Hannibal Essay Research Paper HannibalHannibal was great

Hannibal Essay, Research Paper

Hannibal:

Hannibal was great Carthaginian general. He is remembered for his great tactical skills on the battle field and as a great military leader. Born in late 247 BC, was the eldest son of Hamilcar Barca. In 237 BC, Hamilcar took his nine year old son, Hannibal, to the alter of a Carthaginian god and made him swear eternal hatred to the Romans. Hannibal and his father then left for Spain. The center of Carthaginian power in Spain was the city of New Carthage. Hannibal saw firsthand his father’s techniques for war (Green, 9).

When Hamilcar died in battle in 230 BC, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, became the military leader as well as the political leader and continued Carthage’s influence in Spain. In 226 BC Hasdrubal signed a treaty with the Romans. The treaty stated that neither army could cross the Ebro River in northern Spain (Charles-Picard, 11).

When Hasdrubal was killed in 221 BC, the Carthaginians unanimously elected twenty-six-year-old Hannibal to be the leader in Carthaginian government and commander of the army in Spain. Hannibal married a Spanish princess and conquer the surrounding land and took hostages from the surrounding tribes to insure their loyalty to him without crossing the Ebro River, except for the city of Saguntum, an ally of Rome. When Saguntum began trouble between Carthage and Rome in 219 BC, Hannibal raided the city. This began the Second Punic War (George, 88). 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 began a long and dangerous journey across the Pyrenees and the Alps in August of 218, with battle elephants marching at the front of his army (Green, 21).

In the spring of 218 BC, Hannibal handed over command of the Spanish armies to his brother Hasdrubal. He then led his troops north toward the Pyrenees Mountains and began one of the most famous journeys in history (Green, 24). Hannibal’s army included Libyans and Numidians from North Africa, Iberians and Celtiberians from Spain, and Gauls from Spain, France, and Italy. There were thirty-five thousand foot soldiers, twelve thousand horsemen, and fifty war elephants. Hannibal used the elephants to break infantry lines and to create fear and disorder. The elephants also frightened horses, so they were able to disrupt the enemy’s cavalry (Green, 25). In the Pyrenees, Hannibal encountered resistance from local tribes. He lost a lot of his men to fighting, and some of the mercenaries went home because they were scared of the long journey. With all this, Hannibal continued to move as quickly as possible, but bad luck fell into Hannibal’s lap as early snows and landslides kill many of his men and almost all of his war elephants (Green, 27).

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 BC When news of Hannibal’s army reached Rome, the Gauls of northern Italy revolted. They joined Hannibal in fighting the Romans. Now Hannibal had a sufficient army of infantry and cavalry. The Romans had plans to attack Carthage and New Carthage, but they had to be delayed because of the rebelling tribes in Italy and the approach of Hannibal. So the Romans sent troops under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio, to stop Hannibal at Massilia (Lancel, 21).

Massilia is on the French coast where the Rhone River runs into the Mediterranean Sea. The Rhone is a wide river with a swift current, so it was a great obstacle to Hannibal. Scipio’s troops set up camp by the sea, thinking that Hannibal would reach Massilia in the near future. But he did not realize how fast Hannibal was moving his troops (Lancel, 26).

When Scipio received news of Hannibal, it was too late. Hannibal had moved his entire army across the Rhone, fifty miles north of Massilia (Lancel, 29).

Although Hannibal’s army had been reduced to twenty-six thousand infantry, nine thousand horses, and five or six elephants, it was a great accomplishment to get across the Rhone. To transport the elephants, the men built rafts (Green, 31). When the Alps came into view, Hannibal allowed his army a few days to rest, because he knew that his army had doubts about crossing the Alps. Never before had elephants crossed the Alps. The army did not reach the Alps until late in the year, and many troops and horses were killed. Some troops who came from warmer climates died from the cold. Some troops died of hunger because food was short to come by. Others died in fights with mountain tribes. Some of the mountain tribes rolled big stones down the mountains and caused men and animals to fall from the narrow mountain passage (Green, 33). When Hannibal reached the Italian side of the Alps, he had lost nearly half of his soldiers and a third of his horses, but there is no record of him losing any elephants. The news ran throughout Italy: Hannibal has crossed the Alps! (Green, 35).

With the Alps behind him, he set out to conquer the Romans. He could not hope for the surrender of Rome unless he defeated the Roman army. Carthaginian troops easily crushed the Roman armies in their way, but without siege equipment the Carthaginians could not destroy the Roman cities. So instead of trying to siege the city they simple killed the Roman soldi