in the annals of history there are many great defeats that live on in the cultural memory i mean after all any great victory by one side often represents a great defeat for another and among the great defeats in history perhaps nuns remained more famous than one during the second punic war when the general hannibal crossed the alps intent on destroying rome in a series of brilliant strategic victories hannibal threatened the very existence of the roman republic but perhaps he never came closer to finally destroying his foe than when he met an unprecedented eight roman legions in august of NUMBER_TOKEN bc on the fields of italia near the tiny village of canai it is history that deserves to be remembered the end of the first punic war was an embarrassing defeat for carthage the harsh terms of the peace treaty inspired an even greater hatred of rome and carthage set out to capture new lands in iberia which would provide it with new wealth and a base for a future war of revenge against the romans carthaginian general hamilkar barka led the invasion of iberia and after nine years of fighting had captured much of the southeastern portion of the peninsula before he was killed in battle in NUMBER_TOKEN bc the romans demanded the carthaginians cease their expansion in NUMBER_TOKEN bc hamilkar's son then NUMBER_TOKEN years old was given command of the carthaginian army that son was hannibal hanville quickly subdued most of the iberian peninsula animal would go to great lengths to plant his attack on rome he made allies in italy which gave him guides and conductors through the difficult passes of the alps hannibal fought a campaign from the pyrenees to the alps successfully using the land route to italy while difficult also allowed the carthaginians to avoid roman supremacy at sea it isn't known exactly what route hannibal used to cross the alps but across them he did arriving in italy in the fall of NUMBER_TOKEN bc thus began a devastating campaign he defeated the romans in the battle of trebia nearly encircling and destroying most the force and the following you destroyed another roman army in an ambush killing around fifteen thousand roman soldiers and capturing ten thousand more the romans elected quintus phabies maximus dictator for their defense panic was rising in rome fabius enacted his famous fabian strategy refusing to be drawn into a major engagement while wearing down the carthaginian force through minor skirmishes and giving rome time to recover meanwhile hannibal was devastating some of the richest parts of the roman state and drawing roman allies to his side sick of what they saw as cowardice in NUMBER_TOKEN bc the romans did not renew phabius's dictatorship and elected new consuls gaius territus barrow who advocated for an aggressive strategy and lucius emilius paulus hannibal wanted an engagement and in NUMBER_TOKEN he seized a base near kenneth which had a citadel on a supply depot polybius writes that it caused great commotion in the roman army for it was not only the loss of the place and the stores in it that distressed them but the
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