Hannibal's War: A Short Story

The year is 218 BC. There was a meeting today for the men in Rome, and we were told to gather our arms and prepare for war. Apparently, the Carthaginians ignored the council's ultimatum that they sent out, implying war is on the horizon (Nova Roma). Tomorrow I will head out to war, and must say goodbye to family, possibly for the last time.
Today we left Rome. We are heading towards the River Ticinus. We ran into a force of Hannibal's Carthaginian troops and they absolutely stomped on us. Although this was only a small skirmish, it really showed us that Hannibal is not a person to mess with. I lost my friend Tiben during that battle, this war is harder than I thought it would be, yet it has only just begun. It has been several weeks of marching

now, and I am so sore. We are low on food, and I can't imagine how it is back home, seeing that we took a vast amount of the food with us. We are coming up on the river Trebia soon, there we can rest. As we began setting up camp we were surrounded by what seemed like a million Carthaginian troops. All I could hear were the yells and screams of my comrades as they were being struck down. A small amount of our forces was able to make it out. This Hannibal guy is certainly no joke, we haven't lost battles like this in ages.
We have been losing more men then we can regain. Soon we will be out of reinforcements, and if it gets to that point, there is no way we can win this war. It has been a full year now, and not much has changed. We are spending most of our time marching around while we slowly get picked off by the Carthaginians or by sickness (History.com). The longer this war goes on the harder it will be for us to win. Our commander decided it would be best if we posted camp by this lake for a week or so to regroup and rest, while the commanders can attempt to strategize. We overstayed our welcome at the Trasimene lake and the Carthaginians found us. Commander Gaius Flaminius spent too much time thinking about what we could do to the Carthaginians, he forgot about what the Carthaginians could do to us. This battle lasted less time than the time it is taking me to write my journal entries. Another loss for us, less than 1,000 of us escaped.
This is the hardest thing I have ever gone through, mentally, and physically.

I have no clue when I am going to lose more of my friends, and I don't know what is happening at home. We have almost always been the more prepared army of all the wars we have been in, but this time it is different. We haven't had a single win in this war, and we had a much larger army in the beginning. This past year has been nothing but worrying and nervousness. I sit here hoping that our home is safe, and that our other armies are still alive. Nothing has occurred where I am stationed, but I heard rumors of one of our other armies had a successful attack. Apparently, they attacked an unexpecting enemy ship, and took them down. I don't know much about it, I just heard the commander talking about it, but either way, it wasn't a very large win. We are going to need a hundred of those to be successful before it is anything serious. In other news, I received a letter from my wife. She wrote me of how the kids are doing and everything that has happened the past year. She told me of this festival that they now do, and in this festival, masters serve and wait on their servants (Nova Roma). I am glad to hear things are going swell at home, because they certainly aren't

here.
It has been several months since I last wrote anything, and man has this been bad.

It was the Battle of Cannae, and it was the worst defeat I have ever witnessed. We had around 60,000 men, and Hannibal led a force of a mere 25,000 men. Before we could react, his men surrounded us yet again, and they cut through us like a hot sword cutting through butter. Within the hour, they cut through 50,000 men, and we only managed to take about 6,000 of theirs with us (Nova Roma). After this embarrassing loss, my commander retreated and strategized yet again, while Hannibal paraded through the streets slaughtering people to try and draw us out. It was so painful not being able to stop him, but there was nothing we could do. While we were regrouping, the island of Sardinia revolted, so we sent a small force to go claim the island, because they had corn which we were in desperate need of. Hannibal also sent a force to reclaim the island, but we got there first, and we caught them off guard, and wipe them

out.
After that battle, we built up forces for about a year before we had to make any moves. Out first move was to take over the city of Patavium, which was a success. After this, we began to siege Syracuse, which also ends in victory for us. Hannibal and his forces took over the city Tarentum, but we took over Capua. Several years go by, and not much happens that is worth noting. Most of the events that occur are just our army taking over cities, no big battles or anything. We finally sieged and captured Syracuse thanks to our commander Claudius Marcellus. Soon after the capture of this city, soldiers found and killed Archimedes. Our army is stretched thin, and Hannibal is smart with his movements, he took Capua from us easily. A few years after the loss of Capua, we sent an army to take back Tarentum, and it was a successful movement (Nova Roma).
The day that I never expected to see has finally come. Commander M. Claudius Marcellus has fallen, I just hope that his fall doesn’t cause the fall of Rome in this war. The commander’s replacement is a great leader. He leads us to battle against Hannibal’s brother, Hasdrubal Barca, and we wonthe Battle of Metaurus River. Over in Spain, our second army faced an army of 50,000 Carthaginians, and they pulled off a huge win. This ended up stopping the presence of Carthage in Spain. After our aid in the win for Spain, they joined us, so we annexed them and gained a huge advantage. Scipio led his forces to Africa, near Utica, but was met with an army of Carthaginians ready for him, with their allies, the Numidians. Eventually, Scipio shockingly defeated the forces and won the battle in the Bargradas valley (Nova Roma).
Finally, this is all over, and I am heading home. It took 16 years, and somehow, we pull it off and win this war. I will never forget the Battle of Zama. Our forces were about equal with around 40,000 men each. We pulled the same tactic that the Carthaginians did on us in the Battle of Cannae, we circled around them, and we began cutting them down one by one until they had no choice but the sue for peace (Nova Roma). In the process of this, we found and put an end to Hannibal as well, and nothing felt better than being able to put this sword up and know that we had won. Weeks later we arrived at home, and man were things different. I guess 16 years can take its toll on people and things. I returned home expecting to see my little kids and my beautiful wife, but when I returned I couldn’t recognize anyone. When I walked into my home, my wife came crying into my arms and she stood there holding me until the words poured out. I had lost my first-born son in the war, and I didn’t even know he was out fighting. Of all the injuries, I suffered during the war, nothing hurt more than finding out about my son.