Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post

I'm only harsh on Hannibal to demonstrate the futility of a strategy based on something which was not tactically feasible. - that - relegates him from "great general" to "good general." Yes he did incredibly well with very little. He gets an "A" for good effort, but he died and Rome went on.
I personally think that his effort was strategically and tactically feasible, perhaps even very much so. We must consider that the Italian peninsular was inhabitated by a many distinct cultures and ethnics. The Greek, Samnite, Latins, Umbrians, Etruscans, Celts, Illyrians, Raetians were just some of those. Many of them had strongly opposed Rome in the remote and recent past, often by forging large and powerful alliances.

Shattering the Roman system of alliances and strong recruiting among those unhappy with Roman dominance could bring Rome on it's knees, especially with a steady flow of reinforcements by the dominions in Spain and by Carthage over the sea. All those calculations and hopes were not pulled out of thin air.



Firn