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Much overlooked by modern historians, the sling was capable of launching a projectile toward its target at up to 120 miles per hour-fast enough to kill a man at fifty paces. They were both feared and coveted as mercenaries throughout the western Mediterranean. Though less numerous, the other major component of the Carthaginian light infantry-the Balearic slingers-were, if anything, individually even more lethal. Numidian javelin men, perhaps six thousand of the total light troops, proved particularly adept at cooperating with their horse-borne countrymen and seem to have intensified the effects of the cavalry’s swarming tactics.
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The Carthaginians were specialists-screening and harassment was their business. Basically, Roman skirmishers were men either too young or too poor to take their place in the maniples.
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The approximately eight thousand Punic light troops were probably proportionately even more outnumbered by the Roman velites than was the case with their comrades in the other infantry arms, but the relative difference in personal capabilities was equivalently lopsided in the other direction. The ancient sources provide no specific figures for the various contingents, but modern historians have made a number of informed estimates that seem basically in agreement. The Carthaginian force was notably less homogenized than its Roman equivalent, and in those various parts were vested a variety of fighting skills tailor-made for a commander with Hannibal’s protean military imagination. But if the infantry were outnumbered two to one, the quality of the Punic soldiers was better, and not just in terms of confidence and prior experience killing Romans. Polybius and Livy both agree that forty thousand foot soldiers would have been available to Hannibal at Cannae, a figure modern sources support. Numerically, the Carthaginian advantage in cavalry was nearly reversed with regard to infantry. All in all, it constituted a yawning gap, and one that would soon send the Romans stumbling down the initial steps toward tactical ruin. Looked at another way, the Carthaginian force had one horseman for every four foot soldiers, while the Roman ratio was one to thirteen, a strong indication that the Punic army was far better adapted to the flat terrain on which the battle almost certainly would be fought. Polybius (3.72) describes them as “easily scattered and retreated, but afterwards wheeled round and attacked with great daring-these being their peculiar tactics.” Yet in the hands of a commander as opportunistic as Maharbal, they could destroy an entire force once it became even slightly demoralized and ready to bolt.Īll together, Hannibal’s cavalry now numbered around ten thousand, two thirds more than when he’d entered Italy, and more to the point, they were enjoying a five-to-three quantitative edge over the Cannae-bound Romans, whose horsemen were by far inferior in quality also. Riding bareback and carrying only a light shield for protection, they avoided hand-to-hand combat and were largely incapable of direct confrontation. Like the steppe horsemen, they were fatally easy to underestimate.
Celtic kings rage of war hastati full#
Characteristically, Numidians pinned and herded their foes through absolute mastery of their hyper-agile ponies, and then ran the enemy down with ruthless efficiency, able to cut their hamstrings even at a full gallop. They lacked only the steppe horseman’s deadly composite bow, relying instead on a brace of light javelins and a slashing dirk. The Numidians were the closest thing a western Mediterranean battlefield saw to an inner Asian steppe horseman. They were the Numidians, Hannibal’s version of killer bees, proverbially swarming their opponent if given even the slightest opening. This was a force more than capable of taking on anything the Romans had on horseback, and likely predisposed to fight in the same very confrontational way-one entirely different in its ethos from the other face of Punic cavalry. The two groups would have been an impressive one-two combination, with an initial hail of javelins followed by closer, more decisive engagement. The Gauls, primarily composed of nobles, were more heavily armed and armored, with chain mail, metal helmets, and a stout thrusting spear.
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The Spaniards carried two light throwing spears, a sword, and a round shield, or caetra. As had been true since Trebia, the Spaniards and Gauls rode together as a shock element, although now they were almost certainly better trained and integrated. Nowhere was this more evident than in the cavalry, probably the most lethal Punic fighting component.