Hannibal
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Hannibal (247 BC – 183/182 BC; sometimes referred to as Hǎnnibal Barca) was a Carthaginian politician and statesman who is considered to be one of the finest military generals in history. As the greatest enemy of the Roman Republic, he is best known for his achievements in the Second Punic War, when he marched an army from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy and defeated the Romans in a series of battles, maintaining an army in Italy for several years. A Roman counter-invasion of North Africa forced him to return to Carthage, where he was defeated and then forced into exile. He lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military advisor to Antiochus III in his war against Rome. Defeated in a naval battle, Hannibal fled again, this time to the Bithynian court. When the Romans demanded his surrender, he preferred to commit suicide rather than submit.
Hannibal is universally ranked as one of the greatest military commanders and tacticians in history, along with Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Subutai and Napoleon I of France. Military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge once famously christened Hannibal the "father of strategy" for the reason that even his greatest enemy, Rome, came to adopt elements of his military tactics in their strategic canon.
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Background and early career
Hannibal Barca ("mercy of Baal") was the son of Hamilcar Barca. It should be noted that Barca was an epithet, meaning "lightning" and not a surname. Historians refer to Hamilcar's family as the Barcids to avoid confusion with other Carthaginians of the same name. After Carthage's defeat in the First Punic War, Hamilcar set about the task of improving Carthage's fortunes. With that in mind, Hamilcar began the subjugation of the tribes of Spain. Carthage at the time was in such a poor state that its navy was unable to transport his army to Iberia (Hispania); instead, he had to march towards the Pillars of Hercules and ferry it across the strait. According to a story he later told at the court of Antiochus, Hannibal came upon his father while he was making a sacrifice to the gods before leaving for Hispania. Hannibal, then quite young, begged to go with him. Hamilcar agreed and allegedly made Hannibal swear that as long as he lived he would never be a friend of Rome. Hannibal is reported to have told his father, "I swear so soon as age will permit...I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome." Some historians consider that Hannibal swore at the altar to Ba'al "never to be friend to Rome" (according to the more objective Polybius), and feel that "Barcid Rage" is mere post-war Roman opinion.
Hannibal's father went about the conquest of Hispania with all the skills given to military men. When he was killed in a battle, Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal succeeded to his command of the army. Hasdrubal pursued a policy of consolidation of Carthage's Iberian interests, even signing a treaty with Rome whereby Carthage would not expand past the Ebro River, so long as Rome did not expand south of it.
Upon the death of his brother-in-law (221 BC) Hannibal was acclaimed commander-in-chief by the army and confirmed in his appointment by the Carthaginian government. Titus Livy, a Roman scholar, gives a depiction of the young Carthaginian: “No sooner had he arrived...the old soldiers fancied they saw Hamilcar in his youth given back to them; the same bright look; the same fire in his eye, the same trick of countenance and features. Never was one and the same spirit more skillful to meet opposition, to obey, or to command...”. After he assumed command, he spent two years consolidating his holdings and completing the conquest of Hispania south of the Ebro. However, Rome, fearing the growing strength of Hannibal in Iberia, made an alliance with the city of Saguntum which lay a considerable distance south of the River Ebro and claimed the city as its protectorate. Hannibal perceived this as a breach of the treaty signed with Hasdrubal and so he laid siege to the city, which fell after eight months. Rome was upset by this apparent violation of the treaty and demanded justice from Carthage. In view of Hannibal's great popularity, the Carthaginian government, did not repudiate Hannibal's actions, and the war he sought was declared at the end of the year. Hannibal was now determined to carry the war into the heart of Italy by a rapid march through Hispania and southern Gaul.
Second Punic War in Italy (218–203 B.C.)
- Main article: Second Punic War.
Overland Journey to Italy
Image:Hannibal route of invasion.gif
Hannibal departed New Carthage in late spring of 218 B.C. He fought his way through the northern tribes to the Pyrenees, subduing the tribes through clever mountain tactics and stubborn fighting. He left a detachment of 11,000 troops to garrison the newly conquered region. At the Pyrenees, he released another 11,000 Iberian troops who showed reluctance to leave their homeland. Hannibal reportedly entered Gaul with 50,000 foot soldiers and 9,000 horsemen.
Hannibal recognized that he still needed to cross the Pyrenees, the Alps, and many significant rivers. Additionally, he would have to contend with opposition from the Gauls, whose territory he passed through. Starting in the spring of 218 BC, he easily fought his way through the northern tribes to the Pyrenees and, by conciliating the Gaulish chiefs along his passage, reached the Rhône River before the Romans could take any measures to bar his advance. Arriving at the Rhône in September, Hannibal's army numbered 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and thirty-seven war elephants.
