Time to revive this thread. I've been working (albeit slowly) on the written aspect of this timeline, and I've gotten this far. I would also like to make note that this first post is essentially to provide the essential background needed for the POD’s of the Second Punic War. Later posts will be far more indepth and informative as it takes ancient history in an entirely new direction.
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218 BC - Hannibal Barca departs from Carthago Nova late in the Spring, fighting his way through the tribes of northern Spain. Hannibal then continues over the Pyrenees and into southern Gaul until he reaches the foothills of the Alps and narrowly avoids a Roman Army dispatched to meet him near Massalia.
- Messengers from the Insubres and Boii offer to guide the Carthaginians over and through the Alps in order to help them with their revolt against Rome. It is a long and tiring journey, full of unique challenges and the loss of many men but after several weeks, he found that he and his army had succeeded and were now looking at the fertile plains and valleys of Italy.
- In December, Hannibal meets the Roman army led by the consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus at the River Trebia. Publius Cornelius Scipio (Scipio Africanus), the son of Publius Scipio, is killed in the Battle of Trebia.
- Hannibal Barca of Carthage continues his long march south to Rome while still trying to persuade the cities under Roman influence to come to his cause. Hannibal also sends back most prisoners he takes with the order to spread the word that Carthage does not seek to conquer, but merely to liberate.
217 BC - It’s June, and Hannibal is preparing to meet yet another Roman army (this time under consul Gaius Flaminius) at Lake Trasimene. Gaius is rash like Tiberius and has his army devastated by Hannibal’s cunning and brilliant tactics once again. In less than three hours, the entire Roman army had been annihilated.
- News of the defeat at Trasimene caused a panic in Rome. In their panic, the Senate of Rome appoints Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus as Dictator of the Republic. He promptly adopts the "Fabian Strategy".
216 BC - Unhappy that Fabius’ tactics were not leading to a quick end to the war, The Roman populace derides him and elect Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus as consuls. These two pursued a much more aggressive war strategy and sought to confront Hannibal.
- Later that spring, Hannibal seized a large Roman supply depot at Cannae. By doing this, he had put himself directly between the Romans and a crucial supply source. This forces Rome to raise a fantastically enormous army, and Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro resolve to confront Hannibal and march south to Cannae.
- Hannibal Barca defeats the numerically superior Roman army that is commanded by Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro at the Battle of Cannae. This utterly destroys the Romans as a fighting force.
- Word reaches Rome about the utter defeat at Cannae, and Romans once again turn to Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus for guidance. He does his best to comfort the Romans and attempts to instill confidence in the people.
- The cities of Capua, Tarentum and several other city states and the provinces of Arpi, Salapia, Herdonia and Uzentum defect from the Republic and pledge allegiance to Hannibal. This also persuades the Greek city states in Sicily to revolt against Roman political control and Philip V of Macedon pledges his support to Hannibal. Hannibal promises to establish and politically back any city-states and new Hellenistic republics on the condition they provide his army with a safe base of operations, troops and any other resources he may need. Tarentum, Capua, and the rest of the southern provinces comply bolstering his army to an impressive size and giving him the ability to attack Rome itself.
- With Hannibal gaining allies and Rome losing territory and morale, Rome begins to panic and despair once more. Instead of choosing to ponder the situation further, Hannibal chooses to march on Rome with his newfound allies, resources and personnel. He hopes that it was also prevent the Romans from regrouping and posing a major threat to him.
- Hearing that Hannibal was victorious against Rome in Cannae and was preparing to march on Rome itself and choosing to take his chances, Philip V of Macedon chooses to take his chances with the possibility of Roman Quinqueremes and continues to sail on to Apollonia with his army. He soon begins his conquest of much of Illyria.
215 BC - By mid winter, Hannibal has reached the Gates of Rome, and immediately lays siege to the city. Many Romans begin to fear for their lives seeing that Hannibal Barca, the "Terror of Rome" sits right outside their very walls.
- Macedon and Carthage conclude in the summer after lengthy discussion that they would be allied in their fight against Rome, agreeing to go to the peace table simultaneously should the opportunity arise.
- Philip V of Macedon, while occupied with fighting the Illyrians in Greece, manages to establish a land link to the Adriatic coast and with the help of the Carthaginian Fleet, sends Hannibal 2000 Macedonian soldiers which land at Tarentum.
- After much debate in the Carthaginian Senate between Hanno II the Great (who didn’t want to send Hannibal reinforcements) and Giscon the Bold (who felt that Carthage should throw all her support behind Hannibal), Carthage feels it is time to strike and send Hannibal the needed supplies, reinforcements and siege engines in order to ease Hannibal of his war of attrition against Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus.
- Upon hearing of his expected reinforcements, Hannibal sends Carthalo to offer the Romans one last chance for peace or face their destruction, while simultaneously sending a letter of his intentions to Philip V who is still fighting in Illyria with moderate success.
