Hannibal
The Carthaginian general Hannibal (247-182 BCE) was one of
the greatest military leaders in history. His most famous campaign took place
during the Second Punic War (218-202), when he caught the Romans off guard by
crossing the Alps.
Youth (247-219)
When Hannibal (in his own language: Hanba'al, "mercy of Baal") was born in 247
BCE, his birthplace Carthage (today a suburb of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia)
was losing a long and important war. It had been the Mediterranean's most
prosperous seaport and possessed wealthy provinces, but it had suffered severe
losses from the Romans in the First Punic War (264-241). After Rome's victory,
it stripped Carthage of its most important province, Sicily; and when civil war
had broken out in Cartage, Rome seized Sardinia and Corsica as well. These
events must have made a great impression on the young Hannibal.
He was the oldest son of the Carthaginian general Hamilcar
Barca, who took the ten-year old boy to Iberia in 237. There were several
Carthaginian cities in Andalusia: Gadir ('castle', modern Cádiz), Malkah ('royal
town', Málaga) and New Carthage (Cartagena). The ancient name of Córdoba is
unknown, although the element Kart, 'town', is still recognizable in its name.
Hamilcar added new territories to this informal empire. In this way, Carthage
was compensated for its loss of overseas territories. The Romans believed that
Hannibal's father forced his son to promise eternal hatred against the Romans.
This may be an invention, but there may be some truth in the story: the
Carthaginians had good reasons to hate their enemies.
When Hamilcar died (229), Hannibal's son-in-law Hasdrubal the Fair took over
command. The new governor secured the Carthaginian position by diplomatic means,
among which was intermarriage between Carthaginians and Iberians. Hannibal
married a native princess. It is likely that the young man visited Carthage in
these years.
In 221, Hasdrubal was murdered and Hannibal was elected commander by the
Carthaginian army in Iberia. The Carthaginian government confirmed the decision.
He returned to his father's aggressive military politics and attacked the
natives: in 220 he captured Salamanca. The next year, he besieged Saguntum, a
Roman ally. Since Rome was occupied with the Second Illyrian War and unable to
support the town, Saguntum fell after a blockade of eight months.
Already in Antiquity, the question whether the capture of Saguntum was a
violation of a treaty between Hasdrubal and the Roman Republic was discussed. It
is impossible to solve this problem. The fact is, however, that the Romans felt
offended, and demanded Hannibal to be handed over by the Carthaginian
government.
From Saguntum to Cannae (218-216)
While these negotiations were still going on, Hannibal continued to extent
Carthage's territory: he appointed his brother Hasdrubal (not to be confused
with Hannibal's brother-in-law) as commander in Iberia, and in May 218 he
crossed the river Ebro in order to complete the conquest of the Iberian
peninsula. On hearing the news, Rome declared the Second Punic War and sent
reinforcements to Sicily, where they expected a Carthaginian attack.
Hannibal interrupted his campaigns in Catalonia, and
decided to win the war by a bold invasion of Italy before the Romans were
prepared. In a lightning campaign, he crossed the Pyrenees with an army of
50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry and 37 elephants; next, he crossed the river
Rhône (at Arausio, modern Orange [pictures]). His elephants were ferried across
the water on large rafts - a remarkable achievement. Thence, by a heroic effort,
made difficult by autumn snow, he crossed the Alps, probably taking the Col du
Mont Genèvre (more...). In October 218, 38,000 soldiers and 8,000 cavalry had
reached the plains along the river Po in the vicinity of the Italian town Turin.
The Po-plains were inhabited by Gauls, who had recently been subjected to Rome,
and were only too willing to welcome Hannibal and throw off the Roman yoke. The
Romans were aware of the danger that Hannibal might entice the Gauls into
rebellion, and immediately sent an army to prevent this. However, in a cavalry
engagement at the river Ticinus (east of Turin), the Carthaginians defeated
their opponents. Now, some 14,000 Gauls volunteered to serve under Hannibal.
Thanks to their help, Hannibal won a second victory at the river Trebia (west of
modern Piacenza), defeating a Roman army that had been supplemented with the
Roman troops that had been sent to Sicily earlier that year (December 218).
In March 217, Hannibal left his winter quarter at Bologna, traversed the
Apennines and ravaged Etruria (modern Tuscany). During a minor engagement, he
lost an eye (although some historians claim that he suffered from opthalmia).
The Romans counterattacked with some 25,000 men, but their consul Flaminius was
defeated and killed in an ambush between the hills and the Trasimene lake. Two
Roman legions were annihilated. Hannibal expected that Rome's allies would now
leave their master and come over to Carthage. This, however, did not happen, and
he was forced to cross the Apennines a second time, hoping to establish a new
base in Apulia, the 'heel' of Italy. At the same time, Rome attacked his lines
of conmuciation and his supply base in Iberia (more).
