    41

    When Hannibal's troops descended from the Alpine forests, the

    Romans were astonished... and totally unprepared.  Hannibal pulled

    off stunning victories against the armies Rome sent north to meet him.

    At the Battle of Cannae, for example, the Carthaginians wiped out a

    Roman army that outnumbered them two-to-one.82  Between 50,000

    and 70,000 Romans died, including 80 senators and 29 military

    tribunes.83

    Hannibal shrewdly took advantage of the old pecking order rule:

    friends flock to the beast on the top; they abandon the beast on the

    bottom.  Whenever the Carthaginian triumphed, he reduced his

    Roman prisoners to slavery.  But the Romans had been bolstered by

    armies of allies--troops from the conquered tribes of the Italian boot.

    The savvy commander sent his non-Roman prisoners back to their

    tribal towns unharmed.  All he asked was that they carry a simple

    message: Carthage had nothing against the non-Roman Italians.84

    The gesture worked.  As Hannibal demonstrated his strength,

    one Italian tribe after another deserted Rome and threw its lot in with

    Carthage.  After all, it looked like the city of the seven hills was

    slipping down the pecking order...fast.

    The Greek historian Polybius says that at his peak, Hannibal

    managed to hold together an army of extraordinary diversity.  "He had

    Libyans, Iberians, Ligurians, Celts, Phoenicians, Italians, [and] Greeks

    who had naturally nothing in common with each other."85  It was the

    Carthaginians' seemingly unstoppable winning streak that kept them

    all together.

    Hannibal outfoxed the Roman forces every time they met.  He

    stormed across the Italian peninsula, taking towns and overwhelming

    garrisons almost at will.  Soon panic seized the Roman populace.  They

    imagined the Semite from North Africa showing up outside the walls

    of their city any day or night.  But Hannibal was in no position to

    attack the center of Roman strength.  Marching over the mountain

    passes, he had been unable to carry the siege equipment that would

    allow him to defeat the city's heavy fortifications.  Hannibal waited for

    <<  <  GO  >  >>