Hannibal Barka (Hannibal bin Hamilcar Barka) is a legendary military leader in history, a Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War, the greatest military leader, the sworn enemy of Rome and "the last stronghold of Carthage." Born 247 BC e. - Date of death 183 BC e.
Over the years, a lot has happened … Hamilcar Barca died in Spain. However, he managed to found the city of New Carthage on the coast. And he gave his sons, including Hannibal, a good education - military and "civil". Hannibal had an excellent sense of the tactics of war, he was excellent in several languages, including Latin and Greek (which, however, spoke with a terrible Punian accent). In addition to everything, he was by nature an excellent psychologist.
At the age of 25, Hannibal led the Spanish army of Carthage and continued his father's work with even greater zeal than Hamilcar himself. As only appointed person in the service of Carthage, he conducted Spanish affairs in such a way as to push the two great powers into mortal combat.
There are many terrible stories about the cruelty of the commander Hannibal. As if he filled up the ditches with the bodies of the prisoners, after which his army overcame these ditches right over the corpses. Allegedly, he buried the prisoners to the waist, and made fires around … In general, before the personality of Hannibal, historians are divided into two groups. Some who sympathize with the great Punyan, respecting his military genius, say that there is no convincing historical evidence of such atrocities. Others ask, what more proof is needed if ancient historians directly write about it?
I think there is no point in getting involved in this dispute. One thing is clear: Hannibal was a son of his time, and besides, a Punian - and that already says a lot … But how are they characterized by those who were closer to Hannibal than modern historians.
Livy: “As brave as he was in throwing himself into danger, he was just as circumspect in danger itself. There was no such work in which he would get tired in body or lose heart. He endured both heat and frost with equal patience, ate and drank as much as nature demanded, and not for pleasure; he allocated time for wakefulness and sleep, not paying attention to day and night - he devoted only those hours to rest that remained free from work, while not using a soft bed and did not require silence to make it easier to fall asleep. He was often seen wrapped in a military cloak and sleeping among the soldiers on guard or at the picket.
His clothes did not differ at all from his peers, only by his weapons and by his horse it was possible to recognize him. Both in the cavalry and in the infantry, he left the others far behind him, the first to rush into battle, the last to leave the field after the battle. But at the same time, with these high virtues, he also had terrible vices. His cruelty reached the point of inhumanity, his treachery exceeded the notorious Puni treachery. He knew neither truth nor virtue, was not afraid of gods, did not keep oaths, did not respect sacred things."
Polybius: “… The only culprit, the soul of everything that both sides endured and experienced - the Romans and the Carthaginians, I respect Hannibal. To such an extent is the power of one person, one mind great and amazing.
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… Is it possible not to be surprised at the strategic art of Hannibal … if you look at this time in its entire duration, if you pay attention to all the big and small battles, sieges and falls of cities, the difficulties that fell to his lot, if, in the end, take into account the enormity of his enterprise? During the 16 years of war with the Romans in Italy, Hannibal never once withdrew his troops from the battlefield. Like a skillful helmsman, he continuously kept in obedience these huge heterogeneous hordes, he managed to protect them from indignation against the leader and from internecine strife.
His troops included Lebanese, Iberians, Ligurs, Celts, Phoenicians, Italians, Hellenes - peoples who, by their origin, had nothing in common with each other either in laws, or in language, or in anything else. But the wisdom of the leader taught such diverse and numerous nationalities to follow a single command, to submit to a single will with all the inconstancy and changeability of situations, when fate was very favorable to him, then opposed.
… It is not easy to judge the character of Hannibal, since both the environment of his friends and the state of affairs influenced him; it is enough that among the Carthaginians he was reputed as a greedy person, and among the Romans - as a hard-hearted one”.
Personally, it seemed to me that the first part of Hannibal's characterization somewhat contradicts the second. It is unlikely that a person who sleeps on earth and devoted his life to one idea, who leaves entertainment only free time from "work", is so fond of money. He could be cruel and he was. But money?.. Where should he spend it?
