Well, I was gonna say that it was because he was inspired by Hannibal but wanted a more otherworldly-sounding name for the creatures, but that works too.
That is correct. In fact, there was only one Elephant left that survived to see the fight (or at least that is what I have read). Hannibal rode that one obviously. But they are better for intimidation than actual battle. If you fluster an Elephant before your lines meet... say fire a volley of flaming arrows at it, it will panic and create havoc within its own ranks. I'm a fan of Hannibal so I'm not going to put that down to foolishness. I just think he wanted history to remember him as a baddass... he succeeded too xD
But the Romans had faced elephants in the wars against Pyrrhus some sixty years earlier, and had worked out effective anti-elephant tactics then (as Hannibal was to learn at Zama).
Mert Su there is however one slight flaw in this... the romans HAD encountered elephants prior to this i believe when confronting hellenistic armies, although im not sure which war came first. still, your average soldier rushed into combat to fight hannibal wouldnt neccesarily have heard of the elephants in the conflicts with the greeks.
elgostine Well, the Roman FACTION did, but these recruits/farmers have never seen them before. It's like a Knight coming across a tank for the first time, only hearing vague stories about it.
Aboy5768 Yeah, and it also shows how great movies, fantasy novels and games have been influenced by actual historical battles and events as well :) I love this show! ^.^
Actually, there wasn't 98k men who tried crossing the alps. As he said in the video, a lot of them left the army before starting the climb (Hannibal gave them the choice). In the end, only about 45k men+cavalry included did the climb, and between 1/3 and 1/2 died. Out of the 38 elephants who started the journey, only 1 elephant made it to the other side. That kind of ruins the next scene of "Romans fighting monsters" , but it was impressive nonetheless
well you're kind of wrong i think. hannibal lost his elephants (bar one) in a the winter after he crossed into italy, so according to my memory he should have definitely had them at his disposal for the battle of the trebia
My understanding is that Hannibal only had one elephant left when he emerged from the Arno river marshes (near the modern town of Pistoia) in the spring of 217 BCE (a year after the battles of the Ticinus and Trebbia rivers, which occurred in 218 BCE).
Tian Run Xu No, they died after the alps, either after Trebia, or (i dont remember if this happened, but i believe that i remember perhaps reading somehting baout a battle before Trebia, and if that happened, then it would be after that battle, before Trebia, Buuuuut). But they died of cold from the Alps, though they did make it into Italy
"Okay Charlie, I know you hate Carthage but we really need to think before we speak in there." "Yeah yeah, I know. Let's do this shit." *Enters* *Carthage* *senate*. "I hold before you peace and war!" "Choose what you will!" "I choose war!" "CHARLIE WHAT THE FUCK?!" "WE ACCEPT!" "GODDAMNIT CHARLIE!"
"To this day historians can not agree which river the Ebro R. is" Just spent 20 minutes in google earth trying to find the Ebro, only to give up and unpause the video to hear that. History it seems does indeed repeat itself.
+jmr2008jan Actually I think there may have been a mistake. The Ebro or Ebre is the second largest river in Spain and you can easily find it on Wikipedia. The name of the river that appears on the treaty is actually 'Iber' (which gives its name to the Iberian peninsula), Ebro being the most likely candidate. Actually in recent years some new evidence has come to light that the Ebro and the Iber are one and the same.
The funny thing is that Barcelona is very clearly north of the Ebro, while Seguntum was very clearly south of it. If the Ebro river was meant to be the border, both Rome's alies and Hamilcar were in violation of it.
According to most accounts, more than half the elephants perished in the Crossing of the Alps. So, to make him even _more_ boss (if such a thing was possible), Hannibal achieved his elephantine Shock & Awe with only a handful of pachyderms!
The Elephants didn’t realy had any real impacts on the war as a whole. They died rather early in the conflict, with the battle fo the trebia river being the only major engagement they saw as most of them actually perished in the fight.
I live in the Alps and I have seen where they crossed them. It is obvious they didn't know the place because they didn't take the easy way at all. There were low valleys going toward Italy but they sometimes decided to climb a 2000 meters high pass instead ^^ What's cool though is that even 2000 years later, the local noble families would have ivory in their treasure that Gauls had stolen on dead elephants.
It's too bad that the Punic Wars are largely ignored by world history books... I remember that there were almost no mention in my World History textbook... the only reason I knew about the main players of the war was from a project I had to do, where we had to make a short presentation on someone from history, ranging from recent people (like US presidents) to ancient people (Scipio Africanus for me)
+Misael Ramirez I'm guessing Mexico? I mean, I'm surprised you didn't study the Spanish, since they are the most important part of Mexican history If I know correctly.
At my school, we only hear about our countries history (Denmark), and not about anything else. We almost never hear about any wars. Hannibal, Alexander, Attila, Ghengis Khan and many others have never been mentioned. Napoleon wws mentioned for like 10 seconds, but only about his coronation. In WWI and WWII, we only hear about what goes on in our country. In WWI, we were neutral, and we nearly didn’t hear about the war, but just how Denmark were doing. I have made presentations about Alexander, Hannibal, and Napoleon, but we have never heard of the first two... really annoying.
In the French part of Canada, when I was a kid our first history course was world history, then 2 years later Canadian history. We had a certain focus on wars, but never battles. We saw some fast forwarded version of this as part of our chapter on Rome, but with 9 months of 2 hours a week to cover human history worldwide from the australopitecus to modern hitory, we couldn't stop for details on anything but world war 1/2 :( There just wasn't enough time.
