How Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with 30,000 soldiers was even harder than first thought

Daily Mail ^ | 17 February 2018 | Claudia Joseph

[mairdie]

How Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with 30,000 soldiers was even harder than first thought as researchers find he took a perilous route on a narrow bridle path 9,500ft above sea level

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Soil containing traces of horse manure has been carbon dated to 218BC, the time of HannibalÂ’s crossing, and shows that he took the Col de la Traversette, a narrow bridle path 9,500ft above sea level that links the Guil Valley in France with the Po Valley in Italy.

Previous speculation that he took this direct route had been discounted because of its sheer difficulty, with gradients as steep as 1:3.

[Don Corleone]

No 7-11’s, no Motel 6’s, no GPS. What was he thinking anyway? Geeeez!

[Enchante]

Interesting, thanks! I found this article from 2016 which has some good details on this kind of research:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/03/where-muck-hannibals-elephants-alps-italy-bill-mahaney-york-university-toronto

[BobL]

What’s funny is that stuff like that almost certainly happened, but sadly we’ll never know.

[dfwgator]

[BobL]

Good point! Or they had some damn toll collector who wouldn’t give them a volume break. (maybe an ancestor of one of those toll road shills here)

[Jim W N]

It’s a wonder that Hannibal won what with all the regulations and bureaucracies - worse than the Roman legions.

[Enchante]

This is a good one:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-hannibal-crossed-the-alps-180963671/

[elcid1970]

IIRC, none of Hannibal’s elephants survived the Alps passage.

[Jim W N]

That’s because the bureaucrats wouldn’t let them through that nice tunnel.

[redinIllinois]

Thanks for the laughs...

[LS]

Good observation. VDH has an excellent analysis of the battle of Cannae and its aftermath.

Mercenary/non-western armies were often not disciplined enough to go for the kill when spoils were to be had.

[BobL]

“It’s a wonder that Hannibal won what with all the regulations and bureaucracies - worse than the Roman legions.”

I don’t know either way, but the Romans sure did have a good code for highway construction.

[BobL]

Any time!

[jmacusa]

LOL. “Honest to the Gods!’’. They think this is easy being a king and a conqueror!’’ “I tell ya, it ain't the work it's the worry!’’.

[jmacusa]

You’re welcome. I say if you can’t laugh what can you do?

[Bull Snipe]

He could defeat Roman armies. He could not defeat Rome.

[DannyTN]

[PAR35]

traces of horse manure

Proves absolutely nothing. Come up with elephant poop, and they may have an argument.

[taterjay]

Or, as in the song Convoy, “ I didn’t have a doggone dime.”

[SunkenCiv]