Hannibal

Background and early career A quarter shekel of Carthage, perhaps minted in Spain. The obverse may depict Hannibal with the traits of a young Melqart (often associated with Herakles ), although this is improbable. It is more likely that it simply depicts the god himself. The reverse features one of his famous war elephants . [ 1 ] Hannibal was one of the sons of Carthaginian general and statesman Hamilcar Barca and an unknown mother. He was most likely born in Carthage , one of many Mediterranean regions colonised by the Canaanites from their homeland in Phoenicia. He had several sisters whose names are unknown and two brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago . His brothers-in-law were Hasdrubal the Fair and the Numidian king Naravas . He was still a child when his sisters married, and his brothers-in-law were close associates during his father's struggles in the Mercenary War and the Punic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula . [ 2 ] After Carthage's defeat in the First Punic War , Hamilcar set out to improve his family's and Carthage's fortunes. With that in mind and supported by Gades , Hamilcar began the subjugation of the tribes of the Iberian Peninsula. Carthage was in such a poor state at the time that it lacked a navy able to transport his army; instead, Hamilcar had to march his forces across Numidia towards the Pillars of Hercules and then cross the Strait of Gibraltar . [ 3 ] According to Polybius , Hannibal much later said that when he came upon his father and begged to go with him, Hamilcar agreed and demanded that Hannibal swear that he would never be a friend of Rome as long as he lived. There is even an account of him at a very young age (9 years old) begging his father to take him to an overseas war. In the story, Hamilcar brought him to a sacrificial chamber. Hamilcar held Hannibal over the fire roaring in the chamber and made him swear that he would never be a friend of Rome. Other sources report that Hannibal told his father, "I swear so soon as age will permit...I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome." [ 4 ] [ 5 ] According to the tradition, Hannibal's oath took place in Peñíscola . [ 6 ] Hamilcar went about with the conquest of Hispania . When Hamilcar drowned [ 7 ] in battle, Hasdrubal succeeded to his command of the army with Hannibal (then 18 years old) serving as an officer under him. Hasdrubal pursued a policy of consolidation of Carthage's Iberian interests, even signing a treaty with Rome whereby Carthage would not expand north of the Ebro so long as Rome did not expand south of it. [ 8 ] Hasdrubal also endeavoured to consolidate Carthaginian power through diplomatic relationships with the Iberians and the Berbers of the North African coasts. [ 9 ] Upon the assassination of Hasdrubal in 221 BC, Hannibal at 26 years old was proclaimed commander-in-chief by the army and confirmed in his appointment by the Carthaginian government. Roman scholar Livy 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 skilful to meet opposition, to obey, or to command[.]" [ 9 ] An 1868 illustration of Imilce and her son Haspar by Juan de Dios de la Rada Livy records that Hannibal married a woman from Castulo , a powerful Spanish city closely allied with Carthage. [ 9 ] Roman poet Silius Italicus names her as Imilce . [ 10 ] Silius suggests a Greek origin for Imilce, but historian Gilbert Charles-Picard argues for a Punic heritage based on an etymology from the Semitic root m-l-k ('chief, the 'king'). [ 11 ] Silius also suggests the existence of a son, [ 12 ] who is otherwise not attested by Livy, Polybius, or Appian . The son may have been named Haspar or Aspar, [ 13 ] although this is disputed. [ 14 ] After he assumed command, Hannibal spent two years consolidating his holdings and completing the conquest of Hispania, south of the Ebro. [ 15 ] In his first campaign, Hannibal stormed the Olcades ' strongest centre, Alithia, which promptly led to their surrender, and brought Punic power close to the River Tagus . His following campaign in 220 BC was against the Vaccaei to the west, where he stormed the Vaccaen strongholds of Helmantice and Arbucala. On his return home, laden with many spoils, a coalition of Spanish tribes led by the Carpetani attacked, and Hannibal won his first major battlefield success and showed off his tactical skills at the battle of the River Tagus. [ 16 ] Fearing the growing strength of Hannibal in Iberia, Rome made an alliance with 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 