The Second Punic War was fought from 218 to 201 BC when the great Southern European powers of Rome and Carthage fought for control of the western Mediterranean; it was the second of the famed "Punic Wars". 17 years of warfare between the two nations and their allies left a total of 770,000 people dead (500,000 Romans and 270,000 Carthaginians) and 400 Roman towns destroyed, and it resulted in the Roman conquest of Carthage's Iberian possessions and the unification of Numidia under the pro-Roman Massyli. The war was also marked by the rise of the great generals Scipio Africanus and Fabius Cunctator on the Roman side and Hannibal on the Carthaginian side; Hannibal inflicted humiliating defeats on Rome at the 218 BC Battle of the Trebia, the 217 BC Battle of Lake Trasimene, and the 216 BC Battle of Cannae, while Scipio's victory at the 206 BC Battle of Ilipa brought an end to the Carthaginian presence in Spain, and his 202 BC victory at the Battle of Zama ended the war.
Background[]
In 241 BC, Carthage and the Roman Republic made peace to end the First Punic War, with Carthage ceding Sicily to Rome. Rome exploited Carthage's troubles with the Mercenary War in Africa by annexing Sardinia and Corsica in 238 BC; in 237 BC, after defeating the rebellious mercenaries, Hamilcar Barca and his family began the Phoenician conquest of Iberia. Carthage acquired Spanish silver mines, agricultural wealth, manpower, shipyards, and territorial depth to once again rival Rome, and, in 219 BC, it was the rivalry between the Romans and Carthaginians for control of Spain which led to the second war between them. After the pro-Carthaginian leaders in the Hellenized Iberian city of Saguntum were assassinated by its pro-Roman faction, Hamilcar's son Hannibal laid siege to the city. Most of the Saguntians committed suicide rather than live under Carthaginian rule, and, in 218 BC, the Roman Senate declared war on Carthage in response to its attack on its Iberian ally.
War[]
Start of the war - 218 BC[]
In May 218 BC, Hannibal began his march north and subdued the Iberian tribes between the Ebro and the Pyrenees before marching through southern Gaul and defeating a force of hostile Allobroges at the Rhone. He evaded the Roman and Massilian forces sent to halt his army's advance, and, while Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus and Publius Cornelius Scipio led a Roman army into Spain, Hannibal advanced on Italia itself. His army included Spanish tribesmen, Libyan infantry, Numidian horsemen, and Gallic warriors recruited en route, and the approach of this powerful army led to the Celtic Boii and Insubres of northern Italy revolting against Roman rule.
At the same time, the Romans scored a minor naval victory against the Carthaginians off Lilybaeum on Sicily and captured the island of Malta from them. The Gauls attacked Placentia and Cremona and forced their Roman settlers to flee to Mutina, which the Gauls then besieged (repelling a Roman relief army in the process). This Celtic uprising prevented the Senate from sending reinforcements to Hispania, and it also allowed for Hannibal's army to cross the Alps. He arrived in Italy with 28,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and 37 elephants, and the Romans were caught unprepared while in their winter quarters; they had to scrap their plans for an early invasion of Africa. In late November 218 BC, he defeated Publius Cornelius Scipio's army at the Battle of Ticinus, and a wounded Publius was rescued by his 18-year-old son, the future Scipio Africanus. As a result of the Carthaginian victory, Rome's Gallic vassals were convinced to defect to Carthage, boosting Hannibal's army to 40,000 troops. In the Battle of the Trebia in December of 218 BC, Hannibal encircled and destroyed an unprepared Roman army; only 10,000 Romans out of 42,000 were able to retreat to safety. While wintering, Hannibal was reinforced by even more new Gallic allies, bringing his strength up to 60,000 men.
217 BC[]
In the early spring of 217 BC, Hannibal's army crossed the Apennines unopposed and marched into Etruria. However, his army marched for days without finding a place to rest, and he lost a part of his force, including the few remaining elephants. He succeeded in luring the Roman consul Gaius Flaminius into a pitched battle in the Battle of Lake Trasimene, where Flaminius and much of his army were killed, while Hannibal's army suffered few losses. Although Rome itself was now open to attack, Hannibal decided to bypass the city and march into southern Italy to win allies among the Greeks and Italics there.