As a 9-year-old boy, Hannibal left Carthage and returned there already turned gray, a man who had stepped far into the second half of his life. He didn’t even remember what his homeland looked like, to which he had dedicated his life. Spain was his greater homeland - the rest of his childhood, adolescence, youth and maturity passed in this country. And the best mature years - in continuous battles on the Italian plains.
I will not describe in detail the political details of how and for what reasons the war, which historians called the Second Punic, was declared. But in short, the essence is this. Hannibal maneuvered - he wanted to ignite a war with Rome. He, without reason and without an order from Carthage, attacked the allies of Rome - the city of Saguntus located in Spain. A delegation from the city was sent to Rome asking for help.
While the Roman Senate was deciding whether they needed to defend Sagunt (this meant a declaration of war on Carthage), Hannibal took the city, plundered, and demonstratively cut out all the inhabitants - for they resisted very stubbornly. It was a real "goat defense": the inhabitants of the small Sagunta held the city for eight months. The commander Hannibal himself during the assault on Sagunta was seriously wounded in the thigh with a dart.
However, the rich booty that he sent from Sagunta to Carthage reconciled the capital with his arbitrariness. There, of course, they understood that Rome would inevitably intervene, but the Punyans were fueled by revanchist sentiments.
And the Roman senators, having learned about the fate of Sagunta, covered their faces with their palms. They were ashamed of their indecision, which resulted, in fact, in the betrayal of their allies. But they did not immediately declare war on Carthage: the Romans never did anything in a fit of emotion. Rome at first decided to settle the matter legally - an embassy went to Carthage to find out whether Barca's son worked at the direction of the metropolis or if it was his own initiative. If amateur performance - let Carthage give out the criminal to the Romans!..
The head of the Roman embassy was Quintus Fabius Maximus. And so the embassy entered the Carthaginian Senate … The exchange of views was stormy. Stormy from the expressive Punyans, of course. They pushed a long and very incoherent speech, the essence of which was that what they had done was the unconditional initiative of Hannibal, but they would not betray Hannibal to the Romans under any circumstances, and in general …
The Romans were silent. They already understood everything. But finally - exclusively to clear his conscience - Fabius stepped towards the Punyans and - with both hands he made a trough-type fold on the front margin of his toga and, pointing to this depression, said to the Punyans:
“This is where I brought you war or peace. Take your pick.
- Choose yourself, - the eastern people dismissed. And what was Rome to do? Wipe off?.. Fabio said that Rome chooses war.
The beginning of the Second Punic was marked by Hannibal. It was his genius, his tenacity that was the fuel of this war.
Hannibal unexpectedly invaded Italy - fell on the Italian plains, like snow on his head - from the Alps.
Note that the Alps are always a terrible surprise. The great commander Hannibal fell on the heads of enemies, overcoming the alpine passes. Suvorov fell on the heads of enemies, overcoming the alpine passes. Napoleon Bonaparte fell, overcoming … These are the Alps. Unexpected …
Of the three listed characters, of course, Hannibal was the most difficult: neither Napoleon nor Suvorov had elephants. Hannibal had them. Elephants played the role of tanks in the ancient army - they were the main striking force that accompanied a chain of lightly armed infantry in the attack. And these tanks had to be transported through the mountain passes.
When his inner circle learned that he was going to pull off such a trick - to get to Italy through the Alps, they were more than amazed. Perfectly imagining the difficulties of providing a huge army with provisions in the mountainous conditions, the friends honestly told Hannibal: there is only one way to lead tens of thousands of people through these frozen places. "In which?" - asked the commander. “If you learn to eat human meat,” they replied.
And here historians disagree. Some believe that Hannibal tasted human flesh, others that he could not. It is not known exactly whether he ate or did not eat, but it is clear that he seriously thought about it. He understood that Rome and Carthage could not live together on the same planet. And it seems to me that this man's fanatical determination to make any sacrifices to save his civilization deserves respect.
