[Prev Page][Contents][Next Page]

The Punic Wars

Later Campaigns

212 was perhaps the height of Hannibal's strength in Italy, but in reality he had lost when Rome did not collapse after Cannae. He gained audio gif Tarentum in 212, the largest port in Italy, but in 211 Rome recaptured Capua, more than offsetting Tarentum.

During these years, both sides ravaged the countryside in an attempt to starve the enemy. Hannibal, moreover, began to use force to terrorize cities into alliance with him. He acquired a reputation for being bloodthirsty and ruthless, to go with his reputation for cunning. In some cases, just the rumor that Hannibal was in the neighborhood was enough to make Roman troops retreat.

The Romans, in their turn, took to burning fields themselves, trying to starve Hannibal out, trying to weary his men. Since all the campaigning was now in southern Italy, it being a Roman goal to keep Hannibal confined to the south, the result was that certain districts found themselves repeatedly plundered. Year after year the crops were burned. Vineyards were destroyed, orchards chopped down or burned, villages and even towns razed to the ground.

It was a war of attrition now. Hannibal sought to stay alive long enough to find a way of inflicting further major defeats on Rome. The Romans, on the other hand, did all they could to avoid a pitched battle, yet still keep Hannibal in check and keep him from escaping to the north (where he had allies among the Gauls).