The world had some extraordinary generals who by their
thinking had made a great difference to the history of the world. Hannibal is
one such.
His life also shows how brutal and uncertain life was in
those times. In one battle a Roman army of 86000 was sent against him. In that
Hannibal's army slaughtered 55000 Romans and took 19000 as prisoner in a single
day. How terrible it is for Rome to lose so many men in a single day and what
would have been the grief of those numerous families. War is a dirty game but
it could not be avoided in the olden times and more often the circumstances
were compelling.
The Roman army was then known as a mighty fighting force yet
it had to meekly bow down to this mighty general.
But to its credit it never gave up and fought back till he
is finally defeated much later and that is
great fighting spirit. Down but never out.
There are a few men in the world who have changed history of
our times. The Carthaginian general Hannibal (247-181 BC) was one of them. That
makes him a contemporary of King Asoka who ruled between 273-232 BC. Hannibal
is one of the mightiest thinking generals the world has ever seen and managed
to shake the then all powerful Roman Empire. But for lack of support from his
home country he would have defeated the Roman Empire itself.
The Roman army was then an efficient war machine and no one
before or after Hannibal could defeat Roman armies with such utter contempt.
Hannibal posed a big challenge to the Roman Empire and gave
the Roman commander Scipio Africanus lessons on war strategy which finally led
to his own defeat at the hands of Scipio in Africa.
The tug of war with Hannibal resulted in Rome learning new
techniques of battle that helped it greatly in its further expansion and final
domination of the vast area surrounding the Mediterranean and into most of
Europe and also to the east.
The Carthaginian Empire stretched across the northern shores
of Africa in the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital city was Carthage located in
Tunisia. The empire stretched from Egypt
in the East and then west to Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. This
empire only included thin stretches of land in the mentioned countries adjacent
to the sea because Carthage was essentially a sea trading civilization.
Both Carthage and Rome were founded in about 800 BC.
It also included the
south eastern tip of Spain and the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia in
the Mediterranean Sea. The Roman Empire was then just confined to Italy and was
flexing its muscles and the inevitable war between the two Empires known as the
Punic wars started in 264 BC. Rome won the first Punic war and wrested the
control of the sea from the Carthaginians and also annexed Sicily. The war gave
Carthage a foothold in Spain which was a great resource because of its silver
mines.
Among the two, Rome is a militarized nation depending on
farmers tilling their soil while Carthage was a sea faring trading
civilization. Being a trading civilization Carthage was against war but the
slow Roman expansion alarmed them and goaded them into the Punic wars.
Hannibal was from the Aristocratic house of “Barca” which
gave many commanders to the Carthaginian army. Hannibal’s father Hamilcar was a
general in the army. He took Hannibal to Spain when he was 9 years old and
trained him in the art of war and died when he was just 18 years old. Hannibal
learnt well from his father. He had taken an oath that he would suppress the
power of Rome at that tender age and never relaxed on that till his death much
later. After his father’s death the command of Hannibal’s father’s army passed
to Hasdrubal (Not to be confused with Hannibal’s brother with the same name)
his son in law. Eight years later, when Hasdrubal was murdered Hannibal was
elected as commander of his troops when he was just 26.
Hannibal started his campaign with an attack on the Iberian
tribes in Spain. Theirs was a much larger army, but Hannibal crossed the river
in the night, surprised the Iberains and emerged victorious by lunch time with
hardly any losses. His elephants had done the maximum damage to the enemy.
Elephants were the Carthaginian special weapon.
The news of this victory reached Rome. Later Hannibal laid
seize to Saguntum in Spain knowing that
the Romans who were busy defending against Gauls and were too busy to come to
Saguntum’s aid. After 8 months the city fell and the inhabitants were raped and
murdered and their possessions looted.
This was too much for the Romans and they sent ambassadors
to Carthage and demanded them to hand over Hannibal to face justice. Carthage
refused.
Hannibal felt instead of waiting for the Romans to attack
him, he should surprise the Romans from their backyard by passing through the
Alps. Now this was simply unthinkable at that time because no man had even
attempted crossing the Alps with an army before. And the Hannibal’s army had
war elephants which he felt would give him a psychological edge in the battle
with the Romans. Hannibal made his preparations for his idea. There was hardly
any help from his home country Carthage to the idea. He then raised a mercenary
army of 46000 troops and commenced his crossing the Alps in October just before
the onset of winter.
