:Distinguish from meerkat (the animal, and other uses). The Merkit, Merged, or Mergid (Merged means "wise ones," "adept ones," "skillful ones," "(skillful) archers," or "hunters" in Mongolian) were a Turko-Mongol tribe with a fierce reputation that inhabited southeastern Siberia during the Middle Ages. After a long struggle over two decades, the Merkits were defeated and incorporated into the Mongol nation formed by Temüjin (later Genghis Khan) in the first decade of the 13th century. They disappear as a separate group after the Mongol unification of 1206. around 1200, before the establishment of the Mongol empire]]

Ethnic relations

The ethnicity of the Merkits is somewhat obscure; most likely they were Turkic or Mongolic (related to Mongols, Naimans, Keraits, and Khitan), but it has also been postulated that they are more closely related to Paleosiberian, such as the Chukchi, or to Tungusic peoples, such as the Manchu and the Evenks.

Conflict with Genghis Khan

Temüjin's mother Hoelun, originally from the Olkhunut tribe, had been engaged to the Merkit warrior Chiledu by 1153. She was abducted by Temüjin's father Yesugei, while being escorted home by Chiledu.

In turn, Temüjin's new wife Börte was kidnapped by Merkit raiders from their campsite by the Onon river around 1184 and given to one of their warriors. Temüjin, supported by his blood brother Jamuga and his foster-father Toghril, the Khan of the Keraits, attacked the Merkit and rescued Börte within the year. The Merkit were dispersed after this attack. Shortly thereafter she gave birth to a son named Jochi. Temüjin accepted paternity but the question kept lingering throughout Jochi's life. Those incidents resulted in a strong animosity between Temüjin and his family and the Merkits. Over the following two decades, he attacked them several times.

By the time he had united the other Mongol tribes and was given the title "Genghis Khan" in 1206, the Merkits seem to have disappeared as a separate ethnic group. Those who survived were most likely absorbed by other Mongol tribes, such as the Oirats and others who fled to Kypchaks mixed with them. In 1215-1218, Jochi and Subotai crushed the remnants of them under their former leader Toghta Bekis' family. The Mongols clashed with the Kankalis or the Kypchaks because they gave shelter to them. Genghis Khan had Merkit Khatun named Khulan. Genghis and his son Khulgen died while Mongol forces laid siege to a Russian settlement in Ryazan in 1236. During the Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria, a body of the Merkid was found in the Bulgar-Kypchak dominated areas in 1236.

Late Merkits

Few Merkits achieved prominent position among the Mongols. But they were classified as the Mongols in Mongolian Society. Great Khan Guyuk's beloved khatun Oghul Qaimish, who was a regent from 1248-1251, was a Merkid woman. And traditionalist Bayan and his cousin Toghta served as Grand councilors of Mongol Dynasty in China and Mongolia. After the fall of the Great Yuan, they were a clan of a banner in Northern Yuan Dynasty, or Mongolian Khaanate.

References

Category:Eurasian nomads Category:Mongol peoples Category:Samoyedic peoples Category:History of the Turkic people

Coordinates	27°50′″N48°25′″N
Name	Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca
Lived	248–183 or 182 BC
Caption	A marble bust, reputedly of Hannibal, originally found at the ancient city-state of Capua in Italy (some historians are uncertain of the authenticity of the portrait).
Born	248 BC
Died	183 or 182 BC
Birthdate	248 BC
Birthplace	Carthage, Tunisia
Deathdate	183 or 182 BC (aged 64-65)
Deathplace	Gebze, Anatolia
Allegiance	Carthage
Rank	General, commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian armies
Battles	Roman–Syrian War, Second Punic War: Battle of Lake Trasimene, Battle of Trebia, Battle of Cannae, Battle of the Silarus, Battle of Herdonia, Battle of Zama

Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca (248–183 or 182 BC), commonly known as Hannibal (in Punic: ḤNBʻL Ḥannibaʻal or Ḥannibaʻl, or "Grace of Baal" or perhaps Ḥannobaʻal, with the former meaning, in , Hanníbas) was a Carthaginian military commander and tactician who is popularly credited as one of the most talented commanders in history. His father, Hamilcar Barca, was the leading Carthaginian commander during the First Punic War, his younger brothers were Mago and Hasdrubal, and he was brother-in-law to Hasdrubal the Fair.

Hannibal lived during a period of tension in the Mediterranean, when Rome (then the Roman Republic) established its supremacy over other great powers such as Carthage, the Hellenistic kingdoms of Macedon, Syracuse, and the Seleucid empire. One of his most famous achievements was at the outbreak of the Second Punic War, when he marched an army, which included war elephants, from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy. In his first few years in Italy, he won three dramatic victories, Trebia, Trasimene, and Cannae, and won over several Roman allies. Hannibal occupied much of Italy for 15 years, but a Roman counter-invasion of North Africa forced Hannibal to return to Carthage, where he was decisively defeated by Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama. Scipio studied Hannibal's tactics and brilliantly devised some of his own, and finally defeated Rome's nemesis at Zama having previously driven Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother, out of Spain.

