Before moving on to Lake Trasimene, we need to discuss the politics and structure of the Roman Army as it impacted military operations during this period. At the time of the second Punic War no consul was allowed to have more than two legions under his command, severely limiting the size of his army. Moreover, on those occasions where the consuls represented rival factions in the Senate, they refused to cooperate in a combined command structure and, instead, operated separately. The only option to overcoming this limitation was to invoke a dictatorship, but the Senate had not yet lost confidence in its commanders in the period after Trebbia.
You are viewing a single comment's thread from: