Battle of Herdonia (210 BC) Battle of Herdonia (210 BC) The second battle of Herdonia took place in 210 BC during the Second Punic War. Hannibal, leader of the Carthaginians, who had invaded Italy eight years earlier, encircled and destroyed a Roman army which was operating against his allies in Apulia. The heavy defeat increased the war’s burden on Rome and, piled on previous military disasters (such as Lake Trasimene, Cannae and others), aggravated the relations with her exhausted Italian allies. For Hannibal the battle was a tactical success, but did not halt for long the Roman advance. Within the next three years the Romans
Gelo, son of Hiero II title of king. Livy asserts that, after the huge defeat suffered by the Romans at Cannae, Gelo was preparing to abandon the alliance of Rome for that of Carthage. According to this account, he began making friendly overtures to the cities allied to Rome and might have convinced the entire island of Sicily to defect to the Carthaginian side, had he not died later in the year of 216 BC. However, this seems quite at variance with the statement of Polybius of his uniform submission to his father's views and may very likely deserve as little credit as Livy's insinuation