After the war Hannibal successfully ran for the office of suffete. He enacted political and financial reforms to enable the payment of the war indemnity imposed by Rome. However, Hannibal's reforms were unpopular with members of the Carthaginian aristocracy and Rome, and he fled into voluntary exile. During his exile, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military adviser to Antiochus III in his war against Rome. After Antiochus met defeat and was forced to accept Rome's terms, Hannibal fled again, making a stop in Armenia. His flight ended in the court of Bithynia, where he achieved an outstanding naval victory against a fleet from Pergamum. He was afterwards betrayed to the Romans.

Often regarded as the greatest military tactician and strategist in history, Hannibal would later be considered as one of the greatest generals of antiquity, together with Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Scipio, and Pyrrhus of Epirus. Plutarch states that, when questioned by Scipio as to who was the greatest general, Hannibal is said to have replied either Alexander, Pyrrhus, then himself, or, according to another version of the event, Pyrrhus, Scipio, then himself. Military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge once famously called Hannibal the "father of strategy", because his greatest enemy, Rome, came to adopt elements of his military tactics in its own strategic arsenal. This praise has earned him a strong reputation in the modern world, and he was regarded as a "gifted strategist" by men like Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington.

Background and early career

Hannibal was one of the sons of Hamilcar Barca, a Carthaginian leader. He had several sisters and two brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago. His brothers-in-law were Hasdrubal the Fair and the Numidian king Naravas. He was still a child when his sisters married, and his brothers-in-law were close associates during his father's struggles in the Mercenary War and the Punic conquest of Iberia. In light of Hamilcar Barca's cognomen, historians refer to Hamilcar's family as the Barcids. However, there is debate as to whether the cognomen Barca (meaning "thunderbolt") was applied to Hamilcar alone or was hereditary within his family. If the latter, then Hannibal and his brothers also bore the name 'Barca'.

After Carthage's defeat in the First Punic War, Hamilcar set out to improve his family's and Carthage's fortunes. With that in mind and supported by Gades, Hamilcar began the subjugation of the tribes of the Iberian Peninsula. Carthage at the time was in such a poor state that its navy was unable to transport his army to Iberia (Hispania); instead, Hamilcar had to march it towards the Pillars of Hercules and transport it across the Strait of Gibraltar (present-day Morocco/Spain).

According to Livy, Hannibal much later said that when he came upon his father and begged to go with him, Hamilcar agreed and demanded that he swear that as long as he lived he would never be a friend of Rome. There is even an account of him at a very young age begging his father to take him to an overseas war. In the story, Hannibal's father took him up and brought him to a sacrificial chamber. Hamilcar held Hannibal over the fire roaring in the chamber and made him swear that he would never be a friend of Rome. Other sources report that Hannibal told his father, "I swear so soon as age will permit...I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome." According to the tradition, Hannibal's oath took place in the town of Peñíscola, today part of the community of Valencia, Spain.

Hannibal's father went about the conquest of Hispania. When his father was killed in battle, Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal succeeded to his command of the army with Hannibal serving as an officer under him. Hasdrubal pursued a policy of consolidation of Carthage's Iberian interests, even signing a treaty with Rome whereby Carthage would not expand north of the Ebro River, so long as Rome did not expand south of it. Hasdrubal also endeavoured to consolidate Carthaginian power through diplomatic relationships with native tribes. As a part of his deals Hasdrubal arranged the marriage between Hannibal and an Iberian princess named Imilce.

Upon the assassination of Hasdrubal (221 BC), Hannibal was proclaimed commander-in-chief by the army and confirmed in his appointment by the Carthaginian government. Livy, a Roman scholar, gives a depiction of the young Carthaginian:

After he assumed command, Hannibal spent two years consolidating his holdings and completing the conquest of Hispania south of the Ebro. However, Rome, fearing the growing strength of Hannibal in Iberia, made an alliance with the city of Saguntum, which lay a considerable distance south of the River Ebro and claimed the city as its protectorate. Hannibal perceived this as a breach of the treaty signed with Hasdrubal and so he laid siege to the city, which fell after eight months. Rome reacted to this apparent violation of the treaty and demanded justice from Carthage. In view of Hannibal's great popularity, the Carthaginian government did not repudiate Hannibal's actions, and the war he sought was declared at the end of the year. Hannibal was now determined to carry the war into the heart of Italy by a rapid march through Hispania and southern Gaul.

