal's brother appeared with even more cavalry may have slandered the back of the Romans completing the encirclement luckily for longus the Romans finally pushed through the weaker troops of Hannibal's army however rather than turning back on the army and in turn out flanking the enemy these Romans and longus fled the battlefield leaving the rest of their comrades to the victorious Carthaginians skip-bo was essentially left to clean up the mess of wounded men flooding into his camp upriver skippy Oh broke camp during the night and arrived at longest abandoned camp his army was still large enough that both he and longus could not stay in the same area due to problems provisioning both armies skippy was spared further action from hannibal due to a sudden cold snap which finally killed off all but one of his elephants when news reached Rome the population panicked both consoles had been defeated by Hannibal and many thought that Hannibal would just appear at the gates in reality the defeats had not been as catastrophic as the population believed longus still a two and a half legions left or skip used to ad free as well as another two that were causing havoc in Hispania against Hannibal's brother hash Drupal meaning Rome still had seven and a half agents left to fight Hannibal would win to his troops with the goals and in the spring he began his march south Hannibal proceeded to march over the our know this place was basically one huge endless marsh that together with Roman harassment of his supply lines resulted in disease and fatigue this disease eventually affected Hannibal lost an eye during the march from infection with Rome obviously being close to imminent defeat the Republic immediately began to make plans to counter Hannibal longus returned to Rome with the Senate resolving to elect new consult one of these consoles was Gaius Flaminius Flaminius took over the command of longus his army his army then turned south to prepare the defense of Rome which in the Roman I was in imminent danger Hannibal immediately followed flaminius and quickly overtook him and as a result the console had to increase the speed of his March in order to stop Hannibal before the Carthaginians reached Rome the other consular force was due to join up with Flaminius soon Hannibal then attempts to lure Flaminius into battle he did this by devastating the area flaminius was sent to protect as well as this Hannibal attempted to sever the allegiances of Rome's allies in the region by proving that Rome could simply not protect them however flaminius stubbornly stayed encamped with this hand were marched around his opponents left flank essentially cutting Flaminius off from Rome Hannibal then decided that he would live for a mineus into a pitched battle Verma Gnaeus by this time was sufficiently angered by Hannibal's actions and set out to face Hannibal in battle as Hannibal began to go around Lake Trasimene he discovered a spot which was ideal for an ambush and began to make preparations for the upcoming battle Sona North was a series of heavily forested hills where the road the Romans would take pasture along the north side at the lake Hannibal Kant where he was in full view of anyone entering the North d-file and spent the rest of the night arranging his troops for battle below his camp he placed his heavy infantry made up of iberian scalps and africans it were also placed on a slight elevation Hannibal then concealed his cavalry and Gorelick infantry in the hills and woods along the side of the lake he then also ordered his men to set up campfires on the hills of Toro as part of a ruse to convince the Romans the Carthaginians were further away than they actually were with everything in place Hannibal waited for the Romans to walk into his trap on the morning of June 21st the Romans marched along the road running near the northern edge of the lake just as han aboard planned and will sent out a small skirmishing party to force the vanguard away from the front line as the final Romans marched through the narrow D file aboard trumpets and war cries funded down the hill blocking the road and engage in the Romans from free sides the Romans were taken completely by surprise and soon split into three distinct groups a westernmost group was attacked by cavalry and forced into the lake this left the two other groups no clear route to retreat the center group which included Flaminius stood its ground after three hours was cut down by Hannibal's claws Mamillius eventually fought a gaul who eventually killed the Roman commander within a matter of hours the Romans have been utterly destroyed the vermin of Vannes guard however saw very little combat and as a result was able to fight its way out of the area by the end of the battle the Romans have lost around 15,000 men of a further 15,000 being captured once again Rome fell into panic this time it was even worse than Trebbia