{"id":109633,"date":"2026-07-29T18:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/109633\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T18:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:17:15","slug":"we-may-finally-know-how-hannibal-got-his-elephants-across-the-alps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/109633\/","title":{"rendered":"We may finally know how Hannibal got his elephants across the Alps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists claim to have found the most likely route for Hannibal\u2019s crossing of the Alps \u2013 with his elephants \u2013 according to a new study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The paper by Dr Emilio Berti<\/a> of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, and Prof Fritz Vollrath<\/a> of the University of Oxford makes the case that the Carthaginian warlord used the Col de la Traversette pass to enter Italy with his army.<\/p>\n

This valley, which snakes through modern-day France and Italy, would have been the shortest available to the army \u2013 and therefore the one most likely to preserve Hannibal\u2019s contingent of 37 African war elephants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question of Hannibal\u2019s exact route has been debated for generations,\u201d said Berti. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new analysis does not eliminate all ambiguity, but it does strengthen the case for the Traversette route by demonstrating that it would better accommodate the demands of moving a large army that included elephants through extremely difficult alpine terrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formerly the governor of the Carthaginian Empire\u2019s territories in the Iberian Peninsula, Hannibal invaded Roman territory in Italy via the Alps in 218 BC during the Second Punic War.<\/p>\n

Often praised by ancient and modern historians as an example of military daring \u2013 even though half his army<\/a> died during his crossing of the mountain range \u2013 the general\u2019s precise route has been lost to history. Many have believed it was the Col du Clapier crossing but Vollrath and Berti think otherwise.<\/p>\n

In their paper, Vollrath and Berti say the length of\u00a0Col de la Traversette makes it the most likely option for Hannibal to take, as it would have preserved more of the energy of his men and elephants.<\/p>\n

\"ElephantsHannibal had to cross the Rhone River with his elephants before he reached the Alps – Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

To investigate their hypothesis, Vollrath and Berti modelled the energy expenditure of Hannibal\u2019s army across different routes. <\/p>\n

They found that the total energy cost for the assembly would have been 5.42 terajoules for the Traversette, clearly superior to other passes like the Col de Montgen\u00e8vre, which the army could have crossed for 6.02 terajoules, and the Col du Mont Cenis, at 6.45 terajoules.<\/p>\n

In the event, most of Hannibal\u2019s elephants survived the crossing \u2013 more evidence, perhaps, supporting Vollrath and Berti\u2019s argument. However, historian Richard Miles remains unconvinced that geographic distance was the only determinant behind Hannibal\u2019s choice of alpine pass.<\/p>\n

Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Queen\u2019s University Belfast and author of the book Carthage Must Be Destroyed, Miles says that while \u201cit is logical that [Hannibal] would try and take the easiest path he could\u201d, the definition of \u2018easy\u2019 was also influenced by the advice of local guides.<\/p>\n

These guides could not or would not have necessarily given him accurate information on what lay ahead, or how many hostile Celtic tribes he might have to fight before he reached Italy.<\/p>\n

For Miles, the contention that the most logical path for Hannibal\u2019s army was the shortest is “predicated on this idea that he\u2019s got some sort of modern-like knowledge. That seems a bit anachronistic to me.”<\/p>\n

With little archaeological evidence, all we do know is that Hannibal did eventually make his way to Italy. His elephants spent many weeks resting after the 15-day journey across the Alps before succumbing to the Battle of Trebia and the harsh winter that struck the Po Valley in northern Italy later that year.<\/p>\n

The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists claim to have found the most likely route for Hannibal\u2019s crossing of the Alps \u2013 with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-109633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-alps"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117004641592725852","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}