Second Punic War in Italy (218–203 BC)

Overland journey to Italy

The journey was planned originally by Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal.

Hasdrubal became Carthaginian commander in Iberia in 229 BC, a post he would maintain for some eight years until 221 BC. Soon the Romans became aware of an alliance between Carthage and the Celts of the Po River valley in Northern Italy. The latter were amassing forces to invade Italy, presumably with Carthaginian backing. Thus, the Romans preemptively invaded the Po region in 225 BC. By 220 BC, the Romans had annexed the area as Gallia Cisalpina. Hasdrubal was assassinated around the same time (221 BC), bringing Hannibal to the fore. It seems that, having apparently dealt with the threat of a Gaulo-Carthaginian invasion of Italy (and perhaps with the original Carthaginian commander killed), the Romans lulled themselves into a false sense of security. Thus, Hannibal took the Romans by surprise a scant two years later in 218 BC by merely reviving and adapting the original Gaulo-Carthaginian invasion plan of his brother-in-law.

Hannibal departed New Carthage in late spring of 218 BC He fought his way through the northern tribes to the Pyrenees, subduing the tribes through clever mountain tactics and stubborn fighting. He left a detachment of 11,000 troops to garrison the newly conquered region. At the Pyrenees, he released another 11,000 Iberian troops who showed reluctance to leave their homeland. Hannibal reportedly entered Gaul with 40,000 foot soldiers and 12,000 horsemen. Hannibal recognized that he still needed to cross the Pyrenees, the Alps, and many significant rivers. Additionally, he would have to contend with opposition from the Gauls, whose territory he passed through. Starting in the spring of 218 BC, he easily fought his way through the northern tribes to the Pyrenees and, by conciliating the Gaulish chiefs along his passage, reached the River Rhône before the Romans could take any measures to bar his advance. Arriving at the Rhône in September, Hannibal's army numbered 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 37 war elephants.

.]]

After outmaneuvering the natives, who had tried to prevent his crossing, Hannibal evaded a Roman force marching from the Mediterranean coast by turning inland up the valley of the Rhône. His exact route over the Alps has been the source of scholarly dispute ever since. (Polybius, the surviving ancient account closest in time to Hannibal's campaign, reports that the route was already debated.) The most influential modern theories favour either a march up the valley of the Drôme and a crossing of the main range to the south of the modern highway over the Col de Montgenèvre or a march farther north up the valleys of the Isere and Arc crossing the main range near the present Col de Mont Cenis or the Little St Bernard Pass.

By Livy's account the crossing was accomplished in the face of huge difficulties. These Hannibal surmounted with ingenuity, such as when he used vinegar and fire to break through a rockfall. According to Polybius he arrived in Italy accompanied by 20,000 foot soldiers and 4,000 horsemen, and only a few elephants. If Polybius is correct in his figure for the number of troops he commanded after the crossing of the Rhone, this would suggest that he had lost almost half of his force. Historians like Serge Lancell have questioned the reliability of the figures for the number of troops he had when he left Hispania. From the start, he seems to have calculated that he would have to operate without aid from Hispania.

Hannibal’s vision of military affairs, derived partly from the teaching of his Greek tutors and experience gained alongside his father, stretched over most of the Mediterranean World of his time. Indeed, the breadth of his vision gave rise to his grand strategy of conquering Rome by opening a northern front and subduing allied city-states on the peninsula rather than by attacking Rome directly. Historical events, which led to the defeat of Carthage during the First Punic War when his father commanded the Carthaginian Army, led Hannibal to plan the invasion of Italia by land across the Alps. The task was daunting to say the least. It involved the mobilization of between 60,000 and 100,000 troops (see Proctor, 1971) and the training of a war-elephant corps, all of which had to be provisioned along the way. The alpine invasion of Italia was a military operation that would shake the Mediterranean World of 218 BC with repercussions for more than two decades. It was a world war in the sense that it involved about three-quarters of the population of the entire Punic-Greco-Roman world and few people living in the Mediterranean were able to escape it. Virtually every family in Rome lost a member or members in the swath of destruction brought down on them by Hannibal and his Carthaginian Corps.

