As
a person who studies military history, there are some lessons you learn just by
reading. Don’t invade Russia during the winter as it’s where land armies go to
die. A Chinese war without a million deaths is a small Chinese war. Don’t anger
Vlad the Impaler. Don’t trust anyone with Khan as their last name. I figured out
another lesson to add to this list; don’t fight Hannibal in a pitched battle.
So
after three crushing defeats that would bring most nations easily to their
knees Rome was in a bad state. Fabius’ year without a victory may have bought
the Romans time to rebuild but they basically wasted it. Varro
was discredited and the majority of their forces were gone. The two legions
worth of troops that escaped were sent to Sicily as punishment for retreating.
Now Hannibal’s goal was to win a war where Carthage got to give the terms. [1]At this point he considered
the war basically over. So he sent a group of Roman prisoners to talk to the
senate about the prisoner negotiation and possibly a treaty. The Romans refused
to deal with Hannibal, declaring that they were going to fight to the bitter
end.[2] So basically the Romans
said that they refused to surrender or lose this war. This is basically what happened with Pyrrhus
who crushed the Romans but they refused to surrender. So apparently the Romans
are just a people that most Mediterranean people would find strange, people
that would not give up land that they fought for in the past.
Not show is Rome getting metaphorically stomped. Although with elephant involved that's more literal.
Similar
to Pyrrhus, Hannibal now went to the south of Italy in hopes of gaining the
help of southern Italians and Greeks. The
city of Capua was getting disheartened by Rome’s treatment of them. When they talked
to Varro he was dismissive of them. So in Capua the pro-Carthage group gathered
all the pro-Romans and locked them in a bath house where they died from the
heat[3]. Hannibal, seeing a new ally, was very
generous allowing them to rule themselves. However Capua refused to give
Hannibal any more troops. Hannibal’s
army was fairly depleted at this point so he needed more troops. He sent his
brother Mago to the Carthaginian senate to get reinforcements. Mago walked into the assembly with a bag full
of thousands of golden rings from dead cavalry men at Cannae[4]. The Carthaginian senate
was pleased with this and asked if Rome was willing to negotiate. Mago told
them that the Romans refused so the senate agreed to send 4000 Numidians and 40
elephants to help Hanniba[5]l.
So
Rome at this point needed to rebuild and rebuild quickly. Rome changed its tax
system to tax the rich more because they were extremely strapped for cash at
this point. They changed the rules for who was allowed in legions. Slaves and
criminals were now openly serving in the Roman legions for the first time ever.
The consulship was given to experienced commanders such as Fabius Maximus who
won the consulship three times. However
Hannibal was still right outside of Rome. It’s one of the great historical
debates if Hannibal attacked Rome, could he have won and what would have
happened. I am not sure but if he did
and won that battle, the war would have ended with Carthaginian victory.
566
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