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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:
1.
Heroism of Hannibal Barca
2.
Hannibal Barca the Military Genius
3.
Hannibal2
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