- Hannibal, having secured the countryside with the help of his Hellenic allies, tries to coerce Rome to capitulate and surrender to Carthaginian terms. Dictator of Rome, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, famously proclaims: "the Children of Romulus would rather die by standing than live by kneeling".
- In early spring, Hannibal and his armies finally begin their assault on Rome. Using his fresh siege engines sailed over to him from Carthage, Hannibal orders his troops to target the city’s infrastructure first; having them try their best to hit the water system and the army barracks. Hannibal knows that he cannot win by fighting the disciplined Roman ranks in their own city. So he yet again devises a cunning plan.
Under the cover of darkness and over several nights, Hannibal has his men move the tents from their camp in the surrounding forest into plain sight of the Roman sentries on the wall convincing the Romans that he has become so arrogant as to move his camp right to the city gates. In all reality, Hannibal had only moved the tents, but his army still lay hidden and out of sight. Hannibal was hoping and expecting that the Romans would see this as too good of an opportunity to pass up and would attack at night, while most of his army slept.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus was wary of heading into what he rightly suspected was a Carthaginian ruse, but his young and rash Master of the Horse, Gaius Junius Brutus wanted to seize the opportunity of what he thought was a sure-fire victory and disobeying the orders of Fabius, marched what remained of the Roman garrison outside of its walls and directly at the camp. Hannibal had some of his scouting parties skirmish with the Roman and retreat toward the camp. Taking the bait, Brutus pursues them getting further from the protective walls of Rome. Hannibal then gives the signal (a horn) for the rest of his army to attack, which ends up tearing at their flanks and encircling the Romans and slaughtering them just like at Cannae.
This battle left hardly anyone alive to defend Rome. Hannibal gives the signal to attack the city and nearly destroys the city, much of it being burned. Hannibal presides over the burning of the Roman Senate Building personally. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus is killed defending the city, but enabled the escape of several thousand Romans into the surrounding countryside. Seeing the Roman Republic crumble before his eyes, Hannibal merely said: "I have fulfilled my oath".
214 BC - While the few remaining cities loyal to Rome continue to harass Hannibal’s troops in Italy, a Roman army had also been dispatched to Hispania in an attempt to cut-off the Carthaginians and redirect their attention. Due to the lengthy route and attacks by Gauls, Celts and a few skirmishes with Carthaginians, they do not reach their destination in Spain for nearly two years.
211 BC - Publius Scipio (Scipio's father) and Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus are killed in the Battle of the Upper Baetis against Hasdrubal Barca in Spain. The Celtiberians, convinced by Hasdrubal to desert the Romans, left the Romans severely undermanned and surprised, which made it easy for Hasdrubal to destroy their armies. Roman Generals subsequently are afraid to fight in Hispania, seeing it as a death sentence for any any brave or foolish enough to challenge the Carthaginians in Spain.
210 BC - Gaius Laelius, unaware of Rome’s destruction, attempts to lead the Roman attack on Hispania. They land and capture Carthago Nova. He finds it hard to control his troops from plundering, which only alienates the Romans from the native Celtiberians. Without allies, reinforcements or a proper safe haven, the Roman army is decisively defeated at the Battle of the Ebro by Hasdrubal and Mago Barca.
- Hannibal and a few more reinforcements from Africa and the arrival of the Numidian Masinissa's army in northern Italy enable the Carthaginians to continue to lay waste to the Roman countryside. Roman morale crumbles under the occupation and Roman cities begin to defect left, right and centre in exchange for leniency and being spared the wrath of the Carthaginian armies. The few cities that had remained fiercely loyal to the Republic were so disheartened that Carthaginian scouts had reported seeing ships being filled to the brim and sailing for Greece.
209 BC - In complete disarray and utterly demoralized, the remaining Roman Legions that had been camping and moving throughout Italy harassing the Carthaginian armies finally surrender to Hannibal and what remained of the Roman Republic melts away virtually overnight. Hannibal and his armies continue to systematically disassemble the Roman system while establishing Hellenistic republics in southern Italy loyal to Hannibal and Carthage as he had promised them he would.
201 BC - Hannibal and his armies leave Italy as victors of the Second Punic War. They leave behind them a shattered Roman Republic. In the north, the Gauls have made some gains, and the Ligurians have secured themselves a niche along the coast and in the mountains. Carthage directly added all of Italy south of the Neto River to their control while splitting up the rest of southern Italy with the Lucanian Republic and Tarentine Republic; both of which were mainly Greek. They also recognized the independence of the city state of Capua. In the northeast, Carthage was able to establish the Republic of Picentis which was allied to the Boii. The rest of the Italian peninsula was made up of squabbling, independent Roman city states. Carthage also managed to walk away with most of Sicily except for the Greek city state of Syracuse, and all of Sardinia and Corsica and most of the islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
