It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host and in today's podcast

we are talking about the run up to one of the most famous winter battles of antiquity.

We don't normally associate clashes in ancient history with the winter. Usually they occur

in the spring, summer and autumn. But there was an exception in late 218 BC in northern

Italy. Then Hannibal Barker and his African, Spanish and Gallic force faced off against

a Roman consular army led by Sampronius Longus. It was called the Battle of the River Trebia,

one of the first of Hannibal's great victories against the Romans. Now this is the first

for two part episode discussing the run up to and the battle of the river Trebia itself.

And in this first podcast we are covering the run up to that battle. We're covering

the background to the clash the 218 BC campaign. From the outbreak of hostilities between Roman

Carthage, the outbreak of the Second Punic War to Hannibal's marching of his army from Spain

across the Pyrenees, across southern France and of course culminating in one of the greatest

adventure stories from ancient history. Hannibal Barker's crossing of the Alps in the winter

of 218 BC. For this two part special podcast, I was delighted to be joined by Dr. Louis

Rawlings from the University of Cardiff. Louis is one of the leading experts on ancient

Carthage and the ancient Carthaginian military. So it was great to get in on the show this

Hannibal expert to talk about the 218 BC campaign and Hannibal's famous crossing of the Alps.

Not two will be out in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, here's Louis.

Louis, thank you so much for joining me today. Well thank you for having me. It's a real

pleasure to hear. Now not at all, and we're talking about the

Bastard of the River Trebia and this is an extraordinary clash because we normally associate

battles in the ancient Mediterranean with either the spring, the summer or the autumn. But

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