Contents:
The siege of Saguntum lasted eight months, and in it Hannibal was wounded. The Romans, who had sent envoys to Carthage in protest though they did not send an army to help Saguntum , after its fall demanded the surrender of Hannibal. Thus began the Second Punic War, declared by Rome and conducted, on the Carthaginian side, almost entirely by Hannibal. Hannibal spent the winter of — at Cartagena in active preparations for carrying the war into Italy.
Leaving his brother Hasdrubal in command of a considerable army for the defense of Spain and North Africa , he crossed the Ebro in April or May and then marched into the Pyrenees. Hannibal may have started from Cartagena with an army of around 90,—including an estimated 12, cavalry—but he left at least 20, soldiers in Spain to protect his supply lines. In the Pyrenees his army, which included at least 37 elephants, met with stiff resistance from the Pyrenean tribes.
Hannibal Barca was a general and statesman from Ancient Carthage who is widely considered one of the greatest military commanders in history. His father. Hannibal was known for leading the Carthaginian army and a team of elephants across southern Europe and the Alps Mountains against Rome in the Second Punic War. Hannibal, general of the Carthaginian army, lived in the second and third century B.C. During the Second Punic War.
Meanwhile, the Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio transported his army, which had been detained in northern Italy by a rebellion, by sea to the area of Massilia Marseille , a city that was allied to Rome. Realizing that Hannibal probably planned to cross the Alps , Scipio returned to northern Italy to await him. Fourques, opposite Arles, is thought by some to have been the likely crossing place. Many also consider as possibilities the natural historic fording places between modern Beaucaire and Avignon.
Hannibal used coracles and boats locally commandeered; for the elephants he made jetties out into the river and floated the elephants from those on earth-covered rafts. Horses were embarked on large boats or made to swim. During the operation hostile Gauls appeared on the eastern bank, and Hannibal dispatched a force under Hanno to cross farther upstream and attack them from behind. Indeed, Polybius makes it clear that Hannibal did not march toward the Alps blindly but instead had excellent information about the best routes.
Article Media. Info Print Print.
Eight years later, following Hasrubal's assassination, Hannibal was unanimously chosen to lead the Carthagian Empire in Spain at the age of Over the course of his military career the general won a series of decisive victories, first consolidating Carthage's holdings in Spain and then during the Second Punic War against Rome. After marching his vast army and war elephants into Italy he won three epic battles over the Romans — the trebia, lake Trasimene and Cannae, establishing his reputation as one of history's great military leaders.
Hannibal's Carthaginian forces held much of Italy for 15 years, although the conflict eventually reached a stalemate and he was unable to march on Rome.
Despite many more notable victories, he began to lose ground and, with the Romans launching a counter-invasion against his homeland, Hannibal returned to Carthage in BC. A decisive defeat at the Battle of Zama in BC which ended the Second Punic War dealt a heavy blow to Carthage, whose empire was shattered, and to Hannibal, who fell in standing.
Although he had success as a politician during the peacetime that followed, he was unpopular with Carthaginian aristocrats and went into voluntary exile first with the Selucid Empire, then in the ancient region of Bithynia. In his later years Hannibal continued to fight the hated Romans and their allies, and in one naval victory had large pots filled with venomous snakes flung onto his enemies' ships.
The precise date and cause of the great soldier's death are unknown — various accounts have him dying of fever after being wounded or poisoning himself, at some point between and BC. Hannibal's epic crossing of the Alps was one of the most notable moments of the Second Punic War and is still seen as one of the great military achievements of the ancient world.
The reason why Hannibal elected to go over the imposing mountain ranges was to avoid Roman land forces and also the formidable Roman navy. The great commander's march took place in BC and had to be carefully planned to avoid the worst of the winter weather. Records suggest Hannibal and his forces reached the summit of the Alps around October - meaning they would have indeed faced snowy weather despite their leader's plans.