The Second Punic War: The Year 214 BCE

Summary The new consuls are Quintus Fabius Maximus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, ‘the shield and sword of Rome’; Hannibal fails to capture Puteoli, Nola and Tarentum; The Romans recapture Casilinum and threaten Capua; Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus defeats the Carthaginian commander Hanno at the Battle of the river Calor near Beneventum;…

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The Second Punic War: The Year 213 BCE

Summary The Romans recapture Arpi in Apulia; Hannibal fails to achieve anything significant in Italy; The proconsul Marcus Claudius Marcellus attacks Syracuse in a combined land and naval assault; With the aid of the mathematician and engineer Archimedes, the Syracusans repel the attack; The Romans keep Syracuse under siege while…

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The Second Punic War: The Year 212 BCE

Summary Young Publius Cornelius Scipio is elected curule aedile; Publius Licinius Crassus becomes the new pontifex maximus; The praetor urbanus suppresses foreign religious cults; Trial of the publicanus Marcus Postumius from Pyrgi for deceiving the State; Tarentum is betrayed to Hannibal, but the Romans cling on to the citadel and…

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