Hannibal's Mercenaries - A Question of Supply

[Hu Rhu]

My pal and I are about to embark on a 2nd Punic War campaign and we were discussing the various army compositions and how the recruiting process would work.  The Romans and their allies are fairly easy to sort out but the Cathaginians were a little more difficult.

One thing that puzzled us was almost every book we had read suggests that Hannibal's army in Italy was made up of a mix of Mercenaries and Allies.  We were puzzling over how such a force was was supplied and paid, given that the army was in Italy for over 10 years.  Mercenaries in particular require constant payment or they tend to find employment elsewhere. Even Allied contingents get weary of constant fighting. Both would need replacements after the battles and when disease struck the army, which it inevitably would.

We could understand that Hannibal gained a fair amount of money from the defeated Roman Armies but this supply would have generally dried up after Cannae.  They could rely on the southern portion of Italy for food and lodgings when required but manpower and constant gold for the mercenaries would have been a drain on his resources.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how these problems were overcome?  

[rumacara]

An excelent subject to discuss.

My humble opinions and from the little i´ve read:

Indeed Hannibal gained vast profits with the defeat and looting of the roman armies and the vast areas he passed so that would solve the payment problem for a while but not in the 10 years or more of the war.
Carthage being a commercial estate was rich enough to support payment of a certain amount of mercenaries for a while too.
You also have the following point wich i think is relevant to answer (not totally but on a fair amount) something that, most allies of Carthage where also fighting the romans so maybe they wouldnt need payment (Gauls, celtiberians, etc) but they would need to be supplied both with food, shelters and new warriors.

My gess is that the amount of mercenaries fighting with Hannibal was not so great as the sources sugest and the bulk of the army was indeed carthaginian or else as you state Hannibal would face those problems.

[commissarmoody]

If I remember correctly his brother did arrive with reinforcements from Northern Africa. But we also let down by the leaders of Carthage who were not to hot on the idea of fighting Rome in the first place.  So they withheld or just didn't give him full support. 
But as been pointed out, Rome was fighting all over in Iberia,  Macedonia,  Greece,  North Africa..So pretty much every where, so his pull of people who had a bone to pick with Rome was extensive.

[Gibby]

If I remember correctly his brother did arrive with reinforcements from Northern Africa. But we also let down by the leaders of Carthage who were not to hot on the idea of fighting Rome in the first place.  So they withheld or just didn't give him full support.

I read they were pretty happy at the start after the way Rome treated them and their disregard of the peace treaty from Punic War 1, but enemies of the Barcid family didn't much like the glory they were hogging.

[Hu Rhu]

Getting an army together to fight in the first place is one thing but holding it together for over 10 years in another country is another thing entirely.  I looked at how Hannibal would generate the money required. 

Some he would get from Carthage but given the Roman naval superiority and the threat of piracy there was a good chance that this re-supply would not get through, at least not on a regular basis.  He could call on assistance from Macedon (who were fighting against the Romans over the same time period) but again there was no guarantee that this would be forthcoming.  He could levy tithes against the southern italian cities but he wanted their support and whilst they were reasonably happy to provide supplies and forage I doubt that they could afford to pay his mercenries as well.

There is an assumption that he gained a large amount of booty from his three major battles (Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae) but other than equipping his troops with captured roman gear, he would have to sell the rest to generate any money.  Who would he sell it to?  Some might go to Capua, Bruttium, Tarantium etc but they hardly needed them and again were unlikley to be able to generate a lot of money. There were no arms dealers in those days although some could be sold to pirates.

In regard to replenishing his men this is even more difficut.  He could of course recruit some southern italain allies from the aforementioned city states but most of his army was made up of Spanish, Ligurian and other Gauls, Libyans, Numidians and Cathaginians.   All replacements & recruits for these contingents would have to pass through Roman or Italian League controlled areas or across the Mediteranean with the chance of interception.

In one incident his subordinate Hanno was able to raise troops in Samnium, but the Romans intercepted these new levies at Beneventum (214 BC) and eliminated them before they reached Hannibal. 

An attempt by Hasdrubal to bring reinforcements including Spanish, Carthaginians and Ligurians was defeated by Nero at the battle of Metaurus (207 BC) and his troops scattered.

In 205, Mago landed in Genua (modern Genoa?) by sea, the remnants of his Spanish army receiving Gallic and Ligurian reinforcements. The army marched into the lands of the Boii and Insubres, Carthage's main Gallic allies but was checked in the Po Valley (BC 203) by a roman army, preventing it reinforcing Hannibal. 

All in all it seems a minor miracle for Hannibal to mainatin an army in a foreign land for so long and never have been defeated either in battle or by lack of manpower.

[has.been]

Long time since I studied the period, but I do remember some bits:-
one book equated Hanibal's task to a 'what if' Rommel had landed in Scotland in WW2 with a Panzer Division & kept the fight up for 10 years;
After Cannae he sent several sacks full of gold rings (taken from the Equites class) & at a dramatic moment during a debate about supporting him they were emptied onto the floor of the Carthaginian Senet. After a stunned silence one of the enemies of the Barca family said, 'Well if he can afford to give away all this gold he does not need any more from us'.

As another note, Alexander's  army changed a lot over his campaigns.

[rumacara]

Hu Rhu, there´s some points that might elucidate your own questions with your own answers.
Picking the examples of reinforcements being checked by a roman army might mean that the main army of Hannibal was "left in peace" by the romans while they where stoping the reinforcements so during those periods of time Hannibal was abble to keep is army intact.
Of course we are speaking of short periods of time (months perhaps) and not the 10 years period of war.

You have to take in account that it took time to raise an army even for the romans to substitute their losses and they are known to have several ones in the field at the same time, originating logistic and money problems to rome also. That gives time to Hannibal.

About arms dealers since warfare time there are always arms dealers either in short quantities or vast quantities.

[Monophthalmus]

Hi Rhu,

It's a really interesting topic you raise, and not one that can be easily answered. My own view is that the army may well not have been paid - Carthage had past form of not paying it's mercenaries; indeed this led to a protracted conflict with those that had survived the First Punic War, only to find their employer reneging on back pay! Maybe Hannibal had promised to pay them handsomely when Rome was subdued and and the campaign finished (after all, the mercenary war was over pay due, so the troops hadn't been paid prior to the war coming to an end). With the campaign stretching on for so long, many troops would have died and the bill naturally reduce. More and more of the original mercenaries would have been replaced by local Bruttians, Lucanians and Campainians, and maybe they volunteered from hatred of Rome rather than for monetary gain.

Those needing payment would have been the Liby-Phoeonicians (maybe? unless the troops supplied were part of the subject relationship between the Libyans and Carthage) and the Spanish (again, maybe serving more from loyalty to the Barcid clan than for cash??) And maybe enough got through, topped up with locally acquired booty to keep the rest happy and loyal. In the end we'll never know, but it didn't seem to be a major problem sufficient for the sources to comment!!

Cheers
Greg

[Gracchus Armisurplus]

I daresay that the mercenaries were expected to be paid after the job was done, rather than on a weekly or monthly basis. It's possible that they were paid a regular stipend during the campaign, but more likely they got any spending money they needed by looting after as they moved around roman territories.

[Steel fist]

I would say plunder of kept most of them happy' and I'm sure Hannibal took a lot of money and women ect from Roman towns, and a share of that would have kept the mercenary minded warriors happy, there would have been a lot to plunder in a rich country like italy.
Although I'm no expert on his policies.