Hannibal's crossing of the Alps

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Hannibal's route during the Second Punic War

Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in autumn 218 BC BC is one of the traditional events during the Second Punic War . It is still considered a tactical and logistical masterpiecetoday. It was the prelude to a multi-year war on the Italian peninsula against Rome .

Fresco, around 1510
Francisco de Goya : Aníbal vencedor contempla por primera vez Italia desde los Alpes , 1771
Hannibal's crossing over the Alps (colored woodcut by Heinrich Leutemann , 1866)

The crossing of the Alps

Sources about the event available today come from Polybios and Titus Livius . They are probably based on reports from participants in the campaign.

The Carthaginian general Hannibal moved in 218 BC. BC with part of his army from the Iberian Peninsula to Italy to forestall a Roman attack on Spain and North Africa. His opponent, the consul and general Publius Cornelius Scipio , found out about Hannibal's train in Massilia and tried in vain to intercept him on the Rhone . The Volcae , allied with the Romans, were defeated by Hannibal in the Battle of the Rhone .

Hannibal initially carried around 50,000 soldiers, 9,000 horsemen (according to other sources, 25,000 foot soldiers and 12,000 horsemen) and 37 war elephants . The elephants used were mainly North African elephants, which have now become extinct . Only Hannibal's own animal called Surus ("the Syrian") was probably an Indian elephant .

Presumably Hannibal moved over the valley of the Rhone and then possibly over the valley of the Isère further into the Alps . From the Rhône, the entire ascent took nine days. The deception of Hannibal by treacherous leaders is reported. There were fights with the Celtic Allobrogians . Bad weather also led to losses in the mountains. The army had to camp for three days on the pass until rubble on the descent side was cleared.

It is reported from a view of the Po plain , which the soldiers offered when they set off over the pass in the morning. Livy described the descent as snowy and slippery. All 37 elephants survived the crossing of the Alps, but all but Hannibal's animal died in the coming winter months. The crossing of the Alps took a total of 16 days.

After surviving the crossing of the Alps, the battle on the Ticinus and the Battle of the Trebia followed , which Hannibal was able to win. Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal crossed in 207 BC. BC with his army also the Pyrenees and the Alps to strengthen Hannibal's army, but was defeated in the battle of Metaurus .

Localization

Map of the possible routes across the Alps

According to tradition, the top of the pass could be reached from the Rhône within nine days, there was enough space for a large army camp at the top of the pass, and the Po Valley could be seen from the top of the pass and could be reached in three days. The first part of the descent was very steep and you encountered snow on the descent.

The “north route”, for example, came into question: It led along the Isère through the Pontcharra and La Rochette gorges, before reaching the Po Valley either via the Col du Mont Cenis or Col de Clapier .

The "middle route" ran from the Isère valley over the Pelvoux massif to the Durance and from there over the Col de Montgenèvre down into the Po Valley. This pass became part of the Via Domitia about a hundred years later .

One possible “southern route” led through the Drôme valley , over the Col de Grimone , along the Queyras gorge over the Col de la Traversette . This route is now considered to be the most likely. An international team of scientists led by William Mahaney from York University in Toronto discovered clear traces in the high mountains in the form of herbivore droppings. The microbiologist Chris Allen from Queen's University in Belfast made a significant contribution to securing evidence.

Investigations indicate warm climatic phases and a higher tree line.

discussion

The alpine archaeologist Patrick Hunt , Stanford University , estimates the number of studies and articles on the possible route at around 20 in the past hundred years.

Patrick Hunt favors the Col de Clapier, from which one can see the Po Valley. There is also space to accommodate a large army camp.

William Mahaney , a geologist and professor emeritus at York University , favors the Col de la Traversette after field studies because he has identified a scree slope that matches a description in Polybius and Livy. The historian John Prevas also advocates the Col de la Traversette. In 1955, Gavin de Beer , natural historian and zoologist at Oxford , went public with the thesis of the Col de la Traversette. De Beer assumed, among other things, that after crossing the Rhône, Hannibal reached the Aygues instead of the Isère and then followed the Drôme. Mahaney and co-workers reported in 2016 that they had found sediments at Col de la Traversette that were created by "the constant movement of thousands of animals and people" and that could be dated to the time of Hannibal's invasion. Your report therefore confirms Gavin de Beer's thesis that Hannibal's army had used this pass.

Saint-Simon (1720–1799) thought a route over the Col de Grimone was likely.

Mark McMenamin suspects an Alpine crossing even further north, near the Matterhorn , and cites images on Punic coins .

Jakob Seibert , emeritus ancient historian from the University of Munich and Hannibal expert, also believes that it is possible to split the army into several passes. Pedro Barceló , professor at the University of Potsdam , doubts that an elephant survived at all, and cannot believe that the Romans were surprised.

In 2016, an international team of researchers led by the Canadian geomorphologist Bill Mahaney from York University in Toronto presented what may be crucial information about Hannibal's route. In the bottom of a bog near the Col de la Traversette, 3000 meters above sea level, they found a layer with massive deposits of animal manure. The dating points to the year 200 BC. BC and falls within the period of the crossing of the Alps.

