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Biographies: Hannibal Barca
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Posted by Shogun 144 on February 15 2005, 07:50 PM
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Hannibal Barca (Carthaginian: Hanba’al Barca) was undoubtedly Republican Rome’s greatest enemy. During the Second Punic War Hannibal was a literal boogey man to the Romans and even after his death the Roman people continued to fear and hate him.
Hannibal was born in 247 B.C. In the year 247 B.C. in Carthage Hannibal was born to Hamilcar Barca (a great general in the First Punic War) and an unknown woman. For the most part we know little of Hannibal’s childhood expect for one event when he was ten. In 237 B.C. Hannibal’s father Hamilcar set out to subjugate Iberia (modern Spain) in order to provide Carthage with some much needed compensation for the loss of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica in the First Punic War. Young Hannibal followed Hamilcar and begged him to let him come with him, Hamilcar agreed, but made Hannibal swear on an altar that for as long as he lived he would never be a friend of Rome. As history shows this oath would have disastrous consequences for Rome.
Hannibal would prove his military genius in Iberia. In 229 B.C. Hamilcar died in battle with the Iberians, he chose his son-in-law, Hasdrubal the Fair as his successor. Hannibal received his first military command under Hasdrubal, and he proved himself of the name Barca brilliantly. Hasdrubal for the most part worked hard on consolidation of Carthaginian possessions through diplomatic means, going as far as making deals with the Romans, something Hannibal did not approve of. As part of his diplomatic deals Hasdrubal arranged for Hannibal to marry an Iberian princess named Imilce, their marriage would prove to be a happy one. In 221 B.C. Hasdrubal was assassinated and the Carthaginian army immediately declared the 26 year-old Hannibal as their commander-in-chief, the Carthaginian government soon confirmed his position and Hannibal set out to do things his way in Iberia. For the next two years Hannibal would win victory after victory for Carthage, by 219 he had subdued all of the trouble tribes in Carthaginian Iberia. But Hannibal felt that as long as Rome remained standing he was violating the promise to his father, so he marched north from Cartagena (also called Carthago Nova) to the city of Saguntum (modern Murviedo), which was technically below the Ebro River, the border that his brother-in-law and the Romans agreed upon as Carthaginian Iberia’s northern border. However the Romans considered Saguntum as a protectorate city and sent a delegation to Carthage demanding that Hannibal retreat back across the Ebro, but he was popular in Carthage and they sent the delegation back to Rome empty handed. After 8 months of siege Saguntum fell to Hannibal and at the end of the year Rome declared war on Carthage, the Second Punic War had begun.
When the war he wanted started Hannibal set out to end the war decisively and quickly. Following the fall of Saguntum Hannibal appointed one of his full brothers, named Hasdrubal (not to be confused with Hasdrubal the Fair) as Commander-in-Chief in Iberia and with that, he crossed the Ebro in May 218 with 75,000 foot soldiers, 9,000 cavalry, and 37 Elephants. After pushing aside the meager resistance in modern Catalonia, Hannibal marched through the Pyrenees Mountains in a lightning quick campaign, having just thought up a new strategy. This new strategy which had come to him after hearing that the Romans were concentrating their defense on Sicily was to force march his army into the one place that the Romans would not expect him: Italy. Hannibal believed that by defeating the Romans on their own ground would force a quick and decisive end to the war. After reaching Gaul Hannibal began to lightning march his men through semi-hostile territory, upon reaching the Rhone River Hannibal by use of innovative engineering and tactics (A Gallic tribe named the Volcae opposed him) got his entire army across the river, including the 37 elephants. A Roman force under Publius Scipio Major (father of Africanus) arrived soon after with orders to crush Hannibal, but he had already crossed the river by then and the Romans returned to Italy. After the Rhone crossing Hannibal encountered some friendly Gallic tribes, led by the Boii, and helped in deciding a civil war in a neighboring tribe in return for supplies. By now it was autumn ( or to be more precise October 218) and in the Alps the first snow was falling, but Hannibal was determined to cross and set out with his army in a grueling 15 day march through the Alps, braving hostile Gauls, cold weather (which killed nearly all of his elephants and many men), and a ration shortage. Through it all Hannibal and his army reached the rich breadbasket of Italy, which was now open to their attack. Hannibal’s army now numbered only 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and an unknown but small number of elephants.
