Hannibalic war essays

Hannibalic war essays The war between Rome and Hannibal can be presented in many different ways. Livy and Polybius are the two main historians on the subject of the Hannibalic war with these two historians presenting the war with both differences and similarities. It is these differences that will be brought forth in the following text with closer attention paid to, the differences between Hannibal and the Roman generals, Hannibals march to Italy, the preparation for battle, tactics that were used during the wars as well as the controversial number of men brought forth to battle by both sides. According to Polybius command in war is the most honorable and serious of all employments (Polyb. 9.20.9). It was the command that won or lost the wars. The qualities for great command were both shrewdness and courage. Courage being defined as leading your men to victory, as well as being the first and last man on the battle field. Generalship on the other hand is defined as more of a skill of shrewdness, gathering intelligence about ones opponents and terrain to lead his men to victory. Polybius (3.48.) tells us that Hannibal had the aid of the Celts that lived near Rhone have crossed the Alps many times and fought side by side the Celts of the Po valley against the Romans. Along with the knowledge of an opponents terrain it is also essential to be able to deploy and maneuver troops in swift decisive movements in order to take advantage of opponents weaknesses. It is with these guidelines that Polybius has set forth that are to be considered the best way to examine the roles of commanders throughout the second Punic war and most importantly the battle of Cannae. The Roman consuls during the battle of Cannae are said to be Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus. Varro according to Livy (22.26.3) was considered a novus homo who served as a praetor in 218; Varro was also the consul that is to be identified with the lo...