Hannibal the general

Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca, is the great Carthaginian general. The reason he is so "great" is the fact that his military strategy is what helped him and his soldiers overpower the Roman army.

When Hannibal was just under ten years of age he went with his father on a conquest for Spain. Since he was from Carthage he already had a great hatred for Romans. Starting from when he was 18 to age 25 he worked for his brother-in-law, Hasdrubal, this was around 224 B.C. Hasdrubal helped to expand the province of Carthage on the Iberian Peninsula. When Hasdrubal was killed in 221 B.C. Hannibal was elected as commander-in-chief of the military. "In two years he subjugated all Spain between the Tajo (Tagus) and Iberus (Ebro) rivers, with the exception of the Roman dependency of Saguntum (Sagunto)…"(Microsoft Corporation). Subsequently Saguntum was taken over, this angered the Romans because they had made a treaty with Carthage and the fact that Saguntum was the only stronghold Roman had left in Spain. The Romans told Carthage to hand Hannibal over to them so they could punish him for breaking the treaty. This caused the second Punic War because Carthage refused to give them Hannibal. In this same year that Saguntum was taken over, 218 B.C., Hannibal and his forces started on their way to fight Rome. With about 40,000 troops, including elephants, Hannibal and the 40,000 marched from New Carthage, in Spain, and crossed the Alps. It took them fifteen days because of being attacked by those who lived in the mountains and the bad weather. On the way there 15,000 men were lost during the march, but Gallic people from Italy, called Insubres, joined them and even took over the Insubres enemies. There were other tribes the Liguarian and Celtic to help him. In 216 B.C. although he was far outnumbered by the Roman military force, Hannibal and his forces defeated them killing over 50,000 Romans. By 217 B.C. he had defeated another part of the Roman military that was under the power of Gaius Flaminius, a Roman Consul. Eventually the Romans started winning battles and around 202 B.C. Carthage was defeated in the Punic War. Hannibal was in charge of the civilian Carthigian government when Carthage surrendered to Rome. He ended up fleeing Carthage in 195 B.C. when he was accused of trying to break the peace between Carthage and Rome.

I do not think that he deserved his status as a monster because he was basically doing what the Romans were doing themselves, seeking power. The Romans saw him as a monster because he was the only one that could defeat them so greatly in battle

Citation: "Hannibal (general)." Microsoft® Student 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.