While Hannibal tried to win over Rome's allies by diplomatic means, the Romans
appointed Quintus Fabius Maximus as a dictator (a magistrate with extraordinary
powers). He tailed the invader, but evaded battle; the Romans found Fabius'
strategy unacceptable and called him 'the dawdler' (Cunctator). This was not
entirely fair: Fabius' policy had been successful. Besides, a Roman army had
attacked Carthage's African possessions, which prevented the Carthaginians to
sent reinforcements. And, contrary to Hannibal's expectation, Rome's allies
remained loyal.
In 216, the Roman Senate decided that time had come to solve the problem by one
great, decisive battle. Taking no risks, the two consuls raised an army of no
less than 80,000 men, whereas Hannibal's army counted some 50,000 men. In July,
the Romans pinned down the Carthaginian army in the neighborhood of Cannae on
the Italian east coast; battle was engaged on the second of August. Hannibal's
convex, crescent shaped lines slowly became concave under pressure of the Roman
elite troops in the center, which, being encircled and finally surrounded by the
Carthaginian cavalry in the rear, failed to break through the Carthaginian lines
and were destroyed (picture).
After this event, many Roman allies switched sides. Sardinia revolted; Capua
became Hannibal's capital in Italy. The successful commander was thirty years
old when he entered Capua, seated on his last surviving elephant. His brother
Mago Barca was sent to Carthage to announce this victory. He made quite an
impression when he poured out hundreds of golden rings taken from the bodies of
the Romans killed in action at the entrance of the Carthaginian Senate building.
However, the Roman senate refused to come to terms and Rome's allies in central
Italy remained loyal. Therefore, Hannibal endorsed a larger strategy to make the
Romans dissipate their strength. In the winter, he launched a diplomatic
offensive, and in 215 he secured an alliance with king Philip V of Macedonia.
Syracuse became a Carthaginian ally in 214.
Meanwhile, the Romans regained self-confidence and ground: Hannibal's attempts
to capture ports like Cumae and Puteoli -necessary to receive fresh troops-
failed. Hannibal decided that he had to abandon his offensives in central Italy.
He had been in Italy for almost four years, and his army still needed
reinforcements. Therefore, he turned his attention to the south of Italy, where
he took Tarentum and several other ports (213), facilitating the supply of new
soldiers from Macedonia and Carthage. Rome countered this by an alliance with
the Greek towns in Aetolia, who started a war against Macedonia. Although
Carthage sent an army to Sicily, Hannibal himself received hardly any troops.
Second phase of the Second Punic war
In 212, Rome was able to take the initiative again and started to cut off
Hannibal's lines of contact: first, it sent armies to recapture Syracuse and
Capua. Syracuse was betrayed and re-entered the Roman alliance. (The famous
scientist Archimedes of Syracuse was killed during the fights: text.) The siege
of Capua lasted for a long time, but Hannibal knew that his exhausted troops
were unable to hold it. He tried to force the Romans to raise their siege by a
diversionary attack on Rome itself. He camped in front of the walls of Rome that
can be seen today in front of Stazione Termini, but the Romans knew their city
could not be taken. They continued the siege of Capua, and took it in 211.
Slowly, the Romans pushed Hannibal southward. In 209, they recaptured Tarentum.
Hannibal's situation became difficult and his government was unwilling to risk
extra troops: the lines of contact were too long. Therefore, Hannibal decided to
ask help from his brother Hasdrubal, who was still in Iberia. This time, the
Romans were not surprised by the Carthaginian invasion across the Alps:
Hasdrubal was defeated at the river Metaurus before he could contact his brother
(207). Hannibal's hope of reinforcement had evaporated.
The Romans hunted him down in southern Italy, but Hannibal was able to continue
a kind of guerilla war in the 'toe' of Italy. (Several modern scholars have
argued that Hannibal destroyed the countryside of southern Italy, but the
archaeological data contradict this. There were several radical changes after
200.)
Meanwhile, the Romans conquered Iberia. This proved harder than they had
suspected. After some initial successes, the Roman generals were killed in
action and almost all was lost. However, a young commander, Publius Cornelius
Scipio, took the Carthaginian capital of Iberia, Cartagena, by surprise and
brought the Spanish war to a good end (206). After a short while, Scipio was
sent to Sicily and across the Mediterranean. He found an ally in the Numidian
king Massinissa, and attacked Carthage itself. Unlike the Roman senate, which
had not panicked when Rome was under attack by Hannibal, the Carthaginian
government was disheartened and recalled Hannibal's still unconquered army from
Italy (203).
