Hannibal conquers Rome after the Battle of Cannae

Marc

Donor
Query:

Rome is often mentioned as having nearly unlimited manpower resources to recoup from any military disaster during the Punic Wars.
Allowing for the prospect of universal military service (which is somewhat questionable given the economy of the times), how does Rome manage to field legion after legion?
 
Query:

Rome is often mentioned as having nearly unlimited manpower resources to recoup from any military disaster during the Punic Wars.
Allowing for the prospect of universal military service (which is somewhat questionable given the economy of the times), how does Rome manage to field legion after legion?

Until the Marian Reform, conscription, both of Roman citizens and Latin allies, plus, granting freedom to slaves willing to enlist in the army in dire situations.
 
Hannibal had no way to breach the walls of Rome. Otherwise, he might not have taken 8 months to take Saguntum, a city whose main/inner walls were far less impressive than Rome's. I discuss the possibility of the Romans giving him trouble in my own thread http://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/rome-sends-aid-to-saguntum.452129/ but safe to say Rome is off the table for him.

He did dream of assaulting some of the lesser cities (lesser than Rome, comparable to Saguntum) in the Italian Peninsula and dislodging Roman control. then he lost 70% of his men crossing the Alps (remember, the Alps was his Plan B when a surprise march along the coast failed). He no longer has his ladders and even if he could make them, he had to boost the size of his army with Celtic allies and mercenaries. The history of Carthage has thought us, always pay your mercenaries. And you can't loot booty when sieging stuff. So he had to win cities by treachery.
 

Marc

Donor
Until the Marian Reform, conscription, both of Roman citizens and Latin allies, plus, granting freedom to slaves willing to enlist in the army in dire situations.

First, thanks for the response.
I did a basic search on some of the possible numbers. Rome probably had about two dozen legions plus auxiliaries, and somewhere between 150-200 naval vessels at the peak of the Punic wars. Say about 150,000 to 200,000 total. Drawn from a total population base of maybe 4 or less millions (including allies and slaves). My take is that they were pretty much maxed out on their manpower at that point.
Which adds another aspect to how hard it was for them to finally prevail over a resource poorer enemy.
 
Last edited:
I think everyone else has covered pretty much everything, I'd just like to add a few things.

Firstly, Hannibal's early victories were more-or-less purely psychological. The biggest loss to Rome was the deaths of so many experienced senatorial commanders, but that may have been a good thing in the long-run, since the overconfidence of these elder generals was a big factor in the defeats at Trebia and Cannae already. Hannibal was one of the greatest military minds of antiquity, and a general his equal wouldn't really be seen until Sulla comes on the scene in a century. But that brilliance (coupled with the element of surprise) was really the only reason he had so much success. A lesser general would have been smashed by the Romans much earlier, and he wasn't able to control significant parts of Italy because the domestic support that Rome enjoyed was so overwhelming compared to any resistance among the socii. If we look at Rome's conquests, we see a constant use of the divide and rule strategy, not just in Gaul, but most notably in Greece. It took quite a few wars with wildly shifting alliances for Rome to really stamp out resistance in Greece, and I believe it would take something analogous for Carthage to exert any sort of comparable victory over Rome. Maybe if Hannibal's family had been given another century to establish a strong fiefdom in Spain, they would have been able to take Rome on their own, Carthage be damned, but imo, Hannibal was too hasty and his plan too bold for any meaningful results. He basically tried to blitzkrieg through Italy and use the psychological impact to turn the socii against Rome, but the Italians were too loyal (for the most part), so despite his tactical victories at Trebia, Lake Trasemine, and Cannae, the campaign was a strategic failure. It also didn't help that two of Rome's greatest generals to date, Scipio Africanus and Fabius Maximus, just happened to be at the heights of their careers at the same time as well.
 
Top