since he was already planning an attack on Rome, this was his way to start the war. So he laid siege to the city , which fell after eight months. [ 17 ] Hannibal sent the booty from Saguntum to Carthage, a shrewd move which gained him much support from the government; Livy records that only Hanno II the Great spoke against him. [ 9 ] In Rome, the Senate reacted to this apparent violation of the treaty by dispatching a delegation to Carthage to demand whether Hannibal had destroyed Saguntum in accordance with orders from Carthage. The Carthaginian Senate responded with legal arguments observing the lack of ratification by either government for the treaty alleged to have been violated. [ 18 ] The delegation's leader, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus , demanded Carthage choose between war and peace, to which his audience replied that Rome could choose. Fabius chose war. [ 9 ] ^ Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Great Britain, Volume IX, British Museum, Part 2: Spain , London, 2002, n° 102. ^ Lancel, S. Hannibal p. 6. ^ De Beer, Sir Gavin (1969). Hannibal: Challenging Rome's Supremacy p. 91. ^ Dodge, Theodore Ayrault (1995). Hannibal: A History of the Art of War Among the Carthaginians and Romans Down to the Battle of Pydna, 168 BC . Da Capo Press. ^ Reverse Spins Patton, the Second Coming of Hannibal . ^ Hilowitz, Beverley (1974). A Horizon guide: great historic places of Europe . American Heritage Pub. Co., p. 119. ISBN   0-07-028915-8 ^ "Hamilcar Barca" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 6 June 2011 . ^ De Beer, Sir Gavin (1969). Hannibal: Challenging Rome's Supremacy p. 94. ^ a b c d e " The History of Rome: Vol III " . , by Livy ^ Silius Italicus, Punica , III, 97 ^ Picard, Gilbert Charles (1967), Hannibal p. 119 ^ Silius Italicus, Punica , III, 63–64 ^ Antichthon . Vol.  1– 6. Sydney University Press. 1967. ^ Pinder, North (1869). Selections from the less known Latin poets . Clarendon Press. p. 364. ^ Dodge, Theodore Ayrault (2004). Hannibal: A History of the Art of War Among the Carthaginians and Romans Down to the Battle of Pydna, 168 B.C., with a Detailed Account of the Second Punic War . Da Capo Press. p. 143. ISBN   978-0-306-81362-7 . ^ Hoyos, D. Hannibal's Dynasty: Power and Politics in the Western Mediterranean, 247–183 BC , pp. 89–91, 2003 ^ De Beer, Sir Gavin (1969). Hannibal: Challenging Rome's Supremacy pp. 112–113. ^ De Beer, Sir Gavin (1969). Hannibal: Challenging Rome's Supremacy p. 113.

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Legacy The Oath of Hannibal by Benjamin West , 1770 Ancient world Hannibal caused great distress to many in Roman society. He became such a figure of terror that whenever disaster threatened, Romans would exclaim " Hannibal ad portas " ("Hannibal is at the gates!") to emphasize the gravity of the emergency, a phrase still used in modern languages. [ 1 ] His legacy was recorded by his Greek tutor, Sosylus of Lacedaemon . [ 2 ] The works of Roman writers such as Livy (64 or 59 BC – AD 12 or 17), Frontinus ( c. AD 40–103), and Juvenal (1st–2nd century AD) show a grudging admiration for Hannibal. The Romans even built statues of him in the streets of Rome to advertise their defeat of such a worthy adversary. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] It is plausible to suggest that Hannibal engendered the greatest fear Rome had towards an enemy. Nevertheless, the Romans grimly refused to admit the possibility of defeat and rejected all overtures for peace; they even refused to accept the ransom of prisoners after the Battle of Cannae. [ 5 ] During the war there are no reports of revolutions among the Roman citizens, no factions within the Senate desiring peace, no pro-Carthaginian Roman turncoats, and no coups. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] Throughout the war, Roman aristocrats ferociously competed with each other for positions of command to fight against Rome's most dangerous enemy. Hannibal's military genius was not enough to really disturb the Roman political process and the collective political and military capacity of the Roman people. As Lazenby states, It says volumes, too, for their political maturity and respect for constitutional forms that the complicated machinery of government continued to function even amidst disaster—there are few states in the ancient world in which a general who had lost a battle like Cannae would have dared to remain, let alone would have continued to be treated respectfully as head of state. [ 8 ] According to