
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps
218 BC Carthaginian attack against the Roman Republic through the Alps

218 BC Carthaginian attack against the Roman Republic through the Alps
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in 218 BC was one of the major events of the Second Punic War and one of the most celebrated achievements of any military force in ancient warfare. Hannibal led his Carthaginian army over the Alps and into Italy to take the war directly to the Roman Republic, bypassing Roman and allied land garrisons and Roman naval dominance. The two primary sources for the event are Polybius and Livy, who were born c. 20 years and c. 160 years after the event, respectively. The Alps were not well-documented at the time, and no archaeological evidence is available, so all modern theories depend on interpreting the three place names used by Polybius (Island, Skaras and Allobroges) and Livy's wider range of tribe and place names, and comparing them with modern geographical knowledge. The 2022 book Hannibal in the Alps by Dutch historian and publicist Jona Lendering concludes that the two primary historical sources provide too little accurate information and too much conflicting...
Read on Wikipedia · Image Henri-Paul Motte, Public domain
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