Reinforcements
from Carthage were few. In 213 Casilinum and Arpi (captured by Hannibal in winter
216-215) were recovered by the Romans. However Hannibal succeeded in taking
Tarentum - except for the citadel.Reinforcements
from Carthage were few. In 213 Casilinum and Arpi (captured by Hannibal in winter
216-215) were recovered by the Romans. However Hannibal succeeded in taking
Tarentum - except for the citadel.
Tarentum (Taras, Taranto), garrisoned by Rome, had repelled two attacks by Hannibal. Rome executed five young Tarentine noblemen who had been held as hostages in Rome in 212 BC. This angered other young Tarentine noblemen, 13 of them, lead by Philemenus disguised as hunters walked into Hannibal's camp to make a deal with Hannibal. After several meetings it was decided that Philemenus' group would give the city over to Hannibal. He in turn would neither harm nor loot the person or property of any Tarentine citizen but would be allowed to murder and plunder any and all Roman citizens living in the city. For several weeks before the attack the conspirators would go out hunting at night, they would always return with game, some taken themselves, some given to them by Hannibal. On their return to the city they became so familiar with the Roman guards that all they had to do was whistle for the gates to be opened. The hunters (conspirators) would always share some of the game with the Roman guards.
On the night that Hannibal took the city the Roman commander Marcus Livius held a banquet and got very drunk and two of the conspirators walked him home safely. Eighty Numidian horsemen captured farmers who lived outside the city so that they could not warn the Roman garrison of the coming of Hannibal. When Hannibal approached the city, one of the other chief conspirators named Nikon murdered the guards at the Temenidian gate and opened it to Hannibal. Other conspirators, bearing an immense wild boar on a litter whistled and the guard as usual opened the gates allowing the hunters and their Carthaginians confederates to enter the city from a second place. Livius the Roman commander was awakened and managed to escape the city, but true to his word Hannibal murdered almost all the Roman citizens and touched no Tarentine person at all.
Hannibal held the city for three years. But once more treachery turned the course of history, and in 209 Tarentum was again betrayed from within and sacked by a Roman army.
Coinage | Some of this text from: www.harlanjberk.com/departments/articles/hjb_artc/hannibal.htm
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