Narrator (0:03)

Hi everyone.

John Hopkins (0:04)

Exciting News the Noiza Podcast Network has released a new book. It's called A Short History of Ancient Rome. The book is everything you love about the podcast, but a deeper dive. 18 chapters, each one following the story of a remarkable person or event that changed Rome's history. If you ask me, a real page turner, you can find A Short History of Ancient Rome in all good bookshops. Or you can listen to the audiobook which just happens to be narrated by me today. As a special bonus, we're bringing you a sample chapter from the audiobook. This chapter follows Hannibal, the legendary Carthaginian military leader.

Narrator (0:47)

We'll follow him as he takes his.

John Hopkins (0:48)

Mighty army, including a contingent of war.

Narrator (0:51)

Elephants, over the snow capped Alps. His mission? To attack Rome.

John Hopkins (0:57)

If you enjoy this sample chapter, grab.

Narrator (0:59)

A copy of A Short History of.

John Hopkins (1:01)

Ancient Rome written by Neuser founder Pascal Hughes in your local bookshop. I love the COVID design and think it would make a great Christmas gift for that history enthusiast in your life. Or you can buy the audiobook Narrated by me, John Hopkins, wherever you get your audiobooks. If that's quite a lot of info to take in, just head to noiza.combooks.

Narrator (1:22)

To find out more.

John Hopkins (1:23)

But for now, here is that sample.

Narrator (1:25)

