Tom Holland

And Hannibal, I mean, he's gutted.

Absolutely gutted he spent all this time there and now essentially he's got to recognize that it's been wasted so he boards the transport ships with his army and they head back to to Africa and they disembark at a place called Leptis Minor which is a port about 100 miles to the south of Carthage and

And he is aware that the peace negotiations are going on, so he doesn't want to interrupt them.

But equally, he wants to prepare for the worst.

I mean, suppose the peace negotiations break down.

And so he maintains his army and he drills it very hard all that summer.

And summer turns to autumn and autumn turns to winter.

By this point, the peace treaty has been ratified in Rome by the Senate, and it is sent back to Carthage, where the Carthaginian Senate have to ratify it themselves.

And at this point, faced with the prospect not just of losing the war, but of losing their status as the capital of a great empire, essentially accepting that from this point on, they're going to be a provincial second division power.

Lots of leading figures in the Carthaginian Senate get cold feet.

And they also know, of course, that they have Hannibal back on African soil, and Hannibal is the greatest general of his day.

If they're facing relegation, why not roll the dice and go for it one last time?

Absolutely.

And so as winter turns to spring and the 16th campaigning season of the war begins…

it becomes evident that the peace is not going to hold.

And this is massive for fans of great generals.

Because it's clear that Hannibal and Scipio, both of the men who have never in their entire careers lost a battle, the greatest commanders in the entire history of their respective cities,

that these two colossi are going to be going head to head after all.

You know, I mean, he has a serious force and it takes him all summer essentially to raise an army that he feels is large enough to take on Scipio and his legions.

And finally, with the coming of autumn, he's ready and at the head of his troops.