Definition of Battle of Trasimeno

During the Punic Wars, a name shone with special brilliance: that of Carthaginian general Aníbal Barca, a descendant of a family of recognized military prestige in the old Republic of Cartago.

The battles of this great strategist in the Second Punic War are still studied today in military academies. And among the several that stand out we find Trasimeno.

The Battle of Trasimeno was an armed confrontation between the Carthaginian troops, their allies and mercenaries, against troops of the Roman Republic in the framework of the Second Punic War, and which resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Carthaginians.

Trasimeno follows the Battle of the Trebia river, in which the Romans - and due to the imprudence of their commander - also suffered a disaster by Hannibal's troops. Trebia had been the first major confrontation in I usually Italian between the two contenders, making Lake Trasimeno the second battle of Hannibal's Italian campaign.

After Trebia, Hannibal had outwitted a Roman army waiting for him in Arretium (present-day Arezzo in Tuscany), anticipating him to ambush by Lake Trasimeno.

It was precisely the Roman persecution, which was not informed that Hannibal had ambushed himself, that led to the battle.

The Carthaginian troops, formed mainly by allied troops and mercenaries, like some Gallic tribes that Hannibal had recruited as he passed by his territories, were arranged to the north of the lake, in a space in which the roads become narrow paths squeezed between the mountains above and the lake under.

A diversionary maneuver, simulating a camp much further south, convinced the Romans that the Punic army was to the south of the river and that they could easily overcome the narrow part in which the Carthaginians waited for them, and that was suitable to set a trap to the Romans.

The Romans were very careless, forgetting almost all the protections due to an advancing army, and entered the wolf's mouth unknowingly and unconcerned in the least.

Once the Romans entered the gorge, the Carthaginians cut them off at both senses, so that they were trapped, and began to attack them from all sides.

To the surprise effect achieved by Hannibal, was added the terror caused in many of the Roman legionaries by the Water.

To this day, we take it for granted that practically everyone knows how to swim, something that is not at all true when it comes to classical antiquity.

In fact, a good part of the 15,000 fatalities suffered by the Romans (to which must be added 10,000 or 15,000 prisoners in Carthaginian hands, against only 1,500 or 2,000 dead among Hannibal's soldiers) were killed by drowning while trying to escape through the lake from the fury of the soldiers fighting for Carthage.

The Romans could not adopt any training battle, so this became, plain and simple, a fight to save lives. Divided into three pockets by the Carthaginian attack, only the part of Vanguard was able to save a part of its troops.

Even the commander of the Roman troops, the consul Gaius Flaminio Nepote, died during the course of the battle.

To culminate the disaster, the cavalry of the other consular army, that of the consul Cneo Servilio Gémino lost all his cavalry, which was surprised by his Punic counterpart when he was going to reinforce Flaminio's army device, unaware that he was being annihilated in the lake.

The consequences of the battle were especially felt in Rome, which appointed Quintus Fabius Maximus dictator, and militarily adopted a politics of scorched earth and harassment with respect to Hannibal's army, avoiding any confrontation in the open field.

This policy would be blown up in the Battle of Cannas, but that is another story ...

Photo: Fotolia - eddy007

Themes in Battle of Trasimeno