Hannibal and the Elephants Over the Alps: How Carthage's General Nearly Defeated Rome

Hannibal (247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who, in the Second Punic War, marched an army with war elephants from Spain over the Alps into Italy and defeated Rome in a string of battles, including the famous victory at Cannae, yet in the end failed to take Rome and saw Carthage lose the war. He is considered one of the greatest military tacticians of the ancient world, often named alongside Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.

A son sworn against Rome

Hannibal was a son of Hamilcar Barca, a leading Carthaginian general, and was most likely born in Carthage, in today's Tunisia. After Carthage lost the First Punic War to Rome, Hamilcar set out to rebuild his family's and his city's power by conquering much of the Iberian Peninsula. According to the Greek historian Polybius, Hannibal later said that when he begged as a boy to go with his father, Hamilcar made him swear that he would never be a friend of Rome as long as he lived. Whether or not every detail is true, the story shaped how later generations saw him.

Over the Alps

In 218 BC Hannibal attacked Saguntum, a Spanish city allied with Rome, and this started the Second Punic War. Instead of fighting in Spain or by sea, he did the unexpected: he led his army, including North African war elephants, across the Pyrenees and then over the Alps into northern Italy. The crossing, through snow, narrow passes and attacks by mountain tribes, cost him many men and animals, but it brought the war straight into Rome's homeland.

A string of victories

In his first years in Italy, leading an army of Carthaginians and Celts, Hannibal won a series of victories at Ticinus, the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae, inflicting heavy losses on the Romans. He was known for judging both his own strengths and weaknesses and those of his enemy and planning each battle accordingly.

Cannae: the perfect trap

The Battle of Cannae in 216 BC is still studied in military academies. Hannibal placed his weaker troops in the centre and his best soldiers on the wings. As the larger Roman army pushed forward into the centre, the Carthaginian line bent backwards, and the wings and cavalry closed in from the sides and behind, surrounding the Romans completely. It was one of the worst defeats in Rome's history, and the tactic, a double envelopment, became a textbook example for later generals.

Why he did not win

Even after Cannae, Hannibal did not march on Rome itself. He occupied much of southern Italy for about fifteen years and won over several of Rome's allied cities, but the Romans, led by Fabius Maximus, refused to meet him in another great battle and wore him down with a war of attrition, a method still called the "Fabian strategy". Carthaginian defeats in Spain cut off his reinforcements. Finally Rome sent an army to Africa under Scipio, Hannibal was recalled to defend Carthage, and he was defeated at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, ending the war.

Exile and death

After the war Hannibal was elected a chief magistrate of Carthage and carried out reforms to pay the heavy war debt to Rome, but these were unpopular with both the Carthaginian aristocracy and Rome, and he went into exile. He became a military adviser to the Seleucid king Antiochus III in his war against Rome; when Antiochus was defeated, Hannibal fled again, finally reaching the kingdom of Bithynia. Betrayed to the Romans, he took poison rather than be captured.

Learn with Hannibal: English phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to cross the Alps	(figurative) to attempt something huge and daring	Starting a company felt like crossing the Alps.
a war of attrition	a long fight that wears the other side down	The negotiations became a war of attrition.
to burn your bridges	to make it impossible to go back	She burned her bridges when she quit.
to win the battle but lose the war	short-term success, long-term failure	We won the battle but lost the war.
to fall into a trap	to be tricked into danger	The Romans fell into a trap at Cannae.

Try this: Write three English sentences about a long project, using "a war of attrition" and "to win the battle but lose the war".