by Maurice Sassoon

Created on: June 24, 2008

Hannibal was the greatest general of Carthage, a city that created a great empire more than two thousand years ago. Carthage was on the coast of North Africa, near where the city of Algiers is now located. At this time, the Romans as well as the Carthaginians were competing to establish great empires and fought a series of wars against each other.
The wars were known as the Punic wars. Hannibal lived about two hundred years before the birth of Jesus. He was the son of Hamilcar, another great general. When Hannibal was only nine years old, he accompanied his father on an expedition to conquer Spain. Hannibal swore an oath that he would always fight the Romans. From the age of 18 to the age of 25, he was busy planning strategies that he would use when fighting the Romans. He consolidated his dominion on the Iberian Peninsula and was chosen as the commander-in-chief of the army.

The First Punic War: Hannibal invaded Italy, marching his army under the most stressful circumstances across the Pyrenees Mountains and was on the verge of conquering Rome when the Roman general Fabius finally defeated him. Hannibal retreated back to Carthage.

The Second Punic War: The Romans continued to win battles until Carthage had to submit to a peace that included the payment of heavy taxes to Rome. Meanwhile, Hannibal was trying to reorganize his army and incurred the wrath of the Romans who, at this stage, could not trust him and demanded that he surrender to them in person. The Romans claimed that he had violated the treaty. At this point, Hannibal was preparing to confront the Romans, but the Carthaginians refused to fully cooperate with him. Nevertheless, he managed to lead his army to a partial victory over the Romans, but could not maintain the momentum of his success when his request for reinforcement was turned down. Finally, Carthage was forced to surrender.

The Third Punic War: The Romans continued to inflict a great deal of punishment on the Carthaginians and demanded that Hannibal surrender to them personally. But he refused to do so. At this time, he was taking refuge with the King of Bithynia, a country on the Black Sea. Before the king could turn him over to the Romans, Hannibal poisoned himself.

Hannibal was just and merciful to his enemies and is still considered one of the greatest military leaders of all time. In spite of Rome's military superiority, he was on the verge of winning the First Punic War when he was stopped prior to marching his army into Rome. But the fact that he gained some early successes against the formidable and well-trained Roman army had not gone unnoticed by historians who still regard him as a brave and courageous soldier and leader.

Learn more about this author, Maurice Sassoon.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.