How Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with 30,000 soldiers was even harder than first thought

Daily Mail ^ | 17 February 2018 | Claudia Joseph

[Don Corleone]

No 7-11’s, no Motel 6’s, no GPS. What was he thinking anyway? Geeeez!

[Enchante]

Interesting, thanks! I found this article from 2016 which has some good details on this kind of research:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/03/where-muck-hannibals-elephants-alps-italy-bill-mahaney-york-university-toronto

[BobL]

What’s funny is that stuff like that almost certainly happened, but sadly we’ll never know.

[dfwgator]

[BobL]

Good point! Or they had some damn toll collector who wouldn’t give them a volume break. (maybe an ancestor of one of those toll road shills here)

[Jim W N]

It’s a wonder that Hannibal won what with all the regulations and bureaucracies - worse than the Roman legions.

[Enchante]

This is a good one:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-hannibal-crossed-the-alps-180963671/

[elcid1970]

IIRC, none of Hannibal’s elephants survived the Alps passage.

[Jim W N]

That’s because the bureaucrats wouldn’t let them through that nice tunnel.

[redinIllinois]

Thanks for the laughs...

[LS]

Good observation. VDH has an excellent analysis of the battle of Cannae and its aftermath.

Mercenary/non-western armies were often not disciplined enough to go for the kill when spoils were to be had.

[BobL]

“It’s a wonder that Hannibal won what with all the regulations and bureaucracies - worse than the Roman legions.”

I don’t know either way, but the Romans sure did have a good code for highway construction.

[BobL]

Any time!

[jmacusa]

LOL. “Honest to the Gods!’’. They think this is easy being a king and a conqueror!’’ “I tell ya, it ain't the work it's the worry!’’.

[jmacusa]

You’re welcome. I say if you can’t laugh what can you do?

[Bull Snipe]

He could defeat Roman armies. He could not defeat Rome.

[DannyTN]

[PAR35]

traces of horse manure

Proves absolutely nothing. Come up with elephant poop, and they may have an argument.

[taterjay]

Or, as in the song Convoy, “ I didn’t have a doggone dime.”

[SunkenCiv]