Canna Scipio, as already observed, was left in Spain to oppose Ilasdrubal. Ile was afterwards joined by P. Cornelius Scipio, and the war was carried ou with various success for many years, till at length the Roman army was entirely defeated by Ilasdrubal, 11.C. 212. Both the Scipioa fell in the battle. Ilasdrubal was now preparing to join his brother, but was prevented by the arrival of young 1'. Corne lius Scipio in Spain, no. 210, who quickly recovered what the Humana had lost. In AC. 210 he took New Carthage ; and it was nut till u.o. 207, when the Carthaginians had lost almost all their dominions in Spain, that Ilasdrubal set out to joie his brother in Italy. lie crossed the Alps without meeting with any opposition from the Gauls. and arrived at Placentia before the Romans were aware that he had entered Italy. After besieging this town without success, he continued his march southward; but before ho could effect a junction with Hannibal he was attacked by the consuls C. Claudius Nero and M. Livius, on the batiks of the Metaurus, in Umbria, his army was cut to pieces, and he himself fell in the battle. This misfortune obliged Hannibal to act on the defensive, and from this time till his departure from Italy, no. 203, he was confined to Bruttia; but by his superior military skill he maintained his army in a hostile country without any assistance from his government at home.
After effecting the conquest of Spain, Scipio passed over into Africa to carry the war into the enemy's country (s.c. 201). With tho assistance of Masiniasa, a Numidian prince, he gained two victories over the Carthaginians, who hastily recalled their great commander from Italy to defend his native state. Hannibal lauded at Leptis, and advanced near Zama, five days journey from Carthage towards the west. Here he was entirely defeated by Scipio, s.c. 202; 20,000 Carthaginians fell in the battle, and an equal number were taken prisoners. The Carthaginians were obliged to sue for peace; and thus ended the second I'unic war, Re. 201.
After the conclusion of the war Hannibal vigorously applied himself to correct the abuses which existed iu the Carthaginian government. Ile reduced the power of the perpetual judges (as Livy, xxxiii. 40, calls them), and provided for the proper collection of the public revenue, which had been embezzled. He was supported by the people iu these reforms; but he incurred the enmity of many powerful men, who traitorously turned to the Romans, and represented to them that Hannibal was endeavouring to persuade his countrymen to join Autiochus, king of Syria, in a war against them. A Roman embassy was consequently sent to Carthage to demand the punishment of llatinibal as a disturber of the public peace; but Hannibal, aware that he should not be able to resist his enemies, supported by the Roman power, escaped from the city, and sailed to Tyre. From Tyre he went to Ephesus to join Antiochua, 'i.e. 196, and contributed to fix him in his determination to make war against the Romans If llannibal's advice as to the conduct of the wur had been followed, the result of the contest might have been different ; but ho was only employed iu a subordinate command, sod had no opportunity for the exertion of his great military talents, At the conclusion of this war Hannibal was obliged to seek refuge at the court of Prudes, king of Bithynia, where he remained about five years, and on one occasion obtained a victory over Eumenea, king of Pergamns. But the Romans appear
to have been uneasy as long as their once formidable enemy was alive. Au embassy was sent to demand him of Prusias, who being afraid of offending the Romans, agreed to give him up. To avoid falling into the hands of his ungenerous enemies, Hannibal destroyed himself by poison at Nicomedia, in Bithynia, B.C. 183, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
The personal character of Hannibal is only known to us from the events of his public life, and even these have not been commemorated by any historian of his own country ; but we cannot read the history of his campaigns, of which we have here presented a mere outline, even in the narrative of his enemies, without admiring his great abilities and courage. l'olybius remarks (b. xi., p. 637, Casaubon): —" How wonderful is it that in a course of sixteen years, iu which he maintained the war in Italy, he should never once dismiss his army from the field, and yet be able, like a good governor, to keep iu subjection so great a multitude, and to confine them within the bounds of their duty, so that they neither mutinied against him nor quarrelled among them selves. Though his army was composed of people of various countries, of Africans, Spaniards, Gauls, Carthaginians, Italians, and Greeka men who had different laws, different customs, and different language, and, in a word, nothing among them that was common—yet so dexterous was his management that, notwithstanding this great diversity, he forced all of them to acknowledge one authority and to yield obedience to one command ; and this too he effected in the midst of very various fortune. How high as well as just an opinion must these things convey to us of his ability in war. It may be affirmed with confidence that if he had first tried his strength in the other parts of the world, and had come last to attack the Romans, ho could scarcely have failed in any part of his design." (Hampton's Translation.) A good estimate of the character of Hannibal (though one which unfortunately the historian did not live to revise) will be fonnd in the third volume of Arnold's History of Rome,' which also contains by far the best account of the second Punic war in the English language.
(Polybius, b. iii., which contains the history of Hannibal's campaigns till the battle of Cannw, and the fragments of b. vii., viii., ix.. xiv., xvi.; Livy, xxi.--xxxix.; Appian ; Plutarch, Life of L. Fabius Maximus ; Nepos, Life of Hannibal.)