Having now reached Italy Hannibal set out to make Rome howl. The Romans were completely surprised by Hannibal’s sudden appearance and mobilized an army. A Roman cavalry force dispatched from the army of P. Scipio Major met and was defeated by Hannibal’s cavalry under Maharbal at the Battle of Ticinus River. Seeing Hannibal’s victory a force of 14,000 local Gauls joined the army of Hannibal in hopes of seeing Rome defeated. Later that same month (December 218) the Romans sent another army against Hannibal, this time at the Trebia River, and again he defeated them (It is interesting to note that after Trebia Hannibal lost the last of his elephants, except his own mount, Sarai). After Trebia Hannibal decided to rest for the remainder of the winter, something his troops were thankful for. In March 217 the Romans again sent out armies against Hannibal, and in a brilliant series of marches outmaneuvered the enemy (though he lost sight in one eye due to disease while in a swamp). Because of this maneuvering Hannibal was able to trap and eradiate two whole legions under Gaius Flamininus between the hills and the shore of Trasimene Lake. After this victory Hannibal’s generals urged for a march on Rome, but he refused stating that the army lacked siege engines. After this Hannibal moved his army south and he laid waste to every thing in his path, in attempt to both bring the Romans to battle and cause the defection of the Italians to his side. But the Romans, now under Q. Fabius Maximus Cunctator refused Hannibal’s attempts to give battle and Fabius raided Hannibal’s lines. In the summer of 216 B.C. the Romans had become fed up with Fabius and ousted him, much to Hannibal’s delight their leaders marched with a truly massive army against him. By now Hannibal was running low on supplies and he made the decision to take the vital supply depot of Cannae. On the road to Cannae lay the Roman Army, and in the most brilliant victory of his career Hannibal destroyed the enemy so completely that Cannae has become a word which means crushing, decisive victory. In Cannae’s aftermath the island of Sardinia revolted and Capua, Italy’s second largest city, defected to Hannibal. From Capua Hannibal dispatched his brother Mago Barca to Carthage with news of his victories and hundreds of gold rings as proof of it.
Hannibal had defeated Rome soundly, but the Romans did not break and counterattacked. Despite numerous reversals the Roman people stubbornly refused to come to terms with Carthage, so therefore Hannibal began negotiating with the King of Macedon, Philip V, and he got an alliance with him in 215. In 214 Hannibal managed to convince the tyrant of Syracuse to ally with Carthage. In Rome the Cunctator had returned to power and his tactics caused Hannibal much grief as he tried and failed to take the ports of Cumae and Puteoli. In 213 Hannibal managed to successfully take Tarentum and several other ports, in order to allow Macedonian and Carthaginian troops a safe landing in Italy. But the Romans managed to incite the Aetolian League in Greece to war, thus tying down the Macedonians. Carthage was able to send troops but none were sent as reinforcements to Hannibal. In 212 the Romans went on the offensive and conquered Syracuse through treachery and then they laid siege to Hannibal’s capital at Capua. Hannibal attempted to take the pressure off and camped in front of Rome itself, but the Romans paid little attention to the camp and took Capua in 211. Despite this Hannibal showed his superiority in tactics by defeating a Roman army at Herdoniac (modern Ordona) in southern Italy in 210. Hannibal lost Tarentum to the Romans in 209 and with it most of southern Italy, but Hannibal struck back in 208 by defeating a Roman siege force at Locri Epizephyrii. Hannibal knew however that these small victories meant nothing in the long run, so he decided to send for aid from his brother Hasdrubal in Iberia. With a large detachment of troops from the main Carthaginian army in Iberia Hasdrubal marched to Italy more or less on the same route of his brother. This time however the Romans were prepared and Hasdrubal was defeated and killed at the Battle of Metarus River (207 B.C.). Hannibal, shocked by his brother’s defeat, then holed up his army in Bruttium where they held off against the Romans until the Carthaginian Senate called him back in 203 B.C. to help against the threat of P. Scipio Minor, who was determined to destroy Hannibal for the mortal wounding of his father at Ticinus River in 218. Before leaving however Hannibal left a set of tablets with his achievements inscribed in Punic and Greek at Crotona, as a lasting reminder of his campaign.