The Romans responded by appointing a dictator, Quintus Fabius Maximus. Fabius refused to give battle to Hannibal, hoping to keep the Roman Army alive while Hannibal and his army tried in vain to destroy the last vestiges of Roman resistance. However, his Fabian tactics were unpopular, as this allowed for Hannibal and his army to ravage the Apulian and Campanian countrysides with impunity. The more aggressive Marcus Minucius Rufus was ultimately appointed to co-command with Fabius, and he led a Roman army to annihilation at the Battle of Geronium in Molise. Minucius then accepted Fabius' authority, ending their conflict. Despite his victories, Hannibal had failed to win Italic allies. Meanwhile, Hasdrubal Barca had been defeated by the Romans at the Ebro River, but the Romans remained confined north of the river.
216 BC[]
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In 216 BC, the Romans elected two more warlike consuls: Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus. Hannibal went on to seize the large Apulian grain depot at Cannae, so the two consuls assembled an army of 86,000 legionaries - the largest Roman army in history up to that point - to seek a decisive battle. The ensuing Battle of Cannae was Rome's worst defeat in its history, with 67,500 Romans being killed or captured. The battle's results far surpassed the heavy Roman losses; it motivated the Greeks of Sicily to rise up against Roman rule, Philip V of Macedon allied with Carthage to check Roman influence in the Balkans, and the powerful Greek city-states of Syracuse and Tarentum defected to Carthage. However, rather than march on Rome, Hannibal launched failed attempts at negotiating a peace treaty with the Romans. As Hannibal marched south, he was joined by rebellious Apulian towns, many Lucanians, the Bruttii, the Hirpini, the Samnites, and even the major city of Capua. Meanwhile, in northern Italy, the Roman consul-elect Lucius Postumius Albinus and his 25,000-strong army were slaughtered by the Gauls at the Battle of Silva Litana.
215 BC[]
In 215 BC, the southern Italian port city of Locri defected to Carthage, and it built up Carthage's forces in southern Italy with cavalry, war elephants, silver, and grain. That same year, however, Mago Barca's army of 12,000 infantry, 1,500 cavalry, 20 elephants, and 60 warships were diverted to Spain after a Carthaginian defeat at Dertosa. In 216, 215, and 214 BC, Hannibal failed to capture the city of Nola, whose pro-Carthaginian faction had already been eliminated. In 215 BC, the Carthaginians attempted to recapture Sardinia, but they met a major defeat at the Battle of Cornus and failed to reconquer the island. The Carthaginian defeat at the Battle of Dertosa in Spain prevented Hasdrubal from reinforcing Hannibal in Italy; 215 BC was the first year of major Carthaginian setbacks.
214 BC[]
214 BC was a relatively calm year, with Hannibal's subordinate Hanno the Elder raising troops in Samnium; they were annihilated by the Romans at Beneventum before they could join Hannibal's main army. Hannibal would prove unable to defend his new allies from Roman counterattacks.
213 BC[]
The first of Hannibal's allies to fall was the Apulian city of Arpi, which Fabius Cunctator captured. At the same time, the Romans opened a new front by allying with the Masaesyli king Syphax in North Africa, who tied down Carthaginian resources by fighting against Hasdrubal Gisco's army. The Romans opened a third front by initiating the famed Siege of Syracuse, during which the inventor Archimedes invented war machines which frustrated the Romans' efforts to take the city with a conventional siege.
212 BC[]
In 212 BC, the Scipio brothers and their 33,000-strong Roman army recaptured Saguntum in Hispania, and they were soon joined by 20,000 hired Celtiberians. In Italy, Tarentum fell to the Carthaginians, but the citadel remained in Roman hands. The Romans were forced to end their siege of Capua that same year, and the Carthaginians destroyed another Roman army at the Battle of Herdonia, with only 2,000 of 18,000 Romans surviving. However, the Romans succeeded in storming Syracuse after the city and its Carthaginian relief army were afflicted by the plague, and the city was sacked and Archimedes murdered.
211 BC[]
In Spain, Hasdrubal bribed the Celtiberians to desert the Romans, leading to the Roman defeat at the Battle of the Upper Baetis and the deaths of the Scipio brothers. The Romans were once again confined to the region north of the Ebro, resulting in a repeat of 218 BC's stalemate. In the Battle of the Silarus, a Roman force of 16,000 was reduced to just 1,000 men in another disastrous defeat. However, Capua fell to Rome, and, in Sicily, Agrigentum's Carthaginian garrison was crushed at the Himera River. In the Balkans, Rome allied with Macedon's former client states to turn the tide of the First Macedonian War.
