How Hannibal Fought And Died
The career of Hannibal was a remarkable one. For fifteen years he
remained in Italy, frequently fighting, never losing a battle, keeping
Rome in a state of terror, and dwelling with his army in comfort and
plenty on the rich Italian plains. Yet he represented a commercial city
against a warlike state. He was poorly supported by Carthage; Rome was
indomitable; great generals rose to command her armies; in the end the
mi
unconquered and Italy unsubdued.
The story of his deeds is a long one, a record of war and bloodshed
which our readers would be little the wiser and none the better for
hearing. We shall therefore only give it in the barest outline.
Hannibal defeated the Romans on first meeting them, and the Gauls
flocked to his army. But of the elephants, which he had brought with
such difficulty over the Rhone and the Alps, the cold of December killed
all but one. But without them he met a large Roman army at Lake
Trasimenus, and defeated it so utterly that but six thousand escaped.
Rome, in alarm, chose a dictator, Fabius Maximus by name. This leader
adopted a new method of warfare, which has ever since been famous as
the "Fabian policy." This was the policy of avoiding battle and seeking
to wear the enemy out, while harassing him at every opportunity. Fabius
kept to the hills, followed and annoyed his great antagonist, yet
steadily avoided being drawn into battle.
For more than a year this continued, during all which time Fabius grew
more and more unpopular at Rome. The waiting policy was not that which
the Romans had hitherto employed, and they became more impatient as days
and months passed without an effort to drive this eating ulcer from
their plains. In time the discontent grew too strong to be ignored. A
man of business, who was said to have begun life as a butcher's son,
Varro by name, became the favorite leader of the populace, and was in
time raised to the consulship. He enlisted a powerful army, ninety
thousand strong, and marched away to the field of Cannae, where Hannibal
was encamped, with the purpose of driving this Carthaginian wasp from
the Italian fields.
It was a dwarf contending with a giant. The vainglorious Varro gave
Hannibal the opportunity for which he had long waited. The Roman army
met with such a crushing defeat that its equal is scarcely known in
history. Baffled, beaten, and surrounded by Hannibal's army, the Romans
were cut down in thousands, no quarter being asked or given, till when
the sun set scarce three thousand men were left alive and unhurt of
Varro's hopeful host. Of Hannibal's army less than six thousand had
fallen. Of the Roman forces more than eighty thousand paid the penalty
of their leader's incompetence.
Hannibal did not advance to Rome, which seemed to lie helpless before
him. He doubtless had good reasons for not attempting to capture it.
Maharbal, his cavalry general, said, "Let me advance with the horse, and
do you follow; in four days from this time you shall sup in the
Capitol." Hannibal, on the contrary, sent terms of peace to Rome. These
the Romans, unconquerable in spirit despite their disaster, refused. He
then marched to southern Italy and established his head-quarters in the
rich city of Capua, which opened its gates to him, and which he promised
to make the capital of all Italy.
Hannibal won no more great victories in Italy, though he was victor in
many small conflicts. The Romans had paid dearly for their impatience.
Fabius was again called to the head of the army, and his old policy was
restored. And thus years went on, Hannibal's army gradually decreasing
and receiving few reinforcements from home, while Rome in time regained
Capua and other cities.
At length, in the year 208 B.C., Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, who
commanded the Carthaginian armies in Spain, resolved to go to his
brother's aid. He crossed the Alps, as Hannibal had done, following the
same pass, and making use of the bridges, rock cuttings, and mountain
roads which his brother had made eleven years before.
Had this movement been successful, it might have been the ruin of Rome.
But the despatches of Hasdrubal were intercepted by the Romans.
Perceiving their great danger, they raised an army in haste, marched
against the invader, and met him before he could effect a junction with
his brother. The Carthaginians were defeated with great slaughter.
Hasdrubal fell on the field, and his head was cruelly sent to Hannibal,
who, as he looked with bitter anguish on the gruesome spectacle, sadly
remarked, "I recognize in this the doom of Carthage."
Yet for four years more Hannibal remained in the mountains of Southern
Italy, holding his own against Rome, though he had lost all hopes of
conquering that city. But Rome had now a new general, with a new policy.