After outmaneuvering the natives, who had tried to prevent his crossing, Hannibal evaded a Roman force sent to operate against him in Gaul. He then proceeded up the valley of one of the tributaries of the Rhône River and by autumn arrived at the foot of the Alps. His passage over the Alps is one of the most celebrated achievements of any military force in ancient warfare. Hannibal successfully crossed them, while surmounting the difficulties of climate and terrain, the guerrilla tactics of the native tribes, and the challenge of commanding an army diverse in race and language. He descended from the foothills and arrived into northern Italy, but accompanied by only half the forces he had started with, and only a few elephants. From the start he seems to have calculated that he would have to operate without aid from Hispania. Adrian Goldsworthy, however, points out that the figures for the amount of troops he had when he left Hispania are less reliable. Nonetheless, historian Adrian Goldsworthy has written that due to the opposition of the natives and the difficulties of landslides and cold altitudes, the costs of Hannibal's march were considerable
Battle of Trebia
Template:Main Hannibal's perilous march brought him into Roman territory and frustrated the attempts of the enemy to fight out the main issue on foreign ground. His sudden appearance among the Gauls of the Po Valley, moreover, enabled him to detach those tribes from their new allegiance to the Romans before the latter could take steps to check the rebellion. Image:Battleofthetrebiamap.JPG Publius Cornelius Scipio, the consul who commanded the Roman force sent to intercept Hannibal, had not expected Hannibal to make an attempt to cross the Alps, since the Romans were prepared to fight the war in Spain. With a small detachment still positioned in Gaul, Scipio made an attempt to intercept Hannibal. Through prompt decision and speedy movement, he succeeded in transporting his army to Italy by sea, in time to meet Hannibal. After allowing his soldiers a brief rest to recover from their exertions, Hannibal first secured his rear by subduing the hostile tribe of the Taurini (modern Turin). While moving down the Po Valley, the opposing forces were engaged in a small confrontation at Ticinus. Here, Hannibal forced the Romans, by virtue of his superior cavalry, to evacuate the plain of Lombardy. This victory, though essentially a minor engagement, did much to weaken Roman control over the Gauls. As a result, of the Rome’s defeat at Ticinus, the Gauls were encouraged to join the Carthaginian cause. Soon the entirety of northern Italy was unofficially allied, both Gallic and Ligurian troops soon bolstering his army back to 40,000 men. Hannibal’s army, significantly supplemented, now stood poised to invade Italy. Scipio, severely injured in the battle, retreated across the River Trebia with his army still intact, and encamped at the town of Placentia to await reinforcements.
The other Roman consular army was rushed to the Po Valley. Even before news of the defeat at Ticinus had reached Rome, the senate had ordered the consul Sempronius Longus to bring his army back from Sicily to meet Scipio and face Hannibal. Hannibal, by skillful maneuvers, was in position to head him off, for he lay on the direct road between Placentia and Arminum, by which Sempronius would have to march in order to reinforce Scipio. He then captured Clastidium, from which he drew large amounts of rations for his men. But this gain was not without its loss, as Sempronius avoided Hannibal watchfulness, slipped around his flank, and joined his colleague in his camp near the Trebbia River near Placentia. There, in December of the same year, Hannibal had an opportunity to show his superior military skill at Trebia; after wearing down the excellent Roman infantry he cut it to pieces by a surprise attack from an ambush in the flank.
Battle of Lake Trasimene
Template:Main Having secured his position in northern Italy by this victory, Hannibal quartered his troops for the winter with the Gauls, whose support for him abated. So, in spring 217 BC Hannibal decided to find a more reliable base of operations farther south. On the other hand, the Romans, greatly alarmed and dismayed by Sempronius’s defeat at Trebia, immediately made plans to counter the new threat from the north. The Roman senate resolved to elect new consuls the following year in 217 B.C. The two new consuls elected were Cnaeus Servilius and Gaius Flaminius. As both expected Hannibal to carry on advancing, the new consuls took their armies (one under Servilius to Arminum on the Adriatic, and the other under Flaminius to Arretium situated near the Apennine mountain passes) so commanding the eastern and western routes by which Hannibal could advance towards Rome. Image:Battle of lake trasimene.gif The only alternate route to central Italy laid at the mouth of the Arno. This route was practically one huge marsh, and happened to be overflowing more than usual during this particular season. Hannibal knew that this route was full of difficulties, but it remained the surest and certainly the quickest route to Central Italy. As Polybius claims “he Hannibal ascertained that the other roads leading into Etruria were long and well know to the enemy, but that one which led through the marshes was short, and would bring them upon Flaminius by surprise. This was what suited his peculiar genius, and he therefore decided to take this route.” For four days and three nights, Hannibal’s men marched “through a route which was under water” suffering terribly from fatigue and enforced want of sleep. He crossed the Apennines and the seemingly impassable Arno without opposition, but in the marshy lowlands of the Arno, he lost a large part of his force, including, it would seem, his remaining elephants.
