A JOURNEY THROUGH IMPOSSIBLE MOUNTAIN BARRIER TO ATTACK ROME.
In the fall of 218 B.C.E., an exhausted,demoralized army lay scattered among the rocks,snow, and ice of a high Alpine pass.A force of wild tribesmen from Spain , Libyan foot soldiers, and Numidian horsemen from north Africa had followed twenty-eight-year-old general Hannibal Barca in a bid to cross this apparently impossible mountain barrier.
Hannibal's native city, Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, was engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the Roman republic from control of the western Mediterranean. In the spring of 218 B.C.E., Hannibal had led his army from Spain to Italy. He set out with more than 100,000 men, tens of thousands of horses and mules, and thirty-seven war elephants. A long journey to hostile territory greatly reduced the army even before it reached the Alps. There, advancing up narrow tracks through mountain gorges, Hannibal's soldier were attacked by the Alloroges and other local tribesmen. It took 9 days to reach the top of the pass.
Hannibal, Who had shared in all his men's hardships, rallied the cold and hungry troops to under tack the descent into Italy, which, he said, would place Rome ion their hands. Walking walking on snow and ice, the animals and men struggled along the narrow downward track, terrified of falling to their deaths over the slippery edge. At one point they had to spend four days rebuilding the obliterated path. Only around 26,000 men made it to Italy, with a handful of elephants. Nonetheless, Hannibal had achieved an extraordinary feet in crossing the Alps and could now advance upon the Rome.
In the fall of 218 B.C.E., an exhausted,demoralized army lay scattered among the rocks,snow, and ice of a high Alpine pass.A force of wild tribesmen from Spain , Libyan foot soldiers, and Numidian horsemen from north Africa had followed twenty-eight-year-old general Hannibal Barca in a bid to cross this apparently impossible mountain barrier.
Hannibal's native city, Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, was engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the Roman republic from control of the western Mediterranean. In the spring of 218 B.C.E., Hannibal had led his army from Spain to Italy. He set out with more than 100,000 men, tens of thousands of horses and mules, and thirty-seven war elephants. A long journey to hostile territory greatly reduced the army even before it reached the Alps. There, advancing up narrow tracks through mountain gorges, Hannibal's soldier were attacked by the Alloroges and other local tribesmen. It took 9 days to reach the top of the pass.
Hannibal, Who had shared in all his men's hardships, rallied the cold and hungry troops to under tack the descent into Italy, which, he said, would place Rome ion their hands. Walking walking on snow and ice, the animals and men struggled along the narrow downward track, terrified of falling to their deaths over the slippery edge. At one point they had to spend four days rebuilding the obliterated path. Only around 26,000 men made it to Italy, with a handful of elephants. Nonetheless, Hannibal had achieved an extraordinary feet in crossing the Alps and could now advance upon the Rome.
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