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

[Sarmatian]

I dont see how a Roman defeat would have meant the capture of Rome. There were a total of 19 legions in the Italian theater (which would be maybe180K to 200K men)and around a 20-25% of them were involved in the battle.

There should have been enough legions to quickly reinforce Nero's remaining troops, that checked Hannibals army, in case a victorious Hasdrubal marched south to join Hannibal.

Although Rome certainly felt the strain after a long war (several allies had complained that they could not send more troops just a few years earlier) Hannibal had still been more or less cornered with no hope of winning the war, while Carthage was about to lose their hold in Spain.


CBR

AFAIK, there were six legions under the commandof two consuls, two in rome, and another 20,000 men in brutium. That is about 10 legions.