Hannibal's & the Gauls

At about the time Hannibal's army descended from the Alps into the North Italian plain, an internicine war broke out between two tribes of Cisalpine Gauls, the Taurini (whence the name of modern Turin) and the Insubres. This conflict provided Hannibal with an opportunity to forcibly engage the attentions of the Gauls.

The Taurini who live at the foot of the mountains

quarrelled with the Insubres and showed no confidence in

the Carthagenians, [Hannibal] at first made overtures for their friendship and alliance, but on their rejecting

these he encamped round their chief city and reduced it

in three days. By massacring those who had been opposed

to him he struck such terror into the neighbouring tribes that they all came in at once and submitted to him.

Livy tells much the same story. The diplomatic maneuverings that underlay this affair are obscure, and somewhat puzzling. It would seem as though Hannibal originally made overtures to the Taurini, and only after these were rejected did he attack and storm their chief town. It may be that the Taurini were the stronger of the two tribes, and that Hannibal initially preferred an alliance with them, attacking them only after their equivocal response to his overtures. Alternatively, he might have called on both combatant tribes to set aside their local dispute and join him against the Romans.

Yet another possibility, however, is that Hannibal simply was looking for an opportunity to make an object demonstra

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hasty response. It accomplished exactly that; after first sending out a limited force to drive off the Numidians, Sempronius proceeded to deploy his entire army, "thinking that the mere sight of them would decide the issue, so much confidence did his superiority in numbers and the success of his cavalry on the previous day give him." The role of human factors in ancient infantry warfare are shown with exceptional vividness in the battle of Trebia that followed. Both Polybius and Livy make specific contrast between the physical condition of Hannibal's troops and their Roman opponents. The time of year was about the winter solstice, and the day exceedingly cold and snowy, while the men and horses nearly all left the camp without having had their morning meal. At first their enthusiasm and eagerness sustained them, but when they had to cross the Trebia, swollen as it was owing to the rain that had fallen during the night ... the infantry had great difficulty in crossing, as the water was breast-high. The consequence was that the whole force suffered much from cold and also from hunger, as the day was now advancing. The Carthagenians, on the contrary, who had eaten and drunk in their tents and looked afte

Category: History - H