Alternate history - What if? Carthage, Roman, and Battle of the Metaurus

[Sarmatian]

Hasdrubal proved to be excellent general. He outmanouvered roman garrisons in spain. He got on friendly terms with Gauls and many of them joined his army. Hannibal lost not a small part of his army while marching to italy. Hasdrubal's army, however, got bigger. Romans were amazed by this, and were very afraid of him.

Hasdrubal could have taken romans head on, if it had been only one consul. Romans fielded 6 legions, 3 under command of Nero who was sent south to contain hannibal, and 3 under command of livius, who was sent to confront hasdrubal. It was a stroke of luck that nero intercepted hasdrubal's message to hannibal. He left small part of his army to fool hannibal (several thousands) and marched with the rest and joined forces with livius. Hasdrubal noticed that he had not one, but two roman consuls ahead of him so he decided to withdraw. Unfortunately, he was betrayed by his guides during the trip. His army was tired of trying all night to find a way across the river metaurus. Also, gauls got drunk. So in the morning, he had a tired army which left wing was comprised of drunken gauls. He was vastly outnumbered and still he managed to give a strong resistance to almost 6 roman legions.

Had he not been betrayed by his guides, who knows how things would have worked out. I think Hasdrubal could have beaten livius. If his march to italy is a merit to his skills, he proved to be a general on par with his brother...