The Punic Wars!!! Part FOUR!!!

Last time on The Punic Wars!!! Cannae was a huge blunder for the Roman Army against Hannibal the not so Cannibal animal. (so says cannibal ox) now for the Roman revenge and the stupidity of Hannibal the once thought great.

Siege of Syracuse:
Hannibal's campaign was entering a stage of "ummm...OK" as he found it very difficult to capture any fortified cities despite his vast victories in the open fields. This because the idiot didn't have any siege equipment...Some cities however did side with Carthage in the wars, one of which was the Greek city of Syracuse, on the east coast of Sicily. This city rebelled against Roman control in 213 BCE. A Roman force led by the general Marcus Claudius Marcellus consequently laid siege to the port city. The elderly inventor Archimedes was one of the leaders of Syracuse's defense. He organized siege artillery to protect the city walls, concentrating the fire of different catapults and ballistas upon besiegers. The Romans realising that they were also smart in the ways of engineering made their own cool sounding weapon, the 'Sambucae' (basically a scaling ladder mounted on galleys, for those who think this to be too simple, remember the golden rule of K.I.S.S.) However they were not successful against the mighty Archimedes! mostly his devices. Romans were unable to tighten the blockade enough to keep all supplies out of the city, but Carthage's attempts to relieve the city also failed. In 212, they city folk held a festival to the goddess Artemis, during this drunken love-fest the Romans were able to get over the city walls into the outer city. Archimedes was amongst those killed, reports of him having sex with a ballista while he was killed were not confirmed. It was another eight months before Syracusan traitors opened the doors to the inner citadel and there was a mass slaughter.

Metaurus/Zama
The Carthaginians only major effort to reinforce Hannibal came in Italy 207 BCE when Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal marched an army from Spain across the Alps. (Idiot) A Roman force led by Gaius Claudius Nero was sent to engage them. Outnumber, Hasdrubal tried a late night retreat across the Metaurus River, but their forces lost their way in the darkness and were still south of the river when the Romans caught up and tagged them. Also in the process killing 10,000 of them. Hasdrubal died in the battle, this marked the turning point in this war.

In Zama, a general rose to pitch an idea to the Romans which was a little coo coo. Scipio Africanus suggested invading Carthage itself and force Hannibal's army to leave southern Italy where he was gaining a strong thresh hold, and his army was gaining in strength almost up to 18,000 troops, mostly Italians. So fearing the wrath of Hannibal Rome funded Scipio's plan and off he went to Carthage with 35,000 men and a dream. Carthage broke off negotiations with Rome and built a new army around Hannibal's Italian veterans using the gold they had just acquired building a class 4 mine near a mountain. that was a joke. As Rome lay waste to Carthage on the flip side of the world, Hannibal was forced to bring them to battle even though a majority of the infantry were raw recruits and his Calvary was outnumbered. In the end, Scipio's idea of using Hannibal's own battle plans against him worked in the ensuing battle and his army was destroyed. All this while, Rome was defenceless...idiot. Carthage was forced to accept humiliating peace. This wouldn't last for long as Rome would figure out that they had gotten really luck and now they had a chance to finish this conflict forever.

Next time on The Punic Wars!!! The siege of Carthage...should they have seen this coming? will it be a quagmire for Rome, will their tactic of relative shock and awe work? How far will senator Cato go to find those weapons of mass destruction in Carthage! should he have given the weapons inspectors more time...Who is this Cato guy anyways?!?!