Hannibal led his army to many underdog victories and defeated armies much greater and stronger than his own. Hannibal took many unexpected routes to catch many of his enemies off guard and to strike at the most unexpected times. (Mosig, 1) One way that Hannibal caught his enemies off guard was when he went across the Alps to catch the Romans by surprise and attack them. (Mosig, 1) This is an excellent military because Hannibal planned out where the best way to attack from without being noticed and also took into account how long it would take to reach the Romans. (Wikipedia, 3) Hannibal marched against the city of Saguntum in the Siege of …show more content…
(Bradford, 90) When Hannibal would attack or sneak up on a Roman site, if he was victorious on the battlefield, Hannibal’s army would either kill or capture soldiers from the Roman army. (Bradford, 93) When Roman’s discovered that almost no one could come out of the battlefield alive with Hannibal’s army, this struck fear into the Roman’s hearts. All though Hannibal didn’t have the the greatest and mightiest of armies in the world, he had the most advanced and successful tactics which the Romans feared for all they had was brawn, but no brain. (Bradford, 95) Hannibal’s army was the viciousness on the battlefield because they knew they would never have the most men or artillery, so they would have to work 2x as hard to even have a chance at being victorious on the battlefield, which was a major threat to the Roman army. Hannibal began to move towards Cannae in the spring of 216 B.C. (Bradford, 108) Hannibal advanced forward to The Battle of Cannae with all of his strategies and military plans all intact and ready to use at any moment. (Bradford, 108) Hannibal reached Cannae in 217 B.C. along with his reduced crew stormed into Roman territory, the Romans were very hesitant to confront Hannibal in pitched battle, the Romans would have preferred weakening him by attrition because of his lack of manpower