Hannibal's Crossing

>set out with 94,000+ men
>lost 68,000+ in the Alps

Was it worth it?

>one word
mother fucking elephants

I see him overlooking the mountains, as he sees his elephants fall to their deaths. Then while his underlings are beseeching him to turn back with the crash of tons of ivory crashing to the valley floor in the background he will whisper "more" to which his underlings will say "what?". He will then look them in the eye and scream "MORE.....MORE ELEPHANTS MUST DIE"

It's surprising they followed him up there

Hannibal's time could have been better spent in Spain trying to BTFO Scipio.

He had three of the greatest victories in military history in Italy, sure but given the loss of Carthaginian territory everywhere else his victories were Pyrrhic at best. The Fabian strategy proved effective in the end.

>inb4 some butthurt Hannibal fag complains about his lack of Senatorial support

It was a wasted effort and you know it.

Most of those "losses" are probably desertions from eager celtic tribes. In addition, those numbers seem way to high and are probably pulled out of some romans ass.

1 elephant died in the alps.
The remaining 30+ elephants died as soon as they came into italy as winter set in...

so how many died during the crossing then?

So you're saying he should have LEFT Italy, re-crossed the alps, and left any support he might find in Italy, and try and attack the superior Roman army?

We will never, ever know.

It was a huge publicity stunt.
If his goal was to become a prominent historical figure, then yes, it was totally worth it and worked out perfectly.

Im a bit confused about Hannibal, is it overhyped?
I like him, despite I love Rome before anything but... could you name 3 better generals/commanders from the Roman Republic period?

Fabius Maximus is my favorite Life of Plutarch. The balls to be the only person in an entire nation of bloodthirsty glory hogs to say, "Hey, let's just chill for a sec," and then not back down when everyone calls you a pussy because you know it's the right thing to do.

From the time of Hannibal or in general? Caesar and Pompeius are from the Republic

it shook up the romans they thought crossing the alps was impossible

Pompeius was a bad general m8.

Or atleast not a good one.

I read an essay arguing it was the best he could have done or else Rome would've established the pace and trying to play a defensive war would have drained Carthage's resources faster than it would for the Romans.
It was a smart play because on one end it would cut off a quantifiable amount of Rome's allies, something like 40%? and Hannibal would be living off the land. The downside however was the failure on other theaters and the lack of naval support, but arguably that would have led to a repeat of the first punic war. In the end, Hannibal did what he could and he played all the best cards. Had Rome surrendered after their biggest defeat, I forget the name, capua? That could have been it, but they didn't, and if they weren't gonna surrender after that, what else would it take to crush them?

Not him, but I think he's saying he should have stuck to Spain.

Considering that the Senate would never in a million years think that he would go
>OVER THE ALPS PERHAPS
I would say the total surprise was worth it

>pompeius was bad

what?

it was a incredible stupid idea to cross the alps, but it did kinda worked since most of the forces were mercenaries, and he did buy more after that

so yes, it was worth it

Mike Duncan pls go

kek hannibal
good field general shitty politician and strategist