And why, in fact, did Hannibal decide to invade the Italian federation through the Alps? But because after the First Punic, Rome became the master of the seas. More precisely, the Roman "marines". So the conquest of Spain by Hannibal's father and Hannibal himself was not only and not just the conquest of territory. Unable to reach Italy with the troops by sea, father and son for 20 years blasted the land road to the hated enemy with swords, conquering everything that lay in their way.
Hannibal lost half of his army and almost all the elephants when crossing the Alps. In one of the places he happened to punch a road several hundred meters long right through the rocky massif. His people made huge fires, heating the rock, then poured water on the stone. The rock cracked, it was smashed with pickaxes, after that they made fires again, poured water again and took picks … paths to glorious victories.
Hunger. Snow. Constant attacks from hill tribes. Elephants, horses, people, numb from the cold and breaking into the abyss … The Puni warriors spent a lot of energy until they crossed the Alps.
This plan of attack was incredibly difficult. And if you take into account the balance of forces … This is what the Romans had: if you count all the troops throughout Italy and Sicily, then in the Roman possessions "under arms" were 150 thousand infantry and 23 thousand horsemen. Hannibal had 50 thousand people before the Alpine crossing. After the Alps - about 20 thousand. What did he expect?
Let us recall the characteristics of Hannibal given to him by his contemporaries: courageous, but not reckless. Before leaving with the elephants on a rather dubious mountain hike, the commander, while still in Spain, set up a good political intelligence service - dozens of his agents scoured southern Gaul and Italy, checking the situation. The Gauls and some other tribes promised to go over to his side.
The general hoped very much that the Italic federation would fall apart as soon as he raised his sword over it. Hitler had similar hopes a little later when he signed the Barbarossa plan. It did not work … For 14 years of continuous fighting in Italy, he did not know a single defeat. Only victories. Why did Carthage lose the Second Punic?
The commander Hannibal was able to defeat the Romans on the Trebbia River. The Romans fought fiercely, killed all the war elephants at Hannibal, except one, but the genius overpowered the Roman military organization … Hannibal defeated the Romans on Lake Trasimene, where the genius of the commander again surpassed the iron legionaries … Hannibal defeated the Romans at Cannes … Then the words "broken army" an army killed by 80-90%”. The road to Rome was open.
But the commander realized that his motley army, melting from battle to battle, without help from Carthage, would not be able to quickly take a well-fortified city. And time worked against Hannibal: Rome began to carry out another mobilization throughout the country, recruiting 16-17-year-old boys into the army. And the half-empty city did not doze - the townspeople destroyed the bridges across the Tiber, armed with trophies. Remember, in every Roman house, in a place of honor brought by grandfathers and fathers from various wars, punched shields, bloody swords … And Hannibal had no rear, he was alone in a foreign country, and all his requests to Carthage for help with money and reinforcements remained no answer. "Why do you need help, you are winning anyway?" - did not understand in Carthage.
Even before the catastrophe at Cannes in the Roman Senate, all feuds between political parties ceased, the Senate declared a state of emergency and elected a dictator. It turned out to be Quintus Fabius Maximus …
Then he was already in his seventh decade. He knew well: in an open battle he had no chance against Hannibal. This means that an open battle must be avoided by dragging out the war in every possible way. Fabio decided to wage a war of attrition. He ordered the peasants to destroy crops in order to hinder the food supply of Hanibal's army, and inflicted painful injections in her in minor skirmishes. But in Rome, Fabian tactics caused confusion. The enemy walks around the country, and Fabius hesitates, retreats, does not give battle! Was he in cahoots with this barbarian? And clever Hannibal, as he could, fueled such moods - while plundering and ravaging Italy, he deliberately avoided the Fabius estate.
