[00:00] - [Narrator] This video was
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[00:12] Also ever needed to enact
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[00:18] Well, fear not Little Hannibal is here.
[00:21] Support our channel by heading over
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[00:33] so get it quick.
[00:35] (dramatic music)
[00:40] (swords clanging)
[00:49] (soldiers screaming)
[00:50] (swords clanging)
[00:53] (dramatic music continues)
[00:58] (soldiers screaming)
(swords clanging)
[01:02] (dramatic music continues)
[01:18] (Romans screaming)
[01:22] (ominous music)
[01:25] How do you solve a problem like Hannibal?
[01:29] (Romans screaming)
[01:32] In a crisis such as this,
[01:33] the Romans often turned to religion.
[01:36] - [Roman 1] What's going on?
[01:37] Are the gods mad at us?
[01:38] The Gods must be mad at us.
[01:40] - [Roman 2] But why?
[01:41] - [Roman 3] I know why.
[01:42] Two of the Vestal Virgins
broke their sacred oath
[01:45] and lost their virginity!
[01:47] That's why Hannibal's kicking our ass!
[01:49] - [Roman 2] What should we do with them?
[01:50] - [Roman 4] Appease the
gods, bury them alive.
[01:54] (Romans cheering)
[01:57] - [Roman 1] Who did they even boink?
[01:58] - [Roman 2] It was those guys.
[02:00] - [Roman 5] Huh?
[02:00] - [Roman 1] What should we do with them?
[02:01] - [Roman 3] Beat them to death!
[02:04] (Romans cheering)
(blows thudding)
[02:05] - [Narrator] Needless to say,
the Romans were freaking out.
[02:12] - [Roman 1] Okay, now that
that's out of our system,
[02:14] let's go find a real solution.
[02:15] - [Narrator] The real solution,
[02:16] first of all, involved raising a new army.
[02:19] Remember, at Cannae,
[02:21] Hannibal had wiped out
the biggest army Rome
[02:23] had ever fielded, possibly 20%
of Rome's military-aged men.
[02:28] Rome needed to replace
those losses and fast
[02:32] before Hannibal arrived at their gates.
[02:35] But where would those
replacements come from?
[02:37] Rome had a few ideas.
[02:39] - [Roman 1] Quick, lower
the age of conscription!
[02:42] You!
[02:43] Put down those Digimons.
[02:44] You're a soldier now.
[02:46] Enlist all these slaves
with the promise of freedom!
[02:49] (slave cheers)
[02:50] And equip them with all these
religious weapons and armor.
[02:52] Anything we've got!
[02:54] All right, men, you are
Rome's last line of defense.
[02:58] Man the walls!
[03:00] (children cheering)
[03:02] (ominous music)
[03:07] - [Narrator] After the
earth-shattering defeat at Cannae,
[03:09] the Romans expected Hannibal to arrive
[03:11] at their gates any day now.
[03:13] In Hannibal's camp, the
mood was triumphant.
[03:17] - [Soldier 1] We did it. We won.
[03:19] So when do we march on Rome?
[03:20] Today?
[03:21] - [Soldier 2] I'm free in 10 minutes.
[03:22] - [Hannibal] Whoa. Whoa. Slow down.
[03:23] We're not going to Rome.
[03:24] (soldiers gasping)
[03:26] We're staying right here.
[03:27] - [Soldier 1] Are you an idiot, Hannibal?
[03:29] - [Hannibal] No, I'm smart.
[03:30] We don't need to march on Rome
[03:32] because, after what we did,
[03:34] the Romans are definitely
going to surrender.
[03:37] Watch.
[03:38] Hey, Jimbob?
[03:39] - [Jimbob] Yes, sir?
[03:40] - [Hannibal] Go to Rome
and discuss peace terms.
[03:41] - [Jimbob] Yes, sir.
[03:42] Hey, I'm here to discuss
peace terms terms.
[03:45] - [Fabius Maximus] Piss off!
[03:46] - [Jimbob] They told me to piss off!
[03:49] - [Hannibal] What? They didn't surrender?
[03:52] - [Jimbob] No, and they were mean!
[03:57] - [Narrator] Hannibal was learning
[03:59] that Rome had an unprecedented
attitude towards surrender.
[04:03] Even when Hannibal offered
to ransom thousands
[04:05] of prisoners back to Rome,
[04:07] a pretty common practice
in ancient warfare,
[04:09] the Romans refused, opting
to let their own men be sold
[04:13] into slavery rather than
paying a penny to the enemy.
[04:16] It was clear that in order to defeat Rome,
[04:19] you had to annihilate them.
[04:21] If any Roman man was still
standing, you hadn't yet won.
[04:26] But still, Hannibal decided
not to march on Rome
[04:29] and it was a controversial decision.
[04:32] Even one of his own
commanders famously told him,
[04:34] "Hannibal, you know how to win a battle,
[04:36] but you do not know how to win a war."
[04:38] (soldiers laughing)
[04:41] From Hannibal's perspective,
[04:42] perhaps he knew his army was designed
[04:44] to survive behind enemy
lines and sow chaos.
[04:47] It may not have been well equipped
[04:49] to undertake a risky siege
[04:50] of one of the most
fortified cities on earth.
[04:53] Plus with many of the
southern cities defecting
[04:56] to his side after Cannae,
[04:57] Hannibal likely thought things
were going pretty well as is.
[05:01] - [Hannibal] We'll stay the course.
[05:03] Okay, so the Romans didn't surrender
[05:05] after three major defeats,
[05:06] but surely they'll surrender after four.
[05:10] (soldiers groaning)
[05:13] - [Narrator] Unfortunately for Hannibal,
[05:14] however, after Cannae,
[05:16] the Romans well and truly
learned their lesson.
[05:20] - [Fabius Maximus] Well,
would you look at that?
[05:22] Remind me, who was it that said Hannibal
[05:24] was too dangerous to fight?
[05:26] - [Senator] You.
[05:27] - [Fabius Maximus] And
who said we shouldn't
[05:28] fight him directly?
[05:30] - [Senator] You.
[05:31] - [Fabius Maximus] And who
tried to fight him directly?
[05:34] - [Senator] Us.
[05:34] - [Fabius Maximus] And what happened?
[05:36] - [Senator] We lost 20%
of our military-aged men.
[05:40] - [Fabius Maximus] That's right.
[05:41] So tell me, when Hannibal
approaches, what do we do?
[05:46] - [Senator] We run away.
[05:47] - [Fabius Maximus] I'm a genius.
[05:50] Clap for me!
[05:50] (senators clapping)
[05:52] - [Narrator] After Cannae,
Fabius Maximus kind of
[05:54] became the unofficial leader of Rome.
[05:57] Even if others were elected Consul,
[05:59] his influence was unparalleled
[06:01] and Rome quickly reverted
[06:03] to the Fabian strategy
of avoiding Hannibal.
[06:06] They knew they couldn't defeat him,
[06:08] so instead they hoped they
could at least contain him.
[06:12] They raised an impressively
large number of men,
[06:14] partly by enlisting teenagers,
slaves, and criminals.
[06:17] And rather than trying to fight Hannibal,
[06:19] they instead turned
their attention towards
[06:21] those treacherous southern
cities that had switched sides.
[06:25] - [Hannibal] Thanks for
joining the winning team, guys.