Arriving in Eturia in the spring of 217 BC, Hannibal decided to lure the main Roman army under Flaminius into a pitched battle, by devastating under his very own eyes the area he had been sent to protect. As Polybius tells us, “he [Hannibal] calculated that, if he passed the camp and made a descent into the district beyond, Flaminius (partly for fear of popular reproach and partly of personal irritation) would be unable to endure watching passively the devastation of the country but would spontaneously follow him . . . and give him opportunities for attack.” <ref>Liddell Hart, Basil, Strategy, New York City, New York, Penguin Group, 1967</ref>. At the same time, he tried to break the allegiance of Rome’s allies, by proving that she was powerless to protect them. Despite of this, Hannibal found Flaminius still passively encamped at Arretium. Unable to draw Flaminius into battle by mere devastation, Hannibal marched boldly around his opponent’s left flank and effectively cut Flaminius off from Rome (thus executing the first conscious turning movement in military history). Advancing through the uplands of Etruria, Hannibal provoked Flaminius to a hasty pursuit and, catching him in a defile on the shore of Lake Trasimenus, destroyed his army in the waters or on the adjoining slopes while killing Flaminius as well (see Battle of Lake Trasimene). He had now disposed of the only field force which could check his advance upon Rome, but, realizing that without siege engines he could not hope to take the capital, he preferred to exploit his victory by passing into central and southern Italy and encouraging a general revolt against the sovereign power. After Lake Trasimene, Hannibal stated, “I have not come to fight Italians, but on behalf of the Italians against Rome.”
The Romans appointed Fabius Maximus as a dictator. Departing from Roman military traditions, he adopted the Fabian strategy of refusing open battle with his opponent while placing several Roman armies in Hannibal’s vicinity to limit his movement.
Image:Hannibal.gif Having ravaged Apulia without provoking Fabius to battle, Hannibal decided to march through Samnium to Campania, one of the richest and most fertile provinces of Italy, hoping that the devastation would draw Fabius into battle. Livy tells us that “He [Hannibal] began to provoke and try his temper, by frequently shifting his camp and laying waste the territory of the allies before his eyes; and one while he withdrew out of quick sight and halted suddenly, and concealed himself in some winding of the road, if possible, to entrap [ambush] him on his descending into the plain” Template:Fact. Fabius closely followed Hannibal’s path of destruction, yet still refused to let himself be drawn into battle, and thus remained on the defensive. This strategy was unpopular with many Romans.
As the year wore on, Hannibal decided that it would be unwise to winter in the already devastated lowlands of Campania but Fabius had ensured that all the passes out of Campania were blocked. Hannibal hit upon a highly imaginative deception scheme. At night, he gathered together all the cattle, and after tying burning torches to their horns, he drove them along a ridge near the pass. To the Romans guarding the pass, this gave the impression that the Carthaginians, aided by torches, were attempting to escape through the woods, and thus left the defile to attack them. After the Romans had chased off after the cattle, Hannibal promptly occupied the pass, and his army made their way through the pass unopposed. Fabius was within striking distance but in this case his caution worked against him. Smelling a stratagem (rightly) he stayed put. For the winter, Hannibal found comfortable quarters in the Apulian plain. What Hannibal achieved in extricating his army was, as Adrian Goldsworthy puts it, "a classic of ancient generalship, finding its way into nearly every historical narrative of the war and being used by later military manuals". This was a severe blow to Fabius’s prestige, and soon after this, his period of power ended.