It ended with the fact that when Fabius's dictatorial powers ended, they did not elect him for a second term, they elected two consuls - Terentius Varro and Emilius Paul. The first was hot, like Bagration, the second was cold, like Barclay de Tolly. Varro was the son of a butcher, Aemilius was an aristocrat. Varro shouted that it was necessary to wash Hannibal in blood, Emilius preferred Fabius's tactics. Varro shouted that Emilius, by his indecision, was robbing him of a glorious victory. Emilius only sighed heavily: it is difficult to deal with a butcher …
But, according to Roman law, they commanded every other day - the day of Varro, the day of Emilius. Stupid and you can't come up with something. The result is logical - the same stunning defeat at Cannes. The Romans lost 70 thousand killed, Hannibal - only 6 thousand.
Then, after the Cannes catastrophe, they began to call up boys into the army in Rome … The Senate ransomed slaves with state money, gave them freedom and formed two legions of them. 6 thousand criminals were released from prisons. Interestingly, Hannibal, in dire need of money, offered the Roman Senate to ransom the legionnaires he had captured near Cannes. The Senate rejected this proposal. The attitude of the Romans to the prisoners was the same as it was later in the Third Rome during the dictatorship of Stalin: Soviet people do not surrender to prisoners, they would prefer death to dishonor. “We do not need people who preferred life to death for the fatherland,” so decided the Senate, which in the end understood Fabius was right and adopted his tactics.
A student of the famous classical scholar Kovalev, Professor Fedorov wrote: "Never, neither before nor after, has the state survived, one after the other suffering such crushing defeats as at Trebbia, at Lake Trasimene and at Cannes." And Rome survived. Let's return to the question why Rome, losing battle after battle, was able to win the war?..
I think one little fact will help to understand this. When Hannibal stood at the gates of Rome, intelligence reported to him an amazing thing: another deal for the sale of land had just been concluded in Rome. But the commander was struck not by the fact that the Romans continued to live a normal economic life, and not even that the plot was sold, on which his army was currently located. And the fact that it was bought for the same price as before the war. The price of the plot, captured by the enemy, standing at the city walls, did not fall at all.
The Romans were absolutely not going to give up. The fighting went on throughout Italy and in Spain. In Italy, the Romans fought with former allies who had deserted to Hannibal, harassed Hannibal's guerrilla attacks, and in Spain there was a war with Hannibal's brothers Gazdrubal and Magon. The goal of the war: to prevent the brothers from repeating the alpine feat of Hannibal and to unite with him.
The war, with varying success, lasted 17 years. Parts of Hannibal gradually melted, he rushed around Italy in the hope of some mythical "decisive battle", after which the Romans would eventually surrender. Although internally for myself, I probably already realized that such a battle will not happen.
It is believed that Hannibal destroyed about 400 Roman cities. And people … Once the envoy of Hannibal entered the Carthaginian Senate with a huge clay amphora. He turned the amphora over, and golden rings fell out of it. They sparkled, jingled and jumped on the floor, and there was no end to this golden stream. These rings Hannibal removed from the Romans who died in the Battle of Cannes. Because gold rings were worn only by Roman officers, one could imagine the scale of the Cannes tragedy for the Romans. In the historical literature there is a figure of 300 thousand people - so many Roman soldiers were killed in battles with only one Hannibal. Great commander …
But the fate of the war was not decided in Italy. The Romans gradually got used to Hannibal, who had been there for a decade and a half. The fate of the Second Punic was decided in Spain. The Roman consul Publius Cornelius Scipio the Elder gradually conquered all the Pyrenees from the Carthaginians. Having settled Spanish affairs, Scipio landed in Africa. And he moved to Carthage. The fatherland is in danger!.. The Carthaginian Senate urgently summoned Hannibal from Italy.
Hannibal was crying … His brothers had already died in battles by that time, he remained the last living son of Hamilcar Barca and instead of feasting with his brothers on the Roman Capitol, he now went to Africa to save his hometown.
The arrival of the general delighted the Carthaginians. By that time, they had already signed a peace treaty with Scipio. But now, in the hope that Hannibal would soon be able to end Scipio, the Punyans courageously attacked a Roman transport ship carrying food to Scipio's troops.