I'm quite amazed how epic this series of videos is. Using modern pictures and internet memes to portray an ancient event is unexpectedly awe-inspiring.
This is probably my favorite of the second punic war saga, especially the description of what I like to call "Meet the Pachyderms". Fun fact, all of these elephants are from a now-extinct subspecies found in North Africa.
This def was a good start, and i love how it changed as it went on. These extra history vids were very fast, and the newer ones are slow, more dramatic, less "this happen, then this and this and this", and more "this happend because of this, then this could only happen because of that (the thing they explained 10 min prior to make a more dramatic pause) then leaves us on a cliff hanger
There's alot of people who act very kindly towards their fans, but in my opinion, you guys here at extra credits are the greatest. You mentioned before you used to help fans with their homework... who else would do THAT?
It isn't cherishing the war, it's cherishing the narrative. They're presenting an interesting piece of history, give a frame of mind for a people long gone, and tell a story in the most full way possible. If we do not hear a story, we can't learn from it.
I know that a lot of students didn't learn this on history... That's why I love my teacher (I've had her 2 years in a row, she teaches multiple grades) she always digs super deep and doesn't even just tell us the story she makes us connect to the past. For example Hannibal one guy ( on a farm I believe? Excuse me if that's incorrect) was able to almost throw over Rome. Do you realize how insane and cool that is? Rome was kinda like the capital of the world SUPER powerful.... I think that people don't even realize that history contains actually people some times
I know history class usually dig a good bit deeper than this (not high school history classes though), and I have to wonder...why does this cartoony style appeals to me soooooooooo much more than a typical class setting normally does. Maybe it's just so much quicker.
Yeah, I think I prefer this, instead of my High School Social Studies class. Social Studies in the setting it is at High School, just does not appeal to me. In middle school, when we got to learning about history in Social Studies class, it was awesome!
Savin Wangtal A good teacher capable of entertaining and holding attention can make a huge difference. I had an English teacher who captivated a class with a story about an ear rinse. He could also get the class to participate in philosophical debate. I learned more by listening to my History teacher talk to a few students who actually cared than by reading the book (well, maybe about the same) because the participants were interested in the conversation and that interest les to enthusiasm.
Maybe it's also because videos like this focus on the human element instead of a long list of facts and dates to remember and recite. The added knowledge that we can learn this at our pace and not be tested on how well we absorbed it also pushes off some of the pressure that would otherwise put us off in a class setting
@Aditya Chavarkar I don't see you disagreeing with my statement. Just a side step about bad examples. Yes there are people with proper training who still do a bad job. My argument is about the requirements. You didn't state why serving before leading is a bad requirement so I'm done here.
Lol , Rome wasn't near of it's peak. In fact , roman legions weren't that mighty forces that they become after Marian reforms. Roman forces led by Scipio in the end of Punic wars, were far more close to post-Marian army than in the beginning of war. Besides , Romans were repeatedly crushed be mere barbarians. Read about Cimbrian War and Battle of Arausio , where roman force as big as at Cannae was crushed by mere barbarians and that was when Rome was far more powerful than in the beginning of 2nd Punic War.
10:11 The same effect when allied soldiers saw the german tiger tank and also maybe how some rebel troopers saw the AT-AT, this is huge psychological warfare.
The sad thing that this video misses, is that by this point Hannibal has basicly already failed (end of the vid). His losses in the alps were so immense, the troops lost too well trained, the elephants and specialists too hard to come by, that his army never recovered, no matter how many wildling gauls he recruited. After the alps, he had no real chance of capturing the city of Rome, and while others might have surrendered through sheer attrittion or fear, Rome would not. Which made it a matter of waiting until he lost.
Natasel Hm... Not really, who am I to defend the school system? I'm almost in Grade 11 and the teachers union where I live refuses to work. Then again I do live in Canada...
Any decent highschool should've covered the Punic wars. I don't know where you live but most civilised countries cover global history and not just the history of their own country.
Frikgeek They were glossed over in sixth grade for me. It was essentially. "Les personnes à Rome ont fait des choses stupides aux personnes dans les autres pays et puis ils ont bataillé et Rome a gagné." So close auto-translate, so close.
This is a fantastic use of extra advertising budget. Round of applause to Creative Assembly for not only coming up with a creative idea to help sell their game through education, but knowing the group of people who could maximize their investment.
I... really want you guys to do more of these history episodes! It reminds me of crash course world history (awesome youtube series with John Green), which is one of the best educational experiences I've ever had! Love your animation and narration style!
Despite knowing literally everything about the topic from years of study (roman history is life long passion) I really enjoyed watching this. Excellent presentation, and having made videos myself I know it couldn't have been easy writing, performing and editing all that together so flawlessly! Awesome job.
+Isaac Perez Now I'm not sure whether there was a comment that was later deleted or taken back, but I find the fact that you are right now calling yourself what you said a hilarious thing. It's like looking at a cat snarl at a mirror.
This would be a wonderful series. You guys obviously love history, and it still fits within the brand name - Extra credits referring to play tokens in old arcades also can refer to additional credits in schooling. Frankly, this is a great way to learn history, and if I taught a unit on Roman history at my school, I'd be showing them these.
+Lawrence H I was wondering the same thing. Would be a interesting field trip. Though I doubt anything would have been left after very long considering the weather of the Alps.
+jmr2008jan But the snow and how low temperature it was could preserved the trail of corpse they left behind far beneath the surface.. And we could just follow Hannibal Trails through the alps and dig, we might have found it..