Livy, the Romans feared Hannibal's military genius, and during Hannibal's march against Rome in 211 BC: a messenger who had travelled from Fregellae for a day and a night without stopping created great alarm in Rome, and the excitement was increased by people running about the City with wildly exaggerated accounts of the news he had brought. The wailing cry of the matrons was heard everywhere, not only in private houses but even in the temples. Here they knelt and swept the temple-floors with their dishevelled hair and lifted up their hands to heaven in piteous entreaty to the gods that they would deliver the City of Rome out of the hands of the enemy and preserve its mothers and children from injury and outrage. [ 9 ] In the Senate, the news was "received with varying feelings as men's temperaments differed", [ 9 ] so it was decided to keep Capua under siege but to send 15,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry as reinforcements to Rome. [ 9 ] According to Livy, the land occupied by Hannibal's army outside Rome in 211 BC was sold by a Roman while it was occupied. [ 10 ] This may not be true, but as Lazenby states, "could well be, exemplifying as it does not only the supreme confidence felt by the Romans in ultimate victory, but also the way in which something like normal life continued." [ 11 ] After Cannae, the Romans showed considerable steadfastness. As an example of Rome's confidence, after the Cannae disaster she was left virtually defenseless; however, the Senate still chose not to withdraw a single garrison from an overseas province to strengthen the city. In fact, they were reinforced and the campaigns there maintained until victory was secured; beginning first in Sicily under the direction of Claudius Marcellus, and later in Hispania under Scipio Africanus. [ 12 ] [ 13 ] Although the long-term consequences of Hannibal's war are debatable, this war was undeniably Rome's "finest hour". [ 14 ] [ 15 ] Most of the sources available to historians about Hannibal are from Romans. They considered him the greatest enemy Rome had ever faced. Livy indicates that Hannibal was extremely cruel. Even Cicero , when he talked of Rome and its two great enemies, spoke of the "honourable" Pyrrhus and the "cruel" Hannibal. Yet a different picture sometimes emerges. 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. Any bias attributed to Polybius, however, is more troublesome. Historian Ronald Mellor considers the Greek scholar a loyal partisan of Scipio Aemilianus , [ 16 ] while H. Ormerod does not view him as an "altogether unprejudiced witness" when it came to his pet peeves, the Aetolians, the Carthaginians, and the Cretans. [ 17 ] Nonetheless, Polybius did recognize that the reputation for cruelty the Romans attached to Hannibal might in reality have been by mistaking him for one of his officers, Hannibal Monomachus. [ 18 ] In the Severan period , Hannibal was portrayed as a successful military leader from history who could serve as an exemplary figure for a Roman audience. [ 19 ] In the 13th century, Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes writes that Severus (likely Septimius Severus ), being of Libyan birth, constructed a tomb of white marble for Hannibal in Libyssa. Scholars debate whether this act was intended to promote a unified North African identity, stimulate local economic interests, or link Severus with past military heroes to strengthen his legacy, reflecting a broader Severan policy of honoring local traditions and historical figures. [ 19 ] Military history The material of legend: in Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812) J. M. W. Turner envelops Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in Romantic atmosphere. Hannibal is generally regarded as one of the best military strategists and tacticians of all time, the double envelopment at Cannae an enduring legacy of tactical brilliance. Military academies all over the world continue to study Hannibal's exploits, especially his victory at Cannae. [ 20 ] According to Appian , several years after the Second Punic War, Hannibal served as a political advisor in the Seleucid Kingdom and Scipio arrived there on a diplomatic mission from Rome. It is said that at one of their meetings in the gymnasium Scipio and Hannibal had a conversation on the subject of generalship, in the presence of a number of bystanders, and that Scipio asked Hannibal whom he considered the greatest general, to which the latter replied " Alexander of Macedonia ". To this Scipio assented since he also yielded