Battle of Cannae
Template:Main In the Spring of 216 B.C. Hannibal took the initiative and seized the large supply depot at Cannae in the Apulian plain. Thus, by seizing Cannae, Hannibal had placed himself between the Romans and their crucial source of supply. Once the Roman Senate resumed their Consular elections in 216, they appointed Caius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus as Consuls. In the meantime, the Romans, hoping to gain success through sheer strength in numbers, raised a new army of unprecedented size. Some estimates have the Roman forces as large as 100,000 men, though this figure cannot be completely validated. Image:Battle cannae destruction.gif The Roman and Allied legions of the Consuls Aemilius and Varro, resolving to confront Hannibal, marched southward to Apulia. After a two days’ march, they found him on the left bank of the Audifus River, and encamped six miles away. Ordinarily, each of the two Consuls would command their own portion of the army, but since the two armies were combined into one, the Consuls had to alternate their command on a daily basis. The Consul Varro, who was in command on the first day, was a man of reckless and hubris nature, and was determined to defeat Hannibal. Hannibal capitalized on the eagerness of Varro and drew him into a trap by using an envelopment tactic which eliminated the Roman numerical advantage by shrinking the surface area where combat could occur. Hannibal drew up his least reliable infantry in a semicircle in the center with the wings composed of the Gallic and Numidian horse. The Roman legions forced their way through Hannibal's weak center but the Libyan Mercenaries in the wings swung around by the movement, menaced their flanks. The onslaught of Hannibal's cavalry was irresistible, and Hasdrubal, his brother, who commanded the left, pushed in the Roman right and then swept across the rear and attacked Varro's cavalry on the Roman left. Then he attacked the legions from behind. As a result, the Roman army was hemmed in with no means of escape. Due to these brilliant tactics, Hannibal, with much inferior numbers, managed to surround and destroy all but a small remainder of this force. Depending upon the source, it is estimated that 50,000-70,000 Romans were killed or captured at Cannae. Among the dead were the Roman consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus, as well two consuls for the preceding year, two quaestors, twenty-nine out of the forty-eight military tribunes, and an additional eighty senators (at a time when the Roman Senate was comprised of no more than 300 men, this constituted 25%–30% of the governing body). This makes the Battle of Cannae one of the most catastrophic defeats in the history of Ancient Rome, and one of the bloodiest battles in all of human history (in terms of the number of lives lost within a single day). After Cannae, the Romans refused to fight Hannibal in pitched battles, aiming instead to defeat him by attrition, relying on their advantages of supply and manpower.
The effect on morale of this victory meant that most of southern Italy joined Hannibal's cause. As Polybius notes, “How much more serious was the defeat of Cannae, than those which preceded it can be seen by the behavior of Rome’s allies; before that fateful day, their loyalty remained unshaken, now it began to waver for the simple reason that they despaired of Roman Power.” Template:Fact. During that same year, the Greek cities in Sicily were induced to revolt against Roman political control, while the Macedonian king, Philip V pledged his support to Hannibal – thus initiating the First Macedonian War against Rome. Hannibal also secured an alliance with newly appointed King Hieronymous of Syracuse. Had Hannibal now received proper material reinforcements from his countrymen at Carthage he might have made a direct attack upon Rome; for the present he had to content himself with subduing the fortresses which still held out against him, and the only other notable event of 216 BC was the defection of Capua, the second largest city of Italy, which Hannibal made his new base. Yet even this defection failed to satisfy him as only a few of the Italian city-states which he had expected to gain as allies consented to join him.
Stalemate
The war in Italy settled into a strategic stalemate in the years following Cannae. The Romans, after suffering three consecutive defeats and losing countless other battles, had at this point, learned their lesson. They utilized the attritional strategies Fabius had taught them, and which, they finally realized, were the only feasible means of defeating Hannibal. They always kept Hannibal in view, they only fought when everything was in their favor; they sought to starve him rather than destroy him in battle; and cut down his power of doing harm as fast as circumstances warranted <ref>Dodge, Theodore, Hannibal, Cambridge, Massachusetts, De Capo Press, 1891, ISBN 0306813629</ref>. Despite their defeats and the defections, the Romans could still field larger armies than Hannibal, and could readily replace their losses. The consuls the Roman Senate elected always had an upwards of 80,000 men to oppose Hannibal, whose army was deteriorating in quality and barely more than half the size of the Roman. Instead of using a single large army, Rome now began to field multiple smaller armies. These armies sought to tire Hannibal through fatiguing marches, constant skirmishes, and famine. As a result, for the next few years, Hannibal was forced to sustain a scorched earth policy and obtain local provisions for protracted and ineffectual operations throughout Southern Italy. Since he was no longer able to draw his opponents into a pitched battle, his immediate objectives were reduced to minor operations which centered mainly round the cities of Campania.