210 BC[]
In 210 BC, Publius Cornelius Scipio the Younger, the future Scipio Africanus, arrived in Spain with 28,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. Carthage sent reinforcements of its own to Sicily, but Marcus Valerius Laevinus marched on Agrigentum to evict Carthage from the island. The Romans took Agrigentum through treachery and massacred or enslaved the population, and Laevinus captured 66 other Sicilian towns, with 40 surrendering and 26 being taken through force or treachery. Hannibal defeated the Romans in a second battle at Herdonia, slaughtering 13,000 Romans from a 20,000-strong army, but the people of Salapia in Apulia massacred their Numidian garrison and went over to the Romans.
209 BC[]
Scipio's army stormed the lightly-defended Carthago Nova and slaughtered the population and sacked the city to maximize terror, also liberating many Iberian hostages kept by the Carthaginians; however, these hostages proved disloyal. In Italy, Fabius captured Tarentum by treachery as Hannibal faced off against Marcus Claudius Marcellus at Numistro.
208 BC[]
In 208 BC, Scipio Africanus defeated Hasdrubal at Baecula, but he was unable to prevent Hasdrubal from marching into Italy to reinforce Hannibal's army.
207 BC[]
In the spring of 207 BC, Hasdrubal marched across the Alps with 30,000 troops. At Grumentum, Gaius Claudius Nero waged an inconclusive skirmish with Hannibal, tricking Hannibal into thinking that the Roman army would blockade him when, in fact, he took his army up north to assist in the destruction of Hasdrubal's army at the Battle of the Metaurus; Hasdrubal was killed and his army's survivors scattered. Hannibal, now lacking reinforcements, was compelled to evacuate his allied towns and withdraw to Bruttium.
206 BC[]
At the Battle of Ilipa, Scipio's 48,000-strong army (half-Italian, half-Spanish) defeated a 54,500-strong Carthaginian army under Mago Barca, Hasdrubal Gisco, and Masinissa, sealing the fate of Carthaginian Spain. The Romans went on to capture the rebellious city of Gades, and, when the Hispanians mutinied against their new Roman occupiers at Sucro, Scipio crushed them. In Numidia, meanwhile, Syphax of the Masaesyli married Hasdrubal Gisco's daughter and defected to the Carthaginian side, so his rival Masinissa of the Massyli defected to the Roman side.
205 BC[]
Mago launched a last attempt to recapture Carthago Nova amid an Iberian uprising against the Romans, but his attack was repulsed. He was forced to evacuate Spain, setting sail from the Balearic Islands to Italy with the remainder of his forces.
204 BC[]
At the same time, Scipio Africanus was given the command of the Roman legions in Sicily and planned an invasion of Africa, overcoming Fabius' resistance. The survivors of Cannae were not allowed home until the war was finished, although Scipio - himself a survivor - had run successfully for public office and had been given command of the troops in Iberia. Scipio's first siege of Utica failed, however.
203 BC[]
The Romans mounted a surprise attack on Utica in 203 BC and took it by storm, defeating a Carthaginian-Numidian relief army in the process. He then destroyed a second allied army at the Battle of the Great Plains, and he captured Syphax after the Battle of Cirta. Masinissa went on to seize the Masaesylian lands with Roman help, while Mago Barca's attempt to reinforce Hannibal in Italy was defeated at the Battle of Insubria. By now, some in the Carthaginian Senate were persuaded to sue for peace. With the war going miserably on the home front, Carthage's war party recalled Hannibal and his army to defend Carthage itself.
202 BC[]
In 202 BC, Hannibal met Scipio at a peace conference, and, while the two generals admired each other, the negotiations floundered and fell through. The decisive Battle of Zama soon followed, in which a Carthaginian elephant charge was repulsed, sending the elephants back into the Carthaginian army and throwing its cavalry into disarray. Hannibal's army was then attacked from the rear by the Roman cavalry, and his army disintegrated and collapsed. Hannibal convinced the Carthaginians to accept peace, and peace was agreed upon in 201 BC.
Aftermath[]
Carthage lost Hispania forever, initiating the Roman conquest of Hispania. Carthage paid an indemnity of 10,000 silver talents, reduced its navy to 10 ships to ward off pirates, and had to ask Roman permission to raise an army. Some Romans opposed the peace treaty, arguing that the Roman people would let down their guard against invasion now that Carthage was subdued. Until the destruction of Carthage during the Third Punic War decades later, Cato the Elder ended all of his speeches with, "Carthage must be destroyed!"