The Second Punic War

The Second Punic War is an episode on the OverSimplified channel. Its existence was teased at the end of the First Punic Wars and was confirmed on January 19, 2024, by this YouTube video. Part 1 and part 2 have been released, and Part 3 will come later.
This was released over a year later, due to an "excavator swinging" accident the creator and his buddies did.
== Summary ==
=== Part 1 ===
This series is a direct continuation of The First Punic War. After Carthage's defeat, the Carthaginian leader reveals that he is unable to pay his army due to being in debt to Rome. The soldiers revolted, resulting in the Mercenary War (241 - 238 BC). Meanwhile, Rome took advantage of a collapsing Carthage. Sardinia asked Rome for help, which they invaded the island. Carthage immediately surrendered and lost Sardinia and Corsica to Rome. The Carthaginians were humiliated for a second time, and even Rome could not justify this land grab. Finally, Rome added onto Carthage's debt, spicing up their resentment for Rome.
A hero of the First Punic War—Hamilcar Barca—helped ended the Mercenary War. He came up with a plan to pay off Carthage's debt: raid the Iberian peninsula's silver mines. While other people back, Hamilcar ominously "reassured" them that he just wanted to pay Rome's debt. Hamilcar was filled with vengeance and was fed up with Carthage's politicians. He took his 9-year-old son, Hannibal, with him on his journey to Iberia.
Along the way, Hamilcar taught his son to hate everything Roman and spread vengeance to him. At the temple of Ba'al, Hannibal swore to oath to never ally with Rome. Once in Iberia, the pair expanded their empire, ran silver mines, and sent the money to Carthage and Rome. Hannibal learned how to fight in a war; his father was proud of him. They even founded a new city: New Carthage. Hamilcar revealed to his son that he was actually planning on getting revenge on Rome but didn't want them to know.
Rome was surprised that Carthage was able to pay off its debt relatively quickly. Since Rome was busy with other wars, it signed a treaty with Carthage to keep it in check: territories north of the Ebro River would be under Roman influence, while everything south of it would be under Carthaginian influence. There was one exception: The city-state of Saguntum was to remain independent, despite being south of the river. Rome supported its independence, likely to anger Carthage.
In 228 BC, Hamilcar Barca was killed in an ambush in a river. Later on, after Hannibal's son-in-law was assassinated, left Hannibal at the age of 26, the ruler of Carthage. As ruler, he gained the respect of his army by living in the same conditions as him. This was the first part of Hannibal's plan for vengeance. He then paid off Carthage's debts to Rome. In 219 BC, Hannibal realized that Sanguntum was a opportunity to cause revenge against Rome. This was because Ebro Treaty had an exception: Saguntum, which actually became friends with Rome, likely to anger Carthage. But then, when Hannibal was deciding what to do next, Saguntum became a republic and attacked Carthage. As a result, Hannibal laid siege to the city, destroying the city and its defenses. When Rome heard of the news, they were outraged and sent a high ranking official, Fabius Maximus, who declared war on Carthage in 218 BC, thus starting the Second Punic War.
Hannibal decided they should act a bit more Roman, and invade Rome from the north while the Romans (lead by consul Longus), so he gathered ~100,000 men to the other side of the river, across the Pyrenees, into the area of Southern Gaul, and suffered pretty heavy losses before even crossing the Alps. The first combat of the war began whilst Hannibal attempted to cross the Rhone river when Consul Scipio had caught the sight of them. Hannibal then lead at least 50,000 men, a bunch of cavalry, and 37 elephants to cross the alps on Late Autumn. He only had about 26,000 men remaining but Hannibal knew how to reinforce more men.
=== Part 2 ===
Scipio prepares to battle Hannibal head-on after their crossing of the Alps. Hannibal decides to inspire his men by capturing Celt prisoners and killing them, which is a metaphor for their situation. Scipio, meanwhile, inspires his army by comparing the enemy to babies. They charge, but are sent back (Battle of Ticinus). Scipio is wounded in this battle, and Scipio the Younger, lost his hair and saved his father. The Romans ended up running away, humiliated. This attracted the Celts; they bring them Roman Heads as a present, which was embarrassing for the Romans. The Roman council decides to send in Longus, who wanted to be the big boy and invade Carthage in the south. However, he is ordered home (napping beforehand). Longus formed a Double-Consular army, and Longus intimidates Scipio, who disobeys his orders to hold off. The Romans were torn between both Consuls commanding, and Longus started off. Hannibal has spies to find out about Longus. 
Hannibal needed to keep winning battles to keep the Celts, so he formed a plan to beat Longus. The Battle of Trebia started after he put the Carthaginian army to bed, and Gorzog went and sent out Numidians to lure out Longus. He falls for it, and sends out the troops, cold, unfed and tired. They are lured back to Carthaginian camp, who are having breakfast. The Romans are whipped into the cold river, which freezes them. Hannibal oils down the Carthaginians with lavender oil, and meanwhile the Romans are frozen. They are not playing Truth or Dare like the Carthaginians, The Romans are easily beaten. To aid them, Hannibal's brother, who hid in a bush, helped out with Double Entrapment. Hannibal had successfully controlled the conditions for battle, allowing them to secure a Carthaginian victory, although almost all their elephants had succumbed to the cold after the battle.
Longus escaped, and obscured communication to Rome. He hid 30,000 men under a carpet, and his timer goes off to end his Consulship. He and Scipio are replaced by Servilius and Flaminius. The Romans now know their trouble. Hannibal had to maintain his alliances, but they may become resentful for his use of their home. Hannibal had to move south to appease them, so instead of marching into a trap in the mountains, he decides to trek 4 days across the marshlands. There is nowhere to sit or lie down, and therefore were slugging through mud without any sleep while suffering Cholera, feet falling off, and poop in your path. Men wish to lie down on piles of mud which go under, and when pack animals die, the men could also rest, but are whipped into line again. Hannibal contracted an infection in his eye, so he carves it out with his sword. The army is shattered, but he got them past the trap and Celts and his army both could replenish resources.