not only at a console army been defeated but Khan saw had actually been killed in combat berm elected the senator Fabius as dictator of Rome babies quickly enacted the Fabian strategy which was essentially do not engage in a pitch battle of Hannibal you will die this policy greatly wounded many rich politicians pride and soon with the election of new consoles Rome began to prepare to drive Hannibal out of Italy once and for all Rome had assembled an army of 80,000 infantry and nearly 7,000 cavalry the army are so big that needed two commanders over consuls one was Gaius Farlow through his rash and inexperienced and the other was Paulus who was the exact opposite both men altered command of the army was fouled favoring an aggressive stance while spaulos favored a cautious policy on the day of the battle the Roman army was commanded by Varro Hannibal knew that the Romans have tried to steamroll over the much smaller Carthaginian army as a result he positioned his army in a crescent formation of the middle of his army being the closest to the Roman lines with his Libyan spearmen in reserve on the flanks and of all himself would fight in the front lines with his gaulic troops inspiring his men by fighting alongside them varro upon seeing this formation immediately did what Hannibal had been expecting him to do he attempted to steamroll the Carthaginian lines the Romans charged in masse losing all formation and slamming into the Carthaginian lines animals cavalry soon proved to be superior to the Roman cavalry and easily pushed the Roman Horseman's back by this time the Roman infantry had done exactly what they set out to do it pushed the patchwork Carthaginian army back slowly sliding the front lines of Hannibal's army right past this reserve Libyan spearmen on either flank the Libyans closed in on the flanks and with this hannibal ordered his men to stop giving ground the Roman line had been stopped in its tracks and Hannibal's infantry began to pin them in place unable to escape by the flanks or the front the Romans tried to fall back only to be smashed into by the victorious Carthaginian cavalry this huge Roman army was surrounded and like a vise a small patchwork Carthaginian army closed in on the truck Romans by some miracle a young man named Skippy Oh the son of ploobis Skippy Oh managed to escape the battle a consul polis was knocked off his horse and whilst nursing a head wound he was killed by a hail of javelins varo on the other hand escaped but was praised for his aggressive stance animal spit tree wood seemed gained many allies in the Italian peninsula however most noticeable was the addition of Macedon into the wall a Macedonian King Philip saw an opportunity to expand into the Roman held territory of his region Anabelle also managed to secure an alliance with newly appointed ruler of the Greek city-state syracuse how about however still did not have enough men to directly attack Rome through their four attacked and occupied Rome's second largest city of Capua Fabius quickly reinstated this policy of don't fight Hannibal you will die the resulting stalemate saw several smaller battles but no significant gains for the Carthaginians however in 212 BC and old managed to defeat two more consular armies as well as killing two consuls in battle in 208 BC however these constant battles constantly drained Hannibal's resources and as his new allies hardly gave him any support he was left with no other option to ask carthage for support however the place where he received the least support was from carthage itself where the politicians of the city denied hannibal reinforcements which he desperately needed instead carthage dispatched reinforcements to espana where car fisher was losing ground rapidly and was also losing resources at the same time eventually Fabius his strategy of don't fight horrible you will die began to wear Hannibal down enough that Rome could start going on the offensive Rome attempted to retake Capua which failed Hannibal continued to destroy armies that were sent against him. Hannibal figured out that he probably wasn't going to get any more support from the Carthaginian council sent for his brother hashable to bring his army from Hispania and combine it with his own as Trubel did this marching over the Alps successfully and beginning to prepare for a long march to Hannibal in Italy one day Hannibal was encamped on his route to meet with his brother when a small detachment of Roman cavalry appeared over the horizon Romans quickly threw a sack over the palisade in the sack was the head of hash triple-a Schnabel had been caught by a Roman army and been decisively defeated in battle with this Hanabusa chance of taking Rome was gone Hannibal also had a new adversary in the four of the young Scipio Scipio who had escaped from Cannae managed to gain the command of an army which had driven the carthaginians out of Hispania