Hannibal's War: A Short Story

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Recommended: Battle of Cannae

The year is 218 BC. There was a meeting today for the men in Rome, and we were told to gather our arms and prepare for war. Apparently, the Carthaginians ignored the council's ultimatum that they sent out, implying war is on the horizon (Nova Roma). Tomorrow I will head out to war, and must say goodbye to family, possibly for the last time. Today we left Rome. We are heading towards the River Ticinus. We ran into a force of Hannibal's Carthaginian troops and they absolutely stomped on us. Although this was only a small skirmish, it really showed us that Hannibal is not a person to mess with. I lost my friend Tiben during that battle, this war is harder than I thought it would be, yet it has only just begun. It has been several weeks of marching …show more content…

I have no clue when I am going to lose more of my friends, and I don't know what is happening at home. We have almost always been the more prepared army of all the wars we have been in, but this time it is different. We haven't had a single win in this war, and we had a much larger army in the beginning. This past year has been nothing but worrying and nervousness. I sit here hoping that our home is safe, and that our other armies are still alive. Nothing has occurred where I am stationed, but I heard rumors of one of our other armies had a successful attack. Apparently, they attacked an unexpecting enemy ship, and took them down. I don't know much about it, I just heard the commander talking about it, but either way, it wasn't a very large win. We are going to need a hundred of those to be successful before it is anything serious. In other news, I received a letter from my wife. She wrote me of how the kids are doing and everything that has happened the past year. She told me of this festival that they now do, and in this festival, masters serve and wait on their servants (Nova Roma). I am glad to hear things are going swell at home, because they certainly aren't …show more content…

It was the Battle of Cannae, and it was the worst defeat I have ever witnessed. We had around 60,000 men, and Hannibal led a force of a mere 25,000 men. Before we could react, his men surrounded us yet again, and they cut through us like a hot sword cutting through butter. Within the hour, they cut through 50,000 men, and we only managed to take about 6,000 of theirs with us (Nova Roma). After this embarrassing loss, my commander retreated and strategized yet again, while Hannibal paraded through the streets slaughtering people to try and draw us out. It was so painful not being able to stop him, but there was nothing we could do. While we were regrouping, the island of Sardinia revolted, so we sent a small force to go claim the island, because they had corn which we were in desperate need of. Hannibal also sent a force to reclaim the island, but we got there first, and we caught them off guard, and wipe them

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