"Of a truth the gods do not give the same man everything: you know how to gain a victory, Hannibal, but you do not know how to make use of it." A quote attributed to Maharbal after Cannae.
Suppose:
A. Immeadiately after Cannae Hannibal waits for nothing, gathers all walking he can and goes straight for Rome? Maybe 1 weeks forced march; see map File:Hannibal route of invasion.gif - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
B. Suppose he waits 2-3 days (no longer than a week) and then leaves for Rome with a slightly better equiped and repaired army?
Which gives him the better chance of bringing Rome to the negotiations table? Can he do this at all?
It is often said that Hannibal lacked seige equiptment... Starvation was and is single greatest seige method of forcing a seige.
I know this is an old one but not seen it posed here where we have so many people experienced in the realities of war.
Just as a note my solution: Send the cavalry and any fresh infantry ahead (must have had a few), not to hurt anyone seriously but to make them think the full army is coming then follow when troops are patched up and supplies laid up etc with the main army asap. He should also NOT have sent all the Senators rings to Carthage but to his Gallic allies to encourage further immeadiate recruitment. Then proceed to Rome and starve them out while figuring out how to make a battering ram.
Remember he is NOT trying to destroy Rome but to 'liberate' Italy from Rome.
Suppose:
A. Immeadiately after Cannae Hannibal waits for nothing, gathers all walking he can and goes straight for Rome? Maybe 1 weeks forced march; see map File:Hannibal route of invasion.gif - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
B. Suppose he waits 2-3 days (no longer than a week) and then leaves for Rome with a slightly better equiped and repaired army?
Which gives him the better chance of bringing Rome to the negotiations table? Can he do this at all?
It is often said that Hannibal lacked seige equiptment... Starvation was and is single greatest seige method of forcing a seige.
I know this is an old one but not seen it posed here where we have so many people experienced in the realities of war.
Just as a note my solution: Send the cavalry and any fresh infantry ahead (must have had a few), not to hurt anyone seriously but to make them think the full army is coming then follow when troops are patched up and supplies laid up etc with the main army asap. He should also NOT have sent all the Senators rings to Carthage but to his Gallic allies to encourage further immeadiate recruitment. Then proceed to Rome and starve them out while figuring out how to make a battering ram.
Remember he is NOT trying to destroy Rome but to 'liberate' Italy from Rome.
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