Punic War Essay, Research Paper

The Second Punic War was lost because General Hannibal did non hold the right technology to suppress Roman Cities. If General Hannibal could non suppress Roman metropoliss so he would ne’er be able to suppress the Roman Empire. Hannibal had the right leading and a big adequate ground forces to get the better of the Romans. He still did non hold the necessary resources and technology to take over Roman metropoliss.

General Hannibal was a adult male with great leading abilities and a hungriness to suppress the Roman Empire. He is considered both an antediluvian and a modern military genius.1 His male parent, Hamilcar, made Hannibal swear ageless ill will to Rome at a immature age.2 Hannibal can be defined as one of the great military leaders of antiquity who commanded the Punic forces.2

By 218 BC Carthage ( Hannibals home town ) had built a wealthy and powerful empire.3 That winter Hannibal was be aftering his onslaught on the Romans. Harmonizing to Polybius, Hannibal had gathered 90,000 foot, 12,000 horse and 38 elephants. The figure of elephants seemed to moo for 102,000 people.

In September of 218 BC Hannibal was faced with traversing the Alps. What Hannibal did non cognize was he would run into a awful winter-like storm. The storm made traversing the mountains hard. Many work forces and elephants fell to their deceases. He besides faced jobs with the Allobroges and other Celtic groups.4 After traversing the

Alps Hannibal was left with merely 20,000 foot, 6,000 horse, and 3 elephants.

1 hypertext transfer protocol: //history.idbsu.edu/westciv/punicwar/05.htm

2 hypertext transfer protocol: //phoenicia.cnchost.com/punicwar.html

3 hypertext transfer protocol: //www.wsu.edu:8080/ dee/ROME/PUNICWAR.HTM

4 hypertext transfer protocol: //phoenicia.cnchost.com/punicwar.html

After Hannibal would about get the better of ground forcess the remainder would run Ba

ck to their metropoliss and conceal behind metropolis walls. Hannibal did non hold the indispensable equipment required to suppress those metropoliss. He would merely travel base on balls the metropoliss and battle another conflict on an unfastened battleground where he was certain to outmanoeuvre and get the better of the Romans. Hannibal had much better war tactics than the Romans. He would merely assail them from the back most of the clip. The ground he lost the Second Punic War was due to the fact that he could non suppress Roman Cities because he lacked the right technology.

Hannibal lost most of his elephants in the Alps. Therefore he did non hold adequate elephants to garner stuffs to construct heavy weapon. As a consequence he could non make beyond any Roman City walls. Hannibal besides lacked the cognition of how to construct arms that could assist him suppress metropoliss. He did non hold the skilled craftsmen to plan or build arms that could destruct metropoliss.

I can non leap to decisions because I was non at that place to witness the war. Possibly, Hannibal did non desire to take the excess clip to construct arms that could catch metropoliss. Possibly, he thought he was merely traveling to kill off the Romans by contending them on battlegrounds. Possibly, Hannibal s mission was to kill off every Roman. Possibly, Hannibal did non desire to suppress the little Roman Cities. Whatever the ground, he could hold easy been the following Roman Emperor.

Hannibal had ne’er lost a conflict with Rome but he lost the war. After Hannibal had fought the first few conflicts he merely roamed around what is now the Italian countryside.5

5 hypertext transfer protocol: //www.wsu.edu:8080/ dee/ROME/PUNICWAR.HTM

He likely could hold used that clip to do the indispensable arms and heavy weapon that would hold helped him suppress metropoliss. He had the power and the ground forces to easy get the better of the Romans but it was non taken advantage of and Hannibal failed.