The Second Punic War - OverSimplified (Part 1)

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0:36 (dramatic music) All right, our beloved mercenaries.

0:43 Let's hear it.

0:45 Okay, thank you one and all for your hard work fighting in the First Punic War.

0:50 Would've been nice if you'd won.

0:51 Maybe tried a little harder.

0:53 But this isn't the finger pointing convention.

0:56 I know you all have one thing on your minds.

0:59 "Hey, when are we all getting paid?" (crowd cheering) All right,

1:03 all right, simmer down!

1:05 Remember you lost, you, okay.

1:08 Jim, why don't you tell them?

1:10 I'm not telling them, you tell them!

1:12 Ugh.

1:13 Look, you're not getting paid.

1:15 (crowd gasps) What?

1:16 We lost the First Punic war and owed the Romans a ton of reparations.

1:20 Of course we can't pay you in full.

1:23 Let's burn this place to the ground!

1:25 (crowd cheers) Hey!

1:28 Hey!

1:29 Don't burn this place to the ground!

1:31 Come on, fellas.

1:32 Will killing us really make you feel better about your money?

1:37 Yes.

1:40 Way to go, sir.

1:41 Shut up, Jim!

1:42 You're fired!

1:43 I guess that makes two of us.

1:45 Huh?

1:45 (yells) (suspenseful music) In the aftermath of the First Punic War,

1:54 Carthage's disgruntled mercenaries left unpaid for all their hard work revolted

2:00 and Carthage found itself caught up in an extremely destructive Mercenary War.

2:05 The panicked Carthaginians hired more mercenaries to fight

2:09 the mercenaries they couldn't afford to pay,

2:10 and Carthage came dangerously close to collapse.

2:14 All the while, across the water, there was Rome.

2:18 Ha.

2:19 Look at those morons.

2:21 We just kicked their in the First Punic

2:23 war and now their own mercenaries are revolting.

2:25 Ha ha.

2:26 Yeah.

2:27 Wait, First Punic War?

2:29 You mean there's gonna be a second one?

2:30 Well, we're definitely taking advantage of this situation,

2:33 so almost certainly yes.

2:35 The Romans did in fact take advantage of the situation.

2:38 Amongst the chaos, rebels on the Carthaginian Island

2:41 of Sardinia sent out a cry for help to Rome.

2:43 "Hot diggity dog," said the Romans,

2:45 "that's free real estate." And so in they went.

2:49 Whoa, whoa, whoa.

2:51 That's our island!

2:52 Get the hell off!

2:53 Hey, they requested our help.

2:56 We're simply helping.

2:57 Oh, no, you don't.

2:58 Look, we're sending our own army to deal with the rebels, okay?

3:02 But just to be clear, we're not trying to start a fight with you.

3:05 So you know, don't declare war on us or anything.

3:07 War!

3:08 We surrender!

3:09 Great and as part of the peace treaty, we get to keep these islands.

3:14 No!

3:17 The Carthaginians we're hopping mad.

3:19 As if their humiliating loss in the First Punic War wasn't bad enough,

3:23 the Romans now took advantage

3:25 of their mercenary problem and stole their islands.

3:28 This shocking land grab was pretty hard to justify even by Roman standards.

3:34 Additionally, the Romans now demanded Carthage pay them even

3:37 more money on top of what was already owed.

3:40 If Rome was trying to make Carthage as mad as possible,

3:43 they were doing a fantastic job.

3:46 The seeds of a Second Punic War were being sown,

3:49 and they were being watered with Carthaginian tears.

3:53 Resentment in Carthage only continued to grow.

3:57 Eventually, Carthage solved their mercenary

3:59 problem thanks to Carthaginian military

4:02 genius and hero of the First Punic War, Hamilcar Barca.

4:06 He sorted those naughty mercenaries out with some good

4:09 old fashioned atrocities and the destructive Mercenary War was over.

4:14 Still, all was not well.

4:16 In Carthage, mere decades ago,

4:19 they were the top dogs in the Western Mediterranean.

4:22 Now, after the crushing defeat in the First Punic War,

4:25 and a huge bill to pay the Romans,

4:28 Carthage was well and truly under Rome's thumb.

4:32 What on earth were they supposed to do?

4:34 If they wanted any chance at regaining their former strength,

4:37 there was one thing they needed now more than anything.

4:41 Money.

4:42 But as long as they owed Rome a bazillion dollars,

4:45 there was nothing they could do.

