This is an historical biography of Hannibal, the military leader of Carthage responsible for waging a dramatic onslaught on Rome during the Punic Wars. One of the few generals of history to be famous for the war he lost, Hannibal's attack in 218 BC - which included his renowned march of elephants across the Alps - ranks amongst the most courageous and ill-fated enterprises in the history of the ancient world. It was after the defeat of Hannibal that Rome was able to assert its strength in the Mediterranean, establishing the Roman Republic as the most formidable force in Europe.
The book explores Hannibal's character and career. It shows how his actions as commander of the Carthaginian army in Spain consciously precipitated the Second Punic war in which he intended to exact revenge on Rome for earlier defeats. His march across the Alps, and then his war to wrest control of Italy from Rome - a conflict lasting more than a decade - has an inevitable, tragic fascination. Hannibal's hatred of the Romans drove him around the centres of the old Hellenistic world. He finally killed himself rather than be taken captive back to Rome.
• All Rome could see was that they had to have all of the Mediterranean and the only thing that stood in their way was a single General and his men.
• Hannibal, a Carthaginian general and one of the greatest generals that ever lived was renown for his strategies and courageousness, such as crossing the Alps and using the "bottleneck strategy" at Lake Trasemene. He used strategies that a lot of generals at this time, especially Roman generals, would never think of and in doing this he almost destroyed the Roman republic.
Twenty-two centuries ago there lived a man named Hannibal, the son of Hamilcar Barca a Carthaginian. Hamilcar was a general in the Carthaginian military in the first Punic War. After the defeat of Carthage in the first Punic War, Hamilcar made Hannibal swear "eternal enmity" to Rome.
In 228 b.c. Hasdrubal, Hannibal`s brother-in-law, succeeded Hamilcar and became commander. This meant that not only was the leader of the military but also the political leader as well. In 221 b.c. Hasdrubal was assassinated and Hannibal became commander in Spain. Hannibal was only 25 years old when he was put in command of the Carthaginian armies and the Carthaginian government in Spain. Even at a young age he knew his responsibilities, so he kept his father's plan of military conquest and his brother-in-law`s policy of strengthening Carthaginian power by democracy. He married a Spanish princess and took hostages from the surrounding tribes to ensure their loyalty to him. As a result of this he expanded the Carthaginian power toward the Ebro river, which was the written northern boundary of Carthage by the Rome treaty of 226. Rome attacked Saguntum, a city close to but clearly on the Carthaginian side of the border. This provoked Hannibal to take back Saguntum. The Romans considered this an act of war. So in 218 b.c. Rome declared war on Carthage. This begins the second Punic War.
After hearing the declaration of war Hannibal immediately starts off towards Rome. The problem was he had to go by land because Rome controlled the seas. Hannibal takes an army of thirty-five to forty thousand men, some on foot and others on horse, along with fifty war elephants across the Pyrenees and the Alps in August of 218. Bad luck falls into Hannibal's lap as early snows and landslides kill many of his men and almost all of his war elephants. While traveling through the Alps he fights battles at Arausio and Genua, easily defeating the Roman warriors, although his troops are in horrible shape. He enters Italy with only twenty-six thousand men and five or six war elephants in September 218. Hannibal and his troops spent the winter in Po Valley. In the spring of 217 b.c. Hannibal was joined by the Gauls, northern Italians who were subdued into fighting the Romans.