+Lawrence H Archeologists have been searching along the two most likely routes and have found proof of large numbers of horses passing at a time that fits the second Punic war, but nothing conclusive yet.
I know that this is a marketing ploy in support of a sub-standard game. I'm still glad that they are doing this. This is an excellent use of entertainment media for the purpose of education and the Extra Credits gang should be ridiculously proud of themselves for undertaking this project. I'm going to recommend this to a friend of mine that teaches history, maybe he can do something similar for his class.
This is THE BEST, Extra Credits. Especially because I spent hours and hours playing the original Rome Total War. So, all these tactics and the geography are familiar to me. And also, this all leads up to my favorite battle ever! I never knew the whole history behind it. I just knew that they unexpectedly crossed the Alps.
An excellent and accessible summary of the basic narrative of the initial stages of the Second Punic War. Well researched, well explained with solid background when needed.
I would love to have some more in depth stuff by the Extra Crew. But I would rather have a lot of surface things covered with great references for me to continue deeper.
Brilliant! Can't wait for next show... Already know the general story, but hearing it more detailled is really nice. These videos are more awesome than any videos about games themselves!
this is really a good idea for publicity, it makes me want to play Total War! Seriously it's much more effective than a billboard because it's directed towards a caring audience. PLEASE do more of these to promote games!
the army was actually around 35.000 strong and the losses in the Alps were around 10.000...90.000 was the exaggerated number that the roman historians wrote in their books :-)
studies...calculations...number of troops in the registers, castra (camps), garrisons, how many troops could they supply ...i don't know 100% im not an historian...btw its well known that the numbers are always inflated or decreased..in this case roman historians wanted to make hannibal look stronger to justify his success and make the early roman losses less disgraceful...but dont take my numbers as truth either...i don't know where i took the 35.000 from...i have aso other numbers that said that hannibal had indeed 90.000soldiers until he left spain, after he crossed the Pyrenees he had 50.000 couse he sent some back so maybe 35.000 its the number of soldiers that survived the crossing of the alps?
Keep doing that you guys do, I absolutely love everything about this channel, the topics, the design, the music, everything! I hope you get paid for doing this stuff cuz it is worth it
So it was basically Comes Bunker Hill. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll explain. At the beginng of the American Revolution, there was a fight between the British and the Americans for a hill called Bunker Hill, then called Breeds Hill. This was important because, when you've got a fort on a hill, you've basically got an advantage over other, literally. I can't go into detail, but the gist of it was that the British won the hill, but at a cost. The only reason they won was cause the Americans ran out of powder and shot. This was the point in the war when the British figured out that they weren't fighting farmers.
I would use this if I had a classroom. I wish everyone who did historical battles gave you guys extra money for this, the whole thing is just so awesome!
Hate to be the sobering history nerd here, but the Romans had fought against elephants before (in greater numbers I might add) and were actually fairly adept at it. No doubt, those men would have been terrified but it wasn't a completely unknown thing for them. Many of their own grandfathers may have even recalled their experiences fighting against them.. For more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_War
themajor It's actually really good! Hearing the ancient stories of Rome has been fascinating. They're only 15 to 20 minutes each, and he goes into good detail very comprehensively. I now understand how Roman government worked.
I don't know if you have heard of it, but History Channel did this dramatic series called Vikings based off a real viking. I was thinking that this war sounds like it'd make a great TV show.
They made a pretty damn good TV movie off of this back on 2005 or 06. Was Called Hannibal Rome's Worst Enemy/Nightmare or something. It has the prince from Syriana(also played the doctor from Deep Space Nine) as Hannibal, guy's named Alexander Siddig, he is a pretty good actor. Check it out, not bad for a TV movie! It is uploaded onto youtube too, can download it with a quick google search of youtube to mp4
Guys this is really well done. I love how you blend story telling with historical facts so we can get a better picture of what the Romans and the Carthaginians went through. I'm with the majority of commenters here and think you should do a second channel just on history. I'd subscribe to it. :)
except it were not 300. But I would also love to hear about that one person running all the way from Marathon to Athen to tell them "they are here" just to fall dead on the floor straight after
I love how he thinks this war is one of the *lesser* known wars from people who love roman history Like. The bad blood between scipios family and hamilcars was the game of thrones for a 15 year old me. I read EVERYTHING i could find about these wars. And it makes me endlessly happy to see this channel covering. Im pretty much just re-reading stories ive read a thousands times but its just as sweet the 1001st time
"God dammit Atticus, why did that dumbass jsut wake us up? Didn't Afrikanus say we could sleep in?" "Oh, I guess he wanted us to see these gray war-demons that are charging through our testuedo?"
Solid information, man. Looking forward to the rest of the series. This makes me miss the days when the History channel actually showed programs about, you know...HISTORY.
I love history but I can't get myself to watch boring hours long history documentaries, you just solved one of the biggest issues I was facing with my free time hobby, thank you. :)
Wow, guys, this is awesome what you are doing. I'm really inspired and I love history even more, thanks to you. I know English pretty well, but polish subtitles are really helpful for me, I'm so grateful for your work. History is fascinating with you.
The Romans could have sent aid to saguntum but didnt. The reason is because they like to wage "just wars" and thus by Hannibal killing off Saguntum, the Romans had a reasons to later fight Carthage
the reason they didnt send aid is because they wanted to avoid the war as much as possible, sending multiple embassies to spain to try and hault the siege. if they sent aid, they would start a war with carthage, and have to pull troops back from illyria and their other wars
MOAR ! This series is so damn gripping, I just can't wait for the next episode ! Propably going to search some of those mentioned podcasts until I get my next fix...
