Professor Josephine Quinn

And he also hears that Rome is diverting troops to Spain at this point.

So he thinks they're not taking him seriously.

And he basically chickens out.

But I mean, that's quite important to Romans to make him seem like a really superstitious kind of scared person.

Exactly.

This is Livy's version of the story.

But actually, I think a much more likely way of telling the story is that he never intended to actually conquer Rome.

It's a much too big a job.

And also, there's no real profit to Carthage in acquiring Rome or destroying it.

I think the strategy behind his whole campaign is to reduce Roman power in Italy and then in the Mediterranean more generally, basically to put Rome back in its box.

I mean, what the really bad piece of luck for Hannibal is that on the very day that he arrives at Rome, unbeknownst to him, the Romans have actually called a muster of soldiers in the city because they're recruiting some new legions.

So actually, Rome is full of soldiers.

He got there on the parade day.

He got there on the parade day.

Yeah.

Four years, exactly, yeah.

What goes on in this period is that Scipio, Scipio the son... Oh, the good one.

Yeah, yeah.

He gets elected commander in Spain and he captures... So the Romans start to make real progress in Spain.

So basically the bar kids lose control of Iberia.