[06:27] Here's the deal.
[06:28] All you have to do is
provide me some troops
[06:31] and defend your own city,
[06:32] since I'll be too busy
to defend it for you.
[06:35] Now, I'm going to briefly
turn around, look this way,
[06:39] and when I look back,
[06:40] you better not be being
massacred by the Rome...
[06:42] Oh, for goodness sake!
[06:44] - [Narrator] The Romans spread out
[06:45] their newly-formed legions
[06:46] and began attacking the
southern cities here,
[06:49] there, everywhere.
[06:50] The southern cities expected
to have Hannibal's protection
[06:53] and Hannibal was inundated
with requests for help.
[06:56] He was forced to run
around southern Italy,
[06:58] trying to encourage defection,
[07:00] while rescuing his own allies.
[07:02] But when he showed up, the
Romans would often leave,
[07:05] only to come back the
second he went away again.
[07:08] And as these southern cities found
[07:10] themselves being punished
severely by the Romans,
[07:12] they began to realize
that joining Hannibal
[07:15] may not have been such a good idea.
[07:17] - [Hannibal] Hey, you think you're so big?
[07:18] Attacking my allies!
[07:21] Why don't you come out and face me?
[07:23] - [Roman Soldier] Because you are scary.
[07:27] - [Narrator] The fickle southern cities
[07:28] frequently switched sides depending
[07:30] on who appeared to be winning,
[07:31] and the whole situation became a nightmare
[07:34] for Hannibal to control,
[07:35] playing a constant game
of Roman whack-a-mole
[07:38] to fend off the enemy armies.
[07:40] Having not long ago
seemed near extinction,
[07:43] the Romans had managed to
turn this situation around
[07:46] by placing Hannibal in
a clever predicament.
[07:50] If he left Southern Italy,
[07:51] the southern cities would
likely capitulate to Rome,
[07:54] meaning he couldn't leave.
[07:56] And since the Romans wouldn't fight him,
[07:58] he couldn't inflict any
more dangerous defeats.
[08:01] For now, Hannibal had been muzzled.
[08:04] Southern Italy had been his prize
[08:07] for his impressive Italian campaign,
[08:09] but those clever Romans found a way
[08:11] to take his prize and
turn it into his prison.
[08:15] With the Fabian strategy
neutralizing Hannibal for now,
[08:19] the Romans were freed up
to refocus their attention
[08:22] to other fronts.
[08:26] This whole time while we've
been discussing Hannibal
[08:28] and the Italian campaign
of the Second Punic War,
[08:31] fighting had actually
been occurring elsewhere.
[08:34] For example, in 216 BC, the
Romans had sent an army north
[08:38] to punish the Celtic tribes
that had joined Hannibal.
[08:41] However, as the Romans
entered the Litana Forest,
[08:45] little did they know those
clever Celts had set up a trap.
[08:49] The Celts dropped trees on
them, decimating the Romans,
[08:52] and they even took the commander's head
[08:54] to use as a religious sippy cup.
[08:57] So that went pretty bad.
[08:59] Whoa, very bad.
[09:01] But thankfully in other theaters,
[09:03] things were going a bit better.
[09:05] For example, let's look at Sicily.
[09:08] After Cannae, internal
chaos in Syracuse caused
[09:11] this longtime Roman ally to switch sides,
[09:14] because being a winner is more fun.
[09:17] The Carthaginians also landed troops,
[09:19] hoping to retake their lost island,
[09:21] while Roman proconsul,
Claudius Marcellus, moved in
[09:24] to besiege Syracuse.
[09:26] The siege was a brutal
slug for the Romans,
[09:30] largely due to the presence
of one famous scientist
[09:33] and mathematician, Archimedes.
[09:35] He lived in Syracuse at the time,
[09:37] and he invented a variety
of clever contraptions
[09:40] to defend the city.
[09:41] There was a giant claw that could grab
[09:43] and destroy Roman ships
[09:45] and purportedly even a big mirror
[09:47] that could magically ignite them.
[09:49] The Carthaginian forces
on the island attempted
[09:51] to come to Syracuse's rescue,
[09:53] but luckily for the Romans,
[09:55] they all got diarrhea and then died.
[09:58] Finally, in the city itself,
[10:00] the day of a big annual
religious festival came
[10:02] and the Syracusans said...
[10:04] - [Syracusan General] Well, fellas,
[10:05] we've been holding off the
Romans for over a year now.
[10:08] I think we've earned
ourselves a little party.
[10:10] (Syracusans cheering)
[10:13] - [Carl] Sir, we're still
under a massive siege.
[10:15] Are you sure?
[10:16] They'll probably take advantage of it.
[10:18] - [Syracusan General] Well,
Carl, I'm taking advantage
[10:20] of the open bar.
[10:21] - [Carl] Sir, they've got battering rams.
[10:23] - [Syracusan General]
Well, Carl, I'm ramming
[10:25] these hor d'oeuvres into my mouth.
[10:27] - [Carl] Sir, they'll tear down our walls.
[10:29] - [Syracusan General] Well,
Carl, I'm tearing it up
[10:32] on the dance floor.
[10:33] - [Carl] Sir, they're
literally at the gates.
[10:35] - [Syracusan General]
Well, Carl, I am literally
[10:37] at the cheese platter.
[10:39] (people screaming)
[10:41] - [Narrator] Marcellus took advantage
[10:42] of the drunken festivities,
stormed the city,
[10:45] and plundering ensued.
[10:47] In the chaos, Marcellus ordered Archimedes
[10:50] be captured alive.
[10:52] Some sources say Roman troops
entered Archimedes' home
[10:55] and they were like...
[10:56] - [Roman Soldier] Hey,
man, are you the math guy?
[10:57] - [Archimedes] Go away.
I'm drawing circles.
[10:59] - [Roman Soldier] Look,
I just need to know
[11:00] if you're the nerd.
[11:01] - [Archimedes] Come on, bro.
[11:02] Get outta here. You're
messing up my circles.
[11:03] - [Roman Soldier] Now is not
a good time to draw circles.
[11:04] - [Archimedes] It's always
a good time for circles.
[11:06] I love circles.
[11:07] - [Roman Soldier] Either
stop drawing the circles
[11:08] or I kill you.
[11:09] - [Archimedes] I choose the circles.
[11:10] (Archimedes screams)
[11:11] (bell tolls)
[11:12] - [Narrator] Despite
not securing Archimedes,
[11:14] by 210 BC, the Romans did secure Sicily
[11:18] and also put down a
Carthage-supported rebellion
[11:20] on nearby Sardinia.
[11:22] Two Roman successes.
[11:24] And there were more to come.
[11:26] After Cannae, King Philip the V of Macedon
[11:29] saw an opportunity.
[11:30] He was concerned with recent
Roman expansion into Illyria,
[11:34] and so, when he saw Hannibal
annihilating the Romans
[11:37] in Italy, he said...
[11:38] - [King Philip] Oh my gosh.
[11:39] Hey!
[11:41] Hey, Hannibal.
[11:43] Oh my gosh, you're so cool.
[11:45] Let's form an alliance
[11:46] and annihilate the Romans together.
[11:48] - [Hannibal] Eh, sure.
[11:50] - [King Philip] Yes.
[11:52] Yippee!
