Hannibal and the Carthaginian Empire Essay

Hannibal was great and famous Carthaginian general. He is remembered for his great strategic skills on the battle field and as a great military chief. Born in late 247 BC, was the oldest son of Hamilcar Barca. In 237 BC, Hamilcar took his nine year old son, Hannibal, to the altar of a Carthaginian god and made him pledge eternal hatred to the Romans. Then Hannibal and his father left for Spain. The headquarters of Carthaginian power in Spain was the city of New Carthage. Hannibal saw immediately his father’s techniques for war . When Hamilcar perished in the battle of 230 BC, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, became the military leader plus the political leader and continued Carthage’s pressure in Spain. In 226 BC Hasdrubal signed an agreement with the Romans. The agreement stated that neither army could cross the Ebro River in the northern Spain . When Hasdrubal was murdered in 221 BC, the Carthaginians collectively elected twenty-six-year-old Hannibal to be the leader in Carthaginian government and commandant of the army in Spain. After Hamilcar’s death Hannibal became an excellent military leader. â€Å"Under [Hannibal’s] control the Carthaginians made large territorial advances†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (I-cias). He learned quickly how to be a leader and with the support of his brothers he was able to succeed through his battles. Hannibal was crossing the Alps and was able to receive rations for a couple days. â€Å"On the third day he captured a Gallic town and provided the army from its stores with rations for two or three days† (Alps). He wanted the best for his army, but had little support from Carthage. Despite the number of men falling from the army due to natural disasters he managed to recruit others. â€Å"Even if many fell from his army during this march because of snowstorms, landslides, and attacks from hostile local tribes, he managed to recruit new personnel along the route. † His strategy was to respond quickly to these natural disasters and it helped him. Hannibal earned his success by enduring hardships with his recruits and reinforcements. Hannibal experienced many challenges including battle delays little amount of military equipment and a small number of reinforcements from home. Other military leaders knew he would not be able to handle a delay due to the lack of preparation he took for each battle. â€Å"He [Fabius, Roman Military Leader] believed that Hannibal lacked the equipment for a prolonged siege and that a delay in the battle would seriously reduce the Carthaginian food supply†. Rome believed that delays would end in the conquering of Hannibal because of the lack of necessities there was little he could do. Hannibal began to suffer during his career due to the lack of food. â€Å"Zama was the only defeat. Hannibal suffered in his military career† . After his defeat his enemies began to discover his weakness. Hannibal was running out of everything during the Battle of Cannae and his help refused to aid him. â€Å"Hannibal needed reinforcements, which the Carthaginian government refused to furnish, and he also lacked siege weapons† . Hannibal’s restrictions could have given him success, had he been willing to bargain with another force greater then his own. Hannibal was the instrument of his own undoing. Hannibal was set on being the conqueror and set on some one else’s defeat, which lead him to his own. His enemy, Rome, was the center of his downfall. He would never settle and there was no satisfaction between them. â€Å"†¦In 218, he clashed with the Roman army. The Romans claimed that this was a break of an existing treaty between Rome and Carthage and demanded Hannibal surrendered to them†¦the Second Punic War started† (I-cias). If Hannibal conquered Romans he would never be able to rule over. â€Å"According to legend, Hamilcar had made the young Hannibal swear on a sacred altar that he would remain an enemy of Rome for life† . Hannibal had made a promise to his father, therefore intending to go on with nothing. â€Å"The loss of the second city of Italy cost Hannibal the allegiance of many of his Italian allies and put an end to his hopes of further replenishing his army from their ranks† . Hannibal had lost it all. His hope had been limited at this point. Hannibal both succeeded and failed. He never won the hearts of the people; therefore he was never able to truly be victorious. Hannibal married a Spanish princess and conquered the surrounding land and took hostages from the adjacent tribes to assure 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 invaded the city. This began the Second Punic War . After hearing the declaration of war Hannibal immediately starts off towards Rome. The problem was he had to go by land since Rome controlled the seas. Hannibal began a long and hazardous expedition across the Pyrenees and the Alps in August of 218, with battle elephants walking at the front of his army . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . When Scipio received news of Hannibal, it was too late. Hannibal had moved his entire army across the Rhone, fifty miles north of Massilia . 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 . 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 .