Chapter on Hannibal Chapter 5 Hannibal the Adversary it's daybreak on the 19th of October 202 BC in Zama, a large area of flat arid land around 80 miles inland from Carthage in modern day Tunisia, North Africa. On the valley floor, two large armies, together numbering tens of thousands, are preparing for battle. A bead of sweat drips from General Publius Cornelius Scipio's long hair onto his clean shaven face. A red cloak is draped over his leather muscled cuirass, a piece of armor that fits over his torso and mimics an ideal of the masculine physique. He stands at the head of 29,000 infantry and 6,000 cavalry soldiers deep in the heart of enemy territory. In the distance, Hannibal the Great Carthaginian general and enemy of Rome, stands proudly at the front of his troops, the early autumn sun glinting off his ornate bronze helmet. Behind him, around 36,000 Carthaginian infantry are arranging themselves into three long lines with 4,000 cavalry flanking them. Scipio grips his sword to steady his trembling hands as Hannibal's infamous weapons are walked into position at the front of the opposing army, 80 war elephants ready for combat. Scipio squares his shoulders, pushing down any anxiety as the sounds of Roman trumpets and the cries of men and animals reverberate across the valley floor. Then Hannibal raises his sword and his war elephants are unleashed. Shaking the ground, they charge towards the Roman lines. One of the greatest battles of the ancient world has begun. In the words of Livy, before night fell they would know whether Rome or Carthage would make laws for all the nations. The reward for victory was not just Italy or Africa, but all the world. But how did we get here? How has Rome found itself in a winner takes all battle with the Carthaginian Empire? For Hannibal, it's a story that takes seed nearly four decades earlier. Hannibal's oath It's 239 BC, 37 years before the Battle of Zama and 9 year old Hannibal has been summoned to meet his father in Carthage, the epicenter of the Carthaginian Empire. The meeting spot is a temple surrounded by a tranquil courtyard. Its walls featuring vividly colored paintings, some detailing elegantly dressed people captured in conversation. A statue of baal, the city's chief God, looks down on the scene. In this peaceful place, the sounds of the bustling city outside feel distant. Young Hannibal's gaze is drawn to a small altar in the courtyard center where stands a man with a thick dark wavy beard wearing decorative military clothing. It's the first time Hannibal has met his father, Hamilcar Barca, the great Carthaginian general. As the older man has been away fighting in Sicily, now Hamilcar stoops down and fixes his determined eyes on his child. He is about to embark on an expedition to Iberia in modern day Spain to expand Carthage's territory and he wants his son to join him. It is only two years since Carthage suffered defeat in the 23 year long first Punic war between the rival empires of Rome and Carthage. Hannibal has heard the stories of his father's heroic defense of the island of Sicily and his dismay at losing the territory to the Romans who now have access to its plentiful resources. As well as controlling the sea straits that pass north and south of the island. Carthage had begun the war with the superior navy while Rome boasted the better army. However, the shrewd Romans turned their weaker sailing skills into a strength, avoiding technical sea battles in favor of simply ramming the Carthaginian ships and using gangplanks to overrun them with foot soldiers. Rome won the war and seized control of Sicily despite the best efforts of Hannibal's father who has been left resentful that he was given insufficient military support to overcome the enemy. Now, as Hannibal excitedly agrees to join him on his new campaign, Hamilcar takes the boy's hand and lays it on the sacrificial altar, the child's small fingers splay out among the remnants of an animal sacrifice as he swears an oath. I will never be a friend of Rome, young Hannibal. Sicily's natural resources are now flowing around Rome's expanding territories. To make up for the corresponding loss to Carthage, Hamilcar and his sons, including Hannibal, travel to Iberia, what is now Spain and Portugal. Intent on seizing land from the indigenous populations and exploiting the area's rich mineral wealth. He is successful in conquering much of southern and eastern Iberia and uses the plunder to strengthen Carthage's military. In 228 BC, however, Hamilcar dies, probably by drowning in a river. And seven years later, Hannibal's brother in law is assassinated by a Gaul. Aged just 26, Hannibal now takes charge of the Carthaginian army and begins planning revenge on the romans. Early in 219 BC he attacks Saguntum, an Iberian city with ties to Rome. Then orders his army over the ebro river lying 100 or so miles southwest of what is now Spain's border with France. The waterway is a natural boundary line that Carthage has agreed not to cross at the end of the First Punic War. Recognizing that any further incursions north could bring the Carthaginians a little too close for comfort to their own northern territories. Rome is furious at the antagonistic move. So it is that by the following spring, 23 years on from the concluding horrors of that first war, the Second Punic War erupts, engulfing the Mediterranean once again in violence. As Hannibal begins his advance on the old enemy. Rome's key advantage over Carthage is its ability to rapidly raise armies from among its Italian half citizens and allies. It is this allied network that provided Rome with the manpower it needed to see out almost a quarter of a century of attrition in the First Punic War. To defeat Rome, Hannibal believes he must get inside Italy and secure some battlefield victories. If that pays off, he thinks it will then inspire Italian townships to switch allegiance to him in a bid to regain their traditional ancestral freedoms. The plan is far fetched to say the least. Getting into the Italian peninsula in the first place is no small matter. A seaborne invasion will likely be quelled immediately by the now dominant Roman navy. And there is no navigable overland route from Iberia to Italy that doesn't pit his army against the mountainous Alps that sit north of the Italian peninsula. The Romans themselves are convinced this route is impassable because of the freezing temperatures and fierce tribes found within the mountains. Hannibal is unconvinced by such skepticism. After all, the deity Hercules is said to have crossed the Alps in days gone by. If Hercules can do it, why can't he voyage through the Alps? In late autumn, 218 B.C. hannibal and his troops, along with some miserable bound Celt prisoners he has picked up along the way, set off from Iberia for the Alps. But getting to the foothills is perilous. First, his army must navigate the high passes of the Pyrenees, where they endure attacks by wild tribesmen. Then they are forced to battle a large army of Gauls when crossing the mighty Rhone River. Several days after discreetly entering the Alps, some of his soldiers, wearing full armor, plummet down a precipice to their deaths after attempting to traverse a narrow, icy pass. A little later, several panicked pack animals carrying supplies meet a similar fate. And while the sight of war elephants thousands of feet up in the mountains is a terrifying spectacle for tribes who have never seen such a creature before, the elephants themselves are struggling too. Spooked by the unfamiliar sights and sounds around them, not to mention the freezing temperatures, the massive beasts are proving almost impossible to handle. Soon they are approached by a mountain chieftain who has traveled to meet Hannibal. Explaining that this is dangerous territory, he offers guides and supplies to assist him on his journey. Without even a navigable map of the Alps, Hannibal welcomes the offer, albeit cautiously. For a while, the guides seem to aid progress. After several days of trekking, the army enters yet another narrow