Hannibal faces Sempronius
You have changed History! Again, it's hard to imagine that this would
have changed history too much. The major problem would have been
finding good winter quarters in this part of the country, so it'd have
been a pretty cold, wet season, through which you'd have to find food for
your troops. We'll call this the Food Factor. An army
away from home and its supply lines, must move frequently to find enough
food for so many men. Otherwise, they will exhaust all area supplies,
and then starve themselves and the local population. So, he
either had to attack, or try to work his way around the Roman force, which
would not be easy, since they knew the terrain and he did not. Scroll
down to see what he actually did. Because of
the Food Factor, Hannibal needed to attack the Romans, so he could
find new areas to plunder for food. Since an army in strange territory
needs to forage for its own food, and since an army is so large, they must
move often. (Don't forget this later on!) Hannibal needed to
drive the Roman army away so he'd have more territories to seek food from. As usual, Hannibal did not take
the mundane path. Rather than meet the Romans on their turf, he used
his knowledge of their disagreements, and his understanding of psychology
to cause the battle to occur on his terms. Knowing that Sempronius
only needed some small excuse to fight, Hannibal gave him one. After
laying an ambush in the high grasses along the river, Hannibal sent an
infantry detachment to attack the Roman camp. When the Romans were
successful in repelling this force, Sempronius had the excuse he needed
to launch an all-out assault on the Carthaginians. Over Scipio's
objections, Sempronius gathered up his troops, and charged after the retreating
enemy. It should have been a signal that
the Carthaginians retreated so easily from the Romans, considering that
they usually fought so fiercely, but Sempronius was hungry for glory.
Back across the river he pushed them, charging forward at an alarming rate.
When the entire Roman force had crossed the river, Hannibal's trap was
sprung. The hidden troops emerged to attack the Romans from the rear,
and Hannibal's reserves stopped the Roman advance in its tracks.
The war elephants were especially effective in this engagement, terrorizing
the Romans, and causing them to lose all semblance of organization. What few troops survived the battle
were further decimated by their return trip across the dangerous river
(which they had crossed without imagining the consequences). This
forced the Romans to withdraw from northern Italy altogether, and head
home to gather a new army. Hannibal now had free run of a large area,
albeit one in the onset of winter. This forced him into yet another
major decision. Intelligence
from his spies told Hannibal several things. Winter in this area
would restrict his options greatly. Food would be in short supply,
and proper quarters would be scarce. The locals were not happy to
have
him around, and he took to wearing disguises so he would not be so easily
spotted and perhaps assassinated. His options were fairly limited.
He could push south and try to find a better climate, but that would bring
him very close to Rome, and bring even more danger. No good land
lay to the east. He could cross the Apennines to get to better
weather and land on the other side, but with winter full upon him, the
crossing would be very difficult, and, geez!, another set of mountains?
Still, he had to do something. What do you suppose he did?