Editing Hannibal (section)

===Overland journey to Italy===
{{Main|Hannibal's crossing of the Alps}}
[[File:Hannibal's Travels during the Second Punic War.png|thumb|alt=a map of the western Mediterranean showing the route followed by the Carthaginians from Iberia to Italy|{{center|Hannibal's route from Iberia to Italy}}]]
This campaign was originally planned by Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal the Fair, who became a Carthaginian general in the Iberian Peninsula in 229&nbsp;BC. He maintained this post for eight years until 221&nbsp;BC. Soon, the Romans became aware of an alliance between Carthage and the [[Celts]] of the [[Po Valley]] in Northern Italy. When Hannibal arrived in the Po Valley, roughly 10,000 Celtic tribesmen joined his army.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ellis |first=Peter Berresford |title=A Brief History of the Celts |publisher=Robinson |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-84119-790-6 |edition=Revised Paperback |location=London |pages=208 |author-link=Peter Berresford Ellis}}</ref>

The Celts were amassing forces to invade farther south in Italy, presumably with Carthaginian backing. Therefore, the Romans pre-emptively invaded the Po region in 225&nbsp;BC. By 220&nbsp;BC, the Romans had annexed the area as [[Cisalpine Gaul]].<ref>Fagan, Garret G. "The History of Ancient Rome". Lecture 13: "The Second Punic War". Teaching Company, "Great Courses" series.</ref> Hasdrubal was assassinated around the same time (221&nbsp;BC), bringing Hannibal to the fore. It seems that the Romans lulled themselves into a false sense of security, having dealt with the threat of a Gallo-Carthaginian invasion, and perhaps knowing that the original Carthaginian commander had been killed.

Hannibal departed Cartagena, Spain (New Carthage) in late spring of 218&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lancel|first=Serge|author-link=Serge Lancel|title=Hannibal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uVh2FH-LF4C&pg=PA225|year=1999|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-0-631-21848-7|page= 225}}</ref> He fought his way through the northern tribes to the foothills of the [[Pyrenees]], subduing the tribes through clever mountain tactics and stubborn fighting. He left a detachment of 20,000 troops to garrison the newly conquered region. At the Pyrenees, he released 11,000 Iberian troops who showed reluctance to leave their homeland. Hannibal reportedly entered Gaul with 40,000 foot soldiers and 12,000 horsemen.<ref>{{cite book|last=Prevas|first=John|author-link=John Prevas|title=Hannibal Crosses the Alps: The Invasion of Italy and the Punic Wars|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zgi7RMJSCxMC&pg=PA86|year= 2009|publisher=Perseus Books Group|isbn=978-0-7867-3121-3|page=86}}</ref>

Hannibal recognized that he still needed to cross the Pyrenees, the Alps, and many large rivers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mahaney|first=W. C.|author-link=W. C. Mahaney|title=Hannibal's Odyssey: Environmental Background to the Alpine Invasion of Italia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vU9QPgAACAAJ|year=2008|publisher=Gorgias Press|isbn=978-1-59333-951-7|page= 221}}</ref> Additionally, he would have to contend with opposition from the [[Gaul]]s, whose territory he passed through. Starting in the spring of 218&nbsp;BC, he crossed the Pyrenees and, by conciliating the Gaulish chiefs along his passage before the Romans could take any measures to bar his advance, was able to reach the [[Rhône]] by September. Hannibal's army numbered 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 38 elephants, almost none of which would survive the harsh conditions of the Alps.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lancel|first=Serge|author-link=Serge Lancel|title=Hannibal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uVh2FH-LF4C&pg=PA225|year=1999|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-0-631-21848-7|page=60}}</ref>
[[File:Heinrich Leutemann - Hannibals Übergang über die Alpen (cropped).jpg|thumb|An 1866 illustration of Hannibal and his army crossing the [[Alps]], by [[Heinrich Leutemann]]]]
Hannibal outmanoeuvred the natives who had tried to prevent his crossing, then evaded a Roman force marching from the Mediterranean coast by turning inland up the valley of the Rhône. His exact route over the Alps has been the source of scholarly dispute ever since (Polybius, the surviving ancient account closest in time to Hannibal's campaign, reports that the route was already debated). The most influential modern theories favour either a march up the valley of the [[Drôme (river)|Drôme]] and a crossing of the main range to the south of the modern highway over the [[Col de Montgenèvre]] or a march farther north up the valleys of the [[Isère (river)|Isère]] and [[Arc (Savoie)|Arc]] crossing the main range near the present [[Mont Cenis|Col de Mont Cenis]] or the [[Little St Bernard Pass]].<ref>Montgenèvre: [[Peter Connolly (classical scholar)|Peter Connolly]], ''Hannibal and the Enemies of Rome'' (1978); ([https://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hannibal/alps.html extensive summary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223092503/http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hannibal/alps.html |date=23 February 2014 }}); [[Col de la Traversette]]: Gavin de Beer, ''Alps and Elephants'' and [[Napoleon III]]; Mahaney 2008, "Hannibal's Odyssey; Environmental Background to the Alpine Invasion of Italia"; Mont Cenis: Denis Proctor, ''Hannibal's March in History''. Other theories include the [[Col de Clapier]] (Serge Lancel, ''Hannibal'' (1995) and the Col du Petit Saint Bernard ([[Barthold Niebuhr]]).</ref> 