It should be noted that the Second Punic War was not the first time the Romans encountered war elephants. Pyrrhus of Epirus used them in at least three battles during the Pyrrhic Wars, after which the Romans got good at killing them. The Carthaginians also used elephants in the first Punic War, although never conclusively because the Romans knew how to scare them and make them ineffective. And most of Hannibal's elephants died crossing the Alps
Not gonna lie. The sight of a war-elephant emerging from the sleet and fog of a pre-dawn winter morning would make an awesome scene for a movie...
Why d'ya think Tolkein came up with Oliphants? #lotr
Storm Galaxy2319
Because he can't spell elephant?
Well, I was gonna say that it was because he was inspired by Hannibal but wanted a more otherworldly-sounding name for the creatures, but that works too.
That is correct. In fact, there was only one Elephant left that survived to see the fight (or at least that is what I have read). Hannibal rode that one obviously. But they are better for intimidation than actual battle. If you fluster an Elephant before your lines meet... say fire a volley of flaming arrows at it, it will panic and create havoc within its own ranks.
I'm a fan of Hannibal so I'm not going to put that down to foolishness. I just think he wanted history to remember him as a baddass... he succeeded too xD
But the Romans had faced elephants in the wars against Pyrrhus some sixty years earlier, and had worked out effective anti-elephant tactics then (as Hannibal was to learn at Zama).
I gotta say, you guys paint a beautiful picture with your words, how you described the romans reaction to elephants was great.
i heartily agree
elgostine i third the shit out of that motion, i became that roman farmer for a minute
Mert Su
there is however one slight flaw in this... the romans HAD encountered elephants prior to this i believe when confronting hellenistic armies, although im not sure which war came first.
still, your average soldier rushed into combat to fight hannibal wouldnt neccesarily have heard of the elephants in the conflicts with the greeks.
elgostine Well, the Roman FACTION did, but these recruits/farmers have never seen them before. It's like a Knight coming across a tank for the first time, only hearing vague stories about it.
***** pretty much.. dan is still absolutely right about those things being totally alien to the average italian
i think this series really shows just how easy it is for history to be made intresting
There is something wrong in this video:numedian cavalry was never black we are white
amine mchanna nigga?
Aboy5768 Yeah, and it also shows how great movies, fantasy novels and games have been influenced by actual historical battles and events as well :)
I love this show! ^.^
amine mchanna The army was probably not made up entirely of numedian warriors, boy.
The Easily Bored Gamer Yeah, this is like my star wars...
"Will you have peace or war?" "War."
Dude, Peter Jackson totally ripped that line off.
I like it. Percy Jackson *is* based on Greek and Roman mythology, so I feel like using that line fits.
That may be so, idk. I was referencing *Peter* Jackson's Hobbit-movie line said by Bard, though.
+R MH Sorry. I guess I read it wrong.
No worries, it happens.
R MH i honestly thought you just misspelled Percy Jackson
1:27
The second punic war was caused by "some damn thing in the balkans"
Lol
Otto von Bismarck:
I see what you did there
BISMARCK
@@lucamaddalena5925 von
@@AlechiaTheWitch yeah, just realized
"Legit fighting monsters"
All I picture is two romans going "Bro, wtf is that?" "Dude, don't think, just run!"
I would completely be on their side in that day and age
what would that be in latin?
@@kargaroc386 That would be:"Frater,quid irrumabo est?Frater,noli cogitare,modo curre!"
6:03 losing nearly 70% of your army to attack Rome? Yeah. Why let that get in the way of a good crusade
Actually, there wasn't 98k men who tried crossing the alps. As he said in the video, a lot of them left the army before starting the climb (Hannibal gave them the choice). In the end, only about 45k men+cavalry included did the climb, and between 1/3 and 1/2 died. Out of the 38 elephants who started the journey, only 1 elephant made it to the other side. That kind of ruins the next scene of "Romans fighting monsters" , but it was impressive nonetheless
That's a lot of attrition.
well you're kind of wrong i think. hannibal lost his elephants (bar one) in a the winter after he crossed into italy, so according to my memory he should have definitely had them at his disposal for the battle of the trebia
My understanding is that Hannibal only had one elephant left when he emerged from the Arno river marshes (near the modern town of Pistoia) in the spring of 217 BCE (a year after the battles of the Ticinus and Trebbia rivers, which occurred in 218 BCE).
Tian Run Xu No, they died after the alps, either after Trebia, or (i dont remember if this happened, but i believe that i remember perhaps reading somehting baout a battle before Trebia, and if that happened, then it would be after that battle, before Trebia, Buuuuut).
But they died of cold from the Alps, though they did make it into Italy
"Okay Charlie, I know you hate Carthage but we really need to think before we speak in there."
"Yeah yeah, I know. Let's do this shit." *Enters* *Carthage* *senate*. "I hold before you peace and war!"
"Choose what you will!"
"I choose war!"
"CHARLIE WHAT THE FUCK?!"
"WE ACCEPT!"
"GODDAMNIT CHARLIE!"
"To this day historians can not agree which river the Ebro R. is"
Just spent 20 minutes in google earth trying to find the Ebro, only to give up and unpause the video to hear that. History it seems does indeed repeat itself.
+jmr2008jan Actually I think there may have been a mistake. The Ebro or Ebre is the second largest river in Spain and you can easily find it on Wikipedia. The name of the river that appears on the treaty is actually 'Iber' (which gives its name to the Iberian peninsula), Ebro being the most likely candidate.
