Second Punic War with Renforcments

Could Carthage send extra troops to Hannibal and triple the size of his army? The obvious answer is that they probably couldn't because such a fleet would be intercepted by the Roman navy.

But hey, there is no beyond visual range targeting in Roman times, so maybe if the Carthaginians underestimated the Roman navy and their own fleet got lucky, they could slip help without being intercepted.

Could Carthage triple the size of Hannibal's army after his victory at Cannae? Manpower requirements shouldn't be a problem since Tunisia back then had a population comparable to Italy (more stuff grew and there was more rainfall just 2000 years ago!). And I'm explicitly ignoring the problem of the Roman navy. But getting reinforcements to triple Hannibal's army and having enough food to survive the trip is a challenge. Let's be generous and say they try three attempts to land help and each time the Roman fleet juuuust misses them. I still think this is beyond their organizational capability.
 
The Carthaginians did try sending a relief army towards Hannibal's position in mid-northern Italy, but it was crushed at the Battle of the Metaurus (which arguably saved Rome).
 
The Carthaginians did try sending a relief army towards Hannibal's position in mid-northern Italy, but it was crushed at the Battle of the Metaurus (which arguably saved Rome).

I'm not talking about consideration of the two fleets meeting each other, but would a larger relief army be logistically possible? In OTL it wasn't as big as I mention
 
Oh, you mean the Punic navy ferrying armies to Italy?

Can they send enough men to triple Hannibal's army? He lost a lot of his starting men in the Alps, so he is offering with a lot less soldiers than he intended for his campaign. Specifically, a third of the size
 
Could Carthage send extra troops to Hannibal and triple the size of his army? The obvious answer is that they probably couldn't because such a fleet would be intercepted by the Roman navy.

But hey, there is no beyond visual range targeting in Roman times, so maybe if the Carthaginians underestimated the Roman navy and their own fleet got lucky, they could slip help without being intercepted.

Could Carthage triple the size of Hannibal's army after his victory at Cannae? Manpower requirements shouldn't be a problem since Tunisia back then had a population comparable to Italy (more stuff grew and there was more rainfall just 2000 years ago!). And I'm explicitly ignoring the problem of the Roman navy. But getting reinforcements to triple Hannibal's army and having enough food to survive the trip is a challenge. Let's be generous and say they try three attempts to land help and each time the Roman fleet juuuust misses them. I still think this is beyond their organizational capability.

Well, you have a couple of pretty big hurdles...

1. Politics. You have to remember that what the Barcids were doing in the years leading up to and what their armies were doing during the 2nd Punic War were largely being done as a family initiative, outside the direct control or direction of the government of Carthage proper. There's a reason that basically every one of their armies was under the leadership of one of Hannibal's various relations: The "Old Men" of the Carthaginian Senate felt that the family had jumped off the roof themselves and ended up dragging them into this unwanted war, while Hannibal's decision to cross the Alps and invade Italy meant that THEY had to take responsibility for defending Africa proper from the potential consequences of his behavior (Since they were, ultimately, more likely to take any blame from the folks back home). These are the men controlling the ships and the raising of additional troops in Africa, and they would be essentially conducting two separate campaigns as there was never established a real system of plans or on-site military coordination with the forces following Hannibal

2. Differing political structures. While Italy and Tunisia did have similar populations, you have to remember that Carthage diden't have strong direct control over all of Tunisia. There were many areas that were under the control of groups such as the Numidians who, while owing fealty and tribute to the city-state, had internal divisions and separate agendas that didn't provide as immediate and great an access to their manpower as Rome's system of alliances did. Hell, during the war the Numidians would go through a succession dispute that ended with them temporarily turning pro-Roman

3. Huge chunks of Hannibal's armies at this point aren't even Carthaginian; over a third are made up of local or recently migrated in Cisalpine Gauls who's leadership has chosen to march under his banners so they can plunder, secure revenge, and get recognition of control of land for their people against continuous Roman encroachment by breaking Italian power. This raises the proportional burden that would be placed on the North African population base in order to "triple" the size of the force.

4. Carthage lacked a strong system for or tradition of raising its citizens into soldiers that the Romans did: depending on mercenaries and a small core of professional troops. While this certainly made most of their units FAR more impressive than their Roman counterparts, particularly in terms of having a wide variety of local fighting traditions to draw upon from the diverse cultural groups from throughout their areas of control/commercial access, it also means there isen't much standardization and dramatically slows their ability to raise large numbers of men to arms.

That's not even to mention the fact that the logistics of supporting that many troops is going to require a major re-supply point on Sicily. You'd have to conquer that first, which while possible ruins the element of surprise. It'd probably be smarter to conduct what amounts to a 2nd campaign under a seperate, "offical" general from Carthage which compliments Hannibal than to swell the size of his existing army, or provide garrisons that insured areas Hannibal conquered/passed through remained loyal or help gurantee potential defector-allies among the Italians security. Historically, the Carthagians coulden't do permanent damage or encourage the breakdown of Roman control over the penninsula because the second Hannibal left Roman forces following him would re-establish their presence since he couldn't afford to leave behind men to project his own power. A 2nd Punic army would either force the Romans to split their efforts; meaning Hannibal could actually effectively force a field battle, or establish sufficent control over regions for anti-Roman parties in various political entities to defect without risking an immediate crushing Roman response.
 
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