4:47 Fortunately for them, amongst their ranks,

4:49 there was one big hunk of a man with one big clump of a brain.

4:54 Me!

4:56 [Senators] Hamilcar Barca?

4:57 Yes.

4:58 Wait, why do you all have the exact same voice?

5:00 (yells) I have it too!

5:01 That's right, hero of the First Punic War,

5:05 greatest general alive and the poster above my bed.

5:10 Hamilcar Barca had an idea.

5:12 All right, we need money?

5:15 Well, I've got one word for you.

5:17 Spain.

5:18 An area filled with lucrative silver mines

5:21 from which the silver would flow like a river,

5:24 and our pockets would be stuffed like Tony's mother at a buffet.

5:27 Hey!

5:28 So here's my proposal.

5:29 You send me with an army to Spain, I'll expand our territory,

5:33 get those silver mines up and running,

5:35 and we'll be able to pay the Romans back in no time.

5:38 Okay, but just to check, you're not secretly raising the money to go

5:42 on a bloodthirsty revenge spree against Rome, are you?

5:45 Because we can't afford that.

5:46 Hanno, my dear, I'm simply going to pay them back.

5:56 Well, that wasn't reassuring.

5:57 Few in Carthage were as bitter about their loss

5:59 in the First Punic War as Hamilcar Barca.

6:02 98% of his brain matter had been reallocated to thoughts of revenge.

6:07 He was also fed up with the Carthaginian politicians for what he deemed

6:12 a cowardly betrayal when they surrendered at the end of the last war.

6:15 And so for Hamilcar, going to Spain meant being able

6:19 to act independently from the weak Carthaginian government,

6:22 building his own strength, and then perhaps somewhere down the line, revenge.

6:28 However, he wasn't going to Spain by himself.

6:31 Hannibal.

6:32 Yes, father?

6:33 Would you like to come with me to build an empire in Spain?

6:36 Oh boy, would I!

6:37 Barbara, mind if I take our nine-year-old son with me?

6:40 I want to implant an intense hatred of Rome

6:41 in him and prepare him for a glorious campaign of vengeance.

6:43 (sighs) Just try not to traumatize him dear.

6:46 No promises.

6:47 The young boy Hannibal would accompany his father, watching, learning.

6:53 Boy, you see that city over there?

6:56 Yes, father?

6:57 That is Rome.

6:58 Do you know what we do to Romans?

7:01 No, Father.

7:02 We hate them, Hannibal.

7:04 We hate them with every fiber of our being.

7:07 But why, Father?

7:08 Can't I just play with my digimons?

7:09 No son!

7:10 They took everything from us.

7:13 Our land, our wealth, our pride.

7:17 Those animals!

7:18 I'll tear them limb from limb!

7:21 I'll burn their pathetic city to the ground!

7:25 Dad?

7:26 I'm sorry, son, I've just never been so proud.

7:29 Keep going.

7:30 I'll slaughter their people.

7:32 I'll cut off their faces and wear them as masks!

7:34 (sobs) I love you, son!

7:36 After taking Hannibal to the temple of Baal and having

7:39 him swear an oath never to be a friend of Rome,

7:42 off dad and son went for their lovely beach holiday in Spain.

7:45 But Spain was already inhabited by many tribes people.

7:49 And when Hamilcar suddenly showed up in their territory,

7:52 they were like, hey, who the hell are you?

7:54 What are you doing here?

7:55 I'm teaching my son how to become a warrior like me.

7:58 Aw!

7:58 Well, that's sweet.

8:00 Well then little guy, let's see what you got.

8:04 Good boy.

8:05 As Hamilcar got to work fighting

8:07 the tribes of Iberia and expanding Carthaginian influence,

8:10 Hannibal became a child of war, even earning battle scars from a young age

8:15 and he grew to become a great military leader himself,

8:19 making his father very proud.

8:22 I love you so much, son.

8:24 Dad, not in front of the enemy!

8:25 (army laughing) You killed that guy so well, son.

8:32 (army laughing) Dad!

8:34 The Barcas successfully consolidated Carthaginian power,

8:37 got those silver mines up and running,

8:39 and were sending buckets of cash back to a money-starved Carthage.

8:43 And symbolizing Carthage's regrowing strength,

8:46 a beautiful new city would eventually be founded in Spain,

8:50 New Carthage with a magnificent palace at its center.

8:55 Carthage is back, baby!

8:58 What in the name of Apollo is going on here?

