9-th, 2004 - 10: 1   (Posted By: Webmaster)
Hannibal of Carthage    

Hannibal of Carthage
FATHER OF MILITARY STRATEGY
(247-183 B.C.)

HANNIBAL HAS THE REPUTATION of being the greatest military leader and strategist of all time. Napoleon, after selecting the seven supreme military geniuses of the world, ranked him as the first in daring. "And this Hannibal," he said, "the most audacious of all; the most astonishing, perhaps; so bold, so sure, so great in everything; who, at twenty-six conceived what is hardly conceivable, executed what one may truly call the impossible." Napoleon had also crossed the Alps, but by an easier route, and under much more favorable circumstances. Hannibal was born in 247 B.C., when Carthage, then the greatest maritime power, was beginning to decline. The Carthaginians were the descendants of the Phoenicians, a Negroid people, who were great merchants. They traded with India, the peoples of the Mediterranean, and the Scilly Isles. Carthage was founded by them as a central base for this commerce.

The Phoenicians, like most commercial peoples, were not warriors. Their immense wealth and their luxurious manner of living had rendered them still softer. It was inevitable that they should inspire plunder in the heart of their powerful neighbor, Rome, which was less than a hundred miles across the Mediterranean. Rome, then in the prime of her youth, had concentrated on military power. Her fleet also dominated the Mediterranean. Now reaching out for world supremacy, she demanded Sicily from Carthage as an appetizer. When Carthage refused, the first Punic War followed, in which Carthage lost Corsica and Sardinia to Rome. Carthage forgot her defeat and continued her commerce. But there was one citizen to whom it was as gall: Hamilcar Barca-the Lightning. Determined on revenge, he aroused his lethargic fellow citizens with his oratory and raised a large force. Attacking the Romans, he won a series of brilliant victories on land and sea. Then he decided to extend Carthaginian power into Spain. About to leave, he sacrificed to the gods. Among those standing at the altar was his son Hannibal, who though only nine years old had the spirit of a conqueror. For years past he had been imitating in play the battles in which his father had slain the Romans. Now he thought himself old enough to go to war. Throwing his arms about his father's neck, he begged to be taken along. Hamilcar yielded, and Hannibal, kneeling before his father, pledged undying hate to the Romans.

Seventeen years later Hannibal succeeded to supreme command of the peninsula. He defeated all the tribes until only one remained-the Sagentum. The latter were allies of Rome and to attack them meant war with her. But Hannibal, true to his vow, did not hesitate, and after an eight months' siege and a bloody battle, defeated them. Rome immediately sent her ablest general and foremost counsellor, Fabius the Great, to Carthage to demand the withdrawal of Hannibal. The Carthaginians, who had been receiving loads of plundered treasure from Spain, refused and the second Punic War began. Rome felt sure of victory. She was impregnable. Her navy, stronger than that of Carthage, would prevent a landing anywhere on the Italian coast. As for the northern approaches, they were guarded by the frozen fortress of the Alps, the crossing of which with an army had long been pronounced impossible. When the war opened, Hannibal, who was in the northeast of Spain, decided to attack the Roman outpost in Gaul, and marched toward the Pyrenees. He had 80,000

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