Hannibal was a military genius. That is, he was a genius at battlefield tactics, although not so much at strategy. At the time when Hannibal crossed the Alps, 218 B.C., the Romans had no military geniuses, no Roman general could come near to Hannibal in battlefield tactics. In fact, several of the Roman generals in […]
What Did Hannibal Think of the Romans?
September 22, 2024 By Leave a Comment
What did Hannibal think of the Romans? Hannibal was indoctrinated by his father, Hamilcar Barca, to hate the Romans. There is a story that, before taking Hannibal with him to Spain, Hamilcar took him to the Temple of Elissa at Carthage and made him swear an oath: “When I come to age, I shall pursue […]
How Did the Romans Recover From Their Devastating Defeat at the Battle of Cannae?
July 23, 2024 By Leave a Comment
It is believed that between the battles of Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae, twenty percent of Italian men of military age perished. At the Battle of Cannae alone, some 55,000 Romans and allies were killed In addition to losing all of those soldiers, after Cannae a lot of cities, towns and tribes that had been allied […]
Would Carthage Have Destroyed Rome If They Had Been Victorious in the Punic Wars?
June 7, 2023 By Leave a Comment
After the Battle of Cannae in which Hannibal’s army killed some 50,000 Roman and allied soldiers, Hannibal expected the Romans to sue for peace. He was not inclined to destroy the city. The Romans were having none of that. They would not allow Hannibal’s emissary into the city, and the Senate made it a crime […]
Were the Romans Religious?
June 5, 2023 By Leave a Comment
The Romans were strongly religious. They worshiped a variety of Gods and believed that, at times, their gods interacted with humans. They never went into battle without first taking auguries to see if the battle would be favorable to them. They built temples everywhere, and rich Romans would sponsor a temple to whichever god he […]
Quora Question: Why Did The Romans Not Destroy Greece the Way Destroyed Carthage?
June 9, 2021 By 2 Comments
The Romans had a lot more respect for the Greeks than they had for the Carthaginians. They had fought two long and bitter wars with Carthage and regarded them as enemies. There was no such animus in the Roman attitude toward the Greeks. The Greek language was prestigious and a Roman was not considered educated […]
How Was Rome Affected by the Punic Wars?
January 23, 2021 By Leave a Comment
The Punic Wars brought about Rome’s vast increase in power and at same time a significant moral decline. From the introduction in my book The Death of Carthage: “As warlike as they were, the Romans of the third century B.C. maintained certain principles that were gradually lost in the second century B.C.. The first of […]
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