9:01 (yells) Romans!

9:02 Flowing silver mines?

9:04 Dancing elephants?

9:05 What are you up to, Hamilcar?

9:08 I'm simply gathering the money to pay you back.

9:10 Oh.

9:11 Oh, okay then.

9:12 Or are you rebuilding strength to go on a bloodthirsty revenge spree?

9:17 Like I said, Claudius, I'm simply trying to pay you back.

9:25 Aw, you guys are hugging.

9:28 No, we're not!

9:30 I was.

9:31 I was hugging!

9:34 (sobs) Hamilcar had practically carved out a kingdom for himself in Spain,

9:38 free from the meddling Carthaginian politicians.

9:41 His power was becoming immense.

9:44 But dad.

9:45 Yes, my son?

9:46 I'm confused.

9:47 Are we really simply paying the Romans back?

9:49 We're not gonna go on a bloodthirsty revenge spree?

9:52 Of course we are.

9:53 I'm just saying that to get the Romans off our backs.

9:56 Listen, here's the most important life lesson I have for you:

10:00 vengeance is everything.

10:02 An all-encompassing thirst for vengeance is great for your mental health.

10:05 Are you still confused?

10:06 No, no, I get it now.

10:08 But what if the Romans find out what we're up to?

10:11 They won't find out.

10:12 Why?

10:13 Well Hannibal, because I use NordVPN!

10:20 I'm confused again.

10:21 Do you like your computer being hacked,

10:23 all your passwords being stolen and used to create

10:25 a fake virtual you who drains your mom's bank account?

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11:29 So thank you.

11:30 Now, where were we?

11:32 Oh yeah.

11:33 Carthaginian tears, a child of war, and the Carthaginian conquest of Spain.

11:41 The Carthaginian recovery had been staggeringly

11:44 quick and Rome was seriously alarmed.

11:47 But they were also preoccupied with ongoing wars elsewhere,

11:50 including an expansionist war to the north

11:53 where they were enslaving thousands of northern Celts.

11:56 So for now, to keep Carthage in check, the Romans insisted on a new treaty.

12:02 See this river?

12:03 The two sides agreed that everything above it was in Rome's sphere of influence,

12:08 while beneath it was Carthage.

12:10 Under no circumstances were the Carthaginians to expand north of that river.

12:15 But for now, Hamilcar and son were living it up.

12:19 Well son, here's to many more years of successful campaigning in Spain.

12:24 Now if you'll excuse me, I just have to go fight those guys.

12:28 See you later, son.

12:29 I love you!

12:33 What the?

12:34 Aw crap.

12:36 I drowned?

12:37 Oh well.

12:38 Always remember, son, you are vengeance!

12:48 Also, delete my browsing history.

12:49 Hamilcar Barca was tragically ambushed at a river and drowned.

12:53 His son-in-law and possibly also his lover,

12:56 no further questions, took charge for a while,

12:58 but he too was later assassinated,

13:00 leaving finally a 26-year-old Hannibal in charge

13:04 of the Carthaginian armies in Spain.

13:07 Sources say the men readily accepted him as their leader.

13:10 He chose to suffer the same hardships as his men.

13:13 He lived in the same conditions,

13:15 was often the first into battle, and the last one out.

13:18 And it also helped that he looked a lot like his dad.

13:21 He had the total respect of his men.

13:24 If he said, "jump," they said "how high?" If he

13:27 said "tuck me in," they said "how tight?" If he said,

13:30 "talk to a girl without peeing your pants," they said "that's impossible.

13:34 Nobody can do that!" An army that would follow him

13:37 anywhere would be crucial for exacting his vengeance against Rome.

13:42 Hannibal's army had become a strong and loyal fighting force,

13:46 and that was making a certain nation very uncomfortable.

13:50 Seeing Carthage restrengthened so quickly was not something Rome had expected.

13:55 Yet here they were, paying off their debts and expanding their territory.

14:00 It didn't feel very much like Carthage was under Rome's thumb

14:03 at all and Rome wanted to put an end to it.

14:07 Tensions were strung tighter than your lyre's g-string and all

14:10 it would take was one incident to trigger all-out war.

14:16 And in 219 BC, a city in Spain would find

14:20 itself at the very center of that fateful incident, Saguntum.

14:25 Remember that treaty declaring everything south

14:28 of this river to be Carthage's sphere of influence?

14:31 Well, Saguntum should therefore obviously be Carthaginian, right?

14:36 Wrong!