Actually in recent years some new evidence has come to light that the Ebro and the Iber are one and the same.
The funny thing is that Barcelona is very clearly north of the Ebro, while Seguntum was very clearly south of it. If the Ebro river was meant to be the border, both Rome's alies and Hamilcar were in violation of it.
@@DeyaViews Cartography wasn't very good back then, they may have actually thought that Saguntum was North and Barcelona was south.
Just imagine the logistic nighmare to keep all those elephants fed. Damn.
Suppertimepuss2 they sound like no fun what so ever lol
Oh crap, I didn't even think of that. I was too wrapped up in the awesome description.
According to most accounts, more than half the elephants perished in the Crossing of the Alps. So, to make him even _more_ boss (if such a thing was possible), Hannibal achieved his elephantine Shock & Awe with only a handful of pachyderms!
The Elephants didn’t realy had any real impacts on the war as a whole. They died rather early in the conflict, with the battle fo the trebia river being the only major engagement they saw as most of them actually perished in the fight.
I live in the Alps and I have seen where they crossed them. It is obvious they didn't know the place because they didn't take the easy way at all. There were low valleys going toward Italy but they sometimes decided to climb a 2000 meters high pass instead ^^
What's cool though is that even 2000 years later, the local noble families would have ivory in their treasure that Gauls had stolen on dead elephants.
Like they ivory from these elephants ?
Yes ! That's cool !
Fatortu That's awesome!
Fatortu That's awesome!
Fatortu That's awesome!
"Aut Viam Invenium Aut Faciam." -Hannibal, when told it was impossible to cross the Alps at that time.
"I will find a way, or I will make one."
Sempronius Longus wouldn't happen to have been a relative of Bigus Dickus?
ha live of Brian fan, nice to see you
in the german version his name was "Schwanzus Longus" so even closer :D
We mock, but we all know he was of gweat help in a sudden cwisis
How dare you compawe such a gweat woman with Sempwonius Longus?
He has a wife you know
Well, JUST FOR YOU, we posted Part 3 this morning. :) Skip to about 10:53 in the video and you'll see the link.
Thanks bro
This has been out for 10 years, thejummyjum6207
It's too bad that the Punic Wars are largely ignored by world history books... I remember that there were almost no mention in my World History textbook... the only reason I knew about the main players of the war was from a project I had to do, where we had to make a short presentation on someone from history, ranging from recent people (like US presidents) to ancient people (Scipio Africanus for me)
+Misael Ramirez I'm guessing Mexico? I mean, I'm surprised you didn't study the Spanish, since they are the most important part of Mexican history If I know correctly.
I remember briefly touching on it in like sixth or seventh grade. My teacher was nuts about Roman history though so it was probably a special case.
GyroCannon we study
Greece
Egypt
Rome
Mesopotamia
China (to emperor Quinn)
India
Nothing on America in my 6th grade
At my school, we only hear about our countries history (Denmark), and not about anything else. We almost never hear about any wars. Hannibal, Alexander, Attila, Ghengis Khan and many others have never been mentioned. Napoleon wws mentioned for like 10 seconds, but only about his coronation. In WWI and WWII, we only hear about what goes on in our country. In WWI, we were neutral, and we nearly didn’t hear about the war, but just how Denmark were doing. I have made presentations about Alexander, Hannibal, and Napoleon, but we have never heard of the first two... really annoying.
In the French part of Canada, when I was a kid our first history course was world history, then 2 years later Canadian history. We had a certain focus on wars, but never battles.
We saw some fast forwarded version of this as part of our chapter on Rome, but with 9 months of 2 hours a week to cover human history worldwide from the australopitecus to modern hitory, we couldn't stop for details on anything but world war 1/2 :( There just wasn't enough time.
I'm quite amazed how epic this series of videos is. Using modern pictures and internet memes to portray an ancient event is unexpectedly awe-inspiring.
I can't stop thinking Scipio achieved military might with the power of peanut butter.
And then, Skippy-o filled empty PB jars with Greek Fire, and flung it at his opponents, and they died in a delicious, salty explosion.
I got chills when he said "I choose war" Just imaging what those 3 words caused
Yeah, just like cersei's "i choose violence"
Nobody has posted in a WHILE but I can’t believe what eventually became the main “extra” channel started with one sponsor. Wow
Agreed
"It's one of the coldest days of a year and a sleet is pouring down..."
Northern European bursts into laughter :D
Cold for Italy...
If you wrote this shit up as a fantasy novel, I don't think it would be considered believable.
Truth is often stranger than fiction, n'est pas? :D
Replace the elephants with ice dragons and giants and have rome attain fire dragons and this shit would make a great fantasy novel
wow, this war is getting awesome. I also love knowing lucas used it as the inspiration for the battle of Hoth in episode V
This is probably my favorite of the second punic war saga, especially the description of what I like to call "Meet the Pachyderms". Fun fact, all of these elephants are from a now-extinct subspecies found in North Africa.
This def was a good start, and i love how it changed as it went on. These extra history vids were very fast, and the newer ones are slow, more dramatic, less "this happen, then this and this and this", and more "this happend because of this, then this could only happen because of that (the thing they explained 10 min prior to make a more dramatic pause) then leaves us on a cliff hanger
There's alot of people who act very kindly towards their fans, but in my opinion, you guys here at extra credits are the greatest. You mentioned before you used to help fans with their homework... who else would do THAT?
It isn't cherishing the war, it's cherishing the narrative. They're presenting an interesting piece of history, give a frame of mind for a people long gone, and tell a story in the most full way possible.