The decisive battle of the Second Punic War was therefore, thanks to Roman
stubbornness, not fought on Italian soil, but in Africa: after some minor
engagements, Scipio and Hannibal clashed at Zama (19 October 202). This battle
is also known as the battle of Naraggara.
Hannibal tried to repeat his Cannae tactics, but Scipio had better cavalry than
the unfortunate consuls fourteen years before. Hannibal's encircling movement
failed, and the Carthaginians were defeated. Hannibal escaped to Carthage, where
he advised negotiations. In 201, peace was signed. Rome asked an enormous prize:
it demanded the Carthaginian fleet, recognition of the Roman conquests in
Iberia, and an indemnity of no less than 10,000 talents, to be paid in fifty
annual installments. And it forced Hannibal to resign as a general.
Carthage's economy was ruined and in 196 the people of Carthage choose Hannibal
as suffete. In this capacity, Hannibal promoted a modest democracy, reorganized
the revenues and stimulated agriculture and commerce. However, the
constitutional reform clipped the wings of the landed aristocracy; its members
informed the Roman senate of Hannibal's plan to ally Carthage with the Seleucid
Empire (i.e., Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Iran); they suggested that
Hannibal wanted to invade Italy a second time, if only the Seleucid king
Antiochus III the Great gave him an army. It is unknown if this accusation was
true, but when the Romans sent a commission of inquiry, Hannibal fled to
Antioch, the capital of the Seleucid Empire. He had been in power for less than
a year. His house was destroyed.
The Syrian war
In these years, both Rome and the Seleucid king tried to establish a zone of
influence in Greece and Macedonia. Rome was very successful, and Antiochus
decided to invade Greece (192). In this Syrian War, Hannibal advised Antiochus
to invade Italy. It is easy to guess who was to be the commander of the invading
army. Instead, he was given only a minor naval command and was eventually
defeated in a naval battle off Side by Rome's maritime ally Rhodes (190).
Rome inflicted a devastating defeat upon its enemy and Antiochus had to accept
that what is now Turkey was to be added to the small kingdom Pergamon, a Roman
ally. One of the Seleucid governors became independent: his name was Artaxias
and he proclaimed himself king of Great-Armenia. Hannibal, whose life was in
danger when he remained at the Syrian court, stayed with Artaxias, who followed
his advice to built a new capital, Artaxata (modern Yerevan).
Later, Hannibal had to flee again: this time, he found refuge in Bithynia, which
he supported in its war against Pergamon. As an admiral, he celebrated his last
victory, defeating the Pergamene fleet (184). However, Rome intervened in
Pergamon's favor, and Hannibal poisoned himself to avoid extradition (winter
183/182).
The place where this happened, Libyssa, was venerated by later generations.
Among the pilgrims were Romans; the monument erected by the emperor Septimius
Severus was still visible in the eleventh century.
Assessment
The Mediterranean world of the third and second centuries was in a process of
transforming itself into some kind of unity. It had been a divided region in the
fifth and fourth centuries, but now it was reorganizing itself, both culturally
and politically. The creation of one, big Mediterranean Empire was inevitable,
and the issue of the Second Punic War was whether this Mediterranean Empire was
to be a Roman or a Carthaginian world.
This does not mean that either Rome or Carthage were actually aiming at world
dominion. It simply means that their imperia were a consequence of a process of
cultural homogenization; one way or another, some kind of Mediterranean unity
was bound to come, and the big question was whether the Greek-Roman or the
Phoenician-Carthaginian culture was to be the crystallization point.
After Hannibal's death, Roman power was not seriously challenged for almost six
centuries. We should probably be grateful, because a victory by Hannibal would
have given the development of the Mediterranean cultures a push into the
direction of the Phoenician-Carthaginian culture. A book on human rights in
Carthage would not be a big volume; on the other hand, the Romans offered the
inhabitants of Italy and -later- the Mediterranean world a civil law code that
contained some elements that we still consider to be important. (This is not to
deny that Rome could be a cruel and savage ruler.) In fact, this is why Rome won
the war against Hannibal. Its Italian allies knew that Rome had more to offer
than Carthage.
Literature
The most important ancient sources on Hannibal are Livy's books 21-39 (an
ancient excerpt can be found here) and books 3-16 of the World history by
Polybius of Megalopolis. Both make excellent reading. Additional information can
be found in Appian's Roman history, especially the parts on the Hannibalic war,
the Spanish war, the African war, and the Syrian War.
One of the many modern biographies: Serge Lancel, Hannibal (1995 Paris).
See also:
2. Hannibal Barca the Military Genius
3. Hannibal2