the first place to Alexander. Then he asked Hannibal whom he placed next, and he replied " Pyrrhus of Epirus ", because he considered boldness the first qualification of a general; "for it would not be possible", he said, "to find two kings more enterprising than these". Scipio was rather nettled by this, but nevertheless he asked Hannibal to whom he would give the third place, expecting that at least the third would be assigned to him; but Hannibal replied, "to myself; for when I was a young man I conquered Hispania and crossed the Alps with an army, the first after Hercules ." As Scipio saw that he was likely to prolong his self-laudation he said, laughing, "where would you place yourself, Hannibal, if you had not been defeated by me?" Hannibal, now perceiving his jealousy, replied, "in that case I should have put myself before Alexander". Thus Hannibal continued his self-laudation, but flattered Scipio in an indirect manner by suggesting that he had conquered one who was the superior of Alexander. At the end of this conversation Hannibal invited Scipio to be his guest, and Scipio replied that he would be so gladly if Hannibal were not living with Antiochus , who was held in suspicion by the Romans. Thus did they, in a manner worthy of great commanders, cast aside their enmity at the end of their wars. [ 21 ] Hannibal's celebrated feat in crossing the Alps with war elephants passed into European legend: detail of a fresco by Jacopo Ripanda , c.  1510 , Capitoline Museums , Rome. Maximilian Otto Bismarck Caspari in his article in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911), 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 strategies 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 North Africans, Iberians 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 skillful 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 Gaius 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. [ 22 ] Even the Roman chroniclers acknowledged Hannibal's supreme military leadership, writing that "he never required others to do what he could not and would not do himself". [ 23 ] According to Polybius 23, 13, p. 423: It is a remarkable and very cogent proof of Hannibal's having been by nature a real leader and far superior to anyone else in statesmanship, that though he spent seventeen years in the field, passed through so many barbarous countries, and employed to aid him in desperate and extraordinary enterprises numbers of men of different nations and languages, no one ever dreamt of conspiring against him, nor was he ever deserted by those who had once joined him or submitted to him. A bust of Hannibal, 17th century, Museum of Antiquities (Saskatoon) Prior to World War I, Count Alfred von Schlieffen developed his " Schlieffen Plan " from his military studies, including the envelopment technique that Hannibal employed in the Battle of Cannae. [ 24 ] [ 25 ] George S. Patton believed himself a reincarnation of Hannibal—as well as of many other people, including a Roman legionary and a Napoleonic soldier. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. , the commander of the Coalition of the Gulf War of 1990–1991, claimed, "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." [ 28 ] 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 marched to and fro among so many armies of troops superior to his own numbers and material as fearlessly and skilfully 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. 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-manoeuvres, 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. [ 29 ] In modern Tunisia Due to his origin and connection with the territory belonging to modern-day Tunisia, he is widely revered as a national hero in the country. [ 30 ] Hannibal's likeness is depicted on the Tunisian five-dinar bill issued on 8 November 1993, as well as on a bill put into circulation on 20 March 2013. His name appears in the name of a private television channel, Hannibal TV . A street in Carthage , located near the Punic ports, bears his name; as does as a station on the TGM railway line: "Carthage Hannibal". Plans envisage a mausoleum and a 17-metre (56 ft) high colossus of Hannibal on the Byrsa , the highest point of Carthage overlooking Tunis . [ 31 ] Other Hannibal's monumental tomb in Kocaeli , Turkey The teenaged Sigmund Freud regarded Hannibal as a "hero"; the founder of psychoanalysis portrays an idealized image of Hannibal in his analysis of his "dreams of Rome" in The Interpretation of Dreams . Freud associates this