If we do not hear a story, we can't learn from it.
I know that a lot of students didn't learn this on history... That's why I love my teacher (I've had her 2 years in a row, she teaches multiple grades) she always digs super deep and doesn't even just tell us the story she makes us connect to the past. For example Hannibal one guy ( on a farm I believe? Excuse me if that's incorrect) was able to almost throw over Rome. Do you realize how insane and cool that is? Rome was kinda like the capital of the world SUPER powerful.... I think that people don't even realize that history contains actually people some times
This is the second video of all time on this channel?? Epic
I know history class usually dig a good bit deeper than this (not high school history classes though), and I have to wonder...why does this cartoony style appeals to me soooooooooo much more than a typical class setting normally does. Maybe it's just so much quicker.
Yeah, I think I prefer this, instead of my High School Social Studies class. Social Studies in the setting it is at High School, just does not appeal to me. In middle school, when we got to learning about history in Social Studies class, it was awesome!
Savin Wangtal
A good teacher capable of entertaining and holding attention can make a huge difference.
I had an English teacher who captivated a class with a story about an ear rinse. He could also get the class to participate in philosophical debate.
I learned more by listening to my History teacher talk to a few students who actually cared than by reading the book (well, maybe about the same) because the participants were interested in the conversation and that interest les to enthusiasm.
you wont remember this type of teaching in the long run, and it is very simplistic so you'll actually watch the video
Maybe it's also because videos like this focus on the human element instead of a long list of facts and dates to remember and recite. The added knowledge that we can learn this at our pace and not be tested on how well we absorbed it also pushes off some of the pressure that would otherwise put us off in a class setting
5:52 - what, wookiees riding elephants?
Lmao Jawas aren't that tall but nice guess
Whatabout the droid attack on the wookies?
The 1st Punic war was the ancient version of WW1 and the 2nd Punic war was the ancient version of WW2
Dang history repeats itself
the encounter between the romans and the elephants sounds like such a hollywood-esque moment it almost sounds fake XD
When you see a bunch of Africans crossing the Alps on elephants
*Pizza Time Stops*
They were Phoenician not African
@@ah925 a little mix of phoenicians and lots of north africans or "amazigh"
@@ah925 I mean, the romans weren’t romans they origined from Alba Longa
You guys should really keep doing these history episodes. Maybe I'm just a history nerd, but I find this incredibly fascinating.
I'm having goosebumps while watching this. This is AMAZING!
maybe 10 years as an enlisted grunt is what OUR politicians need.
Fred P
Not really.
Ike Okereke actually Fred P just might be right
The coward we have now in charge paid is way out of Vietnam.
@Aditya Chavarkar No. All decisions should be made with the person making them having worn the shoes of the people she's about to sacrifice in a war.
@Aditya Chavarkar I don't see you disagreeing with my statement. Just a side step about bad examples.
Yes there are people with proper training who still do a bad job.
My argument is about the requirements.
You didn't state why serving before leading is a bad requirement so I'm done here.
Hannibal: the only person who can crush a Roman army in the peak of Roman power.
Sorry if I was unclear: a long time before Rome's division and fall.
Lol , Rome wasn't near of it's peak. In fact , roman legions weren't that mighty forces that they become after Marian reforms. Roman forces led by Scipio in the end of Punic wars, were far more close to post-Marian army than in the beginning of war. Besides , Romans were repeatedly crushed be mere barbarians. Read about Cimbrian War and Battle of Arausio , where roman force as big as at Cannae was crushed by mere barbarians and that was when Rome was far more powerful than in the beginning of 2nd Punic War.
Unless you are the Mongols.
Suddenly his appearance in Drifters makes SO much sense.
@@zyaicob dont you mean Huns?
Hannibal: *growls*
Rome: ahh Carthage control your general
Carthage: he don't bite
Hannibal: *starts yelling with Elephants*
Rome: YES HE DO~
Who’s revisiting after the oversimplified video
First seeing no revisiting yes
This story, it's the first time in 22 years I've been interested in history. Thank you, feels great.
10:11 The same effect when allied soldiers saw the german tiger tank and also maybe how some rebel troopers saw the AT-AT, this is huge psychological warfare.
This is 150% awesome. Thank you guys so much for this epic series.
As a TW veteran, I applaud this. I already have Rome 2.
The sad thing that this video misses, is that by this point Hannibal has basicly already failed (end of the vid). His losses in the alps were so immense, the troops lost too well trained, the elephants and specialists too hard to come by, that his army never recovered, no matter how many wildling gauls he recruited. After the alps, he had no real chance of capturing the city of Rome, and while others might have surrendered through sheer attrittion or fear, Rome would not. Which made it a matter of waiting until he lost.
This was pretty bad ass! why didn't I learn this in school?! =l
Natasel
And now Summer Vacation is used to save money on AC, nice try buddy.
Natasel
Hm... Not really, who am I to defend the school system? I'm almost in Grade 11 and the teachers union where I live refuses to work.
Then again I do live in Canada...
Any decent highschool should've covered the Punic wars. I don't know where you live but most civilised countries cover global history and not just the history of their own country.
Frikgeek
They were glossed over in sixth grade for me. It was essentially.
"Les personnes à Rome ont fait des choses stupides aux personnes dans les autres pays et puis ils ont bataillé et Rome a gagné."
So close auto-translate, so close.
Natasel
Oh wait never mind...
This is a fantastic use of extra advertising budget. Round of applause to Creative Assembly for not only coming up with a creative idea to help sell their game through education, but knowing the group of people who could maximize their investment.