Carthage was on its last legs when Hannibal arrived. Upon his arrival at Carthage the people of the city rallied around the rapidly-losing-favor War Party and Hannibal was given supreme command over all Carthaginian forces. The remnants of the regular Carthaginian army as well as African levies all assembled at Hadrumetum (modern Sousse, Tunisia) and there Hannibal met and organized them, as a result a preliminary armistice that had been agreed upon with Scipio was immediately broken. In 202 B.C. both Scipio and Hannibal marched to the region known as Zama to meet up with each others Numidian allies, with most of the Numidians going with Scipio. It was shortly after this that the two men engaged each other in battle. At Zama Hannibal attempted a repeat of Cannae, but he failed and Scipio decisively defeated the Carthaginians, sending them reeling back to Carthage. One year later Scipio on behalf of the Roman Senate dictated very harsh terms to Carthage: surrender of the Carthaginian fleet, recognition of Roman control of Iberia, the payment of a war indemnity of 10,000 talents to be paid in 50 installments, and lastly (not to mention most importantly from the Roman prospective) the resignation of Hannibal from the office of Commander-in-Chief.
Hannibal had lost his war, but the old hatred of Rome still lived on. After the end of the Second Punic War Hannibal attempted to retire from public life for a while, to think and plan. But in 196 B.C. Hannibal was elected to the office of Suffete (the office of Suffete similar to the office of Roman Consul) and he could not argue with the will of the people. Hannibal proved himself to be just as able a statesman as he was a general and Hannibal passed several reforms that made Carthage more like a democracy like Athens was and less like an oligarchy. As a result Hannibal was wildly unpopular with the landed nobility and they accused him of criminal misconduct during the war and that further more he was planning to violate the peace treaty by allying with the Seleucid Empire and invading Italy again. Of course the nobility leaked all of this to Rome, which subsequently demanded Hannibal’s surrender to them. Hannibal in answer to this went into voluntary exile to none other then Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire. In Syria Antiochus III welcomed Hannibal with great enthusiasm, and made him his chief military advisor. Antiochus laid out his plan to invade Greece in 192 and Hannibal told Antiochus that he needed to make major changes to face Rome in battle and win. Antiochus was considerably embarrassed by Hannibal’s words and when news of it leaked out and he gave Hannibal a command at sea to minimize the scandal. Because of his greenness with naval warfare Hannibal lost against the Roman allied fleet of Rhodes off the coast of Side, which was located in Pamphylia province (in modern Turkey). After Antiochus was defeated at Magnesia (also in modern Turkey) he was forced among other things to give up Hannibal. Realizing his life was in danger Hannibal fled to the court of Artaxias, former Seleucid governor of Armenia. After assisting Artaxias in the planning for a new capital called Artaxata (modern Yerevan) Hannibal fled again, this time to Crete and then Bithynia. King Prusias was like Antiochus enthusiastic at Hannibal’s arrival, and during a war with King Eumenes of Pergamum, a Roman ally, he held a military command. In one particular battle at sea Hannibal, having learned his lesson at Side about naval warfare, defeated the enemy fleet by throwing cauldrons of snakes unto the Pergamene ships in 184 B.C., Rome alarmed at the defeats of Pergamum then intervened, turning the tide. In the winter of 183/182 the Romans demanded that Hannibal be given up, Prusias agreed and told them that Hannibal was living in a house in Libyssa ( near modern Bursa). Soon a large group of Roman soldiers surrounded the house and demanded that Hannibal give himself up, when there was no reply for some time the Romans burst into the house and discovered to their dismay that Hannibal had taken poison and died. And so died Hannibal Barca, one of the greatest military minds of all time, at the age of 64.
Hannibal was regarded in his own time and since then as one of history’s greatest generals, for many great generals following Hannibal’s death have all sought to replicate his march across the Alps and his great victory at Cannae. In an interesting note until the coming of Islam in the 7th Century AD his house at Libyssa was pilgrimage site for aspiring military geniuses. |
User Comments:
| ardica
:: May 22 2008 |
| this guy is amazing forget rome i wish carthage would have won |
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