Battle of Trebia

Hannibal's perilous march brought him into the Roman territory and frustrated the attempts of the enemy to fight out the main issue on foreign ground. His sudden appearance among the Gauls of the Po Valley, moreover, enabled him to detach those tribes from their new allegiance to the Romans before the latter could take steps to check the rebellion. .]] Publius Cornelius Scipio, the consul who commanded the Roman force sent to intercept Hannibal, and Scipio Africanus' father, had not expected Hannibal to make an attempt to cross the Alps, since the Romans were prepared to fight the war in Iberia. With a small detachment still positioned in Gaul, Scipio made an attempt to intercept Hannibal. Through prompt decision and speedy movement, he succeeded in transporting his army to Italy by sea, in time to meet Hannibal. Hannibal's forces moved through the Po Valley and were engaged in a large scale skirmish at Ticinus. Here, Hannibal forced the Romans, by virtue of his superior cavalry, to evacuate the plain of Lombardy. While the victory was minor, it encouraged the Gauls and Ligurians to join the Carthaginian cause, whose troops bolstered his army back to around 40,000 men. Scipio was severely injured, his life only saved by the bravery of his son who rode back onto the field to rescue his fallen father. Scipio retreated across the river Trebia to camp at Placentia with his army mostly intact. because of conjunctivitis) and the seemingly impassable Arno without opposition, but in the marshy lowlands of the Arno, he lost a large part of his force, including, it would seem, his remaining elephants.

Arriving in Etruria in the spring of 217 BC, Hannibal decided to lure the main Roman army under Flaminius, into a pitched battle, by devastating the region Flaminius had been sent to protect. As Polybius recounts, "he [Hannibal] calculated that, if he passed the camp and made a descent into the district beyond, Flaminius (partly for fear of popular reproach and partly of personal irritation) would be unable to endure watching passively the devastation of the country but would spontaneously follow him . . . and give him opportunities for attack." At the same time, Hannibal tried to break the allegiance of Rome’s allies by proving that Flaminius was powerless to protect them. Despite this, Flaminius remained passively encamped at Arretium. Unable to draw Flaminius into battle by mere devastation, Hannibal marched boldly around his opponent’s left flank and effectively cut Flaminius off from Rome (thus executing the first recorded turning movement in military history). Advancing through the uplands of Etruria, Hannibal provoked Flaminius into a hasty pursuit and, catching him in a defile on the shore of Lake Trasimenus, destroyed his army in the waters or on the adjoining slopes, killing Flaminius as well (see Battle of Lake Trasimene). This was the most costly ambush the Romans would ever sustain until the Battle of Carrhae against the Parthians. He had now disposed of the only field force that could check his advance upon Rome, but, realizing that without siege engines, he could not hope to take the capital, he preferred to exploit his victory by entering into central and southern Italy and encouraging a general revolt against the sovereign power. After Lake Trasimene, Hannibal stated, "I have not come to fight Italians, but on behalf of the Italians fight against Rome."'

The Romans appointed Fabius Maximus as a dictator. Departing from Roman military traditions, Fabius adopted the strategy named after him: avoiding open battle, while placing several Roman armies in Hannibal’s vicinity in order to watch and limit his movement.

, c. 230 BC depicting the god Melqart, the Carthaginian equivalent of Herakles/ Hercules, and a war elephant. It has been suggested that the image portrays Hannibal as Melqart, however there are no known authentic images of Hannibal and there is no proof that even Carthaginian coins such as this one show his likeness.]]

Having ravaged Apulia without bringing Fabius to battle, Hannibal decided to march through Samnium to Campania, one of the richest and most fertile provinces of Italy, hoping that the devastation would draw Fabius into battle. Fabius closely followed Hannibal’s path of destruction, yet still refused to let himself be drawn off of the defensive. This strategy was unpopular with many Romans, who believed it was a form of cowardice.

Hannibal decided that it would be unwise to winter in the already devastated lowlands of Campania, but Fabius had ensured that all the passes out of Campania were blocked. To avoid this, Hannibal deceived the Romans into thinking that the Carthaginian army was going to escape through the woods. As the Romans moved off towards the woods, Hannibal's army occupied the pass, and his army made their way through the pass unopposed. Fabius was within striking distance but in this case his caution worked against him. Smelling a stratagem (rightly), he stayed put. For the winter, Hannibal found comfortable quarters in the Apulian plain. What Hannibal achieved in extricating his army was, as Adrian Goldsworthy puts it, "a classic of ancient generalship, finding its way into nearly every historical narrative of the war and being used by later military manuals". This was a severe blow to Fabius’s prestige and soon after this his period of power ended.

Battle of Cannae

In the spring of 216 BC, Hannibal took the initiative and seized the large supply depot at Cannae in the Apulian plain. By capturing Cannae, Hannibal had placed himself between the Romans and their crucial source of supply. Once the Roman Senate resumed their consular elections in 216 BC, they appointed Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus as consuls. In the meantime, the Romans, hoping to gain success through sheer strength in numbers, raised a new army of unprecedented size, estimated by some to be as large as 100,000 men, but more likely around 60-80,000.

