By the time of the Second Punic War, the Roman Republic did not directly control the entire Italian peninsula. A patchwork of military alliances held the tribes and city-states together, which were collectively known as the 'Socii'. The Socii alliance was born from the Treaty of Cassius in 493, which followed the defeat of the Latin League at the Battle of Lake Regulus. It was one of Hannibal's chief aims to break this alliance apart and destroy the Republic from within by defeating the Romans dramatically in the field. In fact, this aim was achieved for a while following his brilliant victory at the Battle of Cannae, when many of the recently-subdued southern states - many of them the former cities of Magna Graecia - flocked to the Carthaginian general's banner.
