So you could view this map as what the Mediterranean looked like in 238 BCE. Where you see now the Romans not only have control of the Italian peninsula, they've gained control over Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily. Now this is Roman power is only going to increase, but the Carthaginians, this proud empire, they're not done here. So in 218, the Carthaginian general Hannibal, the famous Hannibal, decides to attack the Romans. And he does it in an unconventional way. He attacks from the north. He takes his army, which includes elephants, through the Swiss Alps.