History keeps many names of great commanders, aboutwhose great victories the whole world knows. One of these is Hannibal Barka, his talent and ability to think outside the box allowed Carthage to win many great victories. One of the most risky strategic maneuvers, which made the commander, is the passage of his many thousands of troops across the Alps. This article is devoted to the description of the history of the transition of the army of Hannibal over the Alps, its outcome and consequences.
Before you learn briefly about the transition Hannibalthrough the Alps, you should talk about who the commander himself was. He is a famous Carthaginian warlord and politician, who, thanks to his talent as a strategist, won a number of important victories over Rome. Commander was born in 247 BC. er in the city of Carthage, his father Hamilcar Bark was the commander of the Carthaginian army, located in Spain, in addition, he was quite an influential person in the country and claimed the role of political leader.
Since childhood, Hannibal showed the makingsoutstanding military figure, so the father, seeing in him the continuer of his plans, gave his son a good comprehensive education. Hannibal was brought up in a military camp, but in addition to active physical training, the future commander studied Greek and Latin, military art, and was interested in the reforms of Solon. The transition of Hannibal over the Alps was precisely because of this success.
В итоге из парня получился, умный, сильный, a brave commander who often set an example by his actions to the soldiers. In 221 BC. er year already in adulthood, Barca, despite the opposition of the local aristocracy, was proclaimed commander of the forces of Carthage. Since that time, the commander began to fulfill the oath given to his father, to be always an enemy of Rome. Defeat in the First Punic War for Carthage had serious consequences, so Hannibal, considering the war inevitable, began to provoke a clash with Rome, pre-accumulating forces.
2 facts of this event do not give rest to historians: what provoked the commander to such a risky operation and what predetermined her success?
According to the prisoner of the world 242 BC. er, Carthage paid a high price for its defeat, the country lost its dominance in the Mediterranean. Hannibal's father, Hamilcar, pursuing an active aggressive policy of regaining the lost dominant position, often affected the interests of Rome, thereby provoking Rome to start a new war.
So, the conquests in Spain were excellent.a springboard for an attack on Rome, which could not help but stay away from the Republic. After the death of Hamilcar in battle, his son-in-law Hasdrubal became the new commander of the Carthaginian army, who continued his policy even more actively. So, a very important decision of his was founding in the Pyrenees of New Carthage, which was destined to become the administrative and commercial center of the Spanish possessions of Carthage. Ultimately, by 218 BC, Carthage compensated for all its losses after the First Punic War; therefore, the inevitability of the war with Rome was ripe.
By the time Hannibal came to power, he onlywas twenty-five years old, but he was already an experienced commander and was well aware that the time for the attack on Rome had come. But initially it was necessary to prepare for war. Bark got a strong alliance with the Iberian tribes and began to gather an army. The reason for the war was the attack on the city-fortress Sagunt, which was an ally of Rome, located in Spain. After a seven-month siege in 218 BC. er the city was taken, and only then did the Roman embassy in Carthage declare war on them. From that moment, the Second Punic War began, and Hannibal Bark began to think about the route of attack on Italy.
Before going to Italy, Hannibal decidedto secure their territories in advance, so in Africa the commander left 13 thousand infantrymen and more than one thousand horsemen, the city of Carthage left to defend 4 thousand soldiers. Hannibal himself went to march to Italy through the Alps, with an army of 40,000 infantry soldiers and 9,000 thousand horsemen, in addition, 37 war elephants participated in the march. Also in reserve in Spain, under the leadership of brother Barka Hasdrubal, 13 thousand infantrymen and 1.5 thousand horsemen and 21 battle elephants remained. The armies of Hannibal were opposed by the Roman legions led by the consul Tiberius Sempronius Long, with 22 thousand infantrymen and 2.5 thousand horsemen, and the second consul Publius Cornelius Scipio, who had legions with 20 thousand soldiers of infantry and 2 thousand warriors. Date of transition Hannibal over the Alps - 218 BC. er
The main reason that determined the choiceHannibal Barca of the attack route through the Alps, was the desire to take advantage of the effect of surprise. Since at that time, the transition through the northern Alps due to the difficult passage and cold weather of a many thousands army was considered suicide. The route of Hannibal had to be chosen very carefully, so the road for movement had to be passable for horse riders, hulking elephants, as well as various carts with provisions and equipment. In addition, the path should not take a lot of time, since the size of the provisions was very limited. Historical sources report several possible routes for the commander’s march, the most preferred is the version of Titus Libya, which is supported by many modern researchers.