The Roman and allied legions, resolving to confront Hannibal, marched southward to Apulia. They eventually found him on the left bank of the Aufidus River, and encamped six miles (10 km) away. On this occasion, the two armies were combined into one, the consuls having to alternate their command on a daily basis. Varro, who was in command on the first day, was a man of reckless and hubristic nature, and was determined to defeat Hannibal. .]] As a result of this victory, many parts of Italy joined Hannibal's cause. As Polybius notes, "How much more serious was the defeat of Cannae, than those that preceded it can be seen by the behavior of Rome’s allies; before that fateful day, their loyalty remained unshaken, now it began to waver for the simple reason that they despaired of Roman Power." During that same year, the Greek cities in Sicily were induced to revolt against Roman political control, while the Macedonian king, Philip V, pledged his support to Hannibal – thus initiating the First Macedonian War against Rome. Hannibal also secured an alliance with newly appointed Hieronymus of Syracuse. It is often argued that if Hannibal had received proper material reinforcements from Carthage, he might have succeeded with a direct attack upon Rome. Instead, he had to content himself with subduing the fortresses that still held out against him, and the only other notable event of 216 BC was the defection of certain Italian territories, including Capua, the second largest city of Italy, which Hannibal made his new base. However, only a few of the Italian city-states he expected to gain as allies defected to him.

Stalemate

The war in Italy settled into a strategic stalemate. The Romans utilized the attritional strategy Fabius had taught them, and which, they finally realized, were the only feasible means of defeating Hannibal. Indeed, Fabius received the surname "Cunctator" ("the Delayer") because of his policy of not meeting Hannibal in open battle but through guerilla tactics. The Romans deprived Hannibal of a large-scale battle and instead, assaulted his weakening army with multiple smaller armies in an attempt to both weary him and create unrest in his troops. His arrival immediately restored the predominance of the war party, which placed him in command of a combined force of African levies and his mercenaries from Italy. In 202 BC, Hannibal met Scipio in a fruitless peace conference. Despite mutual admiration, negotiations floundered due to Roman allegations of "Punic Faith," referring to the breach of protocols that ended the First Punic War by the Carthaginian attack on Saguntum, and a Carthaginan attack on a stranded Roman fleet. What had happened was that Scipio and Carthage had worked out a peace plan, which was approved by Rome. The terms of the treaty were quite modest, but the war had been long for the Romans. Carthage could keep its African territory but would lose its overseas empire, a fait accompli. Masinissa (Numidia) was to be independent. Also, Carthage was to reduce its fleet and pay a war indemnity. But Carthage then made a terrible blunder. Its long-suffering citizens had captured a stranded Roman fleet in the Gulf of Tunes and stripped it of supplies, an action that aggravated the faltering negotiations. Meanwhile Hannibal, recalled from Italy by the Carthaginian Senate, had returned with his army. Fortified by both Hannibal and the supplies, the Carthaginians rebuffed the treaty and Roman protests. The decisive battle at Zama soon followed; the defeat removed Hannibal's air of invincibility.

Battle of Zama

Unlike most battles of the Second Punic War, at Zama, the Romans were superior in cavalry and the Carthaginians had the edge in infantry. This Roman cavalry superiority was due to the betrayal of Masinissa, who had earlier assisted Carthage in Iberia, but changed sides in 206 BC with the promise of land and due to his personal conflicts with Syphax, a Carthaginian ally. Although the aging Hannibal was suffering from mental exhaustion and deteriorating health after years of campaigning in Italy, the Carthaginians still had the advantage in numbers and were boosted by the presence of 35 war elephants.

by Cornelis Cort, 1567.Note that the elephants shown are Asian ones rather than the very small North African ones used by Carthage.]]

The Roman cavalry won an early victory by swiftly routing the Carthaginian horse, and standard Roman tactics for limiting the effectiveness of the Carthaginian war elephants were successful, including playing trumpets to frighten the elephants into running into the Carthaginian lines. Some historians say that the elephants routed the Carthaginian cavalry and not the Romans. However, the battle remained closely fought. At one point, it seemed that Hannibal was on the verge of victory, but Scipio was able to rally his men, and his cavalry, having routed the Carthaginian horse, attacked Hannibal's rear. This two-pronged attack caused the Carthaginian formation to collapse.

With their foremost general defeated, the Carthaginians had no choice but to surrender. Carthage lost approximately 20,000 troops with an additional 15,000 wounded. In contrast, the Romans suffered only 1,500 casualties. The last major battle of the Second Punic War resulted in a loss of respect for Hannibal by his fellow Carthaginians. The conditions of defeat were such that Carthage could no longer battle for Mediterranean supremacy.

