Why and how were the Romans able to recover from such devastating losses early in the Second Punic War while so many other nations of the time would collapse under such pressure?
There are plenty of examples of major nations essentially falling apart or capitulating around this time period (and well after) after losing a handful of major battles (the Persian empire against Alexander and the Macedonians against Rome come to mind along with Pontus under Mithridates).
All of the nations named above capitulated/fell apart after a small number of major defeats (even if they were mixed with some victories) while Rome endured several major defeats at the hands of Hannibal in Italy and Hasdrubal in Spain with no major victories to speak of. How did they do this and why were they able to continue resisting when so many other governments would've sued for peace/suffered a coup/disentigrated?
Posted Apr 26, 2017, 5:22 PM UTC · edited