Night of 20 to 21 June 217 BC
The ambush is laid
At the time the road followed the north shore of the lake, between the water and a range of low hills that came closer to the shore towards the east, and then climbed away through a defile. Hannibal camps where the hills meet the lake, near the defile, in full view of the Romans. Flaminius camps for the night by the lake, west of the shore road.
The battle of Lake Trasimene on the map of the territory of Perugia in the Gallery of Maps of the Vatican, added by Pietro Oldrado in 1597Wikimedia Commons, Pietro Oldrado, Public domain (Battaglia del lago Trasimeno (Galleria delle carte geografiche).jpg)
After dark Hannibal sends his army on night marches behind the hills, to the slopes that face away from the lake. The cavalry take post furthest west, near the entrance to the shore road, the Gallic infantry in the middle, and the African and Iberian infantry furthest east, close to the camp. Modern historians place most of the light infantry around the defile or with the Gauls.
Sources
- Polybius, Histories, book 3, 83.
- Livy, History of Rome, book 22, 4.
- Adrian Goldsworthy, The Fall of Carthage (2006).
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