640. Rome’s Greatest Enemy: Carthage at the Gates (Part 1)

On the battlefield of Canaai, the victorious Hannibal was surrounded by his officers. They were all congratulating him and urging him to take things easy for the rest of the day and the night, and to allow his exhausted troops to do the same. But Mahabal, his captain of horse, had a very different take on the situation. for he was convinced that not a moment was to be lost. My lord, he declared, if you wish to understand properly what you have secured with this victory, then let me tell you that within five days you will be feasting in triumph on the capital in Rome.

I will go ahead with my horsemen. The first the Romans will know of the fate about to overwhelm them will be the sight of our cavalry at the gates of their city. All you have to do is to follow where we lead. But to Hannibal, this seemed altogether too optimistic, too ambitious a plan. While I commend your spirit, he said to Mahabal, I need time to evaluate what you are suggesting.

To which Mahabal retorted, Gifts are never lavished by the gods in their entirety on a single man. You know, Hannibal how to win a battle, but you do not know how to use your victory. So, a very celebrated moment in ancient history. This is the aftermath of the most notorious, the most shattering defeat ever suffered by a Roman army, and this is being reported two centuries later by the historian Livy. So to give people a little bit of context.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (62 minutes, 10,913 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 10 episodes for $5, and monthly plans are cheaper still.