Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Roman Battle Force & Hannibal

The winter and early spring of 216 saw a continuation of the inconclusive action that had characterized the strategy followed by Fabius as dictator. When his term in that office ended, the consuls for the year 217 (who had been more or less sidelined while the dictatorship lasted) took over command of the army. These consuls, Gnaeus Servilius and Marcus Regulus (appointed after the death of Flaminius at Trasumennus), were subsequently granted proconsular authority to remain in command of the field army after the election of new consuls for 216.

According to Polybius, they were under specific instruction by the Senate--perhaps on the suggestion of Fabius--that they were:

On no account to risk a general engagement, but to

skirmish vigorously and unintermittantly so as to train

the lads and give them confidence for a general battle;

for they thought the chief cause of their late reverses

lay in their having employed newly raised and quite untrained levies."

In fact, the Roman force already in the field were at this point by no means raw levies. Although the Fabian strategy meant that they had engaged in no general action, they were by this time veterans of some months of skirmishing action, which seems on the whole to have gone well for the Romans. This action continued, and Polybius says rather contradictorily that

I shall therefore make no further mention of these [skirmishes], for nothing decisive or noteworthy was

done owing to these orders and owing to circumstances,

but only numerous skirmishes and minor engagements took place in which the Roman commanders had the advantage,

their conduct of the campaign being generally thought to have been both courageous and skilful.

A continuation of skirmishing action with "nothing decisive or noteworthy" was in fact good news for the Romans, and potentially very bad news for Hannibal. His political strategy had so far bo...

Page 1 of 35 Next >

More on Roman Battle Force & Hannibal...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Roman Battle Force & Hannibal. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 05:53, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1689710.html