Tom Holland

But I think with the Romans, if you have their hatred and their fear, they are paying you a kind of compliment.

They know the man they are facing.

I mean, they know that they are facing one of the greatest generals of all time.

Now, that said, by 204 BC, Hannibal's fortunes, this guy who at one point had seemed on the verge of destroying Roman power for good, his fortunes are much, much diminished.

So, by 204 BC...

He's been in Italy for 14 years.

And that is four times the length of the First World War.

So that gives you some sense of what an ordeal this has been.

It's been a marathon, not a sprint.

It really has.

And the problem for Hannibal is that

As we heard in the previous episode, the Romans have conquered Spain, which was essentially the place where he was relying on for reinforcements and for supplies and for money and all kinds of things.

So that's terrible.

His allies in Italy have fallen away, and he is now essentially cornered in Brutium, which is the heel of Italy.

But even now, the Romans...

are incredibly reluctant to engage him in battle.

They just think, if we go and fight him, he will defeat us.

That is the kind of hoodoo that he has over them.

And so their plan now is to just bypass him altogether.

And they're going to do this by invading Africa.