Later career

Peacetime Carthage (200–196 BC)

Hannibal was still only 43 and soon showed that he could be a statesman as well as a soldier. Following the conclusion of a peace that left Carthage stripped of its formerly mighty empire, Hannibal prepared to take a back seat for a time. However, the blatant corruption of the oligarchy gave Hannibal a chance to re-emerge and he was elected as suffete or chief magistrate. The office had become rather insignificant, but Hannibal restored its power and authority. The oligarchy, always jealous of him, had even charged him with having betrayed the interests of his country while in Italy, for neglecting to take Rome when he might have done so. So effectively did Hannibal reform abuses that the heavy tribute imposed by Rome could be paid by installments without additional and extraordinary taxation. He also reformed the Hundred and Four, stipulating that its membership be chosen by direct election rather than co-option. He also used citizen support to change the term of office in the Hundred and Four from life to a year, with a term limit of two years.

Exile (195–183/181 BC)

Seven years after the victory of Zama, the Romans, alarmed by Carthage's renewed prosperity, demanded Hannibal's surrender. Hannibal thereupon went into voluntary exile. He journeyed to Tyre, the mother city of Carthage, and then to Ephesus, where he was honorably received by Antiochus III of Syria, who was preparing for war with Rome. Hannibal soon saw that the king's army was no match for the Romans. He advised equipping a fleet and landing a body of troops in the south of Italy, offering to take command himself. But he could not make much impression on Antiochus, who listened to his courtiers and would not entrust Hannibal with any important office. According to Cicero, while at the court of Antiochus, Hannibal attended a lecture by Phormio, a philosopher, that ranged through many topics. When Phormio finished a discourse on the duties of a general, Hannibal was asked his opinion. He replied, "I have seen during my life many old fools; but this one beats them all." Another story according to Aulus Gellius is that when Antiochus III showed off the gigantic and elaborately equipped army he had created to invade Greece to Hannibal, he asked him if they would be enough for the Roman Republic, to which Hannibal replied, "I think all this will be enough, yes, quite enough, for the Romans, even though they are most avaricious." However, in 191 BC, the Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio routed Antiochus at Thermopylae and obliged him to withdraw to Asia. The Romans followed up their success by attacking Antiochus in Anatolia, and the Seleucids were decisively defeated at Magnesia ad Sipylum in 190 BC by Scipio Asiaticus.

In 190 BC, he was placed in command of a Seleucid fleet, but was defeated in a battle off the Eurymedon River. According to Strabo and Plutarch, Hannibal also received hospitality at the Armenian court of Artaxias I. The authors add an apocryphal story of how Hannibal planned and supervised the building of the new royal capital Artaxata. When Antiochus seemed prepared to surrender him to the Romans, Hannibal fled to Crete, but he soon went back to Asia Minor and sought refuge with Prusias I of Bithynia, who was engaged in warfare with Rome's ally, King Eumenes II of Pergamon. Hannibal went on to serve Prusias in this war. During one of the naval victories he gained over Eumenes, Hannibal had large pots filled with poisonous snakes thrown onto Eumenes' ships. Hannibal also visited Tyre; the home of his forefathers. However the Romans were determined to hunt him down, and they insisted on his surrender.

Death (183/181 BC)

Prusias agreed to give him up, but Hannibal was determined not to fall into his enemies' hands. At Libyssa on the eastern shore of the Sea of Marmara, he took poison, which, it was said, he had long carried about with him in a ring. Before dying, he left behind 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".

The precise year of Hannibal's death is unknown. In his Annales, Titus Pomponius Atticus reports it occurred in 183 BC, and Livy implies the same. Polybius, who wrote nearest the event, gives 182 BC. Sulpicius Blitho records it under 181 BC. This illustrates the psychological impact Hannibal's presence in Italy had on Roman Culture.

A grudging admiration for Hannibal is evident in the works of Roman writers such as Livy, Frontinus, and Juvenal. The Romans even built statues of the Carthaginian in the very streets of Rome to advertise their defeat of such a worthy adversary. It is plausible to suggest that Hannibal engendered the greatest fear Rome had towards an enemy. Nevertheless, they grimly refused to admit the possibility of defeat and rejected all overtures for peace; they even refused to accept the ransom of prisoners after Cannae.

