War Art 23: Hannibal Crosses the Alps

We don't know much about Carthage because a Roman army quite deliberately destroyed Carthaginian culture and records after defeating Carthaginians in the Third Punic War (circa 146 BC). But Carthage didn't go down easy. A thorn in Rome's side, Carthage was a powerful city state in North Africa, thought to be established as a colony in about 1234 BC by Phoenicians, an ancient maritime trading culture. Carthage flourished for a thousand years, extending its realm to Sicily and parts of Spain, even though first Greece and then Rome offered stiff competition in Mediterranean trade and territorial expansion. The first serious war between Carthage and Rome (known as the First Punic War after the Poenici language of Carthage) broke out in Sicily in 264 BC and lasted 23 years. Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca, was a great Carthaginian military commander who grew to hate Rome during this great war of attrition which saw Rome become the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean. He passed that hatred to his son, even insisting that young Hannibal swear an anti-Roman oath. Twenty-three years later after the end of the First Punic War, Hannibal surprised the Romans by crossing the Alps in 218 BC with an army and a troop of battle elephants to appear at their back door. Hannibal marched the length of Italy, racking up victories at Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae. But with his army slowly withering, the Romans sent another force to Iberia under Scipio Africanus to strike against the city of New Carthage. Hannibal was forced to abandon his campaign in Italy and rush home to Africa, where he was defeated in the battle of Zama. Carthage was relegated to the status of client state. Hannibal was exiled to a foreign court in Syria, and even attempted another assault on Rome in 190 BC, but he was unsuccessful and he died of poisoning in about 183 BC. Some say he poisoned himself to avoid falling into Roman hands. Others say Prusias I of Bithynia had him poisoned to seek the favor of the Romans.