Hannibal had an army of forty to fifty thousand men so the Romans knew it would take a large coordinated force to defeat him. Unfortunately, they could not assemble one because they were handicapped by their command structure and the arrogance of their leaders. As we have discussed before, the Republic had two senior magistrates (consuls) who were elected simultaneously for one year. In time of war, each consul served as commander of one of the two armies. Jealousy and personal ambition often put the two commanders on different paths and divided the army - often with disasterous results as the story of the battle of Trebia will show us.
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