05-01-2008, 08:54 PM
Couldn't the same be said of Scipio? .......after all, he had to leave his highly polished and trained Spanish Army behind, except for some volunteers who replaced those too old or unfit in the disgraced 'Cannae Legions', ( the 10,000 or so survivors of Cannae, some 15 years before) based in Sicily, that Scipio was allocated for the African invasion. A rather aging force for such an enterprise, one should have thought - apparently chosen because of their 'experience of siege warfare' ( the siege of Syracuse and other places in Sicily 10 years before).
....at least one third, probably more, of Hannibal's army consisted of the army he brought back from Italy - his veteran troops, mostly Bruttians but including the survivors of the Africans, Spaniards and maybe Celts that had invaded Italy 16 years before.
Ironic that many of the soldiers who faced each other at Zama had done so 15 years before, at Cannae...............including Hannibal and Scipio...."unfinished business", you might say !!
....at least one third, probably more, of Hannibal's army consisted of the army he brought back from Italy - his veteran troops, mostly Bruttians but including the survivors of the Africans, Spaniards and maybe Celts that had invaded Italy 16 years before.
Ironic that many of the soldiers who faced each other at Zama had done so 15 years before, at Cannae...............including Hannibal and Scipio...."unfinished business", you might say !!
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