Recent [[numismatic]] evidence suggests that Hannibal's army passed within sight of the [[Matterhorn]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=McMenamin |first=M. | year=2012 | title=Depiction of the Alps on Punic coins from Campania, Italy | journal=Numismatics International Bulletin | volume=41 | issue=1–2 | pages=30–33 }}</ref> Stanford geoarchaeologist Patrick Hunt argues that Hannibal took the Col de Clapier mountain pass, claiming the Clapier most accurately met ancient depictions of the route: wide view of Italy, pockets of year-round snow, and a large campground.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Boser|first=Ulrich|date=2007|title=Hiking with Hannibal|journal=Archaeology|volume=60|issue=1|pages=36–41|jstor=41780200}}</ref> Other scholars have doubts, proposing that Hannibal took the easier route across Petit Mount Cenis. Hunt responds to this by proposing that Hannibal's Celtic guides purposefully misguided the Carthaginian general.

Most recently, W. C. Mahaney has argued [[Col de la Traversette]] closest fits the records of ancient authors.<ref>Mahaney, W.C., Allen, C.C.R., Pentlavalli, P., Dirszowsky, O., Tricart, P., Keiser, L., Somelar, P., Kelleher, B., Murphy, B., Costa, P.J.M., and Julig, P., 2014, "Polybius's 'previous landslide': proof that Hannibal's invasion route crossed the Col de la Traversette", ''Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry'', 14(2), 1–20.</ref> Biostratigraphic archaeological data has reinforced the case for Col de la Traversette; analysis of peat bogs near watercourses on both sides of the pass's summit showed that the ground was heavily disturbed "by thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of animals and humans" and that the soil bore traces of unique levels of ''[[Clostridia]]'' bacteria associated with the digestive tract of horses and mules.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Biostratigraphic Evidence Relating to the Age-Old Question of Hannibal's Invasion of Italy, I: History and Geological Reconstruction|first1=W. C.|last1=Mahaney|first2=C. C. R.|last2=Allen|first3=P.|last3=Pentlavalli|first4=A.|last4=Kulakova|first5=J. M.|last5=Young|first6=R. W.|last6=Dirszowsky|first7=A.|last7=West|first8=B.|last8=Kelleher|first9=S.|last9=Jordan|first10=C.|last10=Pulleyblank|first11=S.|last11=O'Reilly|first12=B. T.|last12=Murphy|first13=K.|last13=Lasberg|first14=P.|last14=Somelar|first15=M.|last15=Garneau|first16=S. A.|last16=Finkelstein|first17=M. K.|last17=Sobol|first18=V.|last18=Kalm|first19=P. J. M.|last19=Costa|first20=R. G. V.|last20=Hancock|first21=K. M.|last21=Hart|first22=P.|last22=Tricart|first23=R. W.|last23=Barendregt|first24=T. E.|last24=Bunch|first25=M. W.|last25=Milner|date=5 October 2017|journal=Archaeometry|volume=59|issue=1|pages=164–178|doi=10.1111/arcm.12231|doi-access=free |issn=0003-813X}}</ref> 

