Hannibal: 3 Tactical Masterpieces That Broke Rome

In 1914 the German army marched into Belgium with a plan built around one battle fought 2,000 years earlier. Thirty years later Eisenhower wrote that every ground commander dreams of repeating it. The battle was Cannae, and the man who fought it was Hannibal Barca. For fifteen years Hannibal fought Rome in Italy, and Rome never beat him there. At the Trebia he chose the time: a cold, hungry Roman army waded an icy river into his ambush. At Lake Trasimene he chose the ground: a whole army hidden in the hills above a road in the fog. At Cannae he turned the enemy's strength into his trap. A weak centre bent back, the Libyan veterans closed in from both sides, and the cavalry shut the rear. Eighty thousand Romans were surrounded. Three battles, one method: he began not with a map, but with the man in command on the other side. Which of the three moves was the most brilliant? And should the next video be about Scipio Africanus, the man who finally beat him? Tell me in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cannae: the battle every general studies 0:38 Rome, Carthage and the family of Barca 1:23 Saguntum and the march over the Alps 1:50 Hannibal's army against Rome's 2:48 Move 1: the Trebia 4:37 Through the marshes of the Arno 4:54 Move 2: Lake Trasimene 6:36 Fabius the Delayer and the burning oxen 7:13 Move 3: Cannae 11:23 "You know how to win a victory" 11:36 Zama and the end of Hannibal 12:14 Three battles, one method 12:30 The greatest generals, in Hannibal's words SOURCES Polybius, Histories III · Livy, History of Rome XXI–XXII · Plutarch, Life of Fabius Maximus. Ancient army sizes and casualty figures are shown beside modern estimates. They are what the sources say, not established facts.