After Rome defeated Carthage in the first Punic war (264–241 bc), it annexed Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and maintained its interest in the Carthaginian heartlands of North Africa and Spain. So when Hannibal, elephants and all, marched through Spain and southern Gaul and descended over the Alps into Italy to start the second Punic war (218 bc), he was out to remove the Roman threat to Carthage’s western ambitions.
Whether he wanted actually to take Rome or not, his basic aim was to weaken Rome by drawing away its Italian allies. To this end he had brought with him about 60,000 battle-hardened troops (and 37 elephants). His tactics and their experience were instrumental in their first devastating victories. After Trebia (218 bc), Trasimene (217 bc) and Cannae (216 bc) Rome had lost at least 100,000 killed or captured (over 10 per cent of those eligible for service), with severe losses among its political elite too.
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