[11:54] (dolphin squeaking)
[11:55] - [Narrator] Hannibal hoped
to secure Philip's help
[11:57] in fighting Rome,
[11:58] but a Roman army was sent to the region,
[12:00] stirred up Philip's other Greek opponents,
[12:03] and essentially kept Philip
bogged down in Greece
[12:05] for the entire duration of the war.
[12:07] Another, kind of, Roman success.
[12:10] But the main front Rome was hoping
[12:12] to push Carthage back in was Spain.
[12:15] The riches of Spain made it one
[12:17] of Carthage's most valuable possessions,
[12:20] and the Romans were eager to weaken it.
[12:22] Remember, way back at
the start of the war,
[12:25] the Consul Scipio was
supposed to go to Spain,
[12:27] but ended up rushing back to Italy
[12:29] when he realized Hannibal
was crossing the Alps.
[12:32] He then faced Hannibal at Ticinus
[12:34] and had to be rescued by his son.
[12:36] Well, after he recovered from his wounds,
[12:39] he proceeded with the original plan
[12:41] and joined his brother in Spain.
[12:43] There the two Scipio brothers
fought a successful campaign
[12:47] against Hannibal's brother, Hasdrubal.
[12:49] Over the next few years, they
won a number of key victories,
[12:53] even taking Saguntum,
[12:55] the city that had
kickstarted this entire war.
[12:58] Yet more Roman success.
[13:02] A trend appeared to be emerging.
[13:04] Whenever the Romans fought
anyone other than Hannibal,
[13:07] they usually came out on top.
[13:10] Perhaps these other
fronts would be the key
[13:13] to Rome taking back control of this war.
[13:16] Perhaps it was time for Rome
to return to their old ways
[13:19] of being the aggressive go-getters,
[13:22] and perhaps it would help
[13:24] if Rome had a Hannibal of their own.
[13:28] (thunder roars)
(dramatic music)
[13:34] Scipio the Younger was the son
[13:36] of Publius Scipio,
currently fighting in Spain.
[13:39] This made him a member
[13:40] of one of Rome's most
prestigious families.
[13:43] Not much is known of his childhood,
[13:45] although there is one story
[13:46] of how he was getting hot
and heavy with a young lady,
[13:49] only to have his dad barge in
[13:51] and drag him out, wearing
nothing but a cloak.
[13:54] This story was written by a Roman poet
[13:56] to make Scipio look bad,
[13:57] but by modern standards,
[13:59] has ended up making him look pretty rad.
[14:02] My guess is if Rome had a
high-school football team,
[14:05] Scipio would be the quarterback.
[14:07] (upbeat rock music)
[14:07] (people cheering)
[14:08] Scipio was only 18 when the
Second Punic War broke out.
[14:11] He was at the Battle of Ticinus,
[14:13] where he famously rescued his father,
[14:15] and he was one of the survivors
of the Battle of Cannae,
[14:18] after which he threatened
to cut down any man
[14:21] who dared abandon Rome.
[14:23] He was a natural leader and
up to his ears in spunk.
[14:27] And therefore, he rose
[14:28] through the Roman ranks shockingly fast.
[14:31] - [Roman 1] We need a
new military Tribune,
[14:33] but Hannibal has killed so many men.
[14:35] We're running out of options.
[14:36] - [Scipio The Younger] Put me in, coach!
[14:37] - [Roman 1] Scipio? You're only 20.
[14:39] You can't be a Tribune.
[14:40] - [Scipio The Younger] Come on, coach.
[14:41] Put me in.
[14:42] - [Roman 1] Well, you
do have a lot of spunk.
[14:45] All right, you're hired.
[14:47] (Scipio the Younger cheers)
[14:48] We need to elect a new aedile.
[14:49] Who do we have left?
[14:50] - [Scipio The Younger] Put me in, coach!
[14:52] - Scipio!
[14:53] You don't meet the
minimum age requirement.
[14:54] - [Scipio The Younger] I got this, coach.
[14:56] I got this.
[14:57] - [Roman 1] Well, okay, then.
[14:58] You're in!
[15:00] (Scipio the Younger cheers)
[15:01] - [Roman 1] Ugh, my room's
a mess. I gotta cook dinner.
[15:04] Oh, and would you look at that?
[15:05] My fly's down. Life sucks.
[15:10] - [Scipio The Younger] Put me in, coach.
[15:11] - [Roman 1] Wow, you're so spunky.
[15:15] - [Narrator] When Scipio was 25, however,
[15:17] he received some bad news.
[15:19] His father and uncle in Spain
[15:21] had both been defeated in battle,
[15:23] and shockingly both of them were killed.
[15:26] The news must have been
devastating for the young Scipio,
[15:30] but it was also devastating for Rome
[15:33] as almost all of their
Spanish gains were wiped away.
[15:37] - [Fabius Maximus] Okay, listen up.
[15:39] We need someone to go and
replace the Scipios in Spain.
[15:42] So who's up for it?
[15:44] (Romans murmuring)
[15:45] Come on. Who's gonna go?
[15:47] - [Roman 2] Fabius,
Spain seems unwinnable.
[15:49] There's no glory to be had there.
[15:51] - [Roman 1] Yeah, the glory is here,
[15:53] defending the homeland from Hannibal.
[15:55] - [Fabius Maximus] Well,
somebody has to go.
[15:59] I said, well, somebody has to go!
[16:04] - [Scipio The Younger] Put me in, coach!
[16:07] - [Narrator] Scipio
was eager to be the one
[16:09] to go and replace his
father and uncle in Spain.
[16:12] However, there was concern
amongst the older senators.
[16:16] - [Fabius Maximus] You are only 26.
[16:17] You can't lead a military campaign.
[16:19] - [Senators] He's right.
[16:20] Yeah, he's right.
[16:21] That's a good point. Yeah.
[16:22] - [Scipio The Younger] And you're 71,
[16:24] you can't stand up
[16:24] without a little urine
dribbling down your leg.
[16:26] - [Senators] That's a good point.
[16:27] He's absolutely right.
[16:29] - [Narrator] Scipio didn't
meet the typical requirements
[16:31] for the position, but as the
only person willing to go,
[16:34] this young piece of hot Roman meat
[16:36] was unanimously elected proconsul
[16:38] and sent to lead the
Roman armies in Spain.
[16:41] He hoped to carry out a campaign
[16:43] as impressive as Hannibal's
had been in Italy.
[16:46] In fact, Scipio rather
admired the one-eyed general.
[16:50] - [Billy] Scipio, you've got a
Hannibal poster in your room?
[16:54] - [Scipio The Younger] Yes.
[16:55] - [Billy] But he's the enemy.
[16:56] - [Scipio The Younger] I'll
let you in on a secret, Billy.
[16:57] You know how we're gonna win this war?
[16:59] - [Billy] By marching
straight at the enemy?
[17:01] - [Scipio The Younger]
No, that's the old way.
[17:03] We've gotta be less Roman
and a little more Hannibal.
[17:08] Hey, by the way, don't
just barge into my room.
[17:10] That's an infringement of my privacy.
[17:12] - [Billy] Privacy.
[17:13] Privacy, you say?
[17:14] Well, Scipio, if it's privacy you want,
[17:18] then you, my friend, need NordVPN!
[17:23] - [Scipio The Younger] Don't touch me.
