Konnor Drewen
3/16/011
Please write a brief biography of Hannibal and explain whether or not you think his reputation (in Roman eyes) as a monster was deserved.
When Hannibal (in his own, Punic language Hanba'al, meaning "mercy of Ba'al") was born in 247 BCE, his birthplace Carthage was about to lose a long and important war. His city had been the most prosperous port in the Mediterranean but suffered losses in the First Punic war. After Rome's victory, it stripped Carthage of its most important province, Sicily; and when civil war had broken out in Cartage, Rome seized Sardinia and Corsica as well. These events must have made a great impression on Hannibal who was young at the time. He was the oldest son of the Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca. The Roman historian Livy mentions that Hannibal's father forced his son to promise eternal hatred against the Romans. In 221 BCE Hannibal was elected commander of the Carthaginian soldiers in Iberia. In 216, the Roman Senate decided that time had come to solve the problem in one great, decisive battle. Taking no risks, the two counsels raised an army of no less than 80,000 men, where Hannibal's army counted some 50,000 men. The Romans and Hannibal faced off in Cannae in July of that year. Hannibal's convex, crescent shaped lines slowly became concave under pressure of the Roman elite troops in the center, which, being encircled and finally surrounded by the Carthaginian cavalry in the rear, failed to break through the Carthaginian lines and were eventually destroyed. This information can help determine why Hannibal was a kind of Boogeyman for the Romans. He was raised from birth to loathe the Romans and made an oath of blood against them. He sacked towns all across Italy and even when the best of Roma fought against them; they were destroyed. So, yes in that way he was very deserving of being a monster in the eyes of the Romans.
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