Dusmanul la Poarta!-Partea-37!

 1-Acest articol este copiat !

2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1.

"I have come not to make war on the Italians, but to aid the Italians against Rome."

Rome’s attention in the Second Punic War reverted after the disaster at Cannae back to the Fabian Strategy, isolating Hannibal while focussing their efforts on defectors to him. Hannibal’s biggest win had been the Campanian city of Capua, harbouring hopes of becoming Italy’s leading city under Carthaginian suzerainty, and he wintered his army there in 216 BC. Rome was finally smiled upon by Fortuna when a random search by its ships found a proposed treaty of alliance from Philip V of Macedon to Hannibal. Seeking to capitalise on the defeat at Cannae, and use it as an opportunity to drive the legions out of Illyria, this alliance could have operated as a pincer movement to attack Italia from both Iberia and Greece, with Hannibal optimistic of receiving the supplies and reinforcements needed from his new ally to finally crush Rome. In reality, this sparked the First Macedonian War which saw excellent Roman diplomacy forge alliances of anti-Macedonian Greeks – the Aetolian League – to do most of their fighting for them, against Philip and his Achaean League. Despite the threat from Hannibal in Italy, Rome would recall neither it Iberian or Illyrian legions. While the First Macedonian War would be inconclusive and end with a negotiated peace in 205 BC, Rome’s fury against Philip would trigger a series of wars in the decade to follow that would annihilate Macedon, crush the phalanx, and see all of Greece annexed to the Roman Republic.

In Sicily Hiero II, the elderly tyrant who had ruled for 45 years and declared for Rome in the First Punic War, died in 215 BC. His successor Hieronymus was not content with Roman supremacy, and negotiated terms with Hannibal which would see Syracuse lay claim to all of Sicily. Syracuse had a powerful navy, and now proffered Carthage the chance to reinforce Hannibal directly – something Rome could not tolerate, and thus move to besiege the city. The Greek city of Syracuse had already enjoyed around 500 years of independence as the leading state in Magna Graecia, and its stubborn resistance against Athens in defeating two expeditionary forces had seen them lose the Peloponnesian War two centuries earlier.

Now Syracuse stood opposed to Rome, but instead of a Spartan general causing the legions grief, it would be a mathematician and scientist. Archimedes’ inventions included the screw, which could carry water uphill and thus drain ships while at sea, and allegedly a series of mirrors within a lighthouse that could turn sunlight into a deadly beam to burn ships. He famously shouted “Eureka!” and ran through the streets naked when he got in the bath and understood the physics of water displacement. Rome’s initial attack against Syracuse was to be by the sea, outfitting a fleet of triremes with scaling ladders and siege tower – which inevitably made the ships unwieldy – and using these to scale the sea walls of the city. Along with its deadly missile arsenal of onagars and ballistae, Syracuse would answer this threat with on of Archimedes’ most infamous inventions – the claw.

The Archimedes claw essentially had a long wooden arm that would hang over the side of the wall and be lowered into the sea, with a hook at the end. This hook would then hook onto the ram of the trireme, and then use counterweights at the opposite end of the arm to lift them vertically out of the water. Once lifted sufficiently, the ship would be dropped to plunge into the sea, ruined. In an age where most of those aboard the ships were clad in heavy armour to scale the walls, and few of them could swim even without armour, the death tolls on ships that were picked up by the claw was catastrophic. Those on board also had to face a constant hail of arrows, bolts, lead shot and stones, making easy targets for the defenders on the tightly packed decks where survival was but a lottery. Very few scaled the walls, and those that did were swiftly cut down. Rome’s first attempt to take Syracuse was a complete failure, and the legions now dug in for a siege. Given the strength of the Syracusion fleet though there was little they could do to blockade the city, and thus the siege was rather fruitless as the city could resupply by sea. Maintaining the siege, the legions under Marcellus (who had previously defeated the Gallic king in single combat) instead focussed on asserting their strength throughout the rest of the island, and preventing other defections.

In Iberia, Hasdrubal Barca was ordered by Carthage to move to Italy to support Hannibal, but did not feel confident enough in local support to abandon Iberia. Punic reverses caused the tribes to defect to Rome – the opposite of the Italian situation. Having quelled the Turdetani uprising, Hasdrubal left Himilco at Cartagena while he marched inland to reassert Punic authority. In early 215 BC, the Romans crossed the Ebro in force and besieged Ibera (later known as Dertosa Ilercavonia, modern Tortosa). Hasdrubal responded by besieging a pro-Roman town, and thus the Scipios lifted their siege to engage him.