[17:24] - [Narrator] How would you like
[17:25] to be innocently downloading
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[17:27] of Nicholas Cage,
[17:28] only to realize it's
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[17:31] and telling all your
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[17:33] between your parents
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[17:37] Yeah, didn't think so.
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[18:29] And as always, you'll be
supporting my channel.
[18:32] So thank you.
[18:35] Now, where were we?
[18:37] Oh yeah.
[18:38] Hannibal contained,
[18:39] a young piece of hot Roman meat sent
[18:42] to lead the Roman armies in Spain.
[18:45] (dramatic music)
[18:46] Scipio was charismatic,
extremely confident, bold,
[18:49] and probably most importantly of all,
[18:51] he thought differently
from other Roman generals.
[18:54] - [Billy] So, Skippy, what's the plan?
[18:55] - [Scipio The Younger] Don't call me that.
[18:56] - [Billy] We're Roman, so same thing
[18:58] as usual, right?
[18:59] We march straight at the enemy, right?
[19:01] - [Scipio The Younger] Get this, Billy.
[19:03] No, we don't.
[19:05] - [Billy] What?
[19:07] - [Narrator] Scipio was a
real outside-the-box thinker.
[19:09] There were three main
Carthaginian armies in Spain,
[19:12] two led by Hannibal's
brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago,
[19:15] and another led by Hasdrubal Gisco.
[19:18] Most Roman generals might
have looked at these armies
[19:20] and said, "I just gotta, you know,
[19:21] march straight at these guys
and kick their ass and stuff."
[19:24] But not Scipio.
[19:26] At a time when many believed
winning battles won wars,
[19:30] one of Scipio's greatest
strengths was an ability
[19:32] to see the overall strategy
behind his actions.
[19:36] He knew that Spain was the
closest thing Hannibal had
[19:39] to a base of support.
[19:40] With its mass resources and manpower,
[19:42] it's where Hannibal likely hoped
[19:44] to get supplies and reinforcements from.
[19:46] Spain's base of support was
the city of New Carthage,
[19:50] the most fortified city on the peninsula,
[19:52] perfectly positioned to communicate with
[19:55] and receive supplies from Africa.
[19:57] And so if Scipio managed
to take New Carthage,
[20:00] he could take Spain.
[20:02] And if he took Spain,
[20:03] then maybe Hannibal would fall.
[20:07] To Scipio, Spain wasn't
just some sideshow,
[20:10] it was the main show
[20:12] and it all rested on New Carthage.
[20:15] But a surprise attack on
Carthage's capital city in Spain?
[20:19] It was a ridiculous idea.
[20:22] Even if you pull off the
seven-day forced march,
[20:24] pass the Carthaginian
armies to New Carthage,
[20:27] once you get there,
[20:28] you'd only have a couple
weeks to take the city
[20:30] before the Carthaginians
arrived to kick your ass.
[20:33] Sieges of cities that
fortified usually took months,
[20:37] if not years.
[20:38] So Scipio, how are you
gonna pull this off?
[20:41] Well, first of all,
[20:43] to make sure the surprise
plan stayed hidden,
[20:45] Scipio kept it a total
secret, even from his own men.
[20:49] - [Billy] Where are we going, Skippy?
[20:50] - [Scipio The Younger]
I'm not telling you.
[20:51] - [Billy] Is it Disneyland?
[20:52] - [Scipio The Younger]
I'm not telling you.
[20:54] - [Billy] I think that means
we're going to Disneyland.
[20:56] (soldiers giggling)
[20:58] - [Narrator] This secrecy
kept the Carthaginians
[21:00] from preemptively reinforcing the city.
[21:02] As a result, New Carthage
was left undergarrisoned
[21:05] because the Carthaginians believed it
[21:07] to be kind of naturally impenetrable.
[21:09] It was surrounded on
three sides by a lagoon
[21:12] and only accessible via narrow isthmus.
[21:15] What's an isthmus, you ask?
[21:17] Maybe read a book.
[21:19] All right, Scipio, you
made it to New Carthage.
[21:21] Now the other Carthaginian
armies are only a 10-days march
[21:24] from coming and kicking your ass.
[21:26] Just what were you thinking?
[21:29] Well, Scipio had learned
something crucial.
[21:32] Every afternoon, the tides made the lagoon
[21:35] around New Carthage briefly
shallow enough to cross.
[21:39] So he ordered a large diversionary attack
[21:42] on the main city gates,
distracting the city's defenders.
[21:45] Then a small infiltration
force traversed the lagoon,
[21:49] climbed the unguarded northern
walls, and entered the city.
[21:53] They ambushed the guards
[21:55] and opened the city gates to
the rest of Scipio's army.
[21:58] And just like that,
[22:00] New Carthage had fallen
[22:03] in a single day.
[22:04] Scipio had taken Carthage's
capital city in Spain,
[22:08] and he made it look easy.
[22:10] With it, he seized much of
Carthage's war supplies,
[22:13] several silver mines near the city,
[22:15] and various powerful Iberian
tribes even joined his side.
[22:19] And now he was in a great position
[22:22] to take on the other
Carthaginian armies in Spain.
[22:25] - [Billy] Wow, Skippy, you are amazing.
[22:28] - [Scipio The Younger] Don't call me that.
[22:29] - [Billy] How'd you know the
lagoon would get shallow?
[22:30] It's almost like you speak to the gods.
[22:32] - [Farmer] No, I told him.
[22:34] All the local farmers know about the-
[22:35] - [Scipio The Younger] Yes! That's it.
[22:37] I speak to the gods!
[22:39] - [Billy] Wow! Wow!
[22:41] - [Narrator] Scipio had no
problem allowing his men
[22:43] to think he was divinely inspired.
[22:46] Roman writers also tell us
another of Scipio's traits.
[22:50] He was apparently quite
merciful in victory
[22:52] and often protected the
inhabitants of captured cities.
[22:56] - [Scipio The Younger]
Spencer, what are you doing?
[22:59] - [Spencer] Well, I was just
about to murder this family.
[23:02] - [Scipio The Younger]
Hey, bad Spencer! No!
[23:04] - [Spencer] Can I at least kill the dad?
[23:06] - [Scipio The Younger] No.
[23:07] - [Spencer] What about the-
- [Scipio The Younger] No!
[23:09] - [Spencer] Oh, you're mean.
[23:10] - [Narrator] The Carthaginian generals
[23:12] in the region must have been shocked
[23:14] at the loss of their capital city.
[23:16] There was now a terminator in Spain,
[23:19] and he was coming.
[23:21] In 208 BC, he made a move on Hasdrubal,
[23:24] hoping to defeat him before
the other Carthaginian armies
[23:27] could come and link up.
[23:29] When Hasdrubal heard Scipio
was coming, he said...
[23:32] (Hasdrubal screams)
[23:34] Hasdrubal did this sensible thing
[23:36] and climbed a big hill for safety.
[23:38] - [Scipio The Younger] Hey, get down here.
[23:39] I want to kill you!
[23:41] - [Hasdrubal] Fat chance, Vin Diesel.
[23:42] - [Scipio The Younger] Well,
he doesn't have to be rude.
[23:45] - [Billy] So what's the plan then, Scipio?
[23:46] This time we march straight
up and at 'em, right?
[23:50] Right, Scipio?
[23:51] - [Scipio The Younger] Billy, no.
