Battle of Capua (211 BC)

Second Battle of Capua

Date	211 BC
Location	Capua, present Italy
Result	capture of Capua by the Romans

Belligerents

Carthage, Capua

Roman Republic

Commanders and leaders

Hannibal, Bostar, Hanno, son of Bomilcar

Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, Appius Claudius Pulcher

Second Punic War

Prelude

Hannibal's invasion of Italy

Roman expeditions to Iberia

Campaigns in Sicily and the western Mediterranean

Roman invasion of Northeast Africa

Naval battles

The Second Battle of Capua was fought in 211 BC, when the Romans besieged Capua. It is described by Polybius at 9.4-7, and by Livy at 26.4-6.

Capua had defected to Hannibal after the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. Hannibal had made Capua his winter quarter in 215 BC and had conducted his campaigns against Nola and Casilinum from there. The Romans had attempted to march on Capua several times since its defection but were thwarted by the return of Hannibal's army rushing to its defence; the latest attempt had cost them some 16,000 men at the Battle of Herdonia in 212 BC. By 211 BC, Hannibal was busy in the south of Italia and the Romans were ready to try again, banking on taking it before Hannibal's army could return to Capua.

Hannibal feared that if he approached Capua, the Romans would simply withdraw, as they had done on other occasions, only to return to lay siege again once he had left. He thus tried to break the siege by marching on Rome itself, hoping that that threat would force the Roman army to break off the siege and march back to Rome to defend it. Once the Roman army was in the open, he would then turn to engage it in a pitched battle and defeat them once again, freeing Capua from the threat. However, Hannibal found the defences of Rome too formidable for an assault and as he had only planned this movement as a feint, he lacked both the supplies and equipment for a siege. The Roman besiegers of Capua, knowing this, ignored his march on Rome and refused to break off their siege. His feint having failed, Hannibal was forced to retreat south and Capua unrelieved fell to the Romans shortly afterwards.

References

Polybius - The Rise of the Roman Empire, pp 387-394

Punic Wars

First Punic War	Messana Agrigentum Lipari Islands Mylae Sulci Tyndaris Cape Ecnomus Aspis Adys Tunis Cape Hermaeum Panormus 1st Drepana 1st Lilybaeum 2nd Drepana Mount Ercte 1st Mt. Eryx 2nd Mt. Eryx Aegates/Egadi Islands

Mercenary War	Utica Bagradas River Hamilcar's victory with Naravas Carthage "The Saw" Tunis

Second Punic War	Saguntum Crossing of the Alps Lilybaeum Rhone Ticinus Trebia Cissa Lake Trasimene Ebro River Ager Falernus Geronium Cannae 1st Nola Dertosa 2nd Nola Cornus 3rd Nola 1st Beneventum Syracuse 1st Tarentum 1st Capua 2nd Beneventum Silarus 1st Herdonia Upper Baetis 2nd Capua 2nd Herdonia Numistro Asculum 2nd Tarentum Baecula Grumentum Metaurus New Carthage Ilipa Guadalquivir Carteia Crotona Utica Great Plains Cirta Po Valley Zama

Third Punic War	Lake Tunis 1st Nepheris Port of Carthage 2nd Nepheris Carthage

Military history

Coordinates: 41°05′00″N 14°15′00″E / 41.0833°N 14.2500°E / 41.0833; 14.2500

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