pass. Icy rain hits the young general's face as he looks up at the rugged, sheer, overhanging cliffs. What he sees makes him immediately regret his decision to come this way. He steps back in horror, scrabbling for his sword as war cries resonate through the landscape and the silhouettes of hundreds of tribal warriors appear on the ridgeline. A volley of boulders and rocks strikes the Carthaginian soldiers strung out along the narrow valley pass in front of and behind their leader. Regaining his composure, Hannibal screams orders at the elephant handlers and cavalry soldiers in advance of him, then turns to see the elite infantry already slashing away at the attackers to his rear. They must hold the line or face being overrun. Throughout the night, Hannibal's men remain trapped in the pass, defending themselves against wave upon wave of attack. But as the hours pass, the skirmishes lessen in their intensity. By sunrise, the Carthaginians have turned the tide and overwhelmed the enemy. As they set about stripping the warm winter furs off the tribesmen's bodies, Hannibal himself searches among the dead and confirms what he already suspected. That it was none other than the treacherous mountain guides who led his army into this ambush. The Carthaginian death toll could have been far worse if Hannibal hadn't entered the pass with some of his best men deployed at both the front and back of his stretched out army. Nonetheless, they paid a heavy price, losing men, horses and elephants. After nine days of hiking through the mountains, occasionally going in the wrong direction, the demoralized Carthaginian army finally catches a glimpse of the green pastures of Italy's Po Valley on the horizon. Winter snows will make their descent perilous, but the horrors of the Alps are almost over. Soon they will be in the Italian foothills, preparing their march south to Rome. An enemy in Italy. When Hannibal finally arrives in Italy, he dismounts from the only surviving elephant and plunges his arm into a river, its icy cold waters swollen by the winter snow and rains. His feet are damp from squelching across the flat, muddy marshland, but they are of less concern to him than his right eye. It's red and sore and has been irritating him for days, aggravated by the swampy conditions. In fact, he is suffering a severe bout of ophthalmia that will leave him permanently blind in that eye. But at least he survived, which is more than can be said of half of his men. Though he set out with a combined infantry and cavalry force of over 60,000. After losing so many to skirmishes, accidents, the conditions of the trek and desertion, he is now down to a mere 25,000 men and 6,000 cavalry. But his expedition must continue. Whatever his suffering and that of his men, Rome must be brought to its knees. Hannibal's unexpected arrival sends shockwaves across the Italian peninsula. With two hastily assembled armies sent out to confront the Carthaginians, the odds stacked against him, Hannibal stages gladiatorial death matches between some of his captured Celt prisoners. There is freedom on offer to the victorious, and he hopes the spectacle will inspire local tribal groups to join with him against the tyranny of ever expanding Rome. He barks at his own men that the prisoners forced to fight are no different from them trapped in a situation where. Where only absolute victory will secure their liberty. When one of the local tribes, the Taurinae, refuses to join his force, he makes an example of them slaughtering them all, including women and children. The message is join Hannibal or die. The battles of Ticinus and Trebia behind enemy lines, heavily outnumbered and without a proper supply chain, Hannibal must do whatever he can to keep his soldiers going if they are to have any chance of surviving the coming Roman onslaught. By late November 218 BC, he is close to the Ticinus river in northern Italy. This year's Roman consul, Cornelius Scipio, leads out an army to engage the Carthaginians. To his surprise, as the two forces line up readying themselves for combat, the Carthaginians almost instantaneously charge the Roman line. The unexpected strategy creates confusion among the Roman soldiers. Seizing upon this moment of weakness, Hannibal's cavalry encircles the enemy and attacks them from behind as part of a maneuver called a double envelopment. Writing around 200 years after the fact, Livy describes how amid the chaos, Scipio's 16 year old son, who who shares his father's name, charges forward when he sees his father fall, risking his life to ensure that his father is able to escape. The Consul and his son live to fight another day. But the engagement goes down as a Carthaginian triumph. Emboldened by Hannibal's victory, the local Celt tribes flock to join him. It is not long before Hannibal faces a second Roman army, this time at the Trebia River. In another moment of tactical brilliance, he decides to turn one of the Romans main strengths, their bravery, into their central weakness. At dawn on 23 December, guards protecting a Roman camp near the river sound the alarm. A dispatch of Hannibal's Numidian cavalry are firing projectiles into the camp. The angered Romans hastily make chase. Despite their empty stomachs and lack of preparation, courageously they wade through the cold river in pursuit of their prey. But unbeknown to them, the Numidians are only pretending to retreat. In reality, they are luring the Romans into a trap. Having crossed the river, the Romans stand in sodden clothes in almost freezing temperatures. To their horror, Hannibal's army are lining up over the brow of the riverbank in the near distance. Arranging themselves in battle formation, the cold, wet, hungry Romans now face a prepared, rested, fed and dry Carthaginian opponent. As battle commences, a further 2,000 elite Carthaginian troops emerge from hiding spots further down the riverbank. Capitalizing on their advantage to win the battle once again, Hannibal demonstrates near perfect military planning and execution. Lake Trasimony and Cannae the following summer, Hannibal raids a series of villages on the shores of Lake Trasimony, a little over 100 miles north of Rome. In another bid to lure a Roman army from its encampment nearby. The Roman leader, Consul Gaius Flaminius, is advised to await reinforcements. But he has a reputation as a hothead and when he sees the destruction. He orders his soldiers to confront Hannibal at first light. However, Hannibal has the measure of his rival. Predicting Flaminius actions, he commands his troops to leave camp in the dead of night and hide in the hillsides north of the lake as Flaminius army marches along the northern shore. Later that morning, Hannibal's men descend from the hills, pinning the Roman soldiers against the water's edge. The stunned Roman army is massacred. The few that initially escape into the lake either drown in their heavy armor or are forced into the shallows where they are butchered by the Carthaginian cavalry. Some sympathetic Roman historical accounts suggest that Flaminius men have been fatally disadvantaged by the descent of a thick fog. But it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Hannibal bested his enemy by making better decisions. A little over a year later, in August 216 BC, Hannibal has made his way down the eastern side of the peninsula towards the ankle of Italy. Knowing that his army is still too small to take on the heavily defended fortifications of Rome itself, he is concentrating on breaking its alliances and bringing smaller tribes under his own command to stop him. A vast 80,000 strong Roman army amasses in Cannae in southeast Italy. Hannibal may be a military genius, but his men are now outnumbered 2 to 1. Rome's network of allies pulls together again. Yet to their horror, Hannibal uses his signature move, a double envelopment, to claim another extraordinary victory. As the Carthaginian general's reputation is cemented forevermore. Half of Rome's fighting force is massacred and Rome itself seems on the brink of collapse.