During the war there are no reports of revolutions among the Roman citizens, no factions with the Senate desiring peace, no pro-Carthaginian Roman turncoats, no coups. Indeed, throughout the war Roman aristocrats ferociously competed with each other for positions of command to fight against Rome's most dangerous enemy. Hannibal's military genius was not enough to really disturb the Roman political process and the collective political and military genius of the Roman people. As Lazenby states, "It says volumes, too, for their political maturity and respect for constitutional forms that the complicated machinery of government continued to function even amidst disaster—there are few states in the ancient world in which a general who had lost a battle like Cannae would have dared to remain, let alone would have continued to be treated respectfully as head of state." According to the historian Livy, Hannibal's military genius was feared among the Romans, and during Hannibal's march against Rome in 211 BC "a messenger who had travelled from Fregellae for a day and a night without stopping created great alarm in Rome, and the excitement was increased by people running about the City with wildly exaggerated accounts of the news he had brought. The wailing cry of the matrons was heard everywhere, not only in private houses but even in the temples. Here they knelt and swept the temple-floors with their dishevelled hair and lifted up their hands to heaven in piteous entreaty to the gods that they would deliver the City of Rome out of the hands of the enemy and preserve its mothers and children from injury and outrage." In the Senate the news was "received with varying feelings as men's temperaments differed," so it was decided to keep Capua under siege, but send 15,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry as reinforcements to Rome. This may not be true but as Lazenby states, "could well be, exemplifying as it does not only the supreme confidence felt by the Romans in ultimate victory, but also the way in which something like normal life continued. After Cannae the Romans showed a considerable steadfastness in adversity. An undeniable proof of Rome's confidence is demonstrated by the fact that after the Cannae disaster she was left virtually defenseless, but the Senate still chose not to withdraw a single garrison from an overseas province to strengthen the city. In fact, they were reinforced and the campaigns there maintained until victory was secured; beginning first in Sicily under direction of Claudius Marcellus, and later Hispania under Scipio Africanus. Although the long-term consequences of Hannibal's war are debatable, this war was undeniably Rome's "finest hour".

Most of the sources available to historians about Hannibal are from Romans. They considered him the greatest enemy Rome had ever faced. Livy gives us the idea that he was extremely cruel. Even Cicero, when he talked of Rome and her two great enemies, spoke of the "honourable" Pyrrhus and the "cruel" Hannibal. Yet a different picture is sometimes revealed. When Hannibal's successes had brought about the death of two Roman consuls, he vainly searched for the body of Gaius Flaminius on the shores of Lake Trasimene, held ceremonial rituals in recognition of Lucius Aemilius Paullus, and sent Marcellus' ashes back to his family in Rome. Any bias attributed to Polybius, however, is more troublesome, since he was clearly sympathetic towards Hannibal. Nevertheless, Polybius spent a long period as a hostage in Italy and relied heavily on Roman sources, so there remains the possibility that he was reproducing elements of Roman propaganda.

Legacy

Military history

envelopes Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps in Romantic atmosphere.]] Hannibal is usually ranked among the best military strategists and tacticians. According to Appian, several years after the Second Punic War, Hannibal was a political advisor in the Seleucid Kingdom and Scipio was sent there on a diplomatic mission from Rome. Hannibal's exploits (especially his victory at Cannae) continue to be studied in military academies all over the world. s passed into European legend: a fresco detail, ca. 1510, Capitoline Museums, Rome.]]

Maximilian Otto Bismarck Caspari, in his article in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, praises Hannibal in these words:

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Even his Roman chroniclers acknowledged his supreme military leadership, writing that, "he never required others to do what he could and would not do himself". According to Polybius 23, 13, p. 423: "It is a remarkable and very cogent proof of Hannibal's having been by nature a real leader and far superior to anyone else in statesmanship, that though he spent seventeen years in the field, passed through so many barbarous countries, and employed to aid him in desperate and extraordinary enterprises numbers of men of different nations and languages, no one ever dreamt of conspiring against him, nor was he ever deserted by those who had once joined him or submitted to him."

Count Alfred von Schlieffen's eponymously titled "Schlieffen Plan" was developed from his military studies, with particularly heavy emphasis on Hannibal's envelopment technique he employed to surround and victoriously destroy the Roman army at Cannae. George S. Patton believed that he was a reincarnation of Hannibal as well as many other people including a Roman legionary and a Napoleonic soldier. Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of the Coalition Forces in the Gulf War, claimed that "The technology of war may change, the sophistication of weapons certainly changes. But those same principles of war that applied to the days of Hannibal apply today."

According to the military historian, Theodore Ayrault Dodge,

Hannibal in literature

depicting Hannibal by Deniére et Matelin. Currently displayed in the Blue Room of the White House.]]

Hannibal's name is also commonplace in later art and popular culture, an objective measure of his foreign influence on Western history.

Like other military leaders, Hannibal's victories against superior forces in an ultimately losing cause won him enduring fame that outlasted his native country within North Africa. His crossing of the Alps remains one of the most monumental military feats of ancient warfare and has since captured the imagination of the world (romanticized by several artworks).

Novel unless otherwise noted:

written 1308-21, Dante's Divine Comedy, poem, Inferno XXXI.97-132, 115-124 (Battle of Zama) and Paradiso VI

1726, Gulliver's Travels, satirical work

1862, Gustave Flaubert's Salammbô, set in Carthage at the time of Hamilcar Barca. Hannibal appears as a child.