At that time, there were a total of three possibleroute through the Alps. The first route passed on the coastal road, it was the most easily passable, but it was blocked by Roman troops, so Barca could not move along it. The second route passed through the Cottija Alps. Despite the fact that this path was the shortest, it was of little use for the passage of a large army, only in the times of Pompey on this route was a military road laid for establishing communication with the Gallic provinces. The third route ran through the Graysky Alps, the passage had the name Small San Bernard, it was the longest possible route, but also the most convenient, since the valley through which the path ran was very wide and fertile for grazing animals. In addition, the road through the Graian Alps was one of the lowest.
An interesting fact is that through this passage madehis Italian campaign, Alexander Suvorov with his army. Thus, based on the work of Libya and other sources, modern researchers have concluded that Hannibal Barka, with his many thousands of army, approached the Alpine mountains, moving up the river Rhone, then through the San Bernard pass, he entered the valley of the Po, and passing with the battle of the land of the Taurins and the Gallic tribes, the commander went to the pass, which opened the way to Northern Italy.
The date of the beginning of the transition of troops through the Alps, as alreadymentioned above, it is considered to be 218 BC. Immediately in the first days, the Carthaginian warriors were confronted with impassable narrow steep paths that were difficult for a person to walk on, not to mention a loaded cart or elephants. But the difficulty of the landscape of the mountains and the constant cold were not the only obstacles that Hannibal's army had to face.
So in the first days of the transition before Hannibalthere was a difficulty how to pass the detachments of warriors of the Gallic tribes, who occupied the passage through the large chain of the Alps. The commander's gift of Hannibal solved this problem by taking advantage of the fact that the soldiers of the enemy tribe were returning to their villages for the night and the passage remained free at night. Having ordered to occupy it with his forward detachments, the commander cleared the way for his troops. But well-guided in the area, the Gauls attacked the rearguard of the Carthaginian troops, which caused a terrible crush on a narrow road, as a result of which the Barki army suffered significant losses, not only from arrows and spears, but also from the fall of soldiers and horses heights. Eventually, the army of Barki managed to push back the Gauls and safely descend into the valley of Chambery, where the commander gave a small Gallic city to plunder his troops. In the valley, Hannibal Barka gave his troops a few days of rest to lick their wounds and replenish their supplies from the carts seized from the Gauls.
For three days, without encountering resistance,The Carthaginian army moved up the Isera River. Then the army of Barki entered the territory of the tribe of centrons, the locals warmly greeted the soldiers, supplied them with the necessary supplies and gave them guides. But as it turned out later, it was a well-thought-out trap, since the path pointed out by the guides brought the Carthaginian army to ambush. Enemy warriors began to roll huge boulders off the rocks and showered the Carthaginians with arrows and spears, but before the march Hannibal showed caution, so the cavalry and light troops were sent to the vanguard by his order, and the main infantry went behind the lines. Thanks to this, the advanced units of the commander managed to occupy the dominant heights, which made it possible for the troops to make the transition, but still the Carthage army suffered some serious losses. Although the losses could have been even greater if it had not been for the Carthaginian elephants, whose very appearance intimidated the enemy warriors so much that they were even afraid to approach them.
On the ninth day of the transition of Hannibal over the Alps(year 218 BC. e.) was reached the top of the passage. Here the army commander set up camps in order to rest, wait for those left behind and get lost, collect runaway horses and cattle. By this time, the morale of the troops due to heavy losses, difficulties of transition has fallen very much. Seeing this, Hannibal, with his speech, tried to encourage the warriors, realizing that it was as difficult to descend from the Alps as it was to climb them.
