The Battle of Lake Trasimene (217 B.C.E.) 

""Hannibal was tapdancing across Italy, setting fire to everything." Subscribed.

By watching these videos, it makes me question how Rome became an empire in the first place

Hannibal was the Bogeyman of an entire Roman generation.

"You see the Romans hated scouting. They thought it was kind of boring" ..... O_O ..... O_o .... I just... what the... seriously?

"The current consuls are idiots! Vote for me!" /gets elected/ /proceeds to march an army single file along a narrow path without sending scouts/

I live in a city in Tuscany, central Italy, called Arezzo. At that time the region was called Etruria and the city was called Arretium and it was the place where the four legions of Gaius Phlaminius were based just before the battle. Some day in June 217 b.C. these legions departed from here and marched on the road along the Chiana valley for a few dozens miles, they passed the etruscan city of Cortona and shortly after they turned left and moved towards Perusia along the northern shore of lake Trasimeno, where they were ambushed. I've travelled the same road many times...

Every time I drive along that road, I remind this battle. Gosh, Hannibal was a genius.

Given the victories of Hannibal it is amzing how strong Rome was. Coming back again and again despite terrbile losses. For sure Rome was loads stronger than Carthege to begin with....

1 Roman survivor downvoted this

These battle videos are perfect, I would love to see more. Dropped a big fat like for you my man

Would love to see more of these battle breakdown videos from other famous commanders like Napoleon, Belisarius or admiral Yi :)

Great videos. I've watched them all and thoroughly enjoyed every one.

Man i Wish i had found your channel earlier. As a larp commander, i absolutely love this. Please keep up your work, man, these videos are amazinhg. Cheers from brazil!

cheers!lookin forward to see the next one

Thank you for making these

Please do more battles...these videos are so well done!

Thanks for all the work you do. I love your vids.

great video i had never heard of this battle before

Another excellent video!

Love these videos! Keep it up!

these are really good, make more plz.

man o' man I love your videos!

Hey you missed an opportunity to do the Battle of Waterloo on the 200 year anniversary. Maybe in the future?

God I love this channel. I could watch your videos all day, your mic could be made of plastic for all I care.

Love the videos!

thanks for the video

Please keep making these

I liked the old music, it sounded more intense.

the piano inn the background is so fitting

This is great!

I was very happy to see this in my inbox, loving your calm explanation and graphical representation of these events. Way better than reading about it on Wikipedia! I'd love to see a video on the Battle of Carrhae. By the way, is it possible to make a one-time donation in stead of a monthly one?

I love your description of "the main Carthaginian force started advancing silently down the hill." I can imagine the Carthaginians taking their time nonchalantly XD

ahhahaha omg I love you... please continue posting, it's so interesting :(

These videos are great. Could you include a size scale possible? Somewhere in the corner signifying 100m or something.

The Battle of Kursk and Operation Bagration on the Soviet side (especially Bagration) were basically massive human wave ambushes. Stalingrad kinda too, but not the same; but Bagration saw tanks crossing the "impenatrable" Belorussian swamps through some ingenious stuff.

Why yas I am like you! you answer all the good questions, you're videos rock

Sounds like you had more fun making this one

Dude, your vids are interesting as fuck, keep doin your thang.

what was the scalp helmet council's name?

🎶Trasimene, Trasimene, Ooh-la-laaa🎶

i like how u called the gods noexistent

While the battle of Cannae is very famous(and deservedly so) I don't know if it's the most famous battle in human history. It is certainly one of the most famous, but I think people are more likely to have heard of the battle of Waterloo, the battle of Stalingrad, or the battle of Normandy. Perhaps my definition of most famous is different than yours. My definition of most famous is: the thing within the subject category that the largest number of people are familiar with. Please tell me if our definitions are different, and if that's why our opinions differ.

Canae probably is the most ingenious battle in the western world but i doubt that is the most famous. Anyways I appreciate and like your illustrated strategy videos and I thank you.

Check out the Tet offensive in the Vietnam War. That was pretty damn big.

Loving this channel, what happened to the Roman prisoners?