[23:53] - [Billy] What?
[23:55] - [Narrator] Scipio once again displayed
[23:56] a distinctly not-Roman
approach to fighting.
[23:59] When, instead of marching
straight up and at 'em,
[24:01] Scipio feigned a frontal skirmish,
[24:03] only to pull off a surprise
uphill envelopment.
[24:07] Not an easy thing to do,
[24:09] but Scipio had trained his
army to pull off maneuvers
[24:11] that typical Roman armies couldn't.
[24:14] After the battle, the
defeated Hasdrubal fled Spain,
[24:17] hoping to link up with his
brother Hannibal in Italy.
[24:20] And Hannibal desperately needed the help.
[24:23] (tense music)
[24:24] As Scipio was dominating in Spain,
[24:26] Hannibal's struggles in
Southern Italy continued.
[24:29] He was convinced that
[24:31] if he just received ample
supplies and reinforcements,
[24:34] he could reverse his fortunes
[24:35] and get back to kicking Rome's ass.
[24:38] But for the remainder of the war,
[24:40] he would suffer a
frustrating lack of support
[24:43] from the Carthaginian senate.
[24:45] After Cannae, Hannibal had
sent his brother, Mago,
[24:48] to Carthage, where he famously
poured out golden rings
[24:51] taken from fallen Roman knights.
[24:54] He told the Senate that,
with reinforcements,
[24:57] Hannibal could finish the job.
[24:59] But a growing faction in the Senate,
[25:01] possibly jealous of
Hannibal's rising influence,
[25:04] opposed sending any help.
[25:06] In the end, a large number of
the reinforcements gathered
[25:09] for Hannibal now ended up being diverted
[25:12] to stop Scipio in Spain.
[25:15] Just as he had hoped,
Scipio's campaign in Spain
[25:19] was actively harming Hannibal in Italy.
[25:22] However, those reinforcements meant
[25:24] that when Scipio made a move
[25:26] on the remaining
Carthaginian armies in Spain,
[25:28] they now likely outnumbered him.
[25:31] With the odds heavily stacked against him,
[25:33] it would take some serious
skill to win this battle.
[25:36] - [Billy] This time we're
gonna march straight
[25:37] at them, right?
[25:38] - [Scipio The Younger] No, Billy.
[25:39] - [Billy] What?
[25:41] - [Narrator] The preceding Battle of Ilipa
[25:42] is often considered Scipio's masterpiece
[25:45] because it was positively oozing
[25:47] with deception and trickery.
[25:50] First, both sides spent
several days forming up
[25:53] and facing off without actually fighting.
[25:56] On each day,
[25:57] Scipio placed his strongest
Roman legions in the center,
[26:00] with his weaker Iberian
allies on the sides.
[26:03] Seeing this, the
Carthaginians were like...
[26:06] - [Carthaginian General]
This guy's an idiot!
[26:07] We've seen his plan.
[26:08] His strongest troops are
going to be in the center,
[26:11] so let's form all of
our battle plans based
[26:13] on this information.
[26:14] I'm sure he won't change
anything at the last minute.
[26:17] - [Narrator] Then when
the day of battle came,
[26:19] Scipio woke up the Carthaginians
[26:21] with an early morning attack,
[26:22] causing them to rush out
of camp without breakfast.
[26:25] When the Carthaginians lined up
[26:27] with their strongest troops in
the center to meet Scipio's,
[26:30] they were stunned to find
[26:32] that Scipio had completely
reversed his order.
[26:35] The weaker Carthaginian sides
[26:37] now found Scipio's strongest
bearing down on them.
[26:40] Then, in an extremely impressive maneuver,
[26:43] the well-trained Roman
wings even stretched out
[26:46] during their approach,
[26:47] hitting the Carthaginians from the sides.
[26:50] The Carthaginian center
could have turned to help,
[26:53] but Scipio had ordered his
center to approach so slowly
[26:56] that Carthage's center could do nothing
[26:58] but just stand and wait.
[27:00] In this way, the outnumbered Scipio
[27:03] had cleverly controlled events
[27:05] so that the bulk of the
strongest Carthaginian troops
[27:08] couldn't even fight during the battle.
[27:10] He had completely removed
them from the equation.
[27:13] The incredible Scipio had
inflicted a monumental defeat
[27:18] on a much larger enemy force.
[27:20] And the Battle of Ilipa was
the final nail in the coffin
[27:24] for Carthaginian Spain.
[27:26] Yet more tribes people continued
to side with the Romans,
[27:29] and the remaining Carthaginians
retreated to the coast
[27:32] and eventually fled the peninsula.
[27:36] And would you look at that?
[27:38] In just a few years,
[27:39] the incredible young Scipio had
turned Spain completely red.
[27:44] The Carthaginians must have been stunned.
[27:48] His Spanish campaign had almost been
[27:50] as impressive as Hannibal's
campaign in Italy.
[27:53] In fact, see if any of
this sounds familiar.
[27:56] In Spain, Scipio had used the environment
[27:59] of the battlefield to his advantage.
[28:01] He staged ambushes by concealed troops.
[28:04] He treated local tribes people well,
[28:06] earning their friendship.
[28:07] He even once forced his enemy to come out
[28:10] and fight him without breakfast.
[28:12] Each and every one of these
tactics were possibly borrowed
[28:15] from a certain one-eyed general.
[28:17] In all the battles Scipio
had fought against Hannibal,
[28:20] it seemed he may have been taking notes.
[28:23] - [Hannibal] Hey, Scipio!
[28:25] - [Scipio The Younger] What?
[28:26] - [Hannibal] Stop stealing my tactics!
[28:28] - [Scipio The Younger] I'm 700
miles away. I can't hear you.
[28:32] - [Hannibal] What did you say?
[28:34] - [Scipio The Younger] What?
[28:36] - [Hannibal] What?
[28:37] - [Narrator] Better yet,
Scipio's achievement
[28:39] in taking a well-fortified city,
[28:41] plus his understanding
of the overall strategy,
[28:44] has led some historians
[28:45] to argue he wasn't just
as good as Hannibal,
[28:48] Scipio may actually have been better.
[28:51] This young man, who many
in Rome had doubted,
[28:54] had just shut those Silly
Billies right the flip up.
[28:59] Mere years ago, it looked
like Rome had no chance
[29:02] of even surviving this war.
[29:04] But now the momentum of war was
shifting astonishingly fast.
[29:08] And for Hannibal in Italy,
things continued to head south.
[29:13] Before Scipio had even gone to Spain,
[29:15] the Romans had placed Capua,
[29:17] Hannibal's largest city in
Italy, under a dangerous siege.
[29:20] And in order to rescue it,
[29:22] Hannibal needed to take
drastic action fast.
[29:25] - [Hannibal] Man,
everything's falling apart.
[29:28] Ugh, fine.
[29:30] I'll do it.
[29:31] - [Soldier] Do what?
[29:31] - [Hannibal] Yeah, yeah.
You've convinced me.
[29:33] I'll march on Rome.
[29:35] - [Soldier] Hannibal, that
conversation was five years ago.
[29:38] It's too late.
[29:39] No one's trying to convince
you to march on Rome.
[29:40] - [Hannibal] I said, I'll do it!
[29:42] Quit nagging me. Ugh.
[29:44] - [Narrator] Hannibal
finally marched on Rome,
[29:46] hoping it might draw the
Romans away from Capua.
