Click on images or on the links below the images to enlarge them.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAF0501ElephantsRhone.jpg
Hannibal, after defeating the Gauls on the east bank of the Rhone, ferried his baggage and elephants across the river. The elephants panicked and ended up swimming the second half of the crossing.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0502HannibalSeesAlps.jpg
After crossing the Rhone, Hannibal continued north along the east bank and then turned eastward. Most recent research (analysis of Polybius compared to "ground truth") indicates that he went up the Isere River valley into the Graian (Western) Alps. The image shows the part of the Alps he entered, but later in the year than when Hannibal started his trek.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0503HannibalRouteResearch1.jpg
The image shows the current available routes through the alps (excluding some tunnels). It was also made later in the year than Hannibal's passage, but the snow shows the passes more clearly.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0504AlpinePassesMap.jpg
A map shows the passes of the Graian Alps. The coastal route would have been easiest, but that was forclosed by the presence of a Roman Consular army. Hannibal used Gallic guides that didn't serve him well. They led him astray and also, ultimately, into an ambush. In the event, he probably followed the Isere River and the Clapier up to the Clapier Pass.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0505HannibalRouteResearch2.jpg
Polybius interviewed at least one literate survivor of Hannibal's march through the Alps, and described the route in detail. Modern historians wish that he had given the names of geographic features along the route, but there is no guarantee that we would be able to correlate the ancient Gallic names to modern names.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0506HannibalRouteResearch3.jpg
The most detailed research on the route Hannibal took has been done by Stanford University and involve hundreds of trips on foot through the various passes.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0507AlpsFromSouth.jpg
A satellite photomontage of the Graian Alps (from the south) at about the time of year tha Hannibal went through the alps. It's probable that he went through in October, but it may have been as late as early November -- much later in the year than he would have wanted.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0508AlpsFromWest.jpg
Looking west, we can see the easier route that was available but which Hannibal did not take either because of the ineptitude or because of the treachery of his Gallic guides.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0509AmbushDefile.jpg
One of the more gripping sections of the Polybius description of Hannibal's Alpine adventure was the ambush that Hannibal was led into by the guides. Polybius describes a narrow defile with Gauls on both sides shooting and flinging rocks down on the Barcid force. Hannibal realized that the Gauls abandoned their positions and returned to their villages at night and was able to get some of his troops up the sides to commanding positions above the defile before the Gauls returned in the morning. The Gauls were then caught between two parts of Hannibal's army. Hannibal fought his way through, but with heavy casualties. (Full English translations of the Polybius and Livy descriptions of the ambush with links to satelite imagery of the site are at http://www.livius.org/ha-hd/hannibal/alps_text.html.)
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0510WrongChoice.jpg
After the ambush, Hannibal either didn't have or didnt trust his guides. He
took a wrong turn and once again was taking a more difficult routh than he needed to. It was almost inevitable -- the route he took was easier on the upslope, and he couldn't know how steep the descent was on the other side of the Clapier Pass
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0511FirstViewItaly.jpg
From the top of the Clapier Pass you can look down onto the northern Italian plain. This, along with a narrow defile that matches the description by Polybius of the ambush site, is what distinguishes this route from other routes proposed over the years.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0512HannibalPoints.jpg
Hannibal, according to Polybius, stopped for a day at the top of the pass (and Clapier is the only pass that has room to bivouac an army) and then showed his troops their first view of Italy.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0514ClapierView.jpg
The view into Italy from the Clapier Pass.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0513Landslide.jpg
The downward slope was slick and dangerous, and at a point just below the pass there had been a landslide that completely blocked the path. Hannibal's sappers had to dig through it all to keep the convoy moving. One huge rock had to be heated and then cracked by pouring "vinegar" (cheap sour wine) over it. They cleared a narrow path for the men and horses and then widened it for the elephants.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0515NewSnowOnOld.jpg
Polybius's source told him new snow was falling at and beyond the pass and that it fell on top of snow left over from the previous year. Passage of thousands of men and animals turned it to slush over ice.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0516SliperySlope.jpg
The downward path was much steeper than the path up to the Clapier Pass -- in some places the slope was 70%, i.e., there was a 7 meter drop for every 10 meters forward. Men and horses can pass down such a slope if it's dry, but snow was falling and there was old ice on the slope. Many fell to their death. Elephants would find such a slope virtually impossible -- only seven survived the Alpine march.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0517DownwardPath.jpg
Even in summer the Italian side of the Clapier Pass is difficult.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0518ItalianSideRoad.jpg
