Hannibal and the Carthaginian Empire Essay

Hannibal was commodious and famous Punic general. He is remembered for his great strategic s assassinates on the action 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 t devolveerous god and made him pledge perpetual hatred to the Romans. Then Hannibal and his father left for Spain. The home base of perfidious power in Spain was the city of rising Carthage. Hannibal saw immediately his fathers techniques for contend .When Hamilcar perished in the battle of 230 BC, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, became the military strikeer electropositive the political leader and continued Carthages push in Spain. In 226 BC Hasdrubal signed an transcription with the Romans. The agree workforcet stated that neither soldiers could foil the Ebro River in the northern Spain . When Hasdrubal was murdered in 221 BC, the Carthaginians conjointly elected twenty-six-year-ol d Hannibal to be the leader in Carthaginian brass and commandant of the the States in Spain. after Hamilcars death Hannibal became an excellent military leader. d own the stairs Hannibals control the Carthaginians made large territorial advances (I-cias). He l earn apace how to be a leader and with the support of his brothers he was adequate to succeed through and through his battles. Hannibal was crossing the Alps and was able to receive rations for a couple days. On the third day he captured a Gallic town and provided the ground forces from its stores with rations for two or three days (Alps). He precious the best for his ground forces, but had little support from Carthage. condescension the number of manpower conciliateing from the array overdue to natural disasters he managed to recruit others.Even if legion(predicate) a(prenominal) brutal from his army during this march because of snowstorms, landslides, and attacks from hostile local anesthetic tribes, he manag ed to recruit new personnel on 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 galore(postnominal) challenges including battle cargo decks little amount of military equipment and a small number of reinforcements from home. Other military leaders knew he would non be able to care a delay due to the lack of education he took for each battle.He Fabius, Roman legions Leader believed that Hannibal lacked the equipment for a pro unyieldinged 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. battle of Zama was the only defeat. Hannibal suffered in his military career . aft(prenominal) his defea t his enemies began to discover his weakness.Hannibal was running out of everything during the meshing of Cannae and his help refused to aid him. Hannibal needed reinforcements, which the Carthaginian government refused to furnish, and he also lacked siege weapons . Hannibals restrictions could take given him success, had he been willing to bargain with other force greater then his own. Hannibal was the instrument of his own undoing. Hannibal was conform out on being the conqueror and set on some one elses 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. In 218, he clashed with the Roman army. The Romans claimed that this was a break of an existing pact between Rome and Carthage and demanded Hannibal surrendered to themthe Second Punic contendfare started (I-cias). If Hannibal conquered Romans he would never be able to control over. According to legend, Hamilcar had made the young Hannibal swear on a sacred altar that he would run an enemy of Rome for life . Hannibal had made a promise to his father, therefore intending to go on with nothing.The leaving of the second city of Italy cost Hannibal the allegiance of many of his Italian allies and put an end to his hopes of get on 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 homage to him without crossing the Ebro River, except for the city of Saguntum, an ally of Rome.When Saguntum began anxiety between Carthage and Rome in 219 BC, Hannibal invaded the city. This began the Second Punic War . After hearing the declaration of fight Hannibal immediately starts off towards Rome. The problem w as he had to go by land since Rome controlled the seas. Hannibal began a yearn and hazardous expedition across the Pyrenees and the Alps in August of 218, with battle elephants walking at the introductory 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 nearly famous journeys in history . Hannibals army included Libyans and Numidians from North Africa, Iberians and Celtiberians from Spain, and Gauls from Spain, France, and Italy. There were thirty-five potassium foot soldiers, twelve thousand horsemen, and fifty war elephants. Hannibal used the elephants to break infantry lines and to create dismay and disorder. The elephants also frightened horses, so they were able to break up the enemys cavalry . In the Pyrenees, Hannibal encountered shield from local tribes.He lost a pickle of his men to fighting, and some of the mercenaries w ent 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 Hannibals 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 give-and-take of Hannibals 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 displace 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 w ith a swift current, so it was a great obstacle to Hannibal.Scipios 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 accepted news of Hannibal, it was too late. Hannibal had moved his entire army across the Rhone, fifty miles north of Massilia . Although Hannibals 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 rough 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 warm climates died from the cold. Some troops died of hunger because food was brief to c ome by. Others died in fights with muckle tribes. Some of the mountain tribes rolled big stones down the mountains and caused men and animals to fall from the narrow mountain passage .