Hannibal: Rome's Greatest Enemy

Hannibal was very successful in the numerous battles but he knew he would not take Rome. Hannibal turned to politics to gain the support of Rome's allies, but he did not receive enough. While Hannibal was moving through Italy Rome was preoccupied on another front. They had enter their Macedonian wars and were spread thin. For several years the two empire engaged in open battles, raids, and skirmishes. By 202 B.C., Hannibal's resources were depleted and he had no choice but to return and hold a defensive position against Rome. Rome regained a large amount of land through the peace treaty and Carthage lost the advantages they once

Hannibal was born in 247BCE, he was the son of a Carthaginian general named Hamilcar Barcareerred, who rallied his North African nation-state from defeat in the First Punic War (264–241 BC) to conquer much of Iberia. Hannibal grew up in military service, and following the 221 BC assassination of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal, who had replaced Hamilcar, Hannibal took charge of the Carthaginian army. He soon proved a brilliant field commander who applied his intellect and martial skills to the singular end of winning battles. Hannibal, a sworn enemy of all things Roman, declared war against them and this was the start of the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). Victory in Italy was Hannibal’s sole objective. To achieve it, he marched the bulk of his army in Iberia across southern Gaul and over the Alps into the Roman heartland. Hannibal’s strategy was to attack Rome. Although his tactics for battle were superior he had strategic failures which would eventually lead to his campaign in failure.

In the dialogue between Bryan Ward-Perkins and Peter Heather “The Fall of Rome” the two historians answer a few questions that relate to the fall of Rome. The one specific time the two authors both agree is when Ward-Perkins mentions “disappointingly (perhaps) I basically agree with Peter here – neither of us have much time for the theory that the empire was quietly ‘transformed’, by the peaceful ‘accommodation’ into it of some Germanic barbarians. We both believe in invasions that were violent and unpleasant” (Heather, Peter, and Bryan Ward-Perkins). This is the only time presently written that both historians agreed on a given point. Peter’s statement that Ward-Perkins followed up with the agreement is “I am entirely convinced by all the evidence that shows that the late Empire was not being torn apart by irrevocable processes of decline by the fourth century” (Heather, Peter, and Bryan Ward-Perkins). The two authors are convinced that the transition was not peaceful, and from the information provided from the different wars there would have had to have been violence and not peace.

In both ancient and modern interpretations and perceptions, Hannibal is infamous for leading the Carthaginian army and a squadron of elephants athwart the Southern European region and the Alps Mountains against the Roman Empire, who were manifested as the most powerful army, in the Second Punic War. Hannibal is overly expressed and given light to throughout his career and conquest in Italy by prominently well-renowned historians, including: Titus Livy, who was considered as the least reliable source as he was tremendously reliant on other eyewitness accounts of contingency, and was greatly one-sided toward the Romans. Polybius, who was ultimately much more detached, and perceived sources objectively with balance. And modern historians,

Rome’s main military opposition was Carthage, a kingdom located on the northern coast of Africa. Carthage and Rome fought in a series of three wars known as the Punic Wars. The second Punic War, fought from 218-202 BC was led by Hannibal on the Carthaginian side and Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus with Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus on the Roman side. The Battle of Lake Trasimene 217 BC was a major battle in the Second Punic War. Under Hannibal, the Carthaginian army defeated the Romans, who were lead by the consul Gaius Flaminius. This battle helped the Carthaginians to bring the Romans close to defeat, Hannibal was able to execute his father Hamilcar’s strategy perfectly in this battle. In the Battle of Cannae, the Carthaginians were just as lucky. Rome’s larger army, under Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro, was efficiently and easily defeated by the Carthaginian forces. Though Carthage surprised Rome with many victories, the Punic War ended in 202 BC with the The Battle of Zama. Scipio lead the Roman army and defeated the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal. Though Hannibal's army had more men than Scipio's, and he had eighty elephants, Rome showed their superiority and skill in ending the Second Punic War with this battle. Many years after this, another kingdom of North Africa, Numidia, fostered a connection with Rome. King Jugurtha of this region was able to benefit from the Roman soldiers through bribery and connections with them.

According to the Romans nomads were considered to be barbarians, however over time Romans began to develop nomadic customs which were no longer considered barbaric but civilized. To the Romans a ‘barbarian’ was anyone who was an outsider of their land, and in that case nomads were considered to be barbaric. Nomads are known as a small group of people that don’t have a permanent settlement, and travel and migrate from place to place. Nomadic people also had a different type of lifestyle from the Romans, for example the nomads hunted and gathered their food, and which was considered cave man like. Before the fall of Rome the Romans were considered to be civilized people with a respectable religion and

Carthage was founded around 813 BCE by the Phoenician Queen Elissa also known as Dido. Originally the city was called Kart-hadasht, but the Greeks called it Karchedon and then the Romans changed it to Carthago. The city started off as only a small port on the coast used for short stops, however over time Carthage became the most powerful city in the Mediterranean before the progression of Rome. After the fall of the Phoenician city of Tyre in 332 BCE, Carthage became the new center of Phoenician trade with a harbor made up of 220 docks in a semi-circle. The Carthaginians enslaved and demanded money from native africans in the area and grew the city in size. They also became very successful in trading. In less then one hundred years Carthage became the richest city in the Mediterranean.