2:40 Always Sunny in Philadelphia theme starts playing:
"Hannibal Crosses The Alps".
8 years since Extra History began... one of my favorite series
Wow, I actually remember the battle of Trebia from the original Rome:Total War..!
Yay I did History!
i played that practice battle SO many times its not funny....
This. This is how you make history fun for people. This is AWESOME.
The bit where you talked about the elephants was just woah
Rome had a population and resilience advantage over Carthage at the time and during the 2nd and 3rd wars, a money advantage too.
yea but they didn't have Hannibal
I... really want you guys to do more of these history episodes! It reminds me of crash course world history (awesome youtube series with John Green), which is one of the best educational experiences I've ever had! Love your animation and narration style!
Imagine a game where you play through the whole story on either side. It'd be pretty epic.
i'd love series, like game of throne or Rome on that, with multiple main characters, were we can see all the sides, during the 3 punic wars
***** or focusing on one, their call, but that would be pretty damn epic
Screw a game, imma make a show out of this one day
In a fps?
Despite knowing literally everything about the topic from years of study (roman history is life long passion) I really enjoyed watching this. Excellent presentation, and having made videos myself I know it couldn't have been easy writing, performing and editing all that together so flawlessly! Awesome job.
I blame Wapole
+Isaac Perez Now I'm not sure whether there was a comment that was later deleted or taken back, but I find the fact that you are right now calling yourself what you said a hilarious thing. It's like looking at a cat snarl at a mirror.
lol
Rick Fredrick its a running joke in extra history
This would be a wonderful series. You guys obviously love history, and it still fits within the brand name - Extra credits referring to play tokens in old arcades also can refer to additional credits in schooling. Frankly, this is a great way to learn history, and if I taught a unit on Roman history at my school, I'd be showing them these.
If history lessons were like this, people would be a LOT more entertained...
Not all history is entertaining
The way you told us about that battle...... *goosebumps*
Pure awesome!
Has anyone ever found any remains of this army in the alps?
+Lawrence H I was wondering the same thing. Would be a interesting field trip. Though I doubt anything would have been left after very long considering the weather of the Alps.
+jmr2008jan But the snow and how low temperature it was could preserved the trail of corpse they left behind far beneath the surface..
And we could just follow Hannibal Trails through the alps and dig, we might have found it..
+Lawrence H Archeologists have been searching along the two most likely routes and have found proof of large numbers of horses passing at a time that fits the second Punic war, but nothing conclusive yet.
PSPaaskynen Source please :)
Tai, lähde kiitos, Pääskynen :)
Thanks bud
I know that this is a marketing ploy in support of a sub-standard game. I'm still glad that they are doing this. This is an excellent use of entertainment media for the purpose of education and the Extra Credits gang should be ridiculously proud of themselves for undertaking this project. I'm going to recommend this to a friend of mine that teaches history, maybe he can do something similar for his class.
That bro fist had to be the most toga-wettingest bro fist ever from Rome's perspective.
No one yet had hand out a presentation as interesting as Daniel Floyd. He is the reason why extra credits is such an interesting show.
Oh i am loving this history lesson
This is THE BEST, Extra Credits. Especially because I spent hours and hours playing the original Rome Total War. So, all these tactics and the geography are familiar to me.
And also, this all leads up to my favorite battle ever! I never knew the whole history behind it. I just knew that they unexpectedly crossed the Alps.
More like this history stuff guys! You are awesome! I also watched those Sengoku Jidai videos you made... So fun to watch!
An excellent and accessible summary of the basic narrative of the initial stages of the Second Punic War. Well researched, well explained with solid background when needed.
You should re-do this series and delve deeper into the wars themselves. Especially the first punic war and the life of Hamilcar.
Thy would need money for this.
I would support a kickstarter for it.
support them on patreon
I would love to have some more in depth stuff by the Extra Crew.
But I would rather have a lot of surface things covered with great references for me to continue deeper.
That's what Hardcore History is for. Nearly 4 hours on the Punic Wars in 3 episodes.
Brilliant! Can't wait for next show... Already know the general story, but hearing it more detailled is really nice. These videos are more awesome than any videos about games themselves!
great video, i love history, especially roman history.
this is really a good idea for publicity, it makes me want to play Total War! Seriously it's much more effective than a billboard because it's directed towards a caring audience. PLEASE do more of these to promote games!
the army was actually around 35.000 strong and the losses in the Alps were around 10.000...90.000 was the exaggerated number that the roman historians wrote in their books :-)
But where then do you get the other number from?
studies...calculations...number of troops in the registers, castra (camps), garrisons, how many troops could they supply ...i don't know 100% im not an historian...btw its well known that the numbers are always inflated or decreased..in this case roman historians wanted to make hannibal look stronger to justify his success and make the early roman losses less disgraceful...but dont take my numbers as truth either...i don't know where i took the 35.000 from...i have aso other numbers that said that hannibal had indeed 90.000soldiers until he left spain, after he crossed the Pyrenees he had 50.000 couse he sent some back so maybe 35.000 its the number of soldiers that survived the crossing of the alps?
Keep doing that you guys do, I absolutely love everything about this channel, the topics, the design, the music, everything! I hope you get paid for doing this stuff cuz it is worth it
They made it cool 10 years ago and oversimplfied made it even cooler.
This needs to be a regular, or semi-regular, thing. You guys have me on the edge of my seat every time.