You know at first I was put off by your minimalist display but I am so damn intrigued by the information that, after watching everything you have made, it seems like a petty complaint! Can't wait for the next video! Also would you consider doing reviews of battles from Chinese conflicts or the American Civil War?

I think Battle of Podu Înalt/Vaslui was a bigger ambush by far, at least in numbers but also in complexity. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vaslui

What program do you use to make the battle maps? Is it just an image editing program, or something else?

MOAR battles

it's sad that this account is dead. :(

may I ask what book you are reading for all of this? Sounds interesting

Battle Of Zama Please !!

Surprising how many bad habits the Romans seem to have had. Any other Empire whose army was too lazy for scouting probably wouldn't have existed for 50 years, let alone a millennium.

I think. An ambush is a unexpectet atack. planned by one side. With little to no warning to the enemy. The ambush is sucessfull when the enemy is hit quick enough to not be able to prepare. A failed ambush is discoverted or is to slow to it the enemy before they can set up a defence. the perfect ambush would crush the enemy with little to no resistance. But most Ambushes still gave the enemy the time to form up a defence. Mostly after the first engagement when everything was in chaos and someone rallied their troops to set up an effective defence.

Love your videos! Total War here I come...

1:02 You didn't even mention the war elephants. -.-

do you know what did they do with captured romans?

after trasimene the gauls had his NUMBER

Can someone explain to me what would happen to prisoners in ancient times?

so in all battle, a portion of the Roman army dont know what they are doing and is with out command?

So some people say that the Romans rushed into this ambush because they had realized Hannibal had slipped past their defenses and was worried about the security of rome is that true?

The Roman historian Livy observed, " The place was perfect for an ambuscade, where Lake Trasimenus comes closest to the mountains of Cortona". Methinks the popularly elected Roman Consuls were often amateur generals, leading a superb professional army of disciplined legionaries. No match at all for arguably the greatest military genius in history.... HANNIBAL!

I lol'ed at 00:52

"Non-existent gods" but then "and God knows what they did with him" :/

I just wonder how accurate the info in these video is? What is his source? How can we know a thousand year old event in such detail?

it's wrong to say romans hated scouting Rome wasen't burned by hannibal because of scouting and because of their spies network who were able to intercept the messages between Hannibal and his borther who took the last remaining forces in iberia to come help him siege Roma

What is an ambush? You didn't explain.

that's somehow not unsimiliar to the battle at teutoburgerwald... water on one side and tree+hills on the other is somehow a romans nightmare

Isnt Stalingrad more famous than Cannae?

Is the non existent gods thing that contreversial? The Romans, Carthiginians, Iberians, and Celts of this period all followed religions that are pretty much extinct at this point. None of them were followers of any current major world religion.

BEETHOVEN!!

how can you simply say the battle of cannae was the most famous battle in human history?

most famous battle in human history it was very famous and might have been one of but i mean most? ehh....

Romans hated scouting and just went to fight like "fuck it". I sure would have been a roman

Dat fail...

you make good videos but can you dance

it wasnt like that, hanibal have a camp romans thought that they have him so atack the cam not known that the camp was intentionly put there the whole army atack the camp at the midle of the battle the carthage turn around and flee romans thought that they won and give the chase not known that this flee was part of the plan

''non existent gods'' Im not religious, but you should keep on point and leave out personal feelings about those stuff to your self or on other videos. These educational videos should be informative, not bashing on other people. Just my 2 cents tho :P it's your channel.

"non existing gods" "god knows what they did to him" nice hating

Battle of Red Cliffs was the biggest ambush in history...

1 thing bugs me. The Invasion of Normandy could be counted as an ambush because the Germans thought that there wasn't going to be an invasion that day, or for the following weeks. They where very surprised when the Allies showed up to the point that, the commanding officer, Rommel, WASN'T EVEN THERE! (He was back in Germany, celebrating his wife's birthday) However, that is just nitpicking at wording, and you could certainly argue Normandy was not an ambush, but, in my opinion, I would say it was.

Vietnam war

The "non-existent gods" and "disgusting helmet" comments were completely unnecessary.

it's sad that this account is dead. :(