Battle of the Ager Falernus
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Location of the Falernian field
| date | Summer 217 BC Chr. |
|---|---|
| place | On the edge of the Ager Falernus today Campania, Italy |
| output | Carthaginian victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 4000 soldiers | several thousands |
| losses | |
|
more than a thousand |
relatively few |
Saguntum - Lilybaeum II - Rhone - Ticinus - Trebia - Cissa - Lake Trasimeno - Ager Falernus - Geronium - Cannae - Nola I - Nola II - Ibera - Cornus - Nola III - Beneventum I - Syracuse - Tarentum I - Capua I - Beneventum II - Silarus - Herdonia I - Upper Baetis - Capua II - Herdonia II - Numistro - Asculum - Tarentum II - New Carthage - Baecula - Grumentum - Metaurus - Ilipa - Crotona - Large fields - Cirta - Zama
The Battle of Ager Falernus was a skirmish between Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War .
prehistory
After the Battle of Lake Trasimeno , riots broke out in Rome, and in this exceptional situation the people voted Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus as dictator because this seemed necessary to stabilize the situation. Marcus Minucius Rufus was appointed to his Magisters equitum (army master or cavalry commander) . After he had the city wall reinforced and had made further accompanying preparations, Fabius marched with his army from Rome to the south. Through scouts he learned that Hannibal was camped in the “Ager Falernus” area in Campania .
place
Ager Falernus - the Falernian field - was the name for one of the most fertile landscapes of ancient Italy. The plain, which lies between mountains with the former names Massicus and Callicula, is traversed by the small river Savo. The river Volturnus (today's Volturno ) forms the border to the rest of Campania (Ager Campanus). The area was famous for the excellent Falerner wine , which was grown on the southern slopes of Monte Massico.
Anti-war tactics
Hannibal's march through Italy
Why Hannibal did not immediately take off against Rome after the victory on Lake Trasimeno can only be answered speculatively. Instead , the Carthaginian army marched southeast via Perusia , today's Perugia, to Umbria, and finally invaded the Falernerland. Hannibal tried to force a decisive battle by looting and ravaging the country. However, he spared Fabius's estates in order to discredit him and increase the pressure on him. Through the ravages of Hannibal, the loyalty of many Italian peoples to Rome was severely tested and Fabius' strategy was criticized more and more.
Fabius' attrition tactics
However, Fabius did not allow himself to be provoked. On the contrary, he escalated the situation and ordered unfortified villages to be evacuated and the places threatened by Hannibal to be burned. The dictator was well aware that he was inferior to Hannibal in open combat. Fabius followed the Carthaginians with his army at an interval of two days' marches and avoided giving the enemy the opportunity to engage in open battle.
His defensive strategy , which was limited to occasional skirmishes with Hannibal's troops, bore the hallmarks of partisan war by today's standards . This tactic , which is similar to the “scorched earth” , is still called the “Fabian strategy” according to Fabius in the English-speaking world .
The battle
Encircling Hannibal
In autumn, the Punians wanted to move on to Apulia to set up winter quarters there. The land was looted and devastated; In addition, the fruit and wine growing in the area offered too few opportunities for the army.
Fabius had learned from his scouts that Hannibal would take the retreat the same way he had chosen when he invaded the Falerner area. Therefore he had the city of Casilinum occupied with a weak division. Minucius was charged with securing a bottleneck in the Via Appia north of Sinuessa .
With that Hannibal could only withdraw through a narrow valley below the Callicula mons mountain . There Fabius stationed a force of 4,000 soldiers and set up camp with the main army in the mountains that dominated this valley.
Hannibal's outburst
Soon the Carthaginians attacked the Roman position, but lost 800 men, while the Romans were able to hold their own with minor losses of 200 fighters. Hannibal realized that he could only get out of this dangerous situation with a ruse. He had bundles of brushwood tied and gave his quartermaster Hasdrubal the order to take a large number of cattle from the captured herds, to put the bundles on their horns, and to lead them the following night to the foot of the mountains occupied by the Romans. At a given signal, the cattle were to be driven up the mountains with the bundles of wood set on fire. At the same time Hannibal wanted to cross the pass below the "Callicula mons" with his army.
The plan was put into effect, and when the Romans who occupied the pass saw the fires on the heights, they believed that the Carthaginians had attempted to break through. They left their position to fend off the supposed attack. Hannibal had placed spear throwers at the side of the drovers who were ambushing the Roman soldiers. As a result, there was a wild scuffle, which lasted only a short time because the animals ran in their panic on the battlefield. Then the fight ended in the dark.
Fabius could not assess the situation. Since he still did not want to risk a decisive meeting, he remained calm and waited for daybreak. Meanwhile, Hannibal advanced with the heavily armed men, followed by the cavalry and the main train, unhindered over the pass. When day came and things became clearer, the rear guard was already climbing the saddle. This unit was formed by the Iberian infantry. The Iberians, particularly familiar with fighting in the mountainous area, rubbed off the still scattered Roman soldiers and killed more than a thousand. This made it possible for the entire Carthaginian retinue and the cattle that were being carried to be rescued long before the main Roman armed forces were able to intervene.
annotation
- ↑ Polybios names the pass after the mountain Eribianos , probably northwest of Cales (today Calvi Risorta )
- ↑ Not to be confused with Hasdrubal (brother of Hannibal) or Hasdrubal (son of Gisgos)
consequences
The Battle of Ager Falernus was less severe in terms of losses for the Romans, but the defeat demoralized the Roman troops. Up to now hardly a notable victory against the Carthaginians had been fought and the political weight of Fabius began to wane. There were even voices among the people accusing him of cowardice and dissatisfaction with his tactics continued to grow. This ultimately had an impact on the events before and during the Battle of Geronium up to the disastrous defeat of the Romans at the Battle of Cannae .
Hannibal, now marched east, towards Apulia, and devastated the Roman possessions at will. Fabius wouldn't let himself be dissuaded from his tactics. His uncompromising approach showed an advantage that was decisive for the war, which Fabius was well aware of: Rome could rely on resources that were secured by imports. Hannibal, on the other hand, was dependent on what could be extracted from the occupied land; He definitely did not have sufficient maritime supplies!
literature
- Peter Connolly : Hannibal and the enemies of Rome . Tessloff , Hamburg 1978, ISBN 3-7886-0182-5 .
- Wilhelm Bötticher, History of the Carthaginians according to the sources, 1827, p. 285 ff.