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ArtistAncient battle scene in Tuscany in June, 217 BC during the Second Punic War. General Hannibal Barca wearing black armor with a steel helmet with horsehair plume and purple cape is on horseback leading a surprise attack of Carthaginian and Numidian cavalrymen down a foggy and heavily wooded hillside at the edge of large lake. At the bottom of the hill Hannibal's army smashes into a line of legionaries of the Roman Republic marching along the narrow strip of flat land between base of the hill and the lake. Some Roman soldiers turn to fight and are being cut down or speared by the enemy while others are running away into the lake and drowning. Roman standards and legionary crests fall to the ground. Oil on canvas painted in the high Venetian Renaissance style of Titian and Tintoretto. Dramatic facial expressions. Tones of umber, ochre, charcoal.
Depiction of Hannibal's second great victory following his crossing of the Alps during the Second Punic War. Hannibal's army goaded the forces of Gaius Flaminius into a trap through a campaign of burning and pillaging in Tuscany. Pursuing Hannibal, Flaminius led his army down the road skirting the edge of Lake Trasimene--essentially a winding, narrow strip of flat ground between the lake and the base of a ride of steep, heavily wooded hills. Hannibal, anticipating Flaminius' line of march, hid his forces in the hills and waited until the Romans were halfway through the defile. At dawn the Carthaginians attacked, charging out of the fog on the hillside like an avalanche. The Romans were caught completely by surprise and hopelessly outflanked. Those who fought, were cut down with ease. Those who tried to flee had only one way to go--into the lake, where they either drowned or were dispatched. Flaminius' entire force of 25,000 were virtually wiped out, including the consul, himself.
