Tom Holland

And their sang-froid is entirely justified because in due course, Hannibal abandons his camp.

He leaves Rome.

He's off roaming across Italy again.

The city has survived.

And what is more, his diversionary tactic doesn't prove successful because shortly after he's marched on Rome, Capua submits and he loses essentially what had been his capital.

Now, this doesn't really bring Rome any closer to ultimate success because Hannibal is still undefeated.

The Romans are still reluctant to meet him in battle.

And lots of other cities, lots of other peoples and regions do remain loyal to Hannibal.

And so the problem essentially for both sides now, Hannibal and the Romans, is that neither side really seems to have a route to defeating the other.

But I guess for the Romans, I mean, bearing in mind the scale of the disaster they had suffered at Cannae, I mean, a stalemate is a kind of victory for Rome.

Well, I mean, that's the obvious way for one or other of the competence to win.

Because if Hannibal can set himself at the head of an Italian league of cities and peoples and regions and so on that freezes out Rome, then, of course, ultimately the Romans will be forced to negotiate.

But conversely, if...

the Romans can deprive Hannibal of Italian backing, then it will deprive him of the bases and the supplies and above all the recruits that he will need to sustain his campaign in Italy.

So Italy remains the focus of their combat.

But there is an additional option as well, and that is to expand the war beyond Italy.

So obviously, Hannibal is sustained in his war against the Romans by the fact that Carthage has this empire in Spain with all its reserves of manpower, all its gold and silver and so on.

So the Romans are thinking, well, what if we grab that?

I mean, that's an obvious field for them.

But for the Carthaginians…