10. The General Who Fought the Perfect Battle
Hannibal Barca (247 – circa 182 BC) elevated the role of strategy in warfare. He led a Carthaginian army out of Spain, through southern France, and across the Alps into Italy. That brought the Second Punic War (218 – 201 BC) to enemy territory. In Italy, he perfected battlefield tactics, and consistently defeated bigger Roman armies. Hannibal inflicted a series of humiliating defeats upon the Romans. That shook Rome’s hold on her Italian allies and client states, many of whom either joined Hannibal or declared neutrality. His greatest victory came in 216 BC, when the Romans amassed their biggest army to date, 87,000 men, and marched off to crush Hannibal. He met them with 40,000 men at Cannae, and crushed them in a military masterpiece that is still studied as an example of the near-perfect battle.