As the war drew on, Hannibal repeatedly appealed to the Carthaginian oligarchy for reinforcements and aid. The War-faction and the Pro-Roman Peace Party were the two main political parties that controlled Carthage during this time. The latter, represented Peace and Conciliation with Rome, and the other, represented a war policy and a policy of resistance to Rome. Despite the apparent unanimity of the acceptance of war, Hanno the Great, the leader of the Peace Party, condemned Hannibal’s actions. As spokesperson for the Carthaginian noble class, he opposed the policy of foreign conquest pursued by Hannibal. As a result, Hanno undermined support in Carthage for Hannibal's military efforts in Italy. Moreover, the success of the Romans in Iberia (Carthage's main source of wealth in the Mediterranean) had convinced the Carthaginians that their most valuable colony was at stake. Thus, in the hopes of stemming the tide against the Romans there, reinforcements desperately needed by Hannibal in Italy, were otherwise rerouted to Iberia. Carthage also diverted her limited resources in Sardinia as well as Sicily. At the same time, Hannibal experienced great difficulty materializing his allies. Many of the allies defected to the Carthaginians, on the condition that they could not be forced to serve against their will. This not only rendered this defection less beneficial to Hannibal, but also ensured him that he could not rely on his allies as he hoped for. To make matters worst, his men grew increasingly weak beyond the point where he was no longer able to beat the Romans, who were daily growing stronger in numbers and experience. Image:Second Punic War Battles.gif As the forces detached under his lieutenants were generally unable to hold their own, and neither his home government nor his new ally Philip V of Macedon helped to make good his losses, his position in southern Italy became increasingly difficult and his chance of ultimately conquering Rome grew ever more remote. Granted, Hannibal still won a number of notable victories: Completely destroying two Roman armies in 212 BC, and at one point, killing two Consuls (which included the famed Marcus Claudius Marcellus) in a battle in 208 BC. Nevertheless, without the resources his allies could contribute, or reinforcements from Carthage, Hannibal could not make further significant gains. Thus, inadequately supported by his Italian allies, abandoned by his government, and unable to match Rome’s resources, Hannibal slowly began losing ground. Hannibal continued defeating the Romans whenever he could bring them into battle, yet he was never able to complete another decisive victory that produced a lasting strategic effect. Leonard Cottrell encapsulated Hannibal's situation with an interesting analogy: “So the rest of the war becomes rather like a group of lesser animals [The Romans] following a wounded lion [Hannibal]. Every now and then the beast turns, and they scatter. Sometimes it conceals itself and then, leaping out, tears its tormentors to pieces. Afterwards, it moves on alone and unmolested for a while, but before very long it hears once again the stealthy pad-pad of footsteps following some way behind.”
End of War in Italy
In 212 BC the Romans had so alienated Tarentum that conspirators admitted Hannibal to the city. The conspirators then blew the alarm on some Roman trumpets allowing Hannibal's troops to pick off the Romans as they stumbled out into the streets. Hannibal was able to keep control of his troops to the extent that there was no general looting. Instead Hannibal having committed himself to respect Tarentine freedom told the Tarentines to mark every house where Tarentines lived. Only those houses not so marked and thus belonging to Romans were looted. The citadel, however, held out so denying Hannibal the use of harbor. His brother Hanno, however, was defeated at Beneventum further depleting the overall Carthaginian force. Despite resisting a siege by Roman forces at Herdonea, the tide was slowly beginning to turn in Rome's favor. Further, in the same year, he lost his hold upon Campania, where he failed to prevent the concentration of three Roman armies around Capua.
Two Roman armies besieged Capua so persistently that Hannibal himself was forced to attack the besieging armies with his full force in 211 BC. It was only a temporary relief, for two years later the Romans were again before Capua with three armies. By a sudden march through Samnium that brought him within three kilometers of Rome, Hannibal attempted to draw them away by a feint against their capitol. He was hoping that his feint on Rome would force the siege of Capua to be lifted, and draw the Roman army out into the open where Hannibal could destroy them in a pitched battle. Yet his strategy caused more alarm than real danger to the city. The siege of Capua continued, and the city fell in the same year. Likewise, in summer of 211 BC, the Romans completed their conquest of Syracuse and destruction of a Carthaginian army in Sicily. Shortly thereafter, the Romans pacified Sicily and entered into an alliance with the Aetolian League to counter Phillip V. Philip, who attempted to exploit Rome's preoccupation in Italy to conquer Illyria, now found himself under attack from several sides at once and was quickly subdued by Rome and her Greek allies. Meanwhile, Hannibal had defeated Fulvius at Herdonea in Apulia, but lost Tarentum in the following year.
In 210 BC Hannibal again proved his superiority in tactics by a severe defeat inflicted at Herdoniac (modern Ordona) in Apulia upon a proconsular army, and in 208 BC destroyed a Roman force engaged in the siege of Locri Epizephyri. But with the loss of Tarentum in 209 BC and the gradual reconquest by the Romans of Samnium and Lucania, his hold on south Italy was almost lost. In 207 BC he succeeded in making his way again into Apulia, where he waited to concert measures for a combined march upon Rome with his brother Hasdrubal. On hearing, however, of his brother's defeat and death at the Metaurus he retired into Bruttium, where he maintained himself for the ensuing years. The combination of these events marked the end to Hannibal's success in Italy. With the failure of his brother Mago Barca in Liguria (205 BC-203 BC) and of his own negotiations with Philip of Macedon, the last hope of recovering his ascendancy in Italy was lost. In 203 BC, after nearly fifteen years of fighting in Italy, and with the military fortunes of Carthage rapidly declining, Hannibal was recalled to Carthage to direct the defense of his native country against a Roman invasion under Scipio Africanus.
Conclusion of Second Punic War (203–201 B.C.)