[29:49] The Romans saw Hannibal
approaching their city
[29:52] and they freaked the hell out.
[29:55] Hannibal is said to have closely
approached the city walls,
[29:58] inspecting the defenses,
[30:00] as the Romans inside
quivered in their togas.
[30:03] However, Hannibal probably
knew he had no chance
[30:06] of taking the city.
[30:08] The whole thing was a feint,
and Hannibal soon left.
[30:11] The Romans famously coined the phrase,
[30:14] "Hannibal is at the gates,"
[30:16] to describe a moment of
crisis or severe desperation.
[30:19] But for accuracy's sake,
[30:21] the phrase should probably
be, "Hannibal is at the gates.
[30:23] But don't worry, it's just a feint
[30:25] to draw the Romans away from Capua.
[30:26] And it didn't even work because
the Romans stayed at Capua
[30:29] and the Capuans misunderstood
[30:31] and thought Hannibal had abandoned them,
[30:33] and so they surrendered the city."
[30:37] But apparently that's not as catchy.
[30:39] Despite a few successes,
[30:41] including an ambush in 208 BC
[30:43] where Hannibal managed to
kill both Consuls in one go,
[30:46] Hannibal was slowly
[30:47] but steadily losing his
grip on Southern Italy.
[30:51] Even Hasdrubal, who had
fled Spain to join Hannibal,
[30:54] never reached his brother.
[30:56] He made his own dramatic
crossing of the Alps,
[30:58] just as Hannibal had done.
[31:00] But unlike Hannibal, the second
Hasdrubal arrived in Italy,
[31:03] he was immediately pulverized.
[31:05] The Romans then took his head
[31:07] and threw it over the walls
into his brother's camp.
[31:11] Hannibal was becoming extremely isolated.
[31:15] After his impressive conquest of Spain,
[31:18] Scipio returned to Rome a hero.
[31:20] And when the election came
for next year's Consuls,
[31:23] despite not meeting the
typical requirements,
[31:25] Scipio won in a landslide.
[31:28] But the question now was,
what would he do next?
[31:32] - [Fabius Maximus] All right,
what's your plan then, Scipio?
[31:34] You're gonna go fight Hannibal now, right?
[31:36] - [Scipio The Younger] Get this, Fabius.
[31:38] No.
[31:39] - [Senators] What?
[31:42] - [Narrator] Scipio's plan
remained the same as before.
[31:45] Don't attack the monster directly,
[31:47] attack his base of support.
[31:49] - [Hannibal] Oof.
[31:50] - [Narrator] Which now
happened to be Carthage itself.
[31:53] That's right. Scipio would invade Africa.
[31:57] However, Scipio understood
that any invasion of Africa
[32:01] would stand a much better chance
[32:03] if he could secure an alliance
[32:04] with one of the African tribes.
[32:06] Throughout the war,
[32:07] Carthage's far superior Numidian cavalry,
[32:10] which came from this part of Africa,
[32:12] had played a critical
role in winning battles.
[32:15] Numidia was divided
between two rival kings.
[32:18] In the east, the king, Syphax,
[32:20] had sympathized with
Rome for much of the war.
[32:23] And so at some point,
Scipio visited Syphax
[32:26] to ratify at treaty.
[32:28] It just so happened, however,
[32:30] that the Carthaginian
general, Hasdrubal Gisco,
[32:32] whom Scipio had fought in Spain,
[32:34] also arrived at the exact same time.
[32:37] And so Syphax invited both
Scipio and Gisco for a meal.
[32:41] The two men fought for Syphax's alliance.
[32:44] And by Roman accounts, Scipio
was positively charming.
[32:48] - [Scipio The Younger] Come on, Syphax,
[32:49] stick with us Romans.
[32:51] We'll build a naked statue of you.
[32:53] - [Syphax] Very enticing.
[32:54] - [Gisco] If you join our side, Syphax,
[32:56] we'll give you a 2% discount on figs.
[32:58] You like figs, don't you?
[33:00] - [Syphax] Not really.
[33:01] - [Scipio The Younger] Hey, Syphax.
[33:01] Check this out.
[33:04] - [Syphax] Wow!
[33:05] - [Gisco] Hey, Syphax. Check this out.
[33:07] (body thuds)
[33:08] (plates clattering)
[33:09] (Gisco farts)
[33:10] - [Syphax] Did he just defecate?
[33:11] - [Scipio The Younger] I believe he did.
[33:12] - [Syphax] Well, Scipio,
[33:13] you clearly are the most charming
man in the Mediterranean.
[33:17] My alliance is...
[33:20] - [Gisco] Syphax, I'll let you marry
[33:21] my extremely hot daughter.
[33:24] - [Syphax] Yours!
[33:25] Humminah humminah!
[33:26] - [Narrator] Unable to
compete with Syphax's libido,
[33:28] Scipio instead, made
contact with Syphax's rival,
[33:31] the other Numidian king, Masinissa,
[33:34] who was a longtime ally of Carthage.
[33:37] Scipio told Masinissa...
[33:38] - [Scipio The Younger]
If you join the Romans,
[33:40] I'll help you defeat Syphax
[33:41] and become the ultimate Numidian king.
[33:46] - [Narrator] And so Masinissa
was now on Team Rome.
[33:49] Good job, Skippy.
[33:50] With a Numidian alliance solidified,
[33:53] Scipio prepared for
his invasion of Africa.
[33:56] He raised a volunteer force
[33:58] that included many of the
disgraced survivors from Cannae.
[34:01] And he set sail.
[34:04] - [Syphax] Well, Terry,
any news from Italy?
[34:06] Has Hannibal won the war yet?
[34:09] Who on earth?
[34:13] - [Scipio The Younger] Here's Skippy!
[34:17] - [Terry] Oh my God!
[34:20] - [Narrator] The Roman
landing sent a clear message
[34:22] to the Carthaginians.
[34:24] You don't invade us.
[34:25] No, no.
[34:26] We invade you.
[34:28] For the first time in the war,
[34:30] the Carthaginian homeland
was under threat,
[34:33] and the Carthaginians needed
to defeat Scipio at all costs.
[34:37] They gathered a huge army
led by Hasdrubal Gisco,
[34:41] with allied Numidians led by Syphax,
[34:43] and they ordered them to get Scipio
[34:45] the hell off their continent.
[34:47] Sources say at this point,
Scipio was severely outnumbered.
[34:52] - [Billy] Scipio, that army's huge!
[34:54] There's no way we can
beat off all these men.
[34:57] How are we gonna beat off all these men?
[34:59] - [Scipio The Younger] Vigorously!
[35:01] And while maintaining eye contact.
[35:04] - [Narrator] As always,
Scipio had a plan to deal
[35:06] with the larger enemy force.
[35:08] It just so happened
that Syphax was offering
[35:11] to try and broker peace
[35:12] between the Romans and the Carthaginians.
[35:15] And Scipio smelled an opportunity.
[35:17] He sent a Roman envoy to Syphax's camp.
[35:20] And when they got there,
Syphax was like...
[35:23] - [Syphax] Hey, guys,
welcome to the enemy camp.
[35:25] Just before we begin negotiations,
[35:27] a small safety demonstration.
[35:28] As you can see, our huts are made
[35:30] of grass and reeds, very flammable.