Despite the fact that the attacks of enemy tribespractically ceased, the hardship was aggravated by the deteriorating weather in the form of heavy snowfall and cold weather. The presence of deep snow masses that covered the narrow paths made each step very difficult. In addition, the road became very slippery and many warriors, having slipped, fell into the abyss from a great height, not having a chance to grab a bush or a tree, as there were none.
The situation became even more complicated when, reachingthe next transition, the warriors found that he was completely overwhelmed with stones and snow. The ingenious thinking of Hannibal found a way out of this seemingly hopeless situation. The commander gave the command that the soldiers cut a small path in the aisle and made a big fire there, when the fire was completely burned, vinegar was poured on the burning stones of the Carthaginian warriors, which made the stones more friable. Further, on the orders of Hannibal, the tired and starving soldiers used iron guns to clear the passage for two days, on the third day the army of Hannibal went through the transition and later did not encounter great difficulties on their way.
Soon the army of Hannibal went to the fertile valleyBaltei, where the local population met the warriors as liberators and organized a warm welcome for them. Since there was no rye army nearby, the troops of Hannibal spread their camp and replenish their forces for fourteen days, because then they were expected to march to the north of Italy. In total, the transition of the many thousands of army of Hannibal Barki took fifteen days.
Despite the fact that Hannibal achieved his goal andopened the door to Northern Italy, the campaign was very difficult for him and his troops. Fifteen days of the exhausted transfer of Hannibal's troops across the Alps (the reader’s date is already known) as a result of clashes with local tribes, cold, famine and a fall from a height of 40 thousand infantrymen from the army and 9 thousand horsemen survived about half of the infantry soldiers and 6 thousand horsemen warriors. In addition, of the thirty-seven war elephants who started the campaign, about fifteen survived, but this number, as further events show, will be enough to terrify the Roman legionaries. Also, many surviving warriors, as Polybius writes, during a grueling campaign from hunger and physical exhaustion lost their mind and could no longer fight.
Commander Hannibal Bark himself in his writingsrecognized that the idea of a hike through the Alps had its drawbacks. As mentioned above, after the transition of Hannibal over the Alps (we briefly described him in the article), the Carthaginian army missed about half of its soldiers, but the door to northern Italy before Hannibal was opened, thus the goal was achieved. Bark made up for his losses from among the Gallic tribes who were opponents of the Roman Republic and were glad to take part in its defeat.
In general, the effect of surprise on suchstrategic commander maneuver was huge, the plan of the Roman Republic, which assumed the conduct of hostilities in Spain and just did not allow the appearance of enemy troops on its territory, suffered a complete collapse. After replenishing the forces and inflicting the first defeats on Rome in the battles of Titin, Trebbia and Lake Trasimenes, the strategic initiative in the first stage of the Second Punic Wars was firmly transferred to Carthage.
An event such as the transition of Hannibal over the Alps,could not be reflected in art. Thus, the famous artist Hives Turner painted the painting "Blizzard: Hannibal and his army are crossing the Alps." This picture of the transition of Hannibal over the Alps reflects in a very abstract manner. Also created many engravings dedicated to the transition commander. This, for example, is an engraving in color, made in 1866 by Heinrich Leitman under the name "Hannibal crosses the Alps", or a 19th century engraving "Hannibal on the march." Also the history of the transition of Hannibal through the Alps is devoted to a lot of documentary films of such TV channels as the BBC, "Culture", etc.
Summing up, it is important to note that the mainThe reason that commanded commander Hannibal Barku to make a campaign with his army across the Alps was the desire for an unexpected attack, since the Roman Republic could not expect a blow from the north. The transition of Hannibal over the Alps (historical facts were presented in the article) was started by the army with about 50 thousand people, after the completion of the transition about 26 thousand soldiers survived. But the resulting effect of surprise, despite the large numerical losses, was enough for Carthage in order to win a number of very important military victories at the first stage of the Punic Wars and put the Roman Republic on the verge of complete destruction.
