HANNIBAL, Carthaginian soldier: b. 247 a.c.; d. probably 183 s.c. He was the son of Hamilcar Barca (q.v.) and at the age of nine his father made him swear at the altar eter nal hatred to the Romans. He was a witness of his father's achievements in Spain; but Ham ilcar having fallen in battle in Lusitania, in 22$ s.c., and his son-in-law Hasdrubal having been appointed to succeed him, Hannibal returned home. At 22 he returned to the army at the request of Hasdrubal. The soldiers perceived in him the spirit of Hamilcar, and in three cam paigns his talents and his courage were so con spicuous that the army, on the murder of Has drubal in 221, conferred on him the chief com mand by acclamation. In 219 s.c. he laid siege to Saguntum, a town which had concluded an alliance with Rome. In eight months Sagun turn fell. The Romans, alarmed by this, sent ambassadors to Carthage to demand that Han nibal should be delivered up. The demand being refused, they declared war. Hannibal raised a powerful force, and conceived the de sign of attacking the Romans in Italy. After providing for the security of Africa, and hav ing left his brother Hasdrubal with an army in Spain, he began his march with 90,000 foot soldiers, 40 elephants and 12,000 horsemen, traversed Gaul in the depth of winter with in credible rapidity, and reached the foot of the Alps. In nine days he crossed these mountains, probably by the pass leading over the Little Saint Bernard. The conquest of the Taurini ans and the capture of their chief city encour aged the people of Cisalpine Gaul to join him. These auxiliaries would have been still more numerous had not Publius Scipio approached at the head of a Roman army, which had landed at Pisa. On the banks of the Ticinus the armies engaged, and a charge of the Nu midian horse left Hannibal master of the field (218 a.c.) Scipio avoided a second battle, and retreated beyond the Trebia, leaving the strong town of Clastidium in the enemy's hands. Meanwhile Sempronius arrived with a second army, but Hannibal soon provoked his impetu ous adversary to an engagement, dispersed an ambuscade near the Trebia and surrounded and destroyed the Roman forces. The Romans lost their camp and 26,000 men. Hannibal now retired to winter quarters among his allies in Cisalpine Gaul; and at the opening of the next campaign (217) found two new armies await ing his approach in the passes of the Apen nines. He determined to engage them sepa rately, and destroy Flaminius before the arrival of his colleague. He deceived him, therefore, by feigned marches, crossed the Apennines and traversed the Clusian marsh. He then em ployed every means to compel Flaminius to a battle. He wasted the whole country; feigned a march to Rome; but suddenly formed an ambush in a narrow pass surrounded by almost inaccessible rocks. Flaminius, who followed him, was immediately attacked. A bloody en gagement took place near the Lake Trasimenus. Assailed on every side, the Roman legions were cut in pieces. Hannibal now armed his soldiers in the Roman manner and marched into Apulia, spreading terror wherever he ap proached. Rome, in consternation, entrusted her safety to Fabius Maximus, the dictator, who determined to exhaust by delay the strength of the Carthaginians. He attacked Hannibal with his own weapons, and hung upon him everywhere without attempting to overtake him, convinced that the Carthaginians could not long hold a desolated territory. Hannibal marched into the plains of Capua, with the de sign of separating the terrified cities from their alliance with the Romans, and drawing down Fabius from the mountains. But sud
denly he found himself in the same toils in which Flaminius had perished. Shut up be tween the rocks of Formim, the sands of Liter num and impassable marshes, he was indebted for his safety to a stratagem. Having col lected a thousand oxen, and fastened burning torches to their horns, he drove the animals at midnight into the defiles guarded by the Ro mans. Panic-struck at the terrible sight, the Romans abandoned the heights, and Hannibal forced his way through their ranks. Minutius Felix, master of the horse, was then made col league of Fabius in the dictatorship. Eager for combat, he fell into an ambush at Geronium, and would have perished but for the aid of Fabius. After this campaign the other Roman generals seemed unwilling to trust anything to chance, and imitated the delay of Fabius. Han nibal saw his army slowly wasting away, when the new consul, Terentius Varro, an inexpe rienced and presumptuous man, took the com mand of the legions. Hannibal had occupied Canna', and reduced the Romans to the neces sity of risking an engagement (216). iEmilius Paulus, the colleague of Varro, wished to put off the battle, but Varro chose the day of his command, and directed the attack. The Roman army was destroyed, and Hannibal now marched to Capua, which immediately opened its gates. In 215 a.c. Hannibal sustained, at the hands of Marcellus, a repulse before Nola— the first check which he had received in the open field—but in 212 ac. made an important acquisition in the capture of Tarentum. Capua, however, was invested by two consular armies, and was on the point of surrendering. Hannibal marched to Rome, and encamped in sight of the capitol, 211 B.C. ; but the Romans were not thus to be discouraged; Capua fell. This success gave the Romans a decided supe riority, and nearly all the people of Italy de clared in their favor. Held in check by the consul, Claudius Nero, Hannibal could not ef fect a union with his brother Hasdrubal, who had set out from Spain with reinforcements, but after having passed the Apennines was at tacked and defeated by Nero on the Metaurus in 207 s.c. Hasdrubal fell, and his bloody head was thrown into the camp of Hannibal. The latter then retired to Bruttium, where, sur rounded with difficulties, he yet maintained the contest with inferior forces against victorious armies. But Scipio now carried the war into Africa, and Hannibal was recalled to defend his country. He reluctantly embarked his troops, and in 203 s.c. left the country which for 16 years he had held in spite of all the efforts of 'Rome. He landed at Leptis, gained over a part of the Numidians, and encamped at Adrumetum. Scipio took several cities, and reduced the inhabitants to slavery. Pressed by his countrymen to come to a decisive engage ment, Hannibal met Scipio at Zama, and was defeated with 20,000 loss. Peace was concluded in 201 B.C. Hannibal, accused by his enemies of stirring up Antiochus the Great to war against the Romans, went to Ephesus, to the court of Antiochus. In the ensuing struggle with Rome, Antiochus was signally defeated, and obliged to conclude a peace, one of the terms of which was that Hannibal should be delivered up. Hannibal, again obliged to flee, went to the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia. Prusias, to whom the Senate had sent ambassa dors to demand the person of Hannibal, was on the point of complying with the requisition, when Hannibal prevented the disgrace by swal lowing poison, which he always carried about in his ring.