Hannibal by Ernle Bradford Read Free Book Online

hardly ignore the fact that Saguntum was to all intents and purposes a Roman enclave in Carthaginian territory. Whatever the Romans might say about having concluded a treaty with the party in power in Saguntum, guaranteeing them Roman protection, the original treaty made with Hasdrubal had made no mention of Saguntum being a special case—and within the Roman sphere of influence. Hannibal had never had any cause to doubt the untrustworthiness of the Roman bond and he had no reason to do so now. He needed no justification for the steps that he was about to take.
    Throughout that winter, in company with his brother Hasdrubal, who had now joined him (it is possible that his brother Mago, the youngest, had also left Carthage for the new family home), Hannibal laid his plans. ‘The Lion’s Brood’, as the brothers were known throughout the army, were preparing for the most audacious military move in history—nothing less than an invasion of their enemy’s homeland by way of the forbidding and hitherto untried route over the Alps. It is true that the Gauls had long used the Alpine passes to make their way into Italy, but theirs was the migration of clans or tribes. No one had ever conceived that a whole army could be moved from the west, through the passes, and down into Italy. Prior to the arrival of the Carthaginians in Europe, there had been no coordinating intelligence to see the possibility of such a move, nor indeed any reason for it.
    It is clear that Hannibal had a ready-made intelligence service, both in Gaul to the north and Cisalpine Gaul in Italy, among these violent but freedom-loving people who resented the Roman yoke quite as much as Hamilcar had resented the treatment of Carthage, so that while the people of Massilia and Saguntum were keeping Rome posted as to Carthaginian activities in Spain, Hannibal was receiving military missions from the Gauls. He and his staff were collating all the reports reaching them as to their numbers and intentions, the relationships between one tribe and another, and their disposition towards Rome. He had plenty of evidence of their fighting abilities (fearless but undisciplined) but he needed also to know how deep was their hatred or resentment of Rome and of the threat to their liberty. The tribes who were in Italy had reason enough to fear Roman arms and to hate the Romans because of recent events. On the French side of the Alps the situation was more difficult to assess. Although some of the chieftains could appreciate the threat of Rome—troops being transported from Italy to Massilia and thence spreading out to annex all the countryside to the north—there were others who could not look ahead nor understand such a complex threat. As far as many Gauls living in the area of the Rhône valley were concerned, Rome was far away, but the neighbour with whom they were at variance was close at hand. Hannibal needed to know whether payment or the thought of plunder would induce them to join him against the Romans, and what supplies and what numbers of men were to be found in the areas through which he would pass. Some of the tribes from the western side of the Alps had joined the Boii and Insubres in Italy in their revolt a few years before, and Hannibal knew how their initial success had taken them as far south as Etruria-only to be defeated by Roman arms and discipline. The fact that wild tribesmen could achieve so much must have proved an encouragement to a man who was bent on attempting what to some seemed impossible. He was well informed, and he was lucky that the regular passage of Gauls between Italy and France could keep him up to date as to the exact state of things in the land of his enemies.
    In 219 B.C. Hannibal took the first step to war and attacked Saguntum. The old city was strong, well defended, and enclosed by Cyclopean walls; its inhabitants were far from prepared to yield at the sight of the army encamped against them. In advance of Hannibal’s move,