Scipio at first did not even believe in such deceit. He suggested that the Roman ship was plundered by an angry and uncontrollable Carthaginian crowd - this happened in Carthage ("unbridled in anger"). And he sent an embassy to Carthage in order to find out whether he should consider the attack on the Romans after the conclusion of a peace treaty as a break of this treaty or this is an annoying misunderstanding.
According to Roman custom, the ambassadors immediately took the bull by the horns - they began abruptly: they reminded the Carthaginians that quite recently they had signed a peace treaty with Scipio, begging to spare their city. Renowned for his kindness, Scipio agreed. And what is the answer? An attack on a peaceful Roman ship!..
The Carthaginian Senate, "illuminated" by the genius of Hannibal, drove out the Roman ambassadors, and moreover, they ambushed and attacked their ship when they returned. The ambassadors were saved only by a miracle.
Attacking ambassadors is an international crime. Even the very savage Iberian and Germanic barbarians knew that this should not be done. This Scipio could not tolerate. Without spending more time chatting, he began to prepare for military action.
… By the way, Scipio the Elder was also a genius …
And so they met - Scipio and Hannibal … The meeting of such large figures rarely happens in history.
And what is most surprising - before meeting on the battlefield, Scipio the Elder and Hannibal met in person. The meeting was initiated by Hannibal. The elder Scipio was nicknamed many years later. And then, in comparison with the whitened gray-haired Hannibal, he was just a boy, Publius Cornelius Scipio was about 30.
They were silent for a long time, looking at each other, for already during their lifetime they managed to become living legends for all Mediterranean peoples - the bearded Hannibal, aged in battles, and the long-haired, clean-shaven boy.
Hannibal had a bitter experience, a long life full of amazing adventures. He knew that now the fate of their peoples hangs in the balance: both had approximately the same number of armies, approximately equal military leadership. And the fate of the two greatest civilizations of the then world could be decided in tomorrow's battle. Hannibal asked Scipio not to tempt fate, not to entrust the development of the world to chance, but to make peace. And he cited his life as an example.
He told Scipio that he was bold and cheerful, because he did not experience the vicissitudes of fate in his life. All his endeavors so far have ended in success. And here, boy, you are a living example of a different fate - me, Hannibal. You, Scipio, have conquered Spain. But I also once conquered Spain! After the Battle of Cannes, I, Hannibal, was the ruler of almost all of Italy, approached Rome and settled down at its walls, thinking about what to do with the captured city …
And now I stand here hoping to protect my own city from destruction. I have come to you, a hated Roman, to speak about the fate of my unfortunate people. Fate is changeable, son. And it is better to make peace now than to stake the fate of two civilizations … In return, Hannibal suggested de jure to cede Spain to Rome. Which, however, had already been conquered by Scipio and de facto belonged to Rome.
But Scipio, for whom fidelity to the word was an unshakable concept, was too shocked by the behavior of the Carthaginian Senate, which tore up the peace treaty and organized an attack on the Roman ambassadors. And the conditions of Hannibal's world did not seem too interesting to him. In addition, Scipio understood that the treacherous behavior of the Carthaginian Senate was dictated by the hope for the military genius of the commander Hannibal. And until this genius is publicly defeated, Rome will not rest. Therefore, Scipio decided, in such conditions, we can only talk about complete and unconditional surrender. Hannibal did not agree to an unconditional one: not for that did the Senate summon him from Italy.
After that, both generals turned their backs to each other and parted. It remained to wait for the result of the battle. A grimace of fate: it was here, in Africa, that Hannibal found the battle he had been searching in vain for in Italy - the last and decisive one.
Every genius commander has his own Waterloo. This time Waterloo happened at Hannibal's. The number of both troops was approximately the same, the military leadership talents of Scipio and Hannibal will be considered close. Let us attribute Scipio's victory to the better, more modern organization of the Roman army and its high fighting spirit.
… Uh!.. But there was one general in the world who never had Waterloo. Who has never in his life suffered defeat in battles. This is Publius Cornelius Scipio. African. Older.
A. Nikonov
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