Leaving one military genius for another, our epic review comes to Hannibal. No, not the crazy serial killer from silence of the lambs, but the awesome ‘father of strategy’ of actual history.
Hannibal is relatively unknown in history, besides for being the general that crossed the alps with fucking elephants. You might have passed the subject casually during High School history classes or not, depending on where you live. Regardless, Hannibal did more than that, hence this humble heap of text as homage to the great Carthaginian commander.
Biography
Before emphasizing on our dramatic personae, we must define the setting of our play. Carthage was poor. It had just lost a war (First Punic War as historians would call it) with Rome and had both its navy and economy shot to shambles. Basically it was Germany post World War II.
Hannibal, born son to Hamilcar Barca in Carthage (now in Libya, in North Africa) entered life in 247 B.C. His father Hamilcar was a general and politician in Carthage, who attempted to restore the city to some level of power. To do this, he set out to conquer the tribes of what is now Spain. According to the Roman historian Livy, Hannibal was allowed to join his father and brother Hasdrubal to war if he swore that he would always be an enemy to -the Allied Forces- Rome.
To recap;
Hannibal - our hero for today
Hasdrubal - his brother (in-law)
Hamilcar - the father
Very well, so now the happy family is waging war on the Spanish tribes. Alas, Hamilcar eventually fell in battle. Hasdrubal assumed command but he went a slightly different way than his father-in-law. Hamilcar went about the peace method, signing treaties with the tribes and even with Rome itself. This worked, and the conquered areas were secure, however, this also meant Carthage was no longer expanding.
Hasdrubal was assassinated later in 221 BC. Hannibal was appointed commander of the army and began securing the Hispanian area and flushing out the final packs of resistance. Rome in the meantime became a little fearful of the Carthagian and went around making different alliances. Hannibal, not exactly being a friend of the Romans, decided this was a breach of the treaty make by Hasdrubal. Due to his popularity he was backed up by Carthage it self and thus the Second Punic War was started.
Hannibal’s plan was to march straight to Rome, sieging it and taking it. Quite ambitious in its own right. Then comes his maneuver that made him famous throughout military history; in order to surprise the Italian city he adapted his fallen brother’s plan to transverse the Alps and scare Rome shitless. I’m not going to list the route or list every skirmish here, go consult the wikipedia page for that if you’re curious. But it does deserve mention that this route did not enter history because it was solely surprising. Hannibal is commended for leading an army that was diverse in language, culture and currency, through rough terrain and even rougher weather while fighting off hostile tribes and enemy guerilla warfare. This is an important part in the story, for here begins his awesomeness; from this point onward, Hannibal fought without reinforcements for the entire duration of the war. Any additional troops were recruited from Italian settlements.
Hannibal would proceed to decimate the Romans; in general 3 major victories are listed. First is the Battle of Trebia. Hannibal would fight Roman commander (consul) Scipio, slaughtering roughly 20,000 Italians while his own losses were low (no number, just low). He would then fight the Battle of Lake Trasimene. Hannibal fought commander Flaminius, slaying 30,000 Romans and capturing an additional 10,000 (!) while himself losing only 1,500 men.
The final one in our trinity of death is the Battle of Cannae, where Hannibal with 40,000 troops would face Roman commanders ordering around an army of around 80,000 soldiers. Due to brilliant tactics, Hannibal absolutely devastated the Romans, Killing 70,000 including the Roman generals and taking 11,000 prisoners. While ‘only’ suffering 6,000 casualties himself.
For the next 10 years or so, Hannibal would continue cruising around the Roman republic, moving undefeated as he pleased. On the other hand, for the same period of time he received no reinforcements or supplies whatsoever, having to rely on loot and local mercenaries to do the job. He never got to take Rome though.
Eventually he was recalled back to Carthage, to help the city defend from a Roman counter-invasion. Here he was too lose his first battle to Roman general Scipio Africanus who was nicknamed the “Rome Hannibal”. The defeat of Carthage resulted in an end to Hannibal’s military career.
He would later proof himself a capable statesman and slowly regained popularity and influence. The Romans, fearing a Second Coming of Hannibal, resulted in him going into voluntary exile from Carthage. In the following years the lone tactician would travel from nation to nation, occasionally helping out a king in military need (usually against the Romans) although he never regained full military glory
It is said he eventually committed suicide by taking poison hidden in his ring instead of falling prisoner to Rome.
Legacy
I fear that the exact threat Hannibal conveyed to the Romans is kind of lost in this block of text. So I’d like to emphasize par example; the phrase “Hannibal ad portas” (”Hannibal is at the gates”) would go down in history as being uttered in fear or terror of an imminent threat. Hannibal also served as a Roman boogeyman, with parents telling their children to behave for fear of the Carthegian general taking them away. In fact the ad portas phrases is still in use today by a few people who enjoy uttering Latin phrases.
So yeah, he was such a successful adversary that his name was used to frighten children, that makes you OK in my book.
If you liked this article, please donate and find out for yourself that the greatest gift is to give to others
