The Battle of the Trebia River was the first of a string of three major victories won by
Hannibal over the Roman Republic, during the Second Punic War.
During this war, Hannibal of Carthage audaciously launched a secret invasion of Italy, and for
three years in a row, faced off against everything that Rome could muster, winning every time.
I'm not going to explain what the Second Punic War was, because if I started down that road
I would never get to this battle.
Hannibal was in Italy and the Romans wanted him out of Italy.
You can look it up if you want more than that.
So, the Battle of the Trebia River was the first major set piece battle of Hannibal's
invasion.
There had already been one skirmish between Hannibal's army and a small Roman army commanded
by a Consul, but the Romans had been forced to retreat.
The other Consul was marching up from the south, commanding a large army of his own.
The two consuls joined forces in December of 218 BCE.
They tracked down Hannibal, who was encamped near the Trebia River in Northern Italy.
They closed in on him, encamping on the opposite side of the river, and preparing for battle.
Let's look at the strengths of the two armies.
They were almost equal in strength.
The Romans slightly outnumbered the Carthaginians, but not by much.
The Carthaginians had 38,000 men. 10,000 of them were high quality cavalry, 20,000 were
armoured heavy infantry, and 8,000 light infantry.
Allied Gauls made up a third of this army.
The Romans had 40,000 men.
This consisted of 4,000 cavalry, 16,000 Roman heavy infantry, and 20,000 assorted infantry
from their Italian allies.
Hannibal spent some time exploring his side of the river.
He discovered an old dried out riverbed that had overgrown with very long grass.
He now knew where he wanted to fight.
In the middle of the night, he ordered 1,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry to silently sneak
into the grassy riverbed.
Early the next morning, Hannibal initiated the battle.
He sent all of his remaining cavalry across the river to attack the Romans at dawn.
By the way, the river was only like 4 feet deep, just so we're all clear.
Nobody was swimming, okay?
The Romans frantically ran around trying to get people up and ready to fight.
By the time they threw together a meaningful defense, the Carthaginian cavalry was already
heading back across the river.
It was a hit and run attack.
As the infantry continued to form up, the Romans sent the cavalry in pursuit.
As you can see, the Carthaginian cavalry significantly outnumbered their Roman counterparts by over
2 to 1.
I can't help but wonder what the Romans thought they were accomplishing when they went after
the Carthaginians like this.
What were they going to do if they ever caught them?
It seems like somebody gave an impulsive order in the midst of the surprise attack.
Look at them, they're out in the middle of nowhere, they're sitting ducks.
Fortunately for them, Hannibal wasn't interested in them right now.
The Carthaginians led them on a wild goose chase, and refused to engage.
The Roman cavalry eventually gave up, exhausted, as their heavy infantry began to cross the
river.
Hannibal arranged his men in a single defensive line.
He placed his African heavy infantry on his right, his Spanish heavy infantry on his left,
and his Gallic allies in the centre, his cavalry assembled on the wings.
The Romans arranged themselves in the standard three line formation, common during the Republic.
They placed the Roman heavy infantry in the centre, with their Italian allies on the right
and left.
The cavalry were on the wings.
After lots of waiting around and shivering in the cold, the battle begins.
10,000 Carthaginian cavalry immediately charge forward and go after the 4,000 mounted Romans.
Some lightly armoured Carthaginian infantry followed, and the Romans, exhausted and outnumbered,
didn't put up much of a fight.
The veteran Roman heavy infantry from the first two lines advanced to meet the Gauls.
They hit them hard, the Gauls begin to slowly lose ground.
The Carthaginian cavalry and infantry on the wings have finally chased off the last of
the Romans.
They suddenly turned, and collapse in on the enemy flanks.
The Roman allies on both sides are now fighting in two directions at once.
They were starting to get nervous.
This was not good.
The Roman heavy infantry in the centre were oblivious to all of this.
They heard the crash of battle all around them, but they were doing great, and were
tearing through the Gauls, gaining more and more ground.
At this point, as if they planned it or something, the hidden Carthaginian troops crashed out
of their grass concealment.
1,000 cavalry and 1,000 infantry charged the Roman rear.
Fortunately for the Romans, they still had an uncommitted third line, who turned to meet
the enemy.
This was enough to stop the Carthaginians in their tracks, but as you can see, the Romans
were now fighting in all directions.
Not an ideal.
But finally, the Romans had a major breakthrough!
The heavy infantry in the centre, still oblivious to what was going on around them, finally
cut through the last of the Gauls.
They were now on the other side of the enemy, with no orders.
But...I don't even know how to describe what happens next.
They made it through the Gauls, and then they kept going.
And going.
I don't know if this was cowardice or stupidity, but they...just...kept...going...forward...
right off the edge of the map.
When they arrived in the nearest town they started telling people that they won the battle.
Maybe these meatheads actually believed it, I don't know.
Way to ruin everything, idiots.
The Roman allies, who were already fighting on two fronts, finally clued in to the fact
that they were being attacked to the rear as well.
This was too much for them.
Units started to ignore orders, and everything kind of turned into a free for all.
The Cargaginians closed in, and easily finished the job.
The Roman third line kept its cool, and were last seen heroically making a last stand,
fighting in all four directions at once.
They were eventually overwhelmed.
The battle was now over.
The Romans lost a lot of men.
By a lot I mean least 20,000.
Probably more like 30,000.
It was a disaster.
The Carthaginians lost around 5,000 men, mostly Gauls.
The funny thing is, after such a resounding victory, these losses were easily replaced
by new Gauls flocking to Hannibal's banner.
What I want you to take away from this battle is how well Hannibal knew his enemy.
Know that saying "no plan survives first contact with the enemy?"
Doesn't really apply here, does it?
If you go back and look, he accurately predicted almost every move his enemy made in the battle.
Two things didn't go exactly according to plan.
First, he probably didn't anticipate that the Romans would have a third line available
to meet his ambush.
But at that point he had them surrounded anyways, so it didn't really make a difference.
Second, I'm sure he had hoped the Gauls to hold their own against the Romans.
But in the end it worked out because they inexplicably removed themselves from the battlefield.
During the next campaigning season, Hannibal would do it all again at the Battle of Lake
Trasimene.
Stay tuned for that.