Hannibal pursued war with Rome for two main reasons. First, Carthage wanted back the territory and pride it lost during the First Punic War. Second, Hannibal had sworn an oath early in life to his father, Hamilcar Barca, to be Rome’s enemy(2,3). Backed by an army which Polybius estimates at over 100,000 strong, he marched north from the city of Cartagena to fulfill that oath in 219.
Hannibal made his first target the Roman-allied city of Saguntum, which he destroyed in 218 after an 8-month siege. This violated the treaty Rome forced his father to sign at the end of the First Punic War. Token diplomacy aside, the Second Punic War began at Saguntum.
Hannibal continued north. A third of his route lay in Spain; many tribes along it were hostile to Carthage, or allied with Rome; these people formed his first obstacles(2).
The Carthaginians quickly overcame the armed locals in their path and kept moving, but paid in blood for their speed. When Hannibal reached the northern edge of Spain in the Pyrenees mountains, he had already fought many battles and lost 20,000 men(1).
Gaul
Hannibal’s path then led through what is now southern France, where except for one tribe, the locals let him barter for safe passage. (1). His main concern here was a Roman army about 24,000 strong under Publius Scipio, which had just landed at Marseilles and hoped to block him from crossing the river Rhone(1,2).
The Romans were unprepared when Hannibal reached the river; after only a small skirmish between the two armies’ scouts, Hannibal crossed the river without further Roman interference. A hostile tribe called the Volcae, however, opposed his crossing with a large army. Hannibal outflanked them by landing his cavalry a ways upstream, and the tribesmen were dispersed.
The tribes between the Rhone and the Alps proved friendly to Hannibal. Aided by local guides, he soon made his way into the Alps – the last barrier between his army and Italy(1,2).
Hannibal Crosses the Alps
Hannibal had dealt with hostile tribes and mountains before. Alone, neither the Alps nor their fierce inhabitants would have posed him a major problem; together, they nearly destroyed his army.
Local tribes seeking plunder ambushed the Carthaginians repeatedly. The first incident happened in a deep gorge called the Gap de Gas(2). The road here followed a narrow cliff-ledge, which forced Hannibal’s army into a column six to eight men wide and six miles long. The enemy attacked from behind and pushed the Carthaginian supply train over the cliff; Hannibal repulsed them, but with staggering losses(1,2).
The Gap de Gas, along with resulting supply shortages, another bloody ambush at the Gorge de Guil(2), and a third immediately afterward in the valley of the Queyras(2), made Hannibal’s alpine crossing the miserable affair it was. Between Cartagena and Italy, Hannibal lost some 56,000 men – 35,000 of them over a period of 15 days in the Alps(1,2).
Sources
1. Polybius. The Rise of the Roman Empire. Translation by Scott-Kilvert, Ian. New York: Penguin Group, 1979. Penguin Press, Inc., New York 10014.
2.Cottrell, Leonard. Hannibal: Enemy of Rome. New York: Da Capo Press, 1992. Da Capo Press Inc, New York 10013.
*3. Livy. The War with Hannibal. Translation by De Selincourt, Aubrey. New York: Penguin Group, 1965. Penguin Press, Inc., New York 10014.
*for fact-checking purposes
