INTRODUCTION

By the summer of 212, with the defection of Thurii, Hannibal had secured the loyalty of the remaining cities of Magna Graecia; most of the communities in the Sallentine peninsula had also come over to the Carthaginians, as well as some southern Lucanian communities. Yet even as these new allies were acquired, his position was already crumbling in other regions of Italy. Rome began to reconquer important rebel cities as early as 214, and by the time Taras revolted Hannibal's situation in both Campania and Apulia was perilous. When Taras fell to the Romans in 209, all of the rebellious Campanian and Apulian cities had already been retaken. By 207 Hannibal was operating in an increasingly restricted territory, mostly limited to Bruttium. When the Romans defeated his brother, Hasdrubal, at the Metaurus River in that same year, the war in Italy was essentially over. It was only a matter of time, barring a military miracle, until the Romans drove Hannibal from Italy and captured and punished the few states that still held out.

This chapter examines the Roman reconquest of southern Italy, from the high-water mark of Hannibal's Italian campaign in 215 and 214, through the fall of the few remaining rebellious cities such as Locri and Thurii in 205 and 204, and Hannibal's retreat from Italy in 203. We will focus on the period before the battle of the Metaurus, when the Italian campaign, although having turned in Rome's favour, still hung in the balance.