Hannibal (247 – between 183 and 181 BC),fully Hannibal Barca, was a Punic military commander from Carthage, generally considered one of the greatest military commanders in history.
Hamilcar Barca – Hannibal’s father, was the leading Carthaginian general during the First Punic War.
He commanded the Carthaginian land forces in Sicily from 247 BC to 241 BC, during the latter stages of the conflict; and as such, was pretty successful in mounting localized guerrilla-inspired raids until the Carthaginians were forced to retire from the island.
More importantly, Hamilcar was instrumental in carving out the ‘newer’ overseas territories of Carthage in Iberia (Spain) by expanding upon her initial dominions.
Livy records that when the young Hannibal begged his father to accompany him, Hamilcar agreed, but made his son swear that as long as he lived, he would never be a friend to Rome.
After his father drowned in battle and his brother was later assassinated, command of the Carthaginian army fell to Hannibal.
Rome, fearing what was beginning to look like an ominous resurgence in Carthaginian power, formed an alliance with the city of Saguntum on Iberia’s eastern coast.
This was the excuse Hannibal needed to reopen hostilities with Rome.
Suffice it to say, Hamilcar was known for his dynamic initiatives on military campaigns – with one incident even involving a lightning fast raid inside the southern part of mainland Italy.
In fact, this intrinsic swiftness of attitude and planning is what inspired fellowmen to bestow the moniker of baraq (or Barca) upon Hamilcar.
Baraq in Semitic roughly translates to ‘lightning flash’.
And Hannibal not only carried forth his father’s legacy through this adopted surname of Barca, but also by his deeds.
As Annaeus Florus, a 2nd century AD Roman historian compared the great Hannibal and his army to a lightning bolt (in Epitome of the Histories) –
[which] burst its way through the midst of the Alps and swooped down upon Italy from those snows of fabulous heights like a missile hurled from the sky.
Hannibal lived during a period of great tension in the Mediterranean Basin, when the Roman Republic established its supremacy over other great powers such as ancient Carthage and the Hellenistic kingdoms of : Macedonia, Syracuse, and the Seleucid Empire.
One of his most famous achievements was at the outbreak of the Second Punic War, when he marched an army which included war elephants from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy.
In his first few years in Italy, he won three dramatic victories:
Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae,
He distinguished himself for his ability to determine his and his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, and to play the battle to his strengths and the enemy’s weaknesses—and won over many allies of Rome.
A calculated show of audacity
Hannibal occupied much of Italy for 15 years but was unable to march on Rome.
An enemy counter-invasion of North Africa forced him to return to Carthage, where he was decisively defeated by Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama.
Scipio had studied Hannibal’s tactics and brilliantly devised some of his own, and finally defeated Rome’s nemesis at Zama, having previously driven Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal out of the Iberian Peninsula.
After the war, Hannibal took office as Chief Magistrate, and brought a measure of prosperity back to the bruised trading empire of Carthage.
The Romans noted this, and seven years after Zama, they demanded he hand himself over.
Hannibal promptly entered a self-imposed exile, where he continued to fight Roman rule where he could.
- Hannibal overturning An aquila, or eagle, a prominent symbol used in ancient Rome, especially as the standard of a Roman legion.
He enacted political and financial reforms to enable the payment of the war indemnity imposed by Rome; however, Hannibal’s reforms were unpopular with members of the Carthaginian aristocracy and Rome.
During this time, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military advisor to Antiochus III the Great in war against Rome.
Antiochus met defeat at the Battle of Magnesia and was forced to accept Rome’s terms, and Hannibal fled again, making a stop in the Kingdom of Armenia.
His flight ended in the court of Bithynia, where he achieved an outstanding naval victory against a fleet from Pergamon.
He was afterwards betrayed to the Romans. After many adventures (and several further defeats), Hannibal took his own life by poison.
His suicide note read:
“Let us relieve the Romans from the anxiety they have so long experienced, since they think it tries their patience too much to wait for an old man’s death.”
Diplomacy-focused Technology
Rome and Carthage both feature new civil tech-tree branches focused on diplomacy.
Both sides begin with multiple allies and client states, and can undermine their opponents’ support by diplomatic means.
Hannibal is often regarded as one of the greatest military strategists in history and one of the greatest generals of antiquity, together with Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Scipio Africanus, and Pyrrhus of Epirus.
Plutarch states that Hannibal was questioned by Scipio as to who was the greatest general, and Hannibal replied either Alexander or Pyrrhus, then himself,
or, according to another version of the event, Pyrrhus, Scipio, then himself.
Military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge called Hannibal the “father of strategy”,because his greatest enemy, Rome, came to adopt elements of his military tactics in its own strategic arsenal.
This praise has earned him a strong reputation in the modern world, and he was regarded as a great strategist by Napoleon and others.