Return to Africa
In 203 BC, when Scipio was carrying all before him in Africa and the Carthaginian peace party were arranging an armistice, Hannibal was recalled from Italy by the war party at Carthage. After leaving a record of his expedition engraved in Punic and Greek upon brazen tablets in the temple of Juno at Crotona, he sailed back to Africa. His arrival immediately restored the predominance of the war party, who placed him in command of a combined force of African levies and his mercenaries from Italy. In 202 BC, Hannibal met Scipio in a fruitless peace conference. Despite mutual admiration, negotiations floundered due to Roman allegations of "Punic Faith," referring to the breach of protocols which ended the First Punic War by the Carthaginian attack on Saguntum, as well as perceived breach in contemporary military etiquette (Hannibal's numerous ambuscades). The decisive battle at Zama soon followed.
The Battle of Zama
Template:Main Unlike most battles of the Second Punic War, the Romans had superiority in cavalry and the Carthaginians had superiority in infantry. The Roman army was generally of better caliber than the Carthaginian. The aging Hannibal was suffering from mental exhaustion and deteriorating health after years of campaigning in Italy.
The Roman cavalry won an early victory, and Scipio had devised tactics for defeating Carthaginian war elephants. However, the battle remained closely fought, and at one point it seemed that Hannibal was on the verge of victory. However, Scipio was able to rally his men, and his cavalry attacked Hannibal's rear. This two-pronged attack caused the Carthaginian formation to disintegrate and collapse. With their foremost general defeated, the Carthaginians had no choice but to accept defeat and surrender to Rome.
Later career
Peacetime Carthage (200–196 B.C.)
Hannibal was still only in his forty-sixth year and soon showed that he could be a statesman as well as a soldier. Following the conclusion of a peace that left Carthage stripped of its formerly mighty empire Hannibal prepared to take a back seat for a time. However, the blatant corruption of the oligarchy gave Hannibal a chance of a come back and he was elected as suffet, or chief magistrate. The office had become rather insignificant, but Hannibal restored its power and authority. The oligarchy, always jealous of him, had even charged him with having betrayed the interests of his country while in Italy, for neglecting to take Rome when he might have done so. So effectively did Hannibal reform abuses that the heavy tribute imposed by Rome could be paid by installments without additional and extraordinary taxation. He also reformed the Council of One Hundred, stipulating that its membership be chosen by direct election rather than co-option
Exile and death (195–183 B.C.)
Seven years after the victory of Zama, the Romans, alarmed by Carthage's renewed prosperity, demanded Hannibal's surrender. Hannibal thereupon went into voluntary exile. First he journeyed to Tyre, the mother-city of Carthage, and thence to Ephesus, where he was honorably received by Antiochus III of Syria, who was preparing for war with Rome. Hannibal soon saw that the king's army was no match for the Romans. He advised him to equip a fleet and land a body of troops in the south of Italy, offering to take command himself. But he could not make much impression on Antiochus, who listened to his courtiers and would not entrust Hannibal with any important office.
According to Cicero, while at the court of Antiochus, Hannibal attended a lecture by Phormio, a philosopher, that ranged through many topics. When Phormio finished the portion about the duties of a general, Hannibal was asked his opinion. He replied: "I have seen during my life many an old fool; but this one beats them all." There is another story about Hannibal while in exile, which puts an odd spin on his supposed "Punic perfidy". Antiochus III showed off a vast and well armed formation to Hannibal and asked him if they would be enough for Roman Republic, to which he replied, "Yes, enough for the Romans, however greedy they may be."
In 190 BC he was placed in command of a Phoenician fleet but was defeated in a battle off the Eurymedon River. According to Strabo and Plutarch, Hannibal also received hospitality at the Armenian court of Artaxias I where he planned and supervised the building of the new royal capital Artaxata. From the court of Antiochus, who seemed prepared to surrender him to the Romans, Hannibal fled to Crete, but he soon went back to Asia Minor and sought refuge with Prusias I of Bithynia, who was engaged in warfare with Rome's ally, King Eumenes II of Pergamum. Hannibal went on to serve Prusias in this war. In one of the victories he gained over Eumenes at sea, it is said that he used one of the first examples of biological warfare - he threw cauldrons of snakes into the enemy vessels. Once more the Romans were determined to hunt him down, and they sent Flaminius to insist on his surrender. Prusias agreed to give him up, but Hannibal determined not to fall into his enemies' hands. At Libyssa on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmora, he took poison, which, it was said, he had long carried about with him in a ring. The precise year of his death is a matter of controversy. If, as Livy seems to imply, it was 183 BC, he died in the same year as Scipio Africanus.