phenomenon with the adage "All roads lead to Rome". He writes: "Hannibal and Rome symbolized for the adolescent that I was the opposition between the tenacity of Judaism and the organizing spirit of the Catholic Church". [ 32 ] Kocaeli in Turkey has a cenotaph built in Hannibal's memory. Even though the location of Hannibal's tomb could not be determined precisely in the studies carried out through President Atatürk's great interest, a monumental cenotaph was built in 1981 in the south of present-day Gebze as an expression of Atatürk's respect for Hannibal. Popular culture In November 2023, it was announced Antoine Fuqua would reunite with Denzel Washington on a film about Hannibal for Netflix, with John Logan writing the screenplay. [ 33 ] This fell through. Another production of Hannibal Barca is in development by Ken Sibanda, [ 34 ] based on his opera and graphic novels, Hannibal the Great: An Opera . [ 35 ] ^ Alan Emrich, Practical Latin Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page ). ^ Holland, Rome and her Enemies 8 ^ Cornelius Nepos (1895). Selected Lives . Ginn & Company. p. 181 . Retrieved 20 October 2022 . ^ Livy, The War With Hannibal 22.61 ^ Lazenby, Hannibal's War 237–238 ^ Goldsworthy, The Fall of Carthage 315 ^ J. F. Lazenby, The Hannibalic War , 254 ^ a b c "Livy's History of Rome" . Mcadams.posc.mu.edu. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016 . Retrieved 6 June 2013 . ^ Livy, The War with Hannibal, 26.11 ^ J.F. Lazenby, The Hannibalic War , p. 254 ^ Bagnall, The Punic Wars 203 ^ Lazenby, Hannibal's War 235 ^ Lazenby Hannibal's War 254 ^ Goldsworthy, Adrian (2012). The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265–146BC . Hachette UK. pp.  366– 367. ISBN   978-1780223063 . Retrieved 15 May 2018 . ^ Mellor, Ronald J. The Historians of Ancient Rome ^ Omerod, H. Piracy in the Ancient World , p. 141 ^ De Beer, Sir Gavin (1969). Hannibal: Challenging Rome's Supremacy p. 111. ^ a b Lentzsch, Simon (2024). "In the footsteps of the past – the Severans and the Tomb of Hannibal". In Hoffmann-Salz, Julia; Heil, Matthäus; Wienholz, Holger (eds.). The Eastern Roman Empire under the Severans: Old Connections, new Beginnings? . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht . pp.  226– 227, 234– 236. ISBN   978-3-647-30251-5 . ^ Messer, Rick Jay (2009). The influence of Hannibal of Carthage on the art of war and how his legacy has been interpreted (Thesis). CiteSeerX   10.1.1.582.1385 . hdl : 2097/1503 . {{ cite thesis }} : Cite uses deprecated parameter |citeseerx= ( help ) ^ Appian, History of the Syrian Wars , §10 and §11 at Livius.org Archived 27 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine ^ Caspari, M.O.B. (1911). "Hannibal (general)"  . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. ^ Hannibal Archived 17 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine at CarpeNoctem.tv ^ Daly, Gregory (2003). Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War . Psychology Press. p. x. ISBN   978-0-415-32743-5 . ^ Cottrell, Leonard (1992). Hannibal: Enemy of Rome . Perseus Books Group. p. 134. ISBN   978-0-306-80498-4 . ^ "Any man who thinks he is the reincarnation of Hannibal or some such isn't quite possessed of all his buttons", quoted by D'Este, Carlo (1996). Patton: A Genius for War . HarperCollins. ISBN   978-0-06-092762-2 . , p. 815 ^ Hirshson, Stanley, General Patton: A Soldier's Life , p. 163 ^ Carlton, James, The Military Quotation Book , New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 2002. [ ISBN missing ] [ page needed ] ^ Cite error: The named reference dodge was invoked but never defined (see the help page ). ^ "Hannibal: The Last Hero of The Free World of Antiquity" . Carthage Magazine . 25 August 2020 . Retrieved 21 January 2022 . ^ "Le prototype d'une statue de Hannibal présenté au président de la République" . Espace Manager . Retrieved 5 October 2020 . ^ Sigmund Freud, L'interprétation du rêve ( Die Traumdeutung , 1900), Œuvres complètes de Freud / Psychanalyse (OCF.P) IV, Paris: PUF/Quadrige, 2010, p. 234. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr.; Kroll, Justin (13 November 2023). "Denzel Washington To Play Hannibal, Carthaginian Warrior Who Attacked Rome Atop Elephant; Reteam With Antoine Fuqua At Netflix With Script By 'Gladiator's John Logan" . Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 22 May 2026 . ^ "Ken Sibanda" . IMDb.com . Retrieved 22 July 2026 . ^ "Hannibal the Great" . IMDb.com . Retrieved 22 July 2026 .

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