Quote Originally Posted by Cimon View Post
Hannibal must have known that Scipio couldn't be fooled by the same trick twice..
Which is also why Hannibal tried something extra in the hope of fooling Scipio. In the end he was not successful but if one wants a big victory against a good general one needs to take risks and come up with something special. In this case it was pulling back his second line and have his veterans in two lines.

Much of Hannibal's army is not going to be able to perform such complicated maneuvers as suggested by James.
The only real complex maneuver would be done by his fourth line while covered by his third line. Both of them were veterans. Having his second line pull back a bit after the first line engaged is IMO not that complex as it would be prearranged.

Third, Hannibal has the larger infantry contingent. If he wants to try a double envelopment, then he only needs to extend his frontage from the get-go or, in the alternative, right after an initial clash.
He would lose any surprise if he deployed them too soon. He needed Scipio to release both his Hastati and Principes before trying to envelop them. He most likely concluded (and rightly so) that he could only count on his veterans and the rest could only be used to tire and disorder Scipios main infantry. In the end he was forced to extend the line as his other troops had been beaten too easily and Scipio had not been fooled.

And I think the line extension makes a lot more sense than having routed men from the first and second line rally and suddenly put up a good fight. That and the possible numbers of soldiers and veterans especially, makes for a good case that he had two lines of veterans.


CBR