14:37 Saguntum had actually scored itself an informal alliance with Rome

14:41 after Rome had helped it with an internal dispute.

14:44 With Carthaginian encroachment, Saguntum began to fear for its independence,

14:48 and Rome declared itself Saguntum's protector.

14:53 But this clearly went against the Ebro River Treaty,

14:57 so what on earth was Rome doing?

14:59 Were the Saguntines and the Romans truly just BFFs?

15:03 It's possible.

15:04 Or was Rome deliberately trying to interfere with Hannibal's Spanish expansion

15:08 and maintain a staging post for a future war with Carthage?

15:12 More likely.

15:14 And Hannibal certainly viewed this Rome-Saguntum alliance as an outrage.

15:18 Yet another example of Roman arrogance.

15:21 At first, he left Saguntum alone.

15:24 But having learned from his father to hate all things Roman,

15:28 and having inherited his father's dream of bringing Rome to its knees,

15:32 more and more, Hannibal may have begun to see Saguntum as an opportunity.

15:38 Could this controversial alliance be just what devilish little Hannibal needed

15:43 to kickstart a second war with Rome and restore Carthaginian dominance?

15:49 It's even possible that Rome were also using Saguntum to goad Hannibal

15:53 into a fight so they could go and kick him out of Spain.

15:57 And as the two giants began gearing up for round two,

16:01 the poor people of Saguntum had no idea

16:04 that they were about to be crushed in the collision.

16:08 Hey, your alliance with Saguntum is an insult and we won't stand for it.

16:14 They're our friends Hannibal, and if you lay a finger on them,

16:17 it'll be an act of war.

16:18 Yeah, Hannibal!

16:19 Back the hell off!

16:21 War, eh?

16:22 I was thinking I might just besiege their city and massacre their people.

16:26 I hope you do, Hannibal!

16:28 Find out what happens.

16:29 Yeah, we hope you do, Hani- Wait, what?

16:32 Maybe I will.

16:33 Go ahead, kill them all.

16:34 Uh.

16:35 Okay, then.

16:35 Fine.

16:36 Fine.

16:37 Okay.

16:37 Guess I'll do just that.

16:39 Consul?

16:39 We look forward to it.

16:41 Consul?

16:41 You're gonna protect us though, right, Consul?

16:44 Consul?!

16:47 Oh no!

16:48 To top it all off, when the Saguntine people made

16:51 the genius decision of raiding into Carthaginian territory, enough was enough.

16:56 In an action that was guaranteed to provoke the Romans into war,

17:01 Hannibal besieged the city.

17:03 The siege of Saguntum lasted eight cruel months before Hannibal broke

17:08 through the city defenses and turned Saguntum into a killing field.

17:12 It was a massacre.

17:15 What the hell?

17:18 Tell me I didn't just catch you massacring our friends, the Saguntise!

17:23 Well Consul, if you like the Saguntise so much,

17:26 perhaps you should Sagundeez nuts!

17:30 (all cheering) Hearing word of the attack on Saguntum,

17:34 Rome was understandably in an uproar and all

17:38 eyes were now fixated on what would happen next.

17:41 As Rome sent a delegation to Carthage led by one

17:45 of the most highly esteemed Roman senators, Fabius Maximus.

17:50 He demanded an answer for Hannibal's sins.

17:53 All right, listen up scum.

17:56 You've got a rogue general in Spain attacking a Roman ally.

17:59 What are we supposed to do about it?

18:01 Well, there shouldn't have even been a Roman ally in Spain.

18:04 You're the aggressor here!

18:05 Hand Hannibal over to us as a criminal so we can punish him severely.

18:10 No.

18:10 Yes.

18:10 No.

18:11 Yes.

18:11 No!

18:12 Look, I hold in the folds of my toga both peace and war.

18:17 Which one should I let drop?

18:19 Whichever one you want!

18:22 Then I choose war!

18:28 (dramatic music) The Second Punic War had begun.

18:35 Pack it up boys we've got 'em!

18:38 We already destroyed these clowns once, and we were the underdogs!

18:43 Now, we're the, over dogs?

18:45 Hotdogs.

18:46 Exactly.

18:47 This is gonna be E-Z.

18:49 Here's the plan.

18:50 Consul Longus, you take your army and sail straight for Carthage.

18:55 Burn that city to the ground!

18:57 And Consul Scipio, you just head on over to Iberia

19:00 and make sure this Hannibal guy doesn't do anything crazy.

