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vlar -> (1/22/2002 1:25:00 AM)
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I decided to bring this thread back just to post my thoughts. I think the battle of Metaurus was probably the single most important battle in history. It was a battle in the second punic war 9 years after Cannae and 5 years before Zama both of which were mentioned in this thread and I think it was more important than either one of them and even than the two combined.
Metaurus (207 BC)
In 208 B.C., Hasdrubal Barca (Hannibal’s brother) finally slipped out of Spain and moved to unite with his older brother in a maneuver designed to bring overwhelming Carthaginian superiority to bear on Rome and thus, hopefully, end the conflict. Since the Roman navy controlled the seas, Hasdrubal basically followed the path blazed by his brother into Northern Italy at the beginning of the war. In 207 B.C., Hasdrubal’s army began to move down the eastern coast, where it was intercepted and screened by a consular army under the Praetor for Gaul, L. Porcius Licinus. The Consul responsible for protecting Northern Italy was M. Livius Salinator, who now moved in with another consular army, which brought the opposing, forces to approximate parity.
C. Claudius Nero, the other consul for that year, was tasked with screening Hannibal’s army in the South. Nero realized from captured dispatches that Hannibal knew neither where Hasdrubal’s army was, nor its future plans. Once Hannibal figured out his brother’s intentions he would likely move north and join with him, creating a new Carthaginian juggernaught that could end the war. To prevent this, Nero used what would later become known as the Central Position to bring numerical superiority against one force while screening the other.
Nero took a small, but elite, part of his army (6,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry) and headed north. In an historic forced march, Nero covered the length of the peninsula in six days to unite with Livius and give the Roman forces local superiority over Hasdrubal. To maintain the surprise, Nero’s men entered the Roman camps at night, and the men doubled up until the morning. Livius was for waiting a day or so to let Nero’s men rest, but Nero feared for his command in the South if Hannibal ever figured out what was afoot. Nero’s theory prevailed, and the attack was launched, without rest, the next day.
The Romans – in one of those remarkably indicative instances of allowing ritual and procedure to overrule intelligence – then blew the surprise, literally, by using their standard horn signals to get their troops up and about. This let Hasdrubal, who knew the Roman signal system, to realize that an additional force was probably present in the Roman camps. When the Romans left their camps in battle array Hasdrubal followed suit; the sight of a large formation of men in dirty armor then confirmed his own, worst fears. He immediately knew that the Romans had numerical superiority, so he withdrew his forces back into camp.
That night Hasdrubal attempted to cross the Metaurus River and escape the Roman trap. However, the rain soaked Metaurus was uncrossable at most places, and the local guides deserted the Carthaginians in the night, leaving Hasdrubal high, dry, and on the wrong side of the river. At dawn Livius and Nero moved up in battle order leaving Hasdrubal no choice but to fight.
Where the battle was actually fought is still open to conjecture, but it was clearly not a location of Hasdrubal’s choosing. With an uncrossable river at his back, a large Roman army to his front, and his Gallic allies looking for the nearest bus out of town, the Carthaginians were in an unenviable position. From what we do know, Hasdrubal used the terrain on his left flank to almost literally prop up his Gauls (approximately 10,000), most of whom were drunk or hung over. In the center he placed his Ligurians (approximately 8,000) in deep formation because of the limited frontage afforded by the terrain. His best troops – his North African heavy infantry (trained to fight in the Roman manner) and his Iberians (approximately 14,000 total) – he placed on his right.
The Roman consular armies of Porcius and Livius moved forward to attack the Carthaginians, but the limited frontage imposed by the terrain kept the Roman numerical advantage from having an immediate impact. On the Roman right, Nero was having trouble traversing a ravine opposite the shaky Gauls. If he moved against the exposed left flank of the Carthaginian center he, being unaware of the lack of commitment on the Gauls’ part, would in turn expose his own flank to a potential Gallic counterattack.
With the two armies fully engaged in the center, the Roman cavalry on the Left were able to drive off the small contingent of Numidians, thus exposing the Carthaginian right. (They appear to have avoided confrontation with the few elephants Hasdrubal had.) Nero, seeing the opportunity, took his best troops and countermarched across the field behind the Roman lines and around the heights to fall on the Carthaginian rear. The Carthaginian front line collapsed when their position was turned, and the traditional slaughter of the enemy began. The Carthaginians lost 10,000 men to the Roman 2,000. The Carthaginian losses would have been higher but the Romans let most of the Gauls flee back to their homes to spread the word that Rome was back in town. Hasdrubal, realizing that all was lost, rode, alone, into a Roman cohort to meet death in true Barcid fashion.
With the battle concluded, Nero immediately led his forces south to take up their old positions opposite Hannnibal’s army. Nero announced his victory by tossing Hasdrubal’s head into his brother’s camp. Shorn of any hope of reinforcement, Hannibal was soon called back to Carthage to defend the city from Scipio Africanus.
If Hasdrubal won and his army managed to link up with Hannibal they could conquer Rome itself and the roman empire would never have existed. Carthage would become a superpower in the mediteranean. Since the roman empire influenced the western civilization in countless ways it's impossible to imagine the world today if the romans lost the battle of Metaurus.
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Oops i just saw Ecofact message.
It was not really a minor raid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![]("smile.gif")
But Finland was part of the Svea Rike for many hundred years, but that is a completely different story.
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Of course he is wrong, let me see :
Soviets razed Berlin in May 45, that would have left almost 1 year to the allied to prepare another landing, should overlord have failed. Uurps, may be he was not so wrong.
Looking further to Hitler's general situation in june 44, he was in a fully desesperate situation, so I would say that the important decision was to send troops in europe. Which battle was lost or won was then of secondary importance, as Hitler's army was already being chopped to bits by the soviets.
I think this thread defined "decisive battle" as battles of unexpected results which changed the course of history.
Then I have to admit (I hate that!) that overlord cannot qualify as such. Oh well, may be the moron is just me ![]("biggrin.gif")
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