Hannibalic war

According to Polybius command in war is ‘the most honorable and serious of all employments’ (Polyb. 9.20.9). It was the command that won or lost the wars. The qualities for great command were both shrewdness and courage. Courage being defined as leading your men to victory, as well as being the first and last man on the battle field. Generalship on the other hand is defined as more of a skill of shrewdness, gathering intelligence about ones opponents and terrain to lead his men to victory. Polybius (3.48.) tells us that Hannibal had the aid of the Celts that lived near Rhone have crossed the Alps many times and fought side by side the Celts of the Po vall

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Hannibal did visit the temple of Herakles-Melqart at Gades to gain divine aid before invading Italy (Livy 21. Livy merely states that Hannibal does this because he was trying to avoid the Romans and not because it was the faster way to get to the Alps (21. Hannibal taking full advantage of the situation and the battle field even had his troops facing away from the prevailing wind so that his troops would not be blinded by the dust in there eyes.

The Roman consuls during the battle of Cannae are said to be Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus. 3-5, 8) describes how highly he thinks of Hannibal and how he has both control over his courage and shrewdness. These figures are hard to believe though since that would mean that the defeat at Cannae was hardly greater then the one suffered at Trebia. Livy by all accounts declares that Hannibal turned left into Tricastini territory (21. After this point is where we see some disputes for instance Polybius tells us that Hannibal crossed the Alps and had ‘descended into the plains of the Po and the territory of the Insubres (3. In fact Hannibal’s actual arrival into Italy could not have been at Insubres as Livy is quick to point out that this is one of Polybius’ careless and misleading remarks and he declare “cum inter omnes constet” (agreed by all) that Hannibal descended in to Italy through the territory of Taurini (21.

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Approximate Word count = 2056
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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