Yes I believe he indeed did it around the winter period.Originally Posted by Watchman
Yes I believe he indeed did it around the winter period.Originally Posted by Watchman
Originally Posted by Moros
Which I still think shouldn't be THAT big of a problem if you know where. Seems like his troops were badly equipped for winter and he must have had problems with his guides or gotten some wrong information when choosing the area in which to cross imho.
My first balloon:
Not really, by what I know of it. Them mountains were pretty much a murder in winter, and the locals - and everyone else for that matter - tended to consider anyone who tried to cross them during that season more than a little daft.
Which is of course the whole point; Hannibal's Alpine foray is famous specifically because of the difficulty of the trip nevermind with an army that large and including animals as logistically problematic as elephants (it's quite impressive he got even that handful across alive), and its success as a strategic surprise maneuver would to a great degree have been due to the simple fact the Romans reasonably enough did not expect anyone to try something so crazy.
The Russians pulled a similar winter-mountain march against the Ottomans somewhere in the Balkans once, AFAIK, which similarly caught the opposition by surprise. I've been told the local folklore still knows to tell you could easily trace their passage by frozen soldiers along the roads...
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