
Hannibal’s route across the Alps (2016) - curtis
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/03/where-muck-hannibals-elephants-alps-italy-bill-mahaney-york-university-toronto
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kijin
The article is sorely in need of a map. It would be much easier for readers to
visualize the different possible routes if they were marked on a map with
various geological and/or man-made features highlighted along the way.

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roter
Agreed. For what it's worth there is an image on Wikipedia in the associated
article [0].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal%27s_crossing_of_the_A...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal%27s_crossing_of_the_Alps)

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entity345
It's perhaps worth noting that the subspecies of elephants used, the North
African Elephant, was driven to extinction during Roman times...

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slavik81
There would have been wild lions in southern Europe at the time too. Now
they're all gone. Though, at least they live on in Africa.

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mihaifm
This answer is a good write-up to why Hannibal couldn't take Rome despite his
massive wins in Italy:

[https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-Hannibal-take-Rome-after-
vir...](https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-Hannibal-take-Rome-after-virtually-
annihilating-the-Roman-army-at-Cannae)

The odds were against him from the beginning, with one of the most important
factors being that Rome had a large conscriptable population while Carthage
relied mostly on mercenaries.

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lawn
Obligatory shout out to hardcore history:

[https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-punic-
nig...](https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-punic-nightmares-
series/)

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wnevets
PBS's Secrets of the Dead has a nice episode about finding his actual route
through the alps. Looks like this article and episode is about the same
research.

[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/hannibal-alps-full-
episode/3...](http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/hannibal-alps-full-
episode/3810/)

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PappaPatat
TL;DR:

Nothing permanent, but yet another interesting possible route.

"Patrick Hunt, an archaeologist who leads the Stanford Alpine Archaeology
Project, which has been investigating Hannibal’s route since 1994, says that
the answer to the puzzle “remains hauntingly elusive”. It’s all too easy, he
says, for fellow experts to adduce evidence for their favoured route – his
team argues for a more northerly path – but until the same methods and rigour
are brought to bear on all the alternatives, none can be ruled out. All the
same, he adds, Mahaney is one of the best geo-archaeologists working on the
question."

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vicarrion
Why wouldn't there be horse or elephant bones to find?

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objektif
Strange never heard about him before. Any book, documentary, movie
recommendations about him or the era in general?

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SEJeff
Guessing you've not read about / learned much about ancient Rome have you?
Fighting Carthage is what gave Rome its navy, and Carthage had the best ships
in the world:

It is pretty interesting to see what happened there:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GH1c50zcYc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GH1c50zcYc)

Look up Battle of Lake Trasimene or the Battle of Cannae. Hannibal was one of
the best strategic generals the world has ever seen!

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objektif
Yes I really dont know much about Roman history. Thanks for the suggestion.

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SEJeff
Randomly, one of the most brazen and successful ambushes was actually from the
Germanic tribes. Lookup the battle of Teutoberg Forest.

Romans had a habit of taking the sons of the kings/chiefs of conquered people,
shipping them back to rome, and raising them as Roman Aristocracy. This
Germanic prince, Arminius, was one of those children. He decided to join the
Roman military and learned their ways and entirely immersed himself in all
things Roman. He became quite established himself and gained the trust of
Quintillius Varus, the local Roman governor / general. Arminius brought a fake
report of a Germanic tribe rebellion on the opposite side of the Teutoberg
Forest, to which Varus decided three Roman Legions could put down. Little did
he know that Arminius had been plotting with the Germanic tribes to setup a
massive ambush in the forest, where Roman military tactics would prove little
advantage. Arminius left early to "convince the germanic tribes to support the
Romans" but secretly lead them into setting up several ambushes. The Roman
line was almost 15-20km long per recovered artifacts from the actual scene as
the passage was narrow and hard to move through. So the Germanic tribes (3 of
them if memory serves) trapped the Romans in from the front and rear while
raining javelins down from both sides and then moving in for the close kill.
It was an utter bloodbath and virtually all of three entire Roman Legions were
obliterated (estimated 15-20k casualties).

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

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objektif
Wow fascinating story. Gotta read more on Roman history.

