So when the small Spanish town of Saguntum asked Rome for a treaty promising help against the Carthaginians in two twenty one, the Romans were happy to oblige.

The Romans knew that Carthage would eventually attack Saguntum

and that they would have to defend Saguntum,

and that a second Punic War would result.

Again, the the Ius Fetiales, or Fetial law, would be satisfied

because the Carthaginians would have started the war, which meant, in turn, that the Romans would win.

The Romans had no idea what they were in for.

In two eighteen BC Hannibal's forces took Saguntum.

The Romans demanded that

the Carthaginians withdraw from the city

and that they send Hannibal to Rome to be punished.

Carthage would not give Saguntum back,

but Hannibal did indeed obediently head for Rome with a little bit of company, his army.

In September two eighteen Hannibal

and his army crossed the Alps into northern Italy.

The series of smashing victories which followed, won thousands of Gauls to Hannibal's side.

Encouraged by his diplomatic success,

Hannibal won over other dissatisfied Roman allies

and subject peoples. Proof that the Romans still had a lot to learn about running an empire.

The desperate Romans elected

Quintus Fabius Maximus for dictator for six months

in two seventeen BC, but Fabius considered himself too weak to do anything

but track Hannibal, earning himself the title Cunctator,

or delayer. The elected consuls of two sixteen BC were ashamed, they took a more aggressive tack.

They led a force of eighty thousand Romans against Hannibal at Cannae,

and Hannibal destroyed this army

in what was Rome's single greatest defeat of all time.

Suddenly, Fabius's delaying tactics looked a lot more sensible.

As Hannibal worked his way south into Italy, even more Roman allies rushed to his side, as did the Samnites and much of Sicily.

Hannibal was literally at the doors of Rome.

But he did not have the manpower

and logistical support to finish the Romans off.

Yet the Romans also strangely lacked the strength

and the willpower to kick Hannibal out of Italy

for good. Hannibal raided, the Romans retreated; Hannibal

Hannibal plundered, the Romans regrouped, and so on.

The defections of Roman allies died out

when it became clear that neither Rome or Carthage wasactually winning.

This was, I suppose, a minor victory for Rome,

but not really a solution. To complicate matters,

one of the Eastern Mediterranean powers jumped on Rome while Rome was down.

Philip the Fifth of Macedon, who controlled most of mainland Greece,

allied himself with Carthage

and began hostilities with Rome in 215 BC.