this army now threatened carthage itself having landed in africa and defeated a Carthaginian army sent to a Pelham Carthage desperately recalled their greatest general from Italy after years of neglecting him Hannibal out of duty probably not out of love of the politicians returned to Carthage and began preparing the war inexperienced Carthaginian recruits for battle against the Romans Anibal then met scipio and attempted to draw out a very rough peace treaty however negotiations floundered as the Romans constantly reminded the Carthaginians of their breach of the previous peace treaty despite the two generals admiring each other's military prowess negotiations came to a close and the two sides prepared for battle the two forces met on the plains of Zama a bow arranged his force into free lines with his new untested elephants in the front line followed by unreliable mercenaries which were then followed by the inexperienced war recruits in the middle line hannibals veterans from his Italian campaign made up the rail line scipio on the other hand deployed his troops in the standard Roman formation a validation front followed by the Hastati Prinicipes and Trarri unlike the traditional Roman checkerboard formation Skippy oranged his troops in two columns with his valor tazed shielding his true formation from the Carthaginians Scipio had also somehow managed to get the Carthaginian ally of Numidia to change sides as a result the majority of the Roman cavalry was the elite emitting cavalry that caused devastation during the Roman campaign but once the cavalry advantage was on the side of the Romans not Hannibal the battle would open with an elephant charge from Hannibal these elephants stormed their way across the battlefield skip-bo then ordered his cavalry to sound horns hoping to scare the elephants and to make them run amok the elephants that did run amok then slammed into the Carthaginian left seeing an opportunity the new minions launched an attack on the Carthaginian lines and will then send his cavalry to counter this new attack this engagement would see both cavalry leave the field with the numidians coming off slightly better animals elephants then continued their charge towards the Roman lines here the Romans simply got out of the way of the elephants and proceeded to kill the beasts with javelins Hannibal then advanced with his first two lines of infantry the unreliable mercenaries were quickly pushed back by the Roman hastati however rather than disrupt the formation of the second line the retreating mercenaries simply moved to the flanks of the second line this line soon engaged the enemy and began to inflict heavy losses on the Hastati Scipio was then forced to reinforce this line with his principles and triarii I soon Hannibal had to commit his veteran line as his second line began to falter the more elite Roman tree rei and príncipes began to push the flanks of Hannibal's army back however the veterans managed to hold their own and for a brief moment it looks like one final push from Hannibal would see the Carthaginians victorious suddenly from nowhere the new midians who reappeared and slammed into the rear the Carthaginian army with this the battle quickly turned in favor of the Romans with Hannibal fleeing the battle in defeat with this victory Carthage sued for peace the terms of the treaty were punishing for Carthage forbidding them to make war without Rome's approval as well as this there was a huge war reparation to pay which could potentially bankrupt the city cartage however quickly recovered from this economic collapse however was never in a position to be a military power ever again thank you for watching and listening be sure to check out the finale of Hannibal story over history house productions or if you want to find out about what happened before the outbreak of the war check out Quillin links video on the early life of Hannibal be sure to LIKE comment and subscribe I've been aged initially guy and as always I'll be seeing you later

Channel: Ancient History Guy

Views: 34,692

Rating: 4.8745294 out of 5

Keywords: Second Punic Wars, Hannibal Barca, Hasdrubal, Battles of Cannae, Battle of Lake Trasimene, Battle of Trebia, March over the Alps, Scipio Africanus, Fabian, Carthage vs Rome, Roman Republic, Rome at war, Sack of Carthage, Battle of Zarma, Second Punic Wars documentary, Hannibal Documentary, Ancient Rome, Ancient Roman, Ancient Carthage, Animated History, History Animated, Ancient History, Bazbattles, History Marche, Kings and Generals

Id: 5DzkpkZ42YQ

Length: 21min 28sec (1288 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 17 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/ancienthistoryguy]

The Second Punic War was one of the most dramatic and devasting wars fought between Carthage and Rome. The war saw the rise and fall of Hannibal Barca one of the greatest generals of all time.