1996, Elisabeth Craft, A Spy for Hannibal: A Novel of Carthage, 091015533X

1996-2000, Ross Leckie, Carthage trilogy, source of the 2008 film (1996, Hannibal: A Novel, ISBN 0-89526-443-9 ; 1999, Scipio, a Novel, ISBN 0-349-11238-X ; Carthage, 2000, ISBN 0-86241-944-1)

2002, John Maddox Roberts, Hannibal's Children, ISBN 0441009336, an alternate history. In the opening, Hannibal conquers Rome in 215 BCE and exiles the Romans from Italy. In 100 BCE, Romans visit Carthage where the descendants of Hannibal are hereditary rulers using the title shofet.

2005, Terry McCarthy, The Sword of Hannibal, ISBN 0-446-61517-X

2006, David Anthony Durham, Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hannibal, ISBN 0-385-72249-4

2006, Angela Render, Forged By Lightning: A Novel of Hannibal and Scipio, ISBN 1-4116-8002-2

2008, Bill Mahaney, 'The Warmaker—Hannibal's Invasion of Italia and the Aftermath' ISBN 978-0-595-48101-9

Hannibal in theatre and opera

In Hector Berlioz's 1858 opera Les Troyens, he appears in a vision to Dido just before she dies.

In Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1986 musical The Phantom of the Opera and its 2004 film adaption, the Opera Populaire is in rehearsal for an opera about Hannibal.

Hannibal in film and on television

Comics

The webcomic Hannibal Goes to Rome serializes Hannibal's voyage in a humorous fashion.

In the comic by Devil's Due, Hannibal is genetically re-created by Doctor Mindbender and becomes a member of the Coil.

Timeline

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See also

Military history

Famous military commanders

Hannibal in battle

Notes

References

Further reading in Punic Wars

Bickerman, Elias J. "Hannibal’s Covenant", American Journal of Philology, Vol. 73, No. 1. (1952), pp. 1–23.

Bradford, E, Hannibal, London, Macmillan London Ltd., 1981

Caven, B., Punic Wars, London, George Werdenfeld and Nicholson Ltd., 1980

Cottrell, Leonard, Hannibal: Enemy of Rome, Da Capo Press, 1992, ISBN 0-306-80498-0

Daly, Gregory, Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War, London/New York, Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0-415-32743-1.

Garland, Robert, Hannibal. London: Bristol Classical Press, 2010. Pp. 168 (Ancients in Action)q ISBN 9781853997259.

Delbrück, Hans, Warfare in Antiquity, 1920, ISBN 0-8032-9199-X

Hoyos, Dexter: Hannibal's Dynasty: Power and Politics in the Western Mediterranean, 247–183 B.C. (Routledge: London & New York, 2003; paperback edition with maps, 2005) - has much discussion of strategy and warfare.

Hoyos, Dexter, Hannibal: Rome's Greatest Enemy, Bristol Phoenix Press, 2005, ISBN 1-904675-46-8 (hbk) ISBN 1-904675-47-6 (pbk)

Lamb, Harold, Hannibal: One Man Against Rome, 1959.

Lancel, Serge, Hannibal, Blackwell Publishing, 1999, ISBN 0-631-21848-3

Livy, and De Selincourt, Aubery, The War with Hannibal: Books XXI-XXX of the History of Rome from its Foundation, Penguin Classics, Reprint edition, July 30, 1965, ISBN 0-14-044145-X (pbk)(also )

Mahaney, W.C., Hannibal's Odyssey: Environmental Background to the Alpine Invasion of Italia, Piscataway, NJ., Gorgias Press, 2008, 222p. ISBN 978-1-59333-951-7

Prevas, John, Hannibal Crosses the Alps: The Invasion of Italy and the Second Punic War, 2001, ISBN 0-306-81070-0, questions which route he took

Talbert, Richard J.A., ed., Atlas of Classical History, Routledge, London/New York, 1985, ISBN 0-415-03463-9

Yardley, J.C. (translator) & Hoyos, D. (introduction, notes, maps and appendix on Hannibal's march over the Alps): Livy: Hannibal's War: Books 21 to 30 (Oxford World's Classics: Oxford Univ. Press, UK & USA, 2006).

Dodge, Theodore. "Hannibal", Hannibal During the Second Punic War. New York: Barnes and Noble

External links

The Biography of Hannibal

Hannibal by Jacob Abbott

Hannibal's life by Cornelius Nepos, latin transcription and translation to German

National Geographic Channel Documentary: Hannibal v Rome Part I and Part II

The History of Hanibal

Hannibal at FactBehindFiction.com

Category:248 BC births Category:183 BC deaths Category:Carthaginians Category:Generals Category:Second Punic War commanders Category:Ancient people who committed suicide Category:Military personnel who committed suicide Category:Politicians who committed suicide Category:Marches Category:3rd-century BC people Category:2nd-century BC people