The Alps are treacherous to cross during that time.
Moreover, some of its areas were peopled by tribes of fierce Gaul’s who do not
have any allegiance to anyone and are independent. Moreover, at that time
armies like that of Hannibal had no supplies and lived off the loot made from
the lands they crossed. This resulted in loss of food to the people wherever
the armies passed. Hannibal’s army was repeatedly attacked by Gauls who reduced
its numbers. Then while crossing a snowstorm ensued and many brave men lay dead
on account of frostbite and snow along with the elephants. Nevertheless
Hannibal had no intention of turning back. He repeatedly exhorted his men not
to lose hope and with an iron will finally achieved the impossible. He crossed
the Alps with his army and marched into Northern Italy along with his few
elephants that were left.
Hannibal commenced his march with 46000 men but only 26000
managed to cross the Alps. But these men are the best and the toughest who had
survived the ordeal of crossing the Alps. When a Roman commander at the
vicinity of crossing was told by his scout that an army along with elephants is
arriving, the commander told him he was dreaming. Such was the improbability of
the task Hannibal had accomplished.
With just those 26000 troops, later joined by 15000 Gauls,
Hannibal played havoc with Roman armies sent against him. He is a thinking
commander who always took his enemy troops by surprise. He defeated one Roman
army after another and marched forward and penetrated deep into Italy.
The battle Hannibal fought with the Romans at Cannae was a
masterpiece in war strategy. Hannibal just had his 41000 men while the Roman
army was 85000 strong. But by superior strategy Hannibal won the battle and
55000 Roman soldiers were slaughtered on the battlefield and 19000 taken
prisoner. Hannibal was in the thick of the battle and led the army from the
front. This battle shook the Romans and they could never forget this defeat.
They sent one army after another against Hannibal which was
defeated by him. Now Hannibal threatened
Rome itself but because of its size he
needed more troops to attack and lay seize to the city. He therefore sent his
brother Mago to Carthage requesting for reinforcements. But his home country
refused any help and left him to his own devices. Hannibal went on fighting
continuing his victories but he could not take Rome itself. In all this war
Carthage did nothing to help Hannibal and did not send him a single solider. He
was fighting the war with mercenaries for the sake of Carthage along with some
Carthaginian men he already had.
In the meantime Rome made Scipio Africanus (though the title
Africanus was got by him after defeating Hannibal in Africa) as the commander
of the Roman armies. Scipio had a good knowledge of the war strategy of
Hannibal. Scipio senior was killed in the battles with Hannibal where Scipio
Africanus too accompanied him. Thus Scipio knew Hannibal well.
Now Scipio and Rome refused to give a direct battle to
Hannibal while he sat and waited for them to attack him so that he can defeat
them. But Scipio did nothing of the sort. He then planned to invade the Carthaginian
territories in Spain which were the powerbase of Hannibal while Hannibal
himself is now in Italy. Finally he planned to attack Carthage itself instead
of fighting with Hannibal.
Scipio finally conquered Spain and then attacked Carthage
itself. The Carthaginian council in panic sent a message asking Hannibal to
come back to fight the Romans. His home city never helped him in the war and
Hannibal could have simply refused, but he sailed to Africa instead to protect
his home city. Hannibal joined battle with Scipio’s army at Zama. Scipio has
learnt well from Hannibal and used the tactics which he learnt from Hannibal
and defeated him. This is the only battle that Hannibal ever lost in his life.
But even after his defeat he went on fighting the Romans.
Hannibal helped those kings who were fighting the Romans
like Antiochus of Syria and others. Ultimately Romans could not forget Cannae
and sent Roman assassins to kill him. Hannibal did not want to die in Roman
hands and committed suicide in a Turkish town in 181 BC when he was 66 years
old. So from the time he became the commander when he was 26, he fought the
Romans for 40 years before he died. To his last he had that principle of
opposing Rome etched on his mind and never wavered from it.
