I am Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca. I was born 247 B.C. in Carthage and died 182 B.C. in Bithynia. My father was Hamilcar Barca. He was a major leader in the First Punic War (265-241 B.C.) between Carthage and Rome. It was a defensive war which Carthage had lost. We were defeated, but not crushed.
On his deathbed, my father made me swear that I would never be a friend of Rome. So it was.
In 219 B.C., I traveled in to the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain and Portugal) and besieged the Celtiberian (Spanish) city of Saguntum. Saguntum was allied with Rome. They had full Roman protection. I had won that siege out.
A year later, I did what nobody expected. Even today, historians claim this to be one of the most incredible feats of history. I left my brother Hasdrubal to defend the Iberian Peninsula from the Romans. I took with me my other brother, Mago, my cavalry general, Maharbal, and Hasdrubal Gisco, one of my top officers. I also took with me 50,000 soldiers and 38 elephants. To attack Rome, I crossed the Alps.
Scarcely half my army and 37 of my 38 elephants survived. I got most of my army as help from the local tribes. Then came my first victory.
This year was 218 B.C. The Romans were well aware of my crossing the Alps. One of the two Roman consuls, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, challenged me to battle at the River Trebia (Publius Cornelius Scipio, father of the famous Scipio Africanus who would defeat me decades later at Zama, was the other one).
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I had used some of my Numidian javelin cavalry to lure the Romans across the river. Note that this was December of 218 B.C. The river was freezing. I also had ten of the best cavalrymen and infantrymen selected. I asked them each to pick ten more men. I sent this elite with my brother Mago to hide for an ambush.
The Romans took the bait. They chased my men across the river. My infantry was outclassed by that of the Romans, but my cavalry managed to chase off the Roman cavalry. The numbers were about equal.
A year later, the Romans challenged me to battle again. I had an ambush waiting for them at Lake Trasimene.
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Here, I outnumbered the Romans under Gaius Flaminius Nepos by at least 10,000. I had at least 50,000 and the Romans had 40,000. This was simply a giant ambush. The Romans never saw it coming. They lost 15,000 men and Flaminius here, whereas I lost only 2500. I had my men search desperately for Flaminius's body so I could send it off to Rome for burial. This was never found.
The Romans realized the turmoil. They appointed a military dictator known as Fabius Maximus. His plan, known as the Fabian strategy, was to not engage me in battle until there were better odds. Wherever I went, the Romans would burn down their crops and flee, for my men lived off of the land.
I had fought two battles against the Romans with Fabius as their leader. The first was Ager Falernus (217 B.C.) and Geronium (217 B.C.). In both, the Romans put up a major fight. At Ager Falernus, I had won. However, at Geronium, I had achieved a tactical victory, but it was a stalemate.
Then came what many consider to be my greatest victory. The year was 216 B.C. In Rome, military dictators ruled for only a year. Many Roman leaders believed Fabius's tactics were cowardly.
They challenged me again. At Cannae.
www.emersonkent.com/images/battle_of_cannae.jpgwww.emersonkent.com/images/cannae_map_battle.jpgThe Romans were under the leadership of their two consuls, Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemelius Paullus. I had 55,000 men at Cannae. The Romans had 86,000. They had picked a battlefield that suited them well. To one side there was a river. To the other, there was flatland. There was no chance of an ambush. I had my men form a crescent. The Romans simply used weight of numbers and crammed their men into thick lines.
Mago commanded my infantry. Maharbal commanded my cavalry. I had Mago literally order my men to move backwards. When they were in the opposite direction, the Romans would think they had won. Meanwhile, I had Maharbal force the Roman cavalry off the field. He chased the cavalry off on one flank, regrouped, defeated the cavalry on the other flank, and then regrouped again.
My infantry were in the opposite position. The Romans had nowhere to go but backwards. My cavalry then cut them off on the other flank. This was the double-envelopment tactic.
The Romans lost nearly 50,00 of their finest men. I had only lost about 6,000. Reports say that there was no Roman family that did no know or was acquainted with a dead soldier at Cannae. I sent my brother back to Carthage to try to get reinforcements. They would never come. The Carthaginian Council of Elders didn't support me.
I then ruled the Italian Peninsula for another 14 years. However, in 207 B.C., I asked my brother to reinforce me. He said that he would. However, he died, later, at the Battle of the Metaurus. Finally, in 202 B.C., the Council of Elders that had betrayed me fourteen years earlier asked me to defend Carthage. By then, we had even lost the Iberian Peninsula (Battle of Ilipa, 206 B.C.). That brings us to another topic.
Scipio Africanus was present at my victory at Cannae. He spent the next decade studying me. He was looking through every battle, looking to me like a teacher. At Ilipa, he had displayed his tactical genius, making elaborate moves against Hasdrubal Gisco. We then met at Zama.
He had got Massinissa on his side, therefore getting the Numidians. He used the Numidian cavalry to defeat me at Zama the same way I did to the Romans at Cannae.
Later, Carthage sued for peace. We were practically crushed. We were left with merely Carthage and the cities surrounding it. We got ten warships to ward off pirate attacks and no standing army. I then became a statesman and ran for suffete, or chief magistrate, which I gained. I made reforms to the government and managed to pay back much of the war indemnity.
I proposed greater reforms. I went on voluntary exile. First I fled to the court of Antiochus III, king of the Seleucid Empire. I had reformed his army and also led battles when he campaigned against the Romans himself. I also fled to the Armenian court of Artaxias I and helped design his capital, Artaxata.
I then fled to Bithynia. In 182 B.C., the Romans were still searching for me. Prusias I, the king of Bithynia, agreed to give me up. I did not want to fall into Roman hands.
I drank some poison and wrote a letter declaring "Let us, relieve the Romans from the anxiety they have so long experienced, since they think it tries their patience too much to wait for an old man's death."
