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Hannibal Barca
247 - 183 BC
Hannibal Barca was a Carthaginian general and one of the
greatest military leaders of the ancient world. A brilliant
strategist, he developed tactics of outflanking and surrounding
the enemy with the combined forces of infantry and cavalry.
As a boy of 9, Hannibal begged his father, Hamilcar Barca, to
take him on the campaign in Spain, but Hamilcar, before
fulfilling this childish wish, made him solemnly swear eternal
hatred of Rome. As a young officer in Spain, Hannibal won his
first laurels under the command of Hasdrubal, Hamilcar's
successor and son-in-law.
Livy gives a remarkable portrait of Hannibal's physique and
character at this time: to the old soldiers he seemed a Hamilcar
reborn, as he possessed the lively expression and penetrating
eyes of his father; the younger men were won over by his
bravery, endurance, simplicity of life, and willingness to share
all hardships with his troops. The accusations of cruelty,
treachery, and lack of religion must be discounted as
anti-Carthaginian war propaganda of Livy's Roman sources.
In Spain
Upon the assassination of Hasdrubal in 221 B.C., Hannibal, at
the age of 26, was immediately proclaimed commander in chief by
the entire army, an appointment soon afterward ratified by the
Carthaginian Senate. Making New Carthage his headquarters,
Hannibal consolidated Carthaginian power in Spain by attacking
and defeating the Olcades on the upper Guadiana and the Vaccaei
and Carpetani beyond the Tagus. In the spring of 219 he besieged
Saguntum, a city south of the Iberus River (Ebro) and an ally of
Rome. Although he did not formally break the treaty of 226,
which had defined the Iberus River as the line of demarcation
between the Roman and Carthaginian spheres of influence, the
blockade of Saguntum and its final destruction after an 8-month
siege brought about the declaration of war.
Crossing the Alps
Aware of Roman supremacy on the sea, Hannibal conceived of an
invasion of Italy from the north. He wanted to crush the Roman
army with his superior land forces in their own territory,
especially since he counted on the disaffection of Rome's
Italian allies. Thus he crossed the Iberus in the spring of 218,
and, after bloody battles with Spanish tribes, he marched with
about 40, 000 men across the Pyrenees. Once in Gaul, he hastened
to the Rhone River without meeting resistance and, within a
week, transported his army and war elephants across the river.
Meanwhile, the Roman consul Publius Cornelius Scipio, who had
transported his troops by sea to Massilia (Marseilles), was
moving north on the right bank of the Rhone, but when he heard
that Hannibal had already crossed the river, he sent his brother
Gnaeus with two legions to Spain, while he himself returned to
northern Italy. Hannibal, on the other hand, wanted to cross the
Alps and reach the Po Valley before the Romans were able to
collect their forces against an unexpected invader. In 15 days
he marched through rugged, unknown mountain passes, with his
enormous army of diverse origin and language and his 38 war
elephants, in the midst of enemy attacks, landslides, and early
autumn snow - a heroic feat which has captured the imagination
of historians and poets alike.
When Hannibal finally reached the Po Valley, his army was
reduced to half its former size and most of his war elephants
were lost. And yet, when he met the army of Publius Scipio at
the Ticinus River, Hannibal's Numidian cavalry won a decisive
victory over the Romans. Scipio, who was seriously wounded,
withdrew to the Trebia River south of Placentia, where the
consular army of Titus Sèmpronius Longus, recalled by the Senate
from Sicily, joined him. Using the tactics of both ambush and
outflanking the enemy, Hannibal defeated the combined armies,
causing the loss of about 20, 000 Roman soldiers.
In Italy
After spending the winter in the Po Valley, where he gained many
recruits among the Gauls and Ligurians, Hannibal crossed the
Apennines in the spring of 217. By ravaging Etruria he provoked
the pursuit of the new consul Gaius Flaminius, whom Hannibal
trapped with two legions in a defile on the northern shore of
Lake Trasimenus. Rushing down from their ambush on the opposing
hills, Hannibal's troops annihilated almost the entire army and,
shortly afterward, intercepted and destroyed the cavalry that
was sent to aid Flaminius.
Now Hannibal marched to Picenum, where he granted his troops a
period of rest in the hope that Rome's Italian allies would
defect. He continued to ravage Apulia and Campania without being
able to involve the dictator Quintus Fabius, called Cunctator
for his tactics of delay, in anything but minor skirmishes. But
in the following year, when a new pair of consuls put into
effect the aggressive war policy of the Senate, Hannibal beat
the Romans in the worst defeat they had ever suffered. This
happened at Cannae, where his strategy of outflanking the enemy
again brought victory to the Carthaginians over superior
numbers.
Now Capua and many other cities in southern Italy revolted
against Rome, but Hannibal's weakened forces prevented him from
taking full advantage of his victory. Making Capua his
headquarters, he changed from an offensive to a defensive
policy, mostly because his home government refused to send him
adequate reinforcements. Although he was able to capture
Tarentum, conquer Bruttium, and win a few minor victories, he
gradually lost ground against the superior numbers of the
Romans.
Negotiations with Philip V of Macedon and with Hieronymus of
Syracuse proved ineffective, and the small band of Numidian
cavalry sent to him from Carthage was insufficient for major
warfare. In 211, when he was unable to relieve the Roman siege
of Capua, Hannibal marched on Rome, pitched camp on the Anio
River at a 3-mile distance from the city, but withdrew again to
Apulia in the hope that his brother Hasdrubal would bring fresh
troops across the Alps from Spain. This hope was shattered in
207, when his brother's bloody head was thrown at his feet as a
testimony to the destruction of Hasdrubal's army in the battle
of the Metaurus. Hannibal now concentrated his forces in
Bruttium, where he held his ground for 4 more years, until he
was recalled in 203 to defend Carthage against the victorious
army of Publius Cornelius Scipio the Elder (Scipio Africanus
Major).
In Africa
Back in his native land after 16 years of victorious warfare in
enemy territory, Hannibal was finally defeated by Scipio
Africanus in the battle of Zama. Ironically, Hannibal became the
victim of his own strategy: Scipio outflanked and surrounded the
Carthaginians with the aid of King Masinissa's Numidian cavalry.
Hannibal escaped with only a few horsemen and rushed to
Carthage, where he counseled peace. The treaty was concluded in
201.
Elected a suffete (civil magistrate) in 197, Hannibal broke the
power of the Carthaginian oligarchy and worked for social and
economic reforms. His political enemies accused him in Rome of
intriguing with King Antiochus III of Syria. When the Romans
sent a commission to investigate the matter, Hannibal fled,
first to Antiochus's court at Ephesus, and, after the latter's
defeat at Magnesia in 189, to King Prusias of Bithynia.
Hannibal helped his host successfully in a naval battle against
King Eumenes of Pergamum, Rome's ally. When another senatorial
commission was sent to demand from Prusias the surrender of the
famous Carthaginian exile, Hannibal poisoned himself.
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This web page was last updated on:
10 December, 2008
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