[35:33] If there was even a single spark,
[35:35] this whole place would become a inferno
[35:37] and all my men would burn alive.
[35:42] - [Billy] Very interesting.
[35:43] - [Narrator] The Roman
troops then reported back
[35:44] to Scipio about the Numidian
camp, its construction,
[35:48] and, most importantly, its flammability.
[35:51] Then, the following night,
[35:53] as the sun was setting over
the beautiful African plains
[35:57] and the Carthaginians got
all comfy in their beds,
[36:00] they began to gently
dream of Carthaginian figs
[36:04] and child sacrifice.
[36:06] Goodnight, Carthaginians.
[36:08] Goodnight, Syphax and Gisco.
[36:11] Good evening, Scipio.
[36:14] In the night shadowy Roman figures
[36:16] approached the Numidian camp.
[36:19] As the Numidians lay in their beds,
[36:21] Scipio executed his plan.
[36:25] (fire whooshing)
[36:27] The camp erupted into flames.
[36:30] With the flammable wooden huts,
[36:31] the fires spread terrifyingly fast.
[36:35] Men were burned in their beds.
[36:37] Those who awoke in a
panic believing the fire
[36:40] to have been some kind
of terrible accident,
[36:43] rushed to the exits without
their weapons and armor.
[36:46] Those who saw the fire
from the Carthaginian camp
[36:49] also rushed out unarmed.
[36:51] And when they got there, there he was,
[36:55] Scipio, the Romans, and their steel.
[36:58] (dramatic music)
[37:06] The terrified Carthaginians
were massacred.
[37:09] And with heavy casualties,
[37:11] Hasdrubal and Syphax fled
the scene of the disaster.
[37:16] Scipio followed this incredible success
[37:18] with another victory against the pair
[37:20] at the Battle of the Great Plains.
[37:22] After that, Masinissa
chased his rival Syphax
[37:26] into his kingdom where
Syphax was captured.
[37:29] Masinissa was now the
ultimate Numidian king.
[37:33] He entered Syphax's capital city.
[37:36] He seized Syphax's palace.
[37:38] He even married Syphax's wife.
[37:41] And when Scipio got mad at him
[37:42] for marrying a Carthaginian girl,
[37:44] he then poisoned his wife.
[37:46] Boys will be boys.
[37:48] Having defeated the
Carthaginian armies in Africa,
[37:51] almost nothing now stood
between Scipio and Carthage.
[37:55] And the Carthaginians were freaking out.
[37:58] - [Carthaginian] What
do we do? What do we do?
[37:59] - [Carthaginian General] There's
only one thing left to do.
[38:02] Recall him.
[38:06] - [Gerald] Well, Hannibal,
you've been here in Italy
[38:08] for 16 years.
[38:10] This is practically your home.
[38:12] You're basically Italian.
[38:13] - [Hannibal] Yes, Gerald.
[38:14] And I've had such a lovely time.
[38:16] I ate spaghetti,
[38:17] did-a this-a with-a my hands.
[38:19] I've committed my whole
life to this campaign.
[38:21] And once Rome has fallen,
it'll all have been worth it.
[38:25] - [Carthaginian] Hannibal, you
have to return to Carthage.
[38:27] Your Italian campaign
has been for nothing.
[38:29] Your whole life has been a waste.
[38:32] - [Hannibal] No!
[38:34] - [Narrator] Imagine being
Hannibal in this moment.
[38:37] You left Carthage when you were nine.
[38:39] You probably barely even
recognize your own homeland.
[38:42] The kingdom he had built in
Spain with his father, gone.
[38:46] And now his Italian campaign,
[38:48] his vengeance, was it
really all for nothing?
[38:51] (melancholy music)
[38:52] But that was that.
[38:54] Carthage was under threat,
[38:56] and Hannibal had to protect his home city.
[38:58] As he left Italy, in Rome
there was celebration,
[39:03] but also some trepidation.
[39:05] Now Scipio would have to
face Hannibal in Africa,
[39:08] where Hannibal would have home advantage.
[39:11] While Hannibal was on his way,
[39:13] the Carthaginians stalled for time
[39:15] and approached Scipio for peace talks.
[39:17] - [Carthaginian General]
Hey, look, we never meant
[39:20] to start an all-out two-decade-long war.
[39:22] - [Scipio The Younger] But you did.
[39:23] - [Carthaginian General]
No, that was Hannibal.
[39:25] He's to blame for all of this.
[39:27] - [Scipio The Younger]
Well, all right then.
[39:28] Sign this peace treaty.
[39:29] - [Carthaginian General] Okay.
[39:32] Let me just get my
signature right on there.
[39:36] - [Carthaginian] He's here!
[39:37] - [Carthaginian General] Yes.
[39:38] Oh, look who's here, you bald prick!
[39:42] You are so dead now, Skippy!
[39:45] - [Scipio The Younger] Don't call me that!
[39:50] - [Narrator] After
Carthage proposed peace,
[39:51] only to then go back on it,
[39:53] the normally merciful Scipio was enraged.
[39:56] He began refusing to
accept towns' surrender,
[39:59] and instead began burning
everything to the ground,
[40:03] selling everyone into slavery.
[40:05] - [Carthaginian] Hannibal,
he's burning our towns.
[40:07] Go stop him.
[40:09] - [Hannibal] Guys, he's obviously trying
[40:10] to lure me out there to
fight on those flat plains
[40:12] where his Numidian cavalry
will give him the advantage.
[40:15] It's a trick.
[40:16] - [Carthaginian] Well, it's working.
[40:18] Go and fight him.
[40:19] - [Hannibal] It's obviously a trap.
[40:20] - [Carthaginian] And we're falling for it.
[40:22] Go and fight him!
[40:23] - [Narrator] Hannibal set out
[40:24] to meet Scipio in the Western Plains.
[40:27] And here came Scipio's final test.
[40:30] Finally, the teacher
would face the student,
[40:34] the two greatest generals of all time
[40:36] in one last decisive battle.
[40:39] Would Hannibal's genius
still shine through?
[40:42] Or would Scipio prove
[40:44] that he had surpassed the master?
[40:47] Before battle, the two
great generals rode out
[40:49] from their camps and met in
person for the first time.
[40:52] - [Scipio The Younger]
Hannibal, I'm a huge fan.
[40:55] - [Hannibal] I thought
you'd have more hair.
[40:56] - [Scipio The Younger] And I
thought you'd have more eyes.
[40:59] - [Hannibal] Touche.
[41:00] - [Narrator] They then had a conversation,
[41:01] which I'll paraphrase.
[41:02] Hannibal said, "At the start of this war,
[41:05] I had great fortune in Italy.
[41:07] But look at me now,
[41:08] a sad old man who, like other sad old men,
[41:11] failed to conquer Rome.
[41:13] Your fortune can change rapidly, Scipio.
[41:15] You should consider negotiating a peace,
[41:18] rather than risking it all in
one last fight against me."
[41:21] Very eloquently put.
[41:23] Scipio then replied, "(bleeps) you!
[41:27] Negotiate? Negotiate what?
[41:30] I took Spain.
[41:31] I'm about to burn your
pathetic city to the ground.
[41:34] What could you offer me in negotiations?
[41:37] I already have it all.
[41:39] Ah!