This switchback road gives you some idea of the slope on the Italian side of the Graian Alps. The Alps are one of the newest mountain ranges in the world, and therefore they are among the most rugged.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0519TurnerHannibal.jpg
Joseph Mallord William Taylor's 1812 painting evokes the terror of Hannibal's passage through the Alps. He entered the Alps with an army of 50,000 men, and fifteen days later only 20,000 were left. They rushed out onto the plain to search for food for themselves and their mounts.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0520TauriniGauls.jpg
People had been going through the Alpine passes for centuries, but nobody had tried to squeeze through with a large army. Even after all the losses, Hannibal came down into the Italian plain with 20,000 men, many horses and seven elephants. There he met with the Taurini Gauls who overcame their initial misgivings and allied themselves with Hannibal. The Taurini and other Cis-Alpine Gauls had been fighting Rome for years, trying to prevent Rome from colonizing their region.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0521ModernTaurini.jpg
There are still Taurini in and around Turin -- or at least Taurini pretenders. The modern Taurini are often associated with northern seperatists.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0522TicinusRiverContact.jpg
Publius Cornelius Scipio left his army at Massilia and rushed back to northern Italy top raise a new army to intercept Hannibal. Their first contact was in Novenber of 218 BC, just weeks after Hannibal's arrival, along the banks of the Ticinus River, a tributary of the Po. Scipio had marched out with light infantry and cavalry and was met by a larger force of Carthaginian cavalry. The Romans lost badly and Scipio was wounded -- saved from death or capture, according to legend, by his young warrior son who later was to become Scipio Africanus the Elder. This early small victory brought many formerly hesitant Gauls to Hannibal's banner.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0523BattleTrebia.jpg
Before another month had passed, and while Scipio was still recovering from his wound, Hannibal lured Scipio's impetuous co-Consul, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, into battle. Hannibal had hidden a strong detachment of cavalry behind a hill south of the battlefield, and that was decisive. Shortly after the battle, another Roman cavalry unit was chopped up in the area by a Carthaginian (Numidian) cavalry unit.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0524TrebiaRiverMiniature.jpg
A 15th century miniature showing the first Roman defeat. After the Trebia River battle, there were small and cautious engagements in Italy. In Spain, Scipio's brother, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, who had been left in command of the army that Scipio had left at Massilia, defeated the 10,000 man force that Hannibal had left south of the Pyrenees. Spain north of the Ebro river was now under Roman control.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0525TrasimeneLake.jpg
The ambush and defeat of the Roman army under Gaius Flaminius on the northern shore of Lake Trasimene in June of 217 BC was another serious blow to Roman morale.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0526BattleLakeTrasimene.jpg
Flaminius had been pursuing Hannibal around the north since the beginning of the 217 campaign season. Hannibal let him catch up on the northern shore of Lake Trasimene. Flaminius was caught between the lake shore and Hannibal's troops hidden in the hills north of the lake. According to Polybius, Flaminius and many of his men were killed by Punic cavalry as they tried to swim to safety. Meanwhile, near the mouth of the Ebro River in Spain, a Roman fleet destroyed the Barcid Spanish fleet.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0527CannaeLocator.jpg
The worst blow to Roman morale, however, was at Cannae near the east coast of Italy.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0528cannae_map1.jpg
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0529cannae_map2.jpg
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0530cannae_map3.jpg
Battlefield maps that show Hannibal's August 217 defeat of Rome's two Consular armies for that year. 50 to 60,000 Romans were killed in the battle: it took hours to slaughter them after they were enveloped by Hannibal's army.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0531HannibalRings.jpg
A late 17th century statue of Hannibal counting the gold rings of Roman equestrians after the Cannae battle.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0532CannaeBattlefield.jpg
The Cannae battlefield from the air.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0533Cunctator.jpg
According to all the precedents of Mediterranean war, Rome should have surrendered, but the Romans didn't respect those precedents. Instead they reformed their armies, put more and more legions in the field, and "delayed". (Fabius "Cunctator")
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0534HanibalDelayed.jpg
Hannibal tried to lure the Romans into large-scale set-piece battles, but there wasn't another for nine years after Cannae. Instead, Roman legions -- up to 28 at one point -- operated independently against Hannibal's allies, freeing his captured cities as fast as Hannibal could take them. Roman armies punished Italian cities that allied themselves with Hannibal, and presently there were not nearly so many defecting cities. Rome's manpower advantage was becoming, ever more clearly, the deciding factor. In Spain, the Roman armies under Scipio (who had recovered from his wound) and Scipio's brother had Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal on the run and were preventing him from reinforcing Hannibal in Italy. (The two Scipio brothers eventually let over-confidence lead to their defeat and demise. It remained, several years later, to the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio -- the son who earlier had saved his father's life at the Ticinus River and who was later awarded the agnomen "Africanus" -- to completely subdue the Iberian Peninsula and drive out the Carthaginians.)