19:03 I mean, what's he gonna do?

19:05 Cross the Alps?

19:05 (all laugh) We're going to what?!

19:11 Cross the Alps!

19:13 We're going to what?!

19:16 I just told you.

19:17 Hannibal, we'll freeze to death!

19:19 Trust me, Jerome.

19:20 The Romans are expecting us to fight the same way we did last time,

19:24 passively, taking no initiative.

19:26 They think it's gonna be E-Z.

19:30 So this time, we have to be aggressive.

19:33 We have to go on the attack!

19:35 It sickens me to say this, but this time we have to be a little more Roman.

19:40 (all gasp) You mean we're gonna take poops and baths together?!

19:43 But I'm insecure about my hairy legs!

19:45 No!

19:46 I'm saying this time we're gonna take the fight to them.

19:49 Think about it.

19:50 Rome thinks they're simply going to invade us and win the war.

19:54 So when they suddenly find themselves being invaded from the north,

19:57 they'll freak out like Tony's mother when the buffet runs out of shrimp.

20:01 Hey!

20:02 I gotta admit, it's actually kind of genius.

20:05 And my hairy legs will insulate me from the cold!

20:07 That's the spirit!

20:08 Hannibal, you have my sword.

20:11 And my spear.

20:13 And my legs!

20:15 Bleugh.

20:18 Hannibal's plan, a daring Alpine trek to surprise

20:21 the Romans was a bold but risky strategy.

20:25 If it paid off, he could catch the Romans with their pants down,

20:28 but he could also end up losing a ton

20:30 of men and supplies in the hostile mountain conditions.

20:34 Nevertheless, in 218 BC,

20:35 with a fire in his eyes and some vengeance in his belly,

20:40 Hannibal brought his force of almost

20:42 a hundred thousand men across the Ebro River.

20:45 They spent months on the road trekking through the cold,

20:48 hostile mountain conditions.

20:50 And when they finally reached the other side, they said, "Hooray!

20:54 We did it.

20:55 We crossed the Alps." No, those were the Pyrenees.

20:59 Those are the Alps.

21:01 (wind whooshing) (army crying) After crossing the Pyrenees,

21:07 the army then had to pass through Southern Gaul,

21:10 a vast territory filled with tribes people,

21:12 many of whom were hostile to Hannibal's presence.

21:15 His journey to the Alps was an ordeal in itself as he was forced

21:19 to fight his way through and incurred

21:21 pretty hefty losses before even reaching the mountains.

21:24 His plan was almost stopped in its tracks entirely as the Roman Consul

21:28 Scipio on his way to Iberia discovered Hannibal was right on his doorstep.

21:33 Suddenly, Hannibal's journey became a race as he rushed to get his massive

21:39 army across the vast Rhone River before the Romans could intercept him.

21:44 The crossing was chaotic,

21:45 with the panicking elephants causing several men to drown.

21:49 And the first combat of the war occurred when

21:51 small scouting parties from each side encountered one another.

21:55 When Scipio finally caught up to Hannibal's position,

21:58 what he found was an empty Carthaginian camp.

22:01 Hannibal had slipped through his fingers.

22:05 The Roman Consul Scipio felt the weight of the situation.

22:10 Quite unbelievably, Hannibal was going to cross the Alps into Italy

22:14 and the Romans had no idea where he would emerge.

22:18 For the first time, a Carthaginian force had the Roman homeland under threat.

22:24 Scipio sent his men onto Iberia as planned,

22:27 but he himself rushed home to raise a new

22:30 army so that if Hannibal survived the crossing, Scipio would be there waiting.

22:36 Would you look at that, boys?

22:38 We're here!

22:39 The Alps!

22:40 Although it is a little later than I expected.

22:43 Yeah, it's kind of chilly.

22:45 We'll set up camp here and wait for spring, right?

22:47 It's way too cold, right?

22:52 Hannibal?

22:53 (wind whooshing) Hannibal's famous crossing of the Alps was brutal.

23:00 It was already autumn and the men suffered terribly.

23:03 It was cold.

23:04 Men would fall off the sides of icy cliffs.

23:06 They starved, they fell off the sides of icy cliffs.

23:10 Some sources say they had to eat their pack animals and would

23:13 finish off dying comrades in order to take their clothes for extra warmth.

23:17 And then, they would fall off the sides of icy cliffs.