So it was basically Comes Bunker Hill. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll explain. At the beginng of the American Revolution, there was a fight between the British and the Americans for a hill called Bunker Hill, then called Breeds Hill. This was important because, when you've got a fort on a hill, you've basically got an advantage over other, literally. I can't go into detail, but the gist of it was that the British won the hill, but at a cost. The only reason they won was cause the Americans ran out of powder and shot. This was the point in the war when the British figured out that they weren't fighting farmers.
Maybe they'll do an episode on that in the future.
I would use this if I had a classroom. I wish everyone who did historical battles gave you guys extra money for this, the whole thing is just so awesome!
Hate to be the sobering history nerd here, but the Romans had fought against elephants before (in greater numbers I might add) and were actually fairly adept at it. No doubt, those men would have been terrified but it wasn't a completely unknown thing for them. Many of their own grandfathers may have even recalled their experiences fighting against them..
For more info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_War
themajor Heard about that on the History of Rome podcast. They did some AT-AT shit and tripped them with ropes!
Is the history of Rome podcast any good? I've heard about it but never tried it.
themajor
It's actually really good! Hearing the ancient stories of Rome has been fascinating. They're only 15 to 20 minutes each, and he goes into good detail very comprehensively. I now understand how Roman government worked.
Love this channel!!
I don't know if you have heard of it, but History Channel did this dramatic series called Vikings based off a real viking. I was thinking that this war sounds like it'd make a great TV show.
*****
Perhaps, but the production values on Vikings was really good, so I think they could afford it.
50Calabyte Give it to HBO or some other studio they'll do it better.
*****
Vin Diesel is working on a passion project about Hannibal, actually.
MonkeyMonastary No other studio. Only HBO.
They made a pretty damn good TV movie off of this back on 2005 or 06. Was Called Hannibal Rome's Worst Enemy/Nightmare or something. It has the prince from Syriana(also played the doctor from Deep Space Nine) as Hannibal, guy's named Alexander Siddig, he is a pretty good actor. Check it out, not bad for a TV movie! It is uploaded onto youtube too, can download it with a quick google search of youtube to mp4
I think it's the most epic thing this channel had ever said 2:17
Hang on, if men sometimes had to crawl, how did they crossed with elephants?
Very carefully.
Wasn't hoping to the mathematicians answer to pop out here.
By breaking the mountain down with sour wine, fire, and brawn. true story!
RealBigBangVideos Actually they did pass, with a handful of elephants, so they didn't had to crawl
They put them on rafts and tricked them into thinking they were on still land so they wouldn't freak out and die drowning in the water
Guys this is really well done. I love how you blend story telling with historical facts so we can get a better picture of what the Romans and the Carthaginians went through. I'm with the majority of commenters here and think you should do a second channel just on history. I'd subscribe to it. :)
My life would be complete if you guys did Thermopylae and the 300 spartans.
except it were not 300. But I would also love to hear about that one person running all the way from Marathon to Athen to tell them "they are here" just to fall dead on the floor straight after
This is brilliant, thank you Extra Credits and thank you CA for actually funding this, you are awesome.
due teach my history class you make sound intestine and you don't make thing boring
I love how he thinks this war is one of the *lesser* known wars from people who love roman history
Like. The bad blood between scipios family and hamilcars was the game of thrones for a 15 year old me. I read EVERYTHING i could find about these wars. And it makes me endlessly happy to see this channel covering. Im pretty much just re-reading stories ive read a thousands times but its just as sweet the 1001st time
"God dammit Atticus, why did that dumbass jsut wake us up? Didn't Afrikanus say we could sleep in?" "Oh, I guess he wanted us to see these gray war-demons that are charging through our testuedo?"
Solid information, man. Looking forward to the rest of the series. This makes me miss the days when the History channel actually showed programs about, you know...HISTORY.
I was watching this while playing civ 5 as rome when I got a great general "Hamilcar Barca"
I love history but I can't get myself to watch boring hours long history documentaries, you just solved one of the biggest issues I was facing with my free time hobby, thank you. :)
4:24 Fucking SPOILER WARNING!!!
True
Factual
Wow, guys, this is awesome what you are doing. I'm really inspired and I love history even more, thanks to you. I know English pretty well, but polish subtitles are really helpful for me, I'm so grateful for your work. History is fascinating with you.
The Romans could have sent aid to saguntum but didnt. The reason is because they like to wage "just wars" and thus by Hannibal killing off Saguntum, the Romans had a reasons to later fight Carthage
the reason they didnt send aid is because they wanted to avoid the war as much as possible, sending multiple embassies to spain to try and hault the siege. if they sent aid, they would start a war with carthage, and have to pull troops back from illyria and their other wars
This is great. The Second Punic War is hands down my favorite era in history.
What started this Amazing series
If this series didn’t exist, there is a lot of things I wouldn’t know if this didn’t exist
MOAR ! This series is so damn gripping, I just can't wait for the next episode ! Propably going to search some of those mentioned podcasts until I get my next fix...
It should be noted that the Second Punic War was not the first time the Romans encountered war elephants. Pyrrhus of Epirus used them in at least three battles during the Pyrrhic Wars, after which the Romans got good at killing them. The Carthaginians also used elephants in the first Punic War, although never conclusively because the Romans knew how to scare them and make them ineffective. And most of Hannibal's elephants died crossing the Alps
got there ahead of me, only real fault i spotted in an otherwise accurate video.
I would love to see more history lessons from you guys. Seriously, this is better than the history channel!
8:17 Do my eye bequeath me! Is that Transformers Prime!?
I think u mean decieve, not bequeath...lol
These illustrations are EVERYTHING 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