Radiocarbon dating secured dates of 2168 [[Before Present|BP]] or c. 218 BC, the year of Hannibal's march. Mahaney ''et al''. have concluded that this and other evidence strongly supports the Col de la Traversette as being the "Hannibalic Route" as had been argued by [[Gavin de Beer]] in 1954. De Beer was one of only three interpreters—the others being John Lazenby and Jakob Seibert—to have visited all the Alpine high passes and presented a view on which was most plausible. Both De Beer and Seibert had selected the Col de la Traversette as the one most closely matching the ancient descriptions.<ref>de Beer, S. G., 1974, Hannibal: The struggle for power in the Mediterranean, Book Club Associates, London.</ref> 

Polybius wrote that Hannibal had crossed the highest of the Alpine passes: Col de la Traversette, between the upper Guil valley and the upper Po river is the highest pass. It is moreover the most southerly, as [[Gaius Terentius Varro|Varro]] in his ''De re rustica'' relates, agreeing that Hannibal's Pass was the highest in Western Alps and the most southerly. Mahaney ''et al''. argue that factors used by De Beer to support Col de la Traversette including "gauging ancient place names against modern, close scrutiny of times of flood in major rivers and distant viewing of the Po plains" taken together with "massive radiocarbon and microbiological and parasitical evidence" from the alluvial sediments either side of the pass furnish "supporting evidence, proof if you will" that Hannibal's invasion went that way.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/arcm.12405|title=Reconnaissance of the Hannibalic Route in the Upper Po Valley, Italy: Correlation with Biostratigraphic Historical Archaeological Evidence in the Upper Guil Valley, France|first1=W. C.|last1=Mahaney|first2=P.|last2=Somelar|first3=A.|last3=West|first4=R. W.|last4=Dirszowsky|first5=C. C. R.|last5=Allen|first6=T. K.|last6=Remmel|first7=P.|last7=Tricart|date=5 October 2019|journal=Archaeometry|volume=61|issue=1|pages=242–258|access-date=5 October 2020|via=Wiley Online Library|doi=10.1111/arcm.12405}}</ref> If Hannibal had ascended the Col de la Traversette, the Po Valley would indeed have been visible from the pass's summit, vindicating Polybius's account.<ref>Polybius, ''History'' III:54</ref><ref>de Beer, S. G., 1969, ''Hannibal: Challenging Rome's supremacy'', Viking, New York, pp. 163–180 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

By Livy's account, the crossing was accomplished in the face of huge difficulties.<ref>Livy ''History of Rome'' book 21, 36</ref> These Hannibal surmounted with ingenuity, such as when he used [[fire-setting|vinegar and fire]] to break through a rockfall.<ref>Livy History of Rome, Book 21 section 37</ref> According to Polybius, he arrived in Italy accompanied by 20,000 foot soldiers, 4,000 horsemen, and only a few elephants. The fired rockfall event is mentioned only by Livy; Polybius is mute on the subject and there is no evidence<ref>Mahaney, W.C., et al., 2009. "The Traversette rockfall: geomorphological reconstruction and importance in interpreting classical history." ''Archaeometry'', v. 52, no. 1, pp. 156–172.</ref> of carbonized rock at the only two-tier rockfall in the Western Alps, located below the [[Col de la Traversette]] (Mahaney, 2008). If Polybius is correct in his figure for the number of troops that he commanded after the crossing of the Rhône, this would suggest that he had lost almost half of his force. Historians such as Serge Lancel have questioned the reliability of the figures for the number of troops that he had when he left Hispania.<ref>S. Lancel, ''Hannibal'' (1995; English translation 1999), p. 60.</ref> From the start, he seems to have calculated that he would have to operate without aid from Hispania. 

Hannibal's vision of military affairs was derived partly from the teaching of his Greek tutors and partly from experience gained alongside his father, and it stretched over most of the Hellenistic World of his time. The breadth of his vision gave rise to his grand strategy of conquering Rome by opening a northern front and subduing allied city-states on the peninsula, rather than by attacking Rome directly. Historical events that led to the defeat of Carthage during the First Punic War when his father commanded the Carthaginian Army also led Hannibal to plan the invasion of Italy by land across the Alps. The task involved the mobilization of between 60,000 and 100,000 troops and the training of a war-elephant corps, all of which had to be provisioned along the way. The alpine invasion of Italy was a military operation that would shake the Mediterranean World of 218&nbsp;BC with repercussions for more than two decades.{{cn|date=February 2024}}