Battle of Ticinus 218 BC - Hannibal (Part 3) - Second Punic War

 

In late 218 BC, Hannibal marched his forces over the Alps.

 But before he can confront the Romans he first tackles his three immediate priorities: 1) He resupplies and rests his exhausted men.

 2) Begins rebuilding his army by recruiting new contingents of Gallic troops from the Po valley, as his current army is only barely equal in size to a single Roman consular army.

 3) And as soon as his troops are rested he quickly moves to secure the loyalty of Gallic tribes.

 Aware that loyalty, or at least compliance, cannot be guaranteed by flattery and gifts alone, Hannibal asserts his authority by making an example of the Taurini tribe, who resisted the Carthaginian advance.

 After a three-day siege, he orders his troops to storm the main town of the Taurini.

 All of the inhabitants, men, women and children... are massacred.

 This calculated display of ruthlessness serves to show the Gallic tribes what is the price of hostility to the Carthaginian cause.

 Meanwhile, on the waves off the coast of Sicily, the Carthaginians strike the first blow.

 In preparation for a full scale invasion to take back the important port cities that they once held, their ships begin raiding strategic islands around Sicily.

 In the west, the operation is successful.

 But further east, while raiding the Vulcan islands, few Carthaginian ships are blown off course in a terrible storm.

 Not far from the Straits of Messina they are eventually spotted and attacked by the Syracusian navy.

 The Roman ally captures three Carthaginian ships and their crews.

 Under torture, the seamen reveal details about the Carthaginian plan to attack Sicily.

 The Syracusian King informs his allies of this, and the Roman praetor in Sicily reacts promptly.

 The Romans learned that the Carthaginians have a larger fleet in the area, but that their ships are not packed with many soldiers.

 The Roman praetor decides to exploit this by packing each of his ships with twice as many legionaries - effectively enabling each Roman ship crew to fight off two Carthaginian ships.

 With look out posts set up along the shore, the Roman ambush is set.

 The Carthaginians close in unpposed.

 But as they approach their intended target, the Romans go on the offensive.

 They direct their ships towards one part of the Carthaginian fleet, rushing to board the enemy.

 In this 1 v 1 situation, the more numerous Roman crews overwhelm the Carthaginian ships and quickly pick them off one by one.

 Eventually the Carthaginian naval attack is defeated and their attempt to gain a foothold on the island of Sicily in 218 BC fails.

 By this time, Consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus arrives and launches a counter offensive along the south coast of Sicily and manages to capture Malta.

 He then turns back to intercept Carthaginian ships that are raiding the Vulcan islands, Vibo and Bruttium.

 But Longus' mission is cut short by news that Hannibal arrived in the Po Valley, and he gets summoned to bring his legions back north to help Scipio.

 Meanwhile, Scipio is eager to meet Hannibal in battle.

 With his 17 year old son at his side, also named Publius - who will later become known as Scipio Africanus - Scipio crosses the river Po at Placentia and promptly continues west along the northern bank of the Po.

 Under his command are mostly less experienced troops, but Scipio is confident of defeating Hannibal. After all, in Scipio's view he challenged Hannibal on the Rhone, and the Carthaginian general ran away.

 Hannibal on the other hand is quite surprised to learn that Scipio made it back to the Po valley so quickly.

 He thinks that Scipio returned with his entire army, but he has no way of knowing that in fact Scipio's troops continued on to Iberia.

 Thinking that the Romans now have two whole armies in the Po valley, the Carthaginian general fears that this force is now strong enough to deter Gallic tribes from joining him, and he wants a victory... fast.

 Hannibal knows that the Gallic tribes will not rally to his banner if he doesn't seem confident of defeating Rome.

 Not wasting any time, he marches his army downstream along the northern bank of the Po river to meet Scipio.

 Still unaware of each other's exact whereabouts, the two generals send scouting parties well ahead of their respective armies as they march towards each other.

 Each army's scouts soon report the enemy's presence, and both Hannibal and Scipio proceed with caution.

 The Romans build a pontoon bridge over the Ticinus river and set up camp on the western bank.

 Meanwhile, some 15km west the Carthaginian column also stops and encamps for the night on the flat plain.

 A day later, both Hannibal and Scipio ride out in force to scout the area in person, each of them eager to gain a crucial early victory, which would inspire the rest of their troops and win support of the Gallic tribes.

 Hannibal rides with the bulk of his horsemen, while Scipio has all of his cavalry and a small force of velites with him.

 As the two contingents move through the flat plain they soon spot each other because of the clouds of dust thrown up by the hooves of their horses.

 Both generals decide to deploy their troops for battle.

 Hannibal arrays his close order Spanish cavalry in the front and forms the Numidian light cavalry in two groups behind the first line.

 Scipio places his velites in the front, aiming to soften up Hannibal's cavalry with javelin throws.

 Gallic allies form the second line, while the Roman cavalry is in reserve.

 As both contingents begin closing the distance, Hannibal sees that the Roman cavalry is fewer in number and makes a split second decision not to engage in skirmishing with the Roman velites.

 Instead he orders a full-blooded charge against the Roman front line.

 Scipio quickly responds by leading his cavalry forward, as the velites withdraw through the gaps to form a second line, without even managing a single javelin volley due to the onrushing Carthaginians.

 Few moments late the cavalry clashes in the center.

 A fierce bloody-static melee develops, unlike the usual mobile cavalry encounters of the time.

 The horses panic in the chaotic close-quarters fighting, and many horsemen dismount in order to fight more effectively on foot.

 For a while the fighting seems indecisive, but this was another ruse by Hannibal.

 He waits until most of the Roman cavalry is fully commited and then sends his Numidians on a flanking maneuver.

 This catches the Romans totally by surprise.

 Velites on the flanks spot the envelopement and some of them panic and flee.

 The fast Numidian cavalry quickly flows around the Roman flanks and tramples over the scattered light infantry.

 And then the noose begins to tighten around the Roman contingent.

 In the melee Scipio is struck down from his horse.

 Carthaginian troops close in to finish off the wounded general, but at the final moment he is rescued.

 One early account of his rescue holds that a Ligurian slave saved the Roman consul, but the more popular version claims that his 17 year old son Publius charged to rescue his father with a small group of Roman cavalry that clustered around the consul, before retreating back towards the Roman camp.

 As word of Hannibals victory spreads, Gallic tribes send emissaries to pledge their support.

 But despite their promises the Gauls deliver little in the way of reinforcements and supplies during this early stage of the war.

 This forces Hannibal, who's army goes critically low on food in late 218 BC, to send a cavalry contingent to capture a Roman grain depot at Clastidium, guarded by a Roman garrison.

 Luckily for Hannibal, the garrison commander is from Brundisium in southern Italy, and when confronted he willingly surrenders the depot and, in return for 400 gold pieces, joins the Carthaginian ranks together with the entire garrison.

 These troops become the first of the "Italian allies" to defect and join Hannibal.

 Meanwhile, the Roman army retreats to Placentia where they plan to wait for Sempronius and his consular army.

 Although the defeat at the river Ticinus is far from a major loss, it nevertheless reinforces the apprehension with which the Romans would view Hannibal from now on, and it sets a psychological tone which would be felt in the much larger battles to come.