Experimental archeology

In July 1935, Richard Halliburton crossed the Great Saint Bernard on an elephant named Dally .

Members of the Cambridge Alpine Elephant Expedition 1958-59 , including John Hoyte, crossed the pass at Mont Cenis in an elephant named Jumbo.

On September 16, 1979, the Col du Clapier was committed by Jack Wheeler and a companion with two elephants.

Representations in art

The crossing is represented in a fresco by Jacopo Ripanda (around 1510), which can be seen in the Conservators' Palace (Rome, Capitoline Museums ).

Francisco de Goya painted Aníbal vencedor contempla por primera vez Italia desde los Alpes in 1771.

The painting Bonaparte crossing the Alps on the Great Saint Bernhard by Jacques-Louis David from 1800 places Napoleon Bonaparte in a row with Hannibal and Charlemagne .

See also

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literature

In chronological order:

  • Maximilien Henri De Saint-Simon: Histoire de la Guerre des Alpes. Amsterdam 1770.
  • Josef Fuchs: Hannibal's Alpine Crossing. A study and travel result. With two maps and an illustration , Vienna 1897
  • Cecil Torr: Hannibal crosses the Alps. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1924.
  • Gavin de Beer: Alps and Elephants. Geoffrey Bles, London 1955.
  • Jakob Seibert: Hannibal . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1993.
  • Karl Christ : Hannibal . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2003.
  • Pedro Barceló: Hannibal. Strategist and statesman . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2004.

Web links

Commons : Hannibal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Livius 21,35,6 gives the (beginning) autumnal decline of the Pleiades and Vergiliae as an astronomical reference , around the end of September / beginning of October.
  2. ↑ Erin Wayman: On Hannibal's Trail: The clues are in the geology. In: Earth Magazine , October 1, 2010 ( online )
  3. ^ Gavin de Beer: Hannibal - A life against Rome . 5th edition. Heyne Biographien, Munich 1969, ISBN 3-453-55012-9 , p. 111 .
  4. ↑ livius.org ( online )
  5. ↑ a b c Hannibal's way across the Alps. Experts argue about the general's route. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , June 16, 2010 ( online )
  6. ^ Philip Ball: The truth about Hannibal's route across the Alps . In: The Observer . April 3, 2016, ISSN  0029-7712 ( theguardian.com [accessed November 10, 2019]).
  7. ↑ MVS Import: Unraveled Hannibal's route across the Alps? In: scinexx | The knowledge magazine . April 4, 2016 ( scinexx.de [accessed November 10, 2019]).
  8. ^ Franz Lidz: How (and Where) Did Hannibal Cross the Alps? Accessed November 10, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Hanspeter hollow Hauser, Michel Magny, Heinz Zumbuhl: Glacier and lake-level variations in west-central Europe over the load 3500 years. In: The Holocene 15.6 (2005) 789-801.
  10. ^ A b In the Alps, hunting for Hannibal's trail . In: Stanford Report. May 16, 2007 ( online )
  11. ↑ John Prevas: Hannibal crosses the Alps: the invasion of Italy and the Punic Wars. Da Capo Press, 2001 ( online )
  12. ^ Gavin de Beer: Alps and Elephants. Geoffrey Bles, London 1955.
  13. ↑ Which way did Hannibal take? In: Der Spiegel , June 29, 1955, 27/1955 ( online )
  14. ^ Dung clue to Hannibal's Alpine crossing. BBC, April 4, 2016, accessed November 18, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Mark McMenamin: Depiction of the Alps on Punic coins from Campania, Italy. In: Numismatics International Bulletin , 41 (2012) 1–2: 30–33.
  16. ↑ Jakob Seibert: Hannibal . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1993, pp. 106-113.
  17. ↑ PM History , 2012 ( online ( Memento of the original on 13 January 2012 at the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested Please review the original and archive link under. Instructions and then remove this notice. ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.presseportal.de
  18. ↑ Gunter Willinger: Antiquity - Did Hannibal's path paved horse droppings? Genetic analyzes on a tapeworm egg and bacteria should clarify whether manure found in the Alps, more than 2000 years old, can come from the horses of the Carthaginian general. In: www.spektrum.de. Spectrum, April 8, 2016, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  19. ^ WC Mahaney, CCR Allen, P. Pentlavalli, A. Kulakova, JM Young: Biostratigraphic Evidence Relating to the Age-Old Question of Hannibal's Invasion of Italy, I: History and Geological Reconstruction . In: Wiley Online Library Archaeometry . March 8, 2016, ISSN  1475-4754 , p. n / a – n / a , doi : 10.1111 / arcm.12231 (English, wiley.com [accessed May 1, 2016]).
  20. ↑ Photo series 1935 ( online )
  21. ↑ Rent an elephant and try the alps. In: The Miami News , September 13, 1979 ( online )