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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Battle of the Metaurus: The Turning Point of the Second Punic War

The Battle of the Metaurus: The Turning Point of the Second Punic War

Whitaker, Jack

Paperback

Series: Forgotten Battles

Ancient RomeGeneral Military HistoryMilitary Strategy

ISBN13: 9798252204857
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Mar 27 2026
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.38
Height: 0.31 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
In The Battle of the Metaurus: The Turning Point of the Second Punic War, Jack Whitaker tells the gripping story of the campaign that quietly saved the Roman Republic at one of the most dangerous moments in its history. In 207 BC, as Hannibal continued his long war in southern Italy, his brother Hasdrubal Barca marched south from Gaul after crossing the Alps with a new Carthaginian army. If the two brothers joined forces, Rome might face the same kind of disaster that had already shattered its legions at Cannae.

Racing against time across the length of the Italian peninsula, Roman commanders Marcus Livius Salinator and Gaius Claudius Nero moved to intercept the advancing army before it could unite with Hannibal. Their pursuit ended along the banks of the River Metaurus in central Italy, where the Roman legions met Hasdrubal's forces in a brutal clash that would decide the fate of the war in Italy.

Drawing on the ancient narrative of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita and the geography of the Adriatic valleys where the campaign unfolded, Whitaker reconstructs the desperate marches, intercepted messages, and hard fighting that culminated in one of the most decisive victories in Roman history. From the tense maneuvering before the battle to the moment when the Carthaginian line collapsed and Hasdrubal fell among his soldiers, he brings to life a struggle that turned the strategic tide of the Second Punic War.

More than a dramatic account of a single battlefield, this book explores the wider stakes of the campaign. The destruction of Hasdrubal's army ended any chance of a united Carthaginian offensive in Italy and gave Rome the breathing space it needed to carry the war beyond its shores. Within a few years, Roman armies would carry the conflict to Africa itself, setting the stage for the final confrontation at Zama.

This is the story of the moment when Rome stopped fighting for survival and began to fight for victory.

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