[41:42] Seriously though, Hannibal,
[41:43] I am such a big fan."
[41:44] And so it was settled.
[41:46] The two great generals
would face off one last time
[41:49] in the epic Battle of Zama.
[41:53] Scipio gave his men,
[41:54] consisting of many survivors from Cannae,
[41:57] a pre-battle speech,
[41:58] telling them not only
would they gain redemption,
[42:01] but they could become
masters of the world.
[42:04] Hannibal told his men probably nothing
[42:07] because most of them didn't
even speak the same language.
[42:10] As the two armies lined up for battle,
[42:12] something interesting became clear.
[42:15] Hannibal had more infantry
[42:16] and hoped to use them to
brute strength the Romans.
[42:20] But Scipio had the nimble Numidian cavalry
[42:23] and hoped to pull off an envelopment.
[42:25] It was a complete roll reversal of Cannae.
[42:29] As the battle began,
Hannibal made his first move.
[42:33] He sent his 80 war elephants
[42:35] to smash through and
weaken the Roman infantry.
[42:38] Scipio had the perfect response.
[42:41] He had altered his formation
[42:43] to create passages between
the Roman maniples.
[42:46] His light troops stepped
aside at the right moment,
[42:48] revealing the gaps ahead
of the charging elephants.
[42:51] Elephants, if given the choice
[42:53] between a suicide charge into spears
[42:56] or a nice clean escape,
[42:57] will probably choose the escape.
[42:59] And that's what happened.
[43:01] Some elephants were so
frightened from the noise
[43:04] that they even turned
[43:05] and smashed back into
the Carthaginian cavalry,
[43:08] which the Roman cavalry then engaged.
[43:11] Your move, Hannibal.
[43:13] Hannibal wasn't an idiot.
[43:15] He knew that he was fighting
superior Numidian cavalry
[43:18] on open plains.
[43:19] So when his weaker cavalry
ended up being routed
[43:22] from the battlefield, he
probably wasn't surprised
[43:25] and hoped the Roman cavalry would be lured
[43:27] as far from the battlefield as possible
[43:30] because his infantry needed
time to do a clever little job.
[43:35] Hannibal had the numerical advantage,
[43:37] and he had positioned
his army in three lines.
[43:40] The weaker troops were at
the front while his best men,
[43:44] the army that had been with
him in Italy, were in the rear.
[43:47] As the Romans smashed into
the weaker front lines,
[43:50] they managed to cut through them,
[43:51] but suffered losses and
exhaustion in doing so.
[43:55] The same with Hannibal's second line,
[43:57] so that by the time
[43:58] the Romans reached Hannibal's
superior third line,
[44:01] the two sides may have now
been about equal in number.
[44:04] But the exhausted Romans
[44:06] had just fought an entire
battle to get there
[44:09] while the remaining
Carthaginians were fresh
[44:12] and ready to go.
[44:14] Hannibal was still a genius.
[44:16] And this is where the final race began.
[44:19] Could Hannibal's stronger
infantry finish off the Romans
[44:23] before the Roman cavalry
returned from their pursuit?
[44:26] Who would be quicker,
[44:28] the Carthaginian infantry
or the Roman cavalry?
[44:32] The answer:
[44:34] the cavalry.
[44:36] They had called off their
pursuit just in time
[44:38] to turn around and hit
Hannibal from the rear.
[44:42] And that was the deciding move.
[44:45] As the sandwiched Carthaginians
were hacked to pieces,
[44:48] Hannibal knew he had lost and
he escaped the battlefield.
[44:52] It was a battle that some historians say
[44:55] was well fought on both sides.
[44:57] Both showed their genius,
[44:59] but fortune fell in the favor of Scipio.
[45:03] With just a few thousand Roman casualties
[45:06] compared to 40,000 Carthaginians,
[45:09] Scipio had won.
[45:11] (ominous music)
[45:12] Hannibal advised the Carthaginian senate
[45:15] that it was time to surrender.
[45:18] 17 years of war finally over.
[45:22] The terms Rome placed
on Carthage were harsh.
[45:26] They lost territory
[45:27] and were prohibited from starting
any more wars with anyone
[45:30] without Rome's explicit permission.
[45:32] Carthage basically became
a weak Roman client state.
[45:36] And what of these two military geniuses?
[45:39] Well, Scipio returned to Rome triumphant.
[45:43] For his victory in Africa,
[45:45] he was given the title Scipio Africanus.
[45:49] He had delivered Rome from
an existential threat.
[45:52] And so from here on out,
[45:54] he was primed to dominate Roman politics.
[45:57] He was even offered to
become Consul for Life,
[46:00] but he humbly refused.
[46:02] Politics being what it is
however, jealousy eventually grew.
[46:06] Scipio and his family ended
up battling accusations
[46:09] of corruption and Scipio,
[46:11] possibly becoming tired of Roman politics,
[46:14] retired to a nice country
house by the coast.
[46:18] Hannibal also took a leading role
[46:20] in Carthaginian politics after the war.
[46:22] But again, due to jealousy, factionalism,
[46:25] and a possibility of arrest by the Romans,
[46:28] he eventually entered exile.
[46:30] He spent the remainder
of his years out east,
[46:33] even advising enemies of Rome.
[46:36] Rome's hatred of Hannibal endured
[46:38] and they never stopped hoping
[46:39] to someday capture the monster.
[46:42] One story is told of how,
[46:44] when a much older Hannibal was chilling
[46:46] in the city of Ephesus,
[46:47] a Roman delegation was sent to the city.
[46:50] And in that delegation
was Scipio Africanus.
[46:54] The two men met for the second time,
[46:56] and they seem to have
gotten along quite well.
[46:59] Scipio asked Hannibal
[47:00] who he thought the three greatest
generals of all time were.
[47:04] Hannibal placed Alexander
the Great in number one,
[47:07] Pyrrhus of Epirus in number two,
[47:09] and in third place, himself.
[47:12] Scipio then asked,
[47:13] "And what if you had defeated me at Zama?"
[47:16] "Well, Scipio, then I would
have been the greatest general
[47:20] of all time."
[47:22] - [Scipio The Younger]
Please, call me Skippy.
[47:25] (generals giggling)
[47:26] - [Narrator] Eventually around 183 BC,
[47:29] Hannibal, now in his 60s,
[47:31] came under threat of Roman capture.
[47:34] After a long life, he
chose to take some poison.
[47:38] According to Livy, his last words,
[47:41] "Let us now relieve the
Romans of the anxiety
[47:44] they have so long experienced
[47:46] since they think it tries
their patience too much
[47:48] to wait for an old man's death."
[47:51] - [Servant] Wow, Hannibal,
what a dignified end.
[47:57] Gross.
[47:57] - [Narrator] And there you have it.
[47:59] The Second Punic War, finally done.
[48:02] It took 17 years to end the war.
[48:04] And on a personal note,
[48:06] making these videos has also
taken 17 years off my life.
[48:10] Carthage began to recover
from the war shockingly fast,
[48:13] however, and anxieties over
Carthage would remain in Rome.
[48:18] In particular, one Senator
would begin calling
[48:21] for one last crusade against Carthage
[48:24] to end the threat once and for all.
[48:27] He famously began to
end all of his speeches
[48:31] with one singular phrase,
[48:33] one of the most famous
phrases in Roman history.
[48:38] (dramatic music)