Sources
Most of the sources available to historians about Hannibal are Romans, who considered him the greatest enemy they had ever faced. Livy gives us the idea that he was extremely cruel. Even Cicero, when he talked of Rome and her two great enemies, spoke of the "honorable" Pyrrhus and the "cruel" Hannibal. Yet a different picture is sometimes revealed. When Hannibal's successes had brought about the death of two Roman consuls, he vainly searched for the body of Gaius Flaminius on the shores of Lake Trasimene, held ceremonial rituals in recognition of Lucius Aemilius Paullus, and sent Marcellus' ashes back to his family in Rome. By contrast, when Nero had accomplished his march back and forth to and from the Metaurus he flung the head of Hannibal's brother into Hannibal's camp. Any bias attributed to Polybius, however, is more troublesome, since he was clearly sympathetic towards Hannibal. Nevertheless, Polybius spent a long period as a hostage in Italy and relied heavily on Roman sources, so there remains the possibility that he was reproducing elements of Roman propaganda.
Legacy
Cultural references
Image:Joseph Mallord William Turner 081.jpg Hannibal's name is also commonplace in popular culture, an objective measure of his influence on Western European history. Long after his death, his name continued to carry a portent of great or imminent danger within the Roman Republic. It was written that he taught the Romans, who claimed to be fierce descendants of Mars, the meaning of fear. For generations, Roman housekeepers would tell their children brutal tales of Hannibal when they misbehaved (the equivalent of the modern day "Bogeyman"). In fact, Hannibal became such a figure of terror, that whenever disaster struck, the Roman Senators would exclaim "Hannibal ad portas" (“Hannibal is at the Gates!”) to express their fear or anxiety. This famous Latin phrase evolved into a common expression that is often used when a client arrives through the door or when one is faced with calamity[1]. This illustrates the psychological impact Hannibal's presence in Italy had on Roman Culture.
Similar to Robert E. Lee and Erwin Rommel after him, Hannibal's victories against superior forces in an ultimately losing cause won him enduring fame that outlasted his native country. His crossing of the Alps remains one of the most monumental military feats of ancient warfare [2] and has since captured the imagination of the Western World (romanticized by several artworks and subject to Roman folklore).
Military history
Hannibal's legacy also extends to the field of military history, as he is universally ranked as one of the greatest military strategists and tacticians of the Western world, alongside Epaminondas, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Scipio, Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, The Duke of Marlborough, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon among others. In fact, his exploits (especially his victory at Cannae) continue to be studied in several military academies all over the world. Image:Napoleon4.jpg The author of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article praises Hannibal in these words:
- "As to the transcendent military genius of Hannibal there cannot be two opinions. The man who for fifteen years could hold his ground in a hostile country against several powerful armies and a succession of able generals must have been a commander and a tactician of supreme capacity. In the use of stratagems and ambuscades he certainly surpassed all other generals of antiquity. Wonderful as his achievements were, we must marvel the more when we take into account the grudging support he received from Carthage. As his veterans melted away, he had to organize fresh levies on the spot. We never hear of a mutiny in his army, composed though it was of Africans, Spaniards and Gauls. Again, all we know of him comes for the most part from hostile sources. The Romans feared and hated him so much that they could not do him justice. Livy speaks of his great qualities, but he adds that his vices were equally great, among which he singles out his more than Punic perfidy and an inhuman cruelty. For the first there would seem to be no further justification than that he was consummately skilful in the use of ambuscades. For the latter there is, we believe, no more ground than that at certain crises he acted in the general spirit of ancient warfare. Sometimes he contrasts most favorably with his enemy. No such brutality stains his name as that perpetrated by Claudius Nero on the vanquished Hasdrubal. Polybius merely says that he was accused of cruelty by the Romans and of avarice by the Carthaginians. He had indeed bitter enemies, and his life was one continuous struggle against destiny. For steadfastness of purpose, for organizing capacity and a mastery of military science he has perhaps never had an equal."
Even his Roman chroniclers acknowledged his military genius, writing that, “he never required other to do what he could and would not do himself” [3]. Napoleon Bonaparte himself regarded Hannibal as a gifted strategist, describing him as “the most audacious of all, probably the most stunning, so hardy, so sure, so great in all things.” Alfred Graf von Schlieffen’s eponymously-titled "Schlieffen Plan" was developed from his military studies, with particularly heavy emphasis on Hannibal's victory at Cannae. Patton believed that he was a reincarnation of General Hannibal as well as many other people including a Roman legionary. Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of the Coalition Forces in the Gulf War, claimed that "The technology of war may change, the sophistication of weapons certainly changes. But those same principles of war that applied to the days of Hannibal apply today".
It has been anecdotally reported that Hannibal met Scipio Africanus while in the court of Antiochus: the two mortal enemies conversed amicably and Scipio asked Hannibal his opinion on who the greatest military mind of all time was. Hannibal said, "Alexander the Great". Scipio then asked him who was the second. "Pyrrhus of Epirus", said Hannibal. Scipio asked why he, who defeated Hannibal, was not included, and Hannibal replied that this did not change his opinion, except that if Hannibal had defeated Scipio, he would then have ranked first, ahead of Alexander.
