Hannibal at the Rhone River.You have
changed History! Bypassing Saguntum would be a major mistake, because
the inhabitants truly despise you, and would do everything they could to
disrupt your further progress. You are already far from home, with
stretched supply lines, and are surrounded by hostile natives. You
can ill afford to leave a fortified city, with an enemy port in it, standing
to the rear of your advance. You must make allies as you go,
or at least, leave them them in fear of your retribution. Reducing
the city was your correct option. In spite of the time and effort
required, you made the right choice to capture Saguntum before moving on.
Ironically, Hannibal almost lost his life here, when a javelin, thrown
down from the city wall, rammed through his leg. He survived quite
nicely, and the destruction of Saguntum was assured. The Saguntines
hated Hannibal so much that they burned and melted their precious objects
so that he could not use them, and then threw themselves into the fire,
rather than become his mercenaries or slaves. At home, this victory caused his
popularity to grow also, as he was elected suffete (pronounced,
according to Durant, as "show-feet", an indication of the Semitic origins
of the Carthaginian language). Suffete was similar to being consul
in Rome, and gave Hannibal carte blanche to carry forth his war against
Rome. Though he was, of course, appropriately appreciative and humbled
by the honor, he must have been pleased that his plans were proceeding
so quickly. This position virtually guaranteed that he would get
the support he needed to bring his plans to fruition. Here is his
next
choice. The conflict with Rome was now
in full swing. Hannibal took his troops north, crossed the Pyrenees,
and headed east. He has what we will call the Replacement Factor.
He is in command of a mostly mercenary army, and cannot generally request
more troops from home. He usually solves this by bringing into his
army disgruntled natives of Spain and Gaul who were dissatisfied with Roman
rule. By promising them self-control (following Roman defeat), and
the spoils of war, Hannibal convinced many that he was the solution to
their problems with Rome. He showed his benevolence by causing as
little disruption as he could in the lives of the tribes that allied with
or remained neutral to him, and his ferocity by destroying those who opposed
him. At the Rhone River, he found himself
unable to cross, due to the presence of hostile Gauls on the other side.
Patiently, he had his men learn to build dugout canoes, and prepared for
his first "naval" assault. In the meantime, he sent part of his force
upstream to find a better place to ford the river. He also sent a
cavalry detachment downstream to investigate rumors that the Romans had
landed a force at the mouth of the Rhone. His encounter with the Gauls worked
out perfectly. At an agreed-upon time, Hannibal's men plunged into
the river and began to cross. The Gauls waited in excitement, expecting
to cut the Carthaginians to shreds as they tried to leave their canoes.
With the canoes nearly across, Hannibal's upstream force, which had forded
the river and circled behind the Gauls, began an attack that forced the
Gauls to divide their forces. Caught so unawares, the Gauls fell
into confusion, found themselves now surrounded, and were destroyed. Downstream, Hannibal's cavalry
detachment found itself in proximity to a Roman cavalry detachment.
Despite their orders to the contrary, both groups decided to attack, and
a battle ensued. Though there was no clear winner, both sides now
knew where their enemy was. After the battle, the remainders of both
detachments returned to their camp to report, leading to your next decision. Hannibal now knows that the Romans
are
at the mouth of the Rhone, in great numbers. His original plan was
to continue on to cross the Alps, and descend upon Rome from the north.
Now, however, he has crossed the Pyrenees, and his men have had a taste
of high altitudes and bitterly cold temperatures. The Alps are much
higher and more treacherous, and will provide a much more formidable obstacle. To travel south and engage the
Romans now may mean that Hannibal could destroy their army in one major
battle, and therefore leave Rome crippled for the rest of his assault.
He would have to be able to capture their navy, in order to have the ships
he would need to land in Italy. Even if he were successful in this,
he would face what we will call the Port Problem. The geography
of Italy is such that there are very few good harbors in which he could
land, and these might be fortified against him. What choice would you make?