With all that was now available to the Romans, building bridges and writing poetry, having a life full of culture, surely the Romans were now unbeatable. With each new ruler came a slight change in government, some of whom wanted to go back to the original system and others clamoring for more sole power over the city and it's

Over the course of one-hundred years the Mediterranean antiquity was rocked by an ancient cold war between the North African seafaring state of Carthage, and the newly rising city of Rome located on the Italian Peninsula. In the course of two major wars and one extended three year long siege of Carthage itself Rome would conquer its last major foe and turn the Mediterranean into a Roman lake.

The Roman military was one of the most powerful and successful militaries of all time because they trained stronger troops, created superior weaponry and had better leadership than any other military in their time-period. The Roman military’s leadership was a crucial factor in the Roman’s success as demonstrated by military general Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was one of the better generals of his time-period because his troops appreciated him more, mostly because Caesar allowed them to have a large share of whatever they plundered. With Caesar allowing his troops to have a large portion of whatever they seize, he could get his army to follow his every command no matter what the situation was, even if it was considered illegal in Roman law. Caesar broke Roman law, when he ordered his troops to cross the Rubicon, which is the point where no general could take his armies past and because of this, Caesar continued pursing his conquest of Gaul. Gaul is one of the largest areas of the Roman area, known today as France After the Roman Empire collapsed, Caesar became a member of the ruling “Triumvirate,” as well as Crassus and Pompey. Caesar then set out to eliminate the other members and when he took out Pompey, Caesar appointed himself dictator for life. Caesar was an important leader to the Roman success because he was able to control his troops no matter if the situation was legal or illegal and if food was scarce, his troops followed his every command, which made them a

This changed when Quintus Fabius Maximus was elected dictator. He shadowed Hannibal’s movements, limiting him and picking off foraging parties and scouts. This strategy became known as Fabian Tactics, and it has been used by generals such as George Washington and Barclay de Tolly to pull victory from what looks like certain defeat. Electing Fabius dictator was one of the most important decisions of the war because it saved Rome from many possible defeats. After his time was up, he gave the power back to the

Finally on the 15th day, after a journey of five months from Cartagena, with 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and only a few of the original 38 elephants, Hannibal descended into Italy, having surmounted the difficulties of climate and terrain, the guerrilla tactics of inaccessible tribes, and the major difficulty of commanding a body of men diverse in race and language under conditions to which they were ill fitted (wsu.edu).      Hannibal's forces were now totally inadequate to match the army of Scipio, who had rushed to the Po River to protect the recently founded Roman colonies of Placentia (modern Piacenza) and Cremona. The first action between the two armies took place on the plains west of the Ticino River, and Hannibal's Numidian cavalry prevailed. Scipio was severely wounded, and the Romans withdrew to Placentia. After manoeuvres failed to lead to a second engagement, the combined armies of Sempronius Longus and Scipio met Hannibal on the left bank of the Trebia River south of Placentia and were soundly defeated (December 218). This victory brought both Gauls and Ligurians to Hannibal's side, and his army was considerably augmented by Celtic recruits. After a severe winter (in which he contracted an eye infection), he was able to advance in the spring of 217 as far as the Arno River (wsu.edu). Although two Roman armies were now in the field against him, he was able to outmanoeuvre that of Gaius Flaminius

Even with his fast cavalry and strong infantry Hannibal knew that he did not have resources like Rome. In fact, he was always outnumbered in every battle. Yet despite of being outnumbered, his strategies helped the Carthaginians win most of the battles in the second Punic war. For example, in the battle of Lake Trasimene, Hannibal trapped the Romans in an ambush without an escape route. What he did was to draw the Romans in close ranks, then sneak attack them with his infantry, and block the way out with his fast cavalry. This lead to the death of 30,000 Roman soldiers plus a high ranking Roman general named Flaminius. In this battle, the casualties of Hannibal’s forces were only 2,500 soldiers.

In October of 218 BC, he crossed the Rhone river and ventured into what made him so famous. Snow was already on the high passes of the Alps. Hannibal started his march across the Alps with 40,000 men along with a calvary and a large number of war elephants carrying supplies. After the crossing only 26,000 of his troops were still alive due to the harsh weather and skirmishes with the local tribes. To make up for his losses, Hannibal recruited Gallic people of Northern Italy. In December 218 BC Hannibal got victories against Romans and secured the Padus Valley. In the spring of 217 BC Hannibal handed the Roman Counsel Gaius Flaminius, who was killed in battle, a huge loss at the battle of Lake Trasimene. After his victory Hannibal crossed the Apennines and invaded the Roman provinces of Picenu, and Apulia and then back into Campania. Instead of storming Rome, Hannibal marched through Italy in to Apulia and destroyed as he proceeded, but suffered heavy losses in manpower. Hannibal spent the winter of 217 BC in the Apulian plains and in the following summer faced a 54,000 strong Roman army. Hannibal circled around the Romans forcing them in to each other confusing the Romans, then easily destroyed then with his calvary. More than half of the Roman Army was lost. After that huge victory many Indian tribes aligned with Carthage. Syracuse left the Roman cause and Philip V of Macedon became an ally even though he never gave any aid. Many argue that Hannibal's

"Among the praiseworthy deeds of Hannibal is counted this: that, having a very large army, made up of all kinds of men, which he commanded in foreign lands, there never arose the slightest dissention, neither among themselves nor against their princes, both during his good and bad fortune." (The Prince Chapter XVII)