[John Will]

Hannibal made a major error in not going for a direct attack and taking the gamble.

[expatpat]

Could be, but didn't he need to pick up mercenaries in what is now Provence, on the way?

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Hannibal made a major error in not going for a direct attack and taking the gamble.

Read about the struggle to take Monte Cassino in WWII and you would know why no leader until Churchill was dumb enough to try a southern attack on Rome. I'm a Churchill fan, but there was no 'weak underbelly'. Just a few division of troops could hold back whole armies. The terrain is difficult for infantry and you can forgot siege machines (or even elephants.) The 'direct attack' was suicide. Ask any of the 250,000 troops who died there in 1943-1944.