23:20 Imagine an army of 50,000 men with all of their horses,

23:24 supplies and 37 elephants trying to navigate

23:28 the most hostile mountain range in Europe.

23:31 And it wasn't just nature that they were up against.

23:34 Tribes people lived in the mountains

23:36 and they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

23:39 A tribe approached Hannibal and said, hey man, geez, that's some nice armor.

23:43 What is that, gold?

23:45 Man, I'd really like that armor.

23:46 Hey boss!

23:47 They've got food as well.

23:49 Shut up!

23:50 Be cool.

23:51 Hey, why don't you let us guide you through this narrow gorge?

23:54 We're not gonna kill you or nothing.

23:55 Just walk right on through there.

23:57 We're not gonna kill ya.

23:58 It's just right this way.

24:02 We're not gonna kill ya!

24:03 Hannibal's army were forced to fight their way through

24:05 the gorge as massive boulders rained down on them from above.

24:09 Some clever reorganization of his line helped them survive,

24:12 and they were able to fend off the opportunistic tribes.

24:16 But losses from the constant attacks were heavy.

24:19 As the journey continued,

24:20 men who went over the sides would get stuck on the ice sheets below and had

24:25 to make a grizzly choice between starving to death or just getting it over with.

24:30 When the deeply demoralized army reached

24:32 the summit and rested for a couple days,

24:35 Hannibal tried to lift their spirits with a rousing speech.

24:39 Look, men!

24:40 down there, it's Rome.

24:42 These plains stretching out in front of you are

24:45 bountiful with food to eat and Romans to kill!

24:50 Move, Bessie!

24:51 Look!

24:52 You have just climbed the walls of Rome.

24:54 The hard part is over.

24:56 From here on out, it's all downhill and nobody else will die!

25:02 Except for them.

25:04 The rest of us here, no one dies.

25:08 Starting now.

25:12 Okay, let's go.

25:13 Oh for goodness sake!

25:14 As it turned out, the descent was as deadly

25:17 as the way up with the cold really starting to set in.

25:20 The path became even more narrow.

25:22 And at one point, the men spent three

25:24 days in the freezing cold repairing a collapsed road.

25:28 When they finally reached the bottom, Hannibal said look guys, we did it!

25:33 (army groaning) Well, I thought it went really well!

25:38 When Hannibal left Spain, he had about a hundred thousand men.

25:42 By the time he reached the Italian plains,

25:44 his numbers had dwindled to about 26,000.

25:48 He was now caught in enemy territory without

25:51 a supply line or a source of reinforcements.

25:53 And any elephants who had survived

25:55 to this point were almost certainly traumatized.

25:58 So what on earth was Hannibal up to?

26:01 This supposed military genius had just led

26:04 a starving and weakened army right into enemy territory.

26:08 Any modern general who lost half their men to mountains

26:11 would be immediately fired and possibly even depantsed on live TV.

26:16 Here's the thing, while Hannibal may not

26:18 have planned on losing quite so many men,

26:20 he had almost certainly expected considerable losses,

26:23 and he always had a plan for how to replace them.

26:26 Need men?

26:28 Northern Italy was full of men, big burly Celtic men.

26:33 All the men Hannibal would ever need to beat off Rome.

26:36 These Celts were filled with resentment,

26:39 having only recently been conquered by Rome.

26:42 Hannibal hoped to be seen as a liberator,

26:45 convince the Celts to cut ties with Rome, and instead join him in crushing Rome.

26:51 That way, he could gain a source

26:53 of reinforcements and supplies right in Rome's backyard.

26:57 But sir, in order to win the loyalty of the Celts,

27:00 we would need to make a seriously favorable impression on them.

27:03 How do we get 'em to like us?

27:05 Hmm.

27:06 Kill them.

27:07 (dramatic music) One of Hannibal's first actions in Italy

27:10 was to obliterate a nearby tribe who wouldn't join him.

27:14 This sent a clear message to all the other tribes.

27:17 It was his wrath they should fear, not Rome's.

27:21 The realization that a Carthaginian army had just

27:25 invaded them must have been shocking for the Romans.

27:28 But when they looked at this rag tie group broken by the Alps,

27:32 they couldn't have felt very intimidated.

27:34 However, Hannibal was now in Italy and he was about to embark

27:40 on one of the most astonishing military campaigns in all of human history.

27:46 The Romans may not have known it yet,

27:48 but there was now a monster loose in their territory,

27:51 and he was vying for Roman blood.

27:56 (dramatic music) (dramatic music continues)