This was the famous Scipio, and the policy was to carry the war into
Carthage. Fabius had done his work, and new measures came with new men.
Scipio led an army into Spain, which he conquered from Carthage. Then he
invaded Africa, and Hannibal was recalled home, after his long and
victorious career in Italy.
Hannibal had never yet suffered a defeat. He was now to experience a
crushing one. With a new army, largely made up of raw levies, he met the
veteran troops of Scipio on the plains of Zama. Hannibal displayed here
his usual ability, but fortune was against him, his army was routed, the
veterans he had brought from Italy were cut down where they stood, and
he escaped with difficulty from the field on which twenty thousand of
his men had fallen. It was an earlier Waterloo.
His flight was necessary, if Carthage was to be preserved. He was the
only man capable of saving that great city from ruin. Terms of peace
were offered by Scipio, severe ones, but Hannibal accepted them,
knowing that nothing else could be done. Then he devoted himself to the
restoration of his country's power, and for seven years worked
diligently to this end.
His efforts were successful. Carthage again became prosperous. Rome
trembled for fear of her old foe. Commissioners were sent to Carthage to
demand the surrender of Hannibal, on the plea that he was secretly
fomenting a new war. His reforms had made enemies in Carthage, his
liberty was in danger, and nothing remained for him but to flee.
Escaping secretly from the city, the fugitive made his way to Tyre, the
mother-city of Carthage, where he was received as one who had shed
untold glory on the Phoenician name. Thence he proceeded to Antioch,
the capital of Antiochus, king of Syria, and one of the successors of
Alexander the Great.
During the period over which we have so rapidly passed the empire of
Rome had been steadily extending. In addition to her conquests in Spain
and Africa, Macedonia, the home-realm of Alexander the Great, had been
successfully invaded, and the first great step taken by Rome towards the
conquest of the East.
The loss of Macedonia stirred up Antiochus, who resolved on war with
Rome, and marched with his army towards Europe. Hannibal, who had failed
to find him at Antioch, overtook him at Ephesus, and found him glad
enough to secure the services of a warrior of such world-wide fame.
Antiochus, unfortunately, was the reverse of a great warrior, and by no
means the man to cope with Rome. Hannibal saw at a glance that his army
was not fit to fight with a Roman force, and strongly advised him to
equip a fleet and invade Southern Italy, saying that he himself would
take the command. But nothing was to be done with Antiochus. He was
filled with conceit of his own greatness, was ignorant of the power of
Rome, and was jealous of the glory which Hannibal might attain. His
guest then advised that an alliance should be made with Philip, king of
Macedonia. This, too, was neglected, and the Romans hastened to ally
themselves with Philip. Antiochus, puffed up with pride, pointed to his
great army, and asked Hannibal if he did not think that these were
enough for the Romans.
"Yes," he replied, sarcastically, "enough for the Romans, however greedy
they may be."
It proved as he feared. The Romans triumphed. Hannibal was employed only
in a subordinate naval command, in which field of warfare he had no
experience. Peace was made, and Antiochus agreed to deliver him up to
Rome. The greatest of Rome's enemies was again forced to fly for his
life.
Hannibal now took refuge with Prusias, king of Bithynia. Here he
remained for five years. But even here the implacable enmity of Rome
followed him. Envoys were sent to the court of Prusias to demand his
surrender. Prusias, who was a king on a small scale, could not, or would
not, defend his guest, and promised to deliver him into the hands of his
unrelenting foes.
Only one course remained. Death was tenfold preferable to figuring in a
Roman triumph. Finding the avenues to his house secured by the king's
guards, the great Carthaginian took poison, which he is said to have
long carried with him in a ring, in readiness for such an emergency. He
died at Libyssa, on the eastern shore of the sea of Marmora, in his
sixty-fourth year, as closely as we know. In the same year, 183 B.C.,
died his great and successful antagonist, Scipio Africanus.
Thus perished, in exile, one of the greatest warriors of any age, who,
almost without aid from home, supported himself for fifteen years in
Italy against all the power of Rome and the greatest generals she could
supply. Had Carthage shown the military spirit of Rome, Hannibal might
have stopped effectually the conquering career of that warlike city.
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