Flaminius decided to single handedly defeat Hannibal, and from the lower classes, had a "screw-you" attitude. Hannibal's spies alerted him, and he knew he could trap them in a narrow pass near Lake Trasimine. Flaminius falls for the trap, and both armies set up camp across the lake. Over night, Hannibal orders stealth to hide in the wooded hills, undetected. Flaminius goes across the lake shore the next morning, and with a thick fog, Hannibal attacks Flaminius in his "trap". They are hemmed in on all sides, killed in the lake. An angry Celt spears Flaminius' head. The army is completely wiped out, and escaped Romans see the blood red lake and their bodies. Servilius' troops were caught and defeated before they could aid Flaminius. Rome goes into a frenzy. Citizens flock to the city. Hannibal is less than 100 miles to the city. 
In a crisis, Rome imposed a special Dictator, Fabius Maximus, who is limited to 6 months. He knew Hannibal was stuck on their land, so he decided NOT to fight. They would block resources and drain Hannibal's resources. This is not what Romans do, so the Romans (including Hannibal) hated the strategy. Hannibal burns all the farms (including MacDonald's) in the area. To imply that Fabius has a secret deal with Hannibal, he doesn't burn Fabius' farm. Hannibal has to keep on the move, so he enters Campania. This a great place with resources, but he gets stuck in a valley. However, there are lights in-plain view in the night, and the Romans fall for it, but they are a hoard of oxen, while Hannibal slips away into the night while the Romans fight a small ambush. Fabius's strategy is the best thing he could do, but he is dubbed "The Delayer". The senate ends his term, and decides to march directly at Hannibal with 80,000 men.
With two new consuls, Varro and Paullus, Rome got its massive army together, two-thirds of whom were inexperienced. They needed one victory, so they battled at Cannae. On the eve of the fight, Hannibal, to the panicking army, tells a "joke" and everyone laughs, which invigorates the army. This was a battle against a hot head and an old scholar again, but this may be tampered evidence with the writer, Polybius. The hot-headed Varro started the second largest battle. Hannibal tried to fight form the south so the dust could blind the forces. Hannibal had 40,000 men now. The Romans charged at the middle of the army line. Hannibal, once again, used trickery: the Romans pushed into the Carthaginian army. In doing so, the Romans hit the weakest troops first. Hannibal positioned himself at the center to cheer on his army. The cavalry needed time to fight off Paullus, who possibly had a head injury and went into the center. Varro is approached from behind, who flees, losing the cavalry battle. As the Romans pushed deeper into the Carthaginians, organization within the army likely broke down. The elite units, who haven't fought yet (some of them disguised in Roman armor) began their attack. As the cavalry returned at the rear, Hannibal had just used his relatively small army to encircle a much larger one. The Carthaginians began annihilating the Romans, who were very tightly packed that they could barely move their arms. This onslaught continued for hours. The Romans suffered between 60 and 80,000 casualties comparing to the Carthaginian's 8,000 casualties. Some high-ranking soldiers died, including Paullus and 80 senators (20% of Rome's male population aged 18 to 50 were killed). An estimated 30,000 gallons of blood remained on the battlefield, and the stunned Carthaginians searched for their survivors among the dead.
Southern Italy defected to Hannibal's side. He expects the rest of Rome to surrender and reduce their territories. Unfortunately, he had just underestimated them for the first time. At a Roman survivor's camp after Cannae, a soldier hears some officers talking about abandoning Rome, but someone Scipio the Younger, draws his sword to get them to protect Rome in its hour of need. Scipio the Younger would be known as Scipio Africanus (Hero of Rome).
=== Part 3 ===
As of BITBC(V2) (talk • blogs • contribs) 00:22, 15 May 2024 (UTC), Part 3 has yet to be released. However, at the end of Part 2, OverSimplified made a teaser for Part 3, saying it probably won't take more than a year again.
==Trivia==
*The gap between this video and the previous is the longest period of time between the releases of OverSimplfied videos, at 505 days. This broke the previous record holder, held by the First Punic Wars, at nine months.
*This will be the first video to have three parts.
** It is the first series where all installments are not released on the same day.
*Part 2 is the second longest video on the OverSimplified YouTube channel, only beaten by The Pig War.
*The board at around 9:08 in Part 2 had running gags that referenced many of Oversimplified previous videos.
**The two sticky notes pointing to the Carthaginian camps says "Punish them SEVERELY!" and "WHAT A WONDERFUL TIME TO BE ALIVE!" which should be understood by now.
**The sticky note pointing to the main battlefield says "men are smaller when COLD! - STUPID COLD!" which referenced every time winter arrives in Russia to impede the invading soldiers.
**The note on the river says "WHO WANTS A RIVER-LUTION?" which alludes back to when the German general finds Lenin and says "Who wants to start a revolution?"
**The bushes says "DUDE, So Cool" which is the opposite of the famous gag, Dude, Uncool. It was also uttered by Rasputin.
**The Roman camp makes it so that when the Romans wake up for battle, they can't have breakfast 'Like a "Cereal Killer". This might also refer back to when Lenin argued that Cereal is a soup.
== Videos ==
The Second Punic War - OverSimplified (Part 1)|Part 1
The Second Punic War - OverSimplified (Part 2)|Part 2
Second Punic War 3 (Teaser).png|Part 3 (Teaser)
 
Category:Videos
Category:Three Part Video