Hannibal and the Carthaginian Empire Essay

Hannibal was great and famous Carthaginian general. He is remembered for his great strategic skills on the meshing 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 golf-club year old son, Hannibal, to the altar of a Carthaginian god and made him betroth eternal hatred to the Romans. Then Hannibal and his start out left for Spain. The headquarters of Carthaginian office in Spain was the city of New Carthage. Hannibal cut today his fathers techniques for war .When Hamilcar perished in the battle of 230 BC, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, became the military attractor plus the political loss continueer and act Carthages pressure in Spain. In 226 BC Hasdrubal signed an obligation with the Romans. The agreement stated that neither armament could bungle the Ebro River in the spousal relationshipern Spain . When Hasdrubal was murdered in 221 BC, the Carthaginians collectively elected twenty-six-year-old Hannibal to be the leader in Carthaginian g everyplacenment and air force officer of the military in Spain. subsequently Hamilcars death Hannibal became an excellent military leader.nether Hannibals control the Carthaginians made large territorial advances (I-cias). He learned quickly how to be a leader and with the support of his brothers he was sufficient to succeed through his battles. Hannibal was carrefour the the Alps and was fitted to receive rations for a couple twenty-four hourss. On the third day he captured a Gallic town and provided the phalanx from its stores with rations for two or threesome days (Alps). He wanted the beat for his regular phalanx, only had dwarfish support from Carthage. in spite of the number of men falling from the legions collect to inhering disasters he managed to rear others.Even if many reduce from his army during this march because of snowstorms, landslides, and attacks from hostile local tribes, he managed to recruit new per sonnel along the route. His strategy was to respond quickly to these natural disasters and it helped him. Hannibal earned his success by support hardships with his recruits and reinforcements. Hannibal experienced many challenges including battle encumbers little amount of military equipment and a dainty number of reinforcements from folk. Other military leadership knew he would not be able to handle a delay due to the wishing of preparation he took for sever assort battle.He Fabius, Roman Military Leader believed that Hannibal lacked the equipment for a prolonged siege and that a delay in the battle would seriously trim back the Carthaginian food supply. capital of Italy 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 support during his life history due to the lack of food. battle of Zama was the precisely defeat. Hannibal suffered in his military career . After his defeat hi s enemies began to discover his weakness.Hannibal was cartroad out of everything during the Battle of Cannae and his help refused to countenance him. Hannibal needed reinforcements, which the Carthaginian government refused to furnish, and he also lacked siege weapons . Hannibals restrictions could remove given him success, had he been willing to raft with another force greater thence his own. Hannibal was the instrument of his own undoing. Hannibal was set on being the conqueror and set on some one elses defeat, which lead him to his own. His opponent, Rome, was the center of his graduatefall.He would never substantiate and there was no satisfaction betwixt them. In 218, he clashed with the Roman army. The Romans claimed that this was a break of an existing treaty amidst Rome and Carthage and demanded Hannibal surrendered to themthe Second Punic fight started (I-cias). If Hannibal conquered Romans he would never be able to rule over. According to legend, Hamilcar had made the materialization Hannibal swear on a sacral altar that he would remain an oppositeness of Rome for life . Hannibal had made a promise to his father, therefore intending to go on with nothing.The loss of the second city of Italy represent Hannibal the allegiance of many of his Italian ally and put an end to his hopes of further 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 contact land and took hostages from the adjacent tribes to assure their committal to him without crossing the Ebro River, except for the city of Saguntum, an ally of Rome.When Saguntum began trouble between Carthage and Rome in 219 BC, Hannibal invaded the city. This began the Second Punic War . After hearing the declaration of war Hannibal immediately starts off towa rds Rome. The problem was he had to go by land since Rome controlled the seas. Hannibal began a long and hazardous expedition crossways the Pyrenees and the Alps in August of 218, with battle elephants walking at the front of his army . In the resile of 218 BC, Hannibal handed over command of the Spanish armies to his brother Hasdrubal.He then led his armament north toward the Pyrenees Mountains and began one of the most famous journeys in history . Hannibals army include Libyans and Numidians from North Africa, Iberians and Celtiberians from Spain, and Gauls from Spain, France, and Italy. There were thirty- quintuplet gram foot soldiers, twelve cat valium horsemen, and cubic decimeter war elephants. Hannibal used the elephants to break metrical unit lines and to create fear and disorder. The elephants also terrified horses, so they were able to disrupt the enemys cavalry . In the Pyrenees, Hannibal encountered subway system from local tribes.He lost a lot of his men to f lake, and some of the mercenaries went home because they were scared of the long journey. With all this, Hannibal keep to move as quickly as possible, but bad luck fell into Hannibals lap as primaeval snows and landslides kill many of his men and closely 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 forces spent the overwinter in Po Valley. In the spring of 217 BC When news 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 address of Hannibal. So the Romans sent troops chthonic 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 with 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 received news of Hannibal, it was too late. Hannibal had travel his entire army across the Rhone, cubic decimeter miles north of Massilia . Although Hannibals army had been cut back 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 raft .When the Alps came into view, Hannibal allowed his army a hardly a(prenominal) days to rest, because he knew that his army had doubts close to crossing the Alps. Never before had elephants cross the Alps. The army did not reach the Alps until late in the year, and many troops and horses were killed. more or less troops who came from warmer climate s died from the cold. virtually troops died of hunger because food was mulct to come by. Others died in fights with saddle horse tribes. Some of the mountain tribes rolled big stones down the mountains and caused men and animals to fall from the narrow mountain passage .