"Father of Strategy"
According to the military historian, Theodore Ayrault Dodge, “Hannibal excelled as a tactician. No battle in history is a finer sample of tactics than Cannae. But he was yet greater in logistics and strategy. No captain ever matched to and fro among so many armies of troops superior to his own numbers and material as fearlessly and skillfully as he. No man ever held his own so long or so ably against such odds. Constantly overmatched by better soldiers, led by generals always respectable, often of great ability, he yet defied all their efforts to drive him from Italy, for half a generation.” Furthermore, Dodge christened Hannibal as the "father of strategy" due to his visionary conduct of warfare. He wrote:
- "Excepting in the case of Alexander, and some few isolated instances, all wars up to the Second Punic War, had been decided largely, if not entirely, by battle-tactics. Strategic ability had been comprehended only on a minor scale. Armies had marched towards each other, had fought in parallel order, and the conqueror had imposed terms on his opponent. Any variation from this rule consisted in ambuscades or other stratagems. That war could be waged by avoiding in lieu of seeking battle; that the results of a victory could be earned by attacks upon the enemy’s communications, by flank-maneuvers, by seizing positions from which safely to threaten him in case he moved, and by other devices of strategy, was not understood . . .[However] For the first time in the history of war, we see two contending generals avoiding each other, occupying impregnable camps on heights, marching about each other's flanks to seize cities or supplies in their rear, harassing each other with small-war, and rarely venturing on a battle which might prove a fatal disaster—all with a well-conceived purpose of placing his opponent at a strategic disadvantage. . .That it did so was due to the teaching of Hannibal".
Hannibal in film and television
Some controversy has been stirred up in recent years by an unreleased 20th Century Fox film project titled "Hannibal", starring Denzel Washington in the title role.
Traditionally, Hannibal has been played by white actors, which is questionable. However, there is no historical evidence that clearly indicates whether Hannibal resembled Semitic Phoenicians, Berbers or sub-Saharan Africans.
| Year | Film | Other notes |
| 2006 | Hannibal | Upcoming Motion Picture starring Vin Diesel |
| 2006 | Hannibal - Rome's Worst Nightmare | TV film, starring Alexander Siddig |
| 2004 | The Phantom of the Opera | The beginning Opera being rehearsed is one about Hannibal so titled Hannibal |
| 2005 | The True Story of Hannibal | English documentary |
| 2001 | Hannibal: The Man Who Hated Rome | English documentary |
| 1997 | The Great Battles of Hannibal | English documentary |
| 1996 | Gulliver’s Travels | Gulliver summons Hannibal from a magic mirror. |
| 1960 | Annibale | Italian Motion Picture starring Victor Mature |
| 1955 | Jupiter's Darling | English Motion Picture starring Howard Keel |
| 1939 | Scipio Africanus - the Defeat of Hannibal (Scipione l'africano) | Italian Motion Picture |
| 1914 | Cabiria | Italian Silent film |
Quote
- "We will either find a way, or make one."—Hannibal in response to the claimed impossibility of crossing the Alps with war elephants.
- "God has given no greater spur to victory than contempt of death."—Hannibal
- “I am not carrying on a war of extermination against the Romans. I am contending for honor and empire.”—Hannibal
See also
References
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Further reading
- Bradford, E, Hannibal, London, Macmillan London Ltd., 1981
- Carlton, James, The Military Quotation Book, New York City, New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 2002
- Caven, B., Punic Wars, London, George Werdenfeld and Nicholson Ltd., 1980
- Dexter Hoyos, B., Hannibal: Rome's Greatest Enemy, Bristol Phoenix Press, 2005, ISBN 1904675468 (hbk) ISBN 1904675476 (pbk)
- Cottrell, Leonard, Hannibal: Enemy of Rome, Da Capo Press, 1992, ISBN 0306804980
- Livy, Titus Livius and De Selincourt, Aubery, The War with Hannibal: Books XXI-XXX of the History of Rome from its Foundation, Penguin Classics, Reprint edition, July 30, 1965, ISBN 014044145X (pbk)
- Daly, Gregory, Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War, London/New York, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0415327431
- Delbrück, Hans, Warfare in Antiquity, 1920, ISBN 0-8032-9199-X
- Talbert, Richard J.A., ed., Atlas of Classical History, Routledge, London/New York, 1985, ISBN 0-415-03463-9
External links
- Hannibal Barca and the Punic Wars
- Ancient History Sourcebook: Polybius (c.200-after 118 BC): The Character of Hannibal
- "Rome and Carthage: Classic Battle Joined" Article by Greg Yocherer from Military History Magazine
- Cannae A treatise by General Fieldmarshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen
This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.Template:Link FA
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