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0535HannibalAdPortas.jpg
Hannibal even menaced Rome in an attempt to provoke a big battle, but the Romans refused to take the bait. Hannibal (who never got as close as the image shows to the walls of Rome) backed off: he knew he could not besiege the city. Hannibal had no source of supplies other than foraging, and, if he sat in one place for too long -- outside the walls of Rome, for example -- his army would be starving before the city would.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0536HasdrubalReinforcements.jpg
By 208 BC both of the Scipio brothers in Spain were dead, and that young Scipio warrior, who had legendarily saved his father at Ticinus, had been elected leader by the Roman army in Spain and ratified by the Senate in Rome. He had briliant victories, but Hasdrubal still managed to slip out of his grasp and take another Barcid army across the Alps into Italy.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0537ScipioAfricanus.jpg
Once Hasdrubal was out of Spain, Scipio (later Africanus) mopped up all remaining Carthaginian forces in Spain.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0538BattleMetaurus.jpg
Hasdrubal was quickly intercepted at the Metaurus River by Marcus Livius Salinator, but Hasdrubal had the numerical advantage. During the night before the battle, the situation dramatically changed when Gaius Claudius Nero arrived with more light infantry and cavalry to reinforce Salinator. During the battle, Nero, who had come up against a natural barrier, took the bulk of his troops across Salinator's rear and rolled up Hasdrubal's opposite flank. Hasdrubal was killed, and his head was thrown into Hannibal's camp to announce the Roman victory to the Carthaginian forces. Hannibal then knew that there would be no reinforcements, and he lapsed into the same kind of guerilla rear action that his father, Hamilcar, had run in Sicily during the first Punic war. Young Scipio, meanwhile, began to aggitate for an invasion of the Carthaginian homeland in North Africa.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0539MetaurusBattleResults..jpg
The Metaurus River battle was the last set-piece battle in Italy, and Hannibal did not participate.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0540Africanus.jpg
In 203, the reluctant Roman Senate sent Scipio to Sicily knowing full well that he planned to launch a North African expedition, but they stipulated that he could only take volunteers. They probably thought there would not be many. But Scipio's record as a successful general was such that his rolls were soon oversubscribed. The survivors of Cannae, who had been sent to Sicily in disgrace, were particularly anxious to participate. Scipio's North African campaign was so successful that Carthage soon recalled Hannibal to face him.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0541HannibalComesHome.jpg
After 16 years in Italy, the last 13 of which must have been very frustrating, Hannibal had to evacuate through Calabria. The maps show a fairly simple route, but there were many side-trips and backtrackings. Hannibal had not had a really decisive battle for 13 years. Meanwhile, intrigue among Carthage's Numidian allies and an argument about a Carthaginian "princess", Sophonisba (Saphanba'al = Punic, "protected by Baal") was about to bring the bulk of the famous Numidian cavalry over to the Roman side. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masinissa and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophonisba for the story)
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0542ZamaLocator.jpg
Hannibal would finally get his battle at Zama.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0543ZamaSatellite.jpg
A satellite view of the battle area.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0544Massinissa.jpg
Massinissa had previously been in contact with Scipio while Syphax, his rival for Numidian leadership, was being courted by Carthage. With Roman help Massinissa won a battle against Syphax and captured his camp, including his wife, the beautiful Carthaginian princess, Saphanba'al. She quickly changed sides and married Massinissa. Scipio, fearing she would influence Massinissa to support Carthage, expressed his disaproval of the match. Massinissa offered her poison, and she drank it as a sign of her love for Massinissa. Massinissa stayed loyal to Scipio. (The story, which has more than a tinge of mythology -- like Dido, a self-sacrificing Punic princess -- is from Polybius, who got it from an unnamed Carthaginian informant. All we really know is that Massinissa, who had been wooed by Scipio's envoys for some time, fought on the side of the Romans at Zama. As his reward, he became the first king of all Numidia under Roman suzerainty.)
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0545ZamaBattleMap.jpg
At Zama, roles were reversed. Hannibal, for the first time, had an advantage in infantry numbers, but they were inexperienced. Scipio had fewer infantry, but they were veterans of his Spanish victories and from the Sicilian garrison. Hannibal's great and unaccustomed deficit was in cavalry: six thousand Numidian cavalrymen under Masinissa, who might otherwise be at his side, were riding on the right flank of Scipio's army and fighting against Hannibal. Rome had also, by this time, figured out how to neutralize Hanibal's elephants. An animation of the battle is on the internet at http://www.sharemation.com/piermin/Romani/Zama_en.html.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0546ZamaBattleResults.jpg
30,000 Carthaginian troops were killed at Zama and another 15,000 were captured, many of whom were shipped back to Rome as slaves.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAF0547HannibalDefeated.jpg
Hannibal survived the battle, and Scipio allowed him to be active in politics in Roman-occupied Carthage. But public opinion back in Rome objected to this leniency, and Hannibal eventually fled to the eastern Mediterranean where he found employ in a Syrian war against Rome. When the Syrians lost their war, he fled again to Bythnia. Between Syria and Bythnia, he fought against Rome for another 20 years -- his last battle was a naval victory over a Roman fleet. When Bythnia succumbed to Roman might, the Romans demanded that he be sent to Rome.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0548HannibalSuicide183BCh.jpg
To avoid capture Hannibal committed suicide in 183 BC.
http://www.mmdtkw.org/CNAf0549ScipioTriumph.jpg
Scipio was awarded a formal triumph in Rome and became the first Roman to be awarded an agnomen, Africanus, related to a victory. He later got another agnomen, Numantius, for his pacification of a revolt in Roman Spain. Eventually, he was brought low by Roman politics -- Cato the Elder accused him and his family of bribery. Scipio won the case, but left Rome in disgust. He died at his Campanian estate the next year (183 BC) and had stipulated that his body should not be buried in Rome.