Today, the Carthaginian commander Hannibal Barca, whose war tactics are taught in military academies, overcame the mountains on elephants, brought the Romans to their knees, and made his name among the most important soldiers in history.
Hannibal Barca was born in Carthage in 247 BC. He is the son of Hamilcar Barca, the famous hero of the First Punic War. He participated in wars with his father at an early age. At his father's request, he swore that he would always hold grudges against Rome. After the death of his father, he became a soldier with the help of his brother-in-law and brother.
WAR WITH ROME
Hannibal Barca became the commander of Carthage's Spanish army in 221 BC. He ruled over the communities west of the Ebro from 221 BC to 219 BC. Hannibal knew that after the First Punic War, a second war with Rome was inevitable, and he wanted to deal with the first blow himself.
After solidifying his position in Spain, he captured the city of Saguntum, an ally of Rome, in 219 BC. After Rome declared war, the Second Punic War began. Hannibal marched on Italy, leaving his brother Hasdrubal in Spain.
Hannibal Barca's army consisted of one hundred thousand soldiers and 37 elephants. Marching north with his army, Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees at war with the Celtiberian tribes and arrived in the Rhône Valley.
Saying, "We will either find a new way or make a new one," to circumvent the Romans and their allies in the region, Hannibal drew an arc from the top of the valley and crossed the Alps. This journey, made in ancient times with a large army and elephants, is considered a great success.
Losing part of his army due to severe winter conditions while crossing the Pyrenees and Alps, Hannibal advanced on the Po Plain with his remaining forces. 14,000 Celtic warriors also joined his army. Hannibal's forces defeated a Roman army that had come to stop them. He destroyed it at Trebbia in 218. In 217 BC, the Carthaginian Army, crossing the Apennine Mountains and advancing towards Rome, crushed the main Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
Hannibal's advance was slowed by the Romans' use of hit-and-run tactics. In the face of this development, Hannibal planned to go south instead of besieging Rome and provoking the Latin cities to revolt. Hannibal Barca defeated the last regular Roman Army sent against him at the Battle of Cannae. In this war, the Carthaginian army had trapped and completely destroyed the Roman army with a tactic called the "Crescent order".
After the Cannae victory, Southern Italy sided with Hannibal. However, Hannibal's growing prestige frightened the Carthaginian senate and they did not send him sufficient support. The city of Capua, which was torn from Rome by the Battle of Cannae, was recaptured in 211 BC by Rome, who formed a new army and began to gather its forces. Hannibal's raid on Rome in 207 BC was repulsed. His brother, Hasdrubal, was killed in northern Italy while trying to arrive with an aid army via Spain.
Withdrawing to the mountains of southern Italy, Hannibal was summoned to Carthage in 203 BC to protect the capital when the Roman army under the command of Scipio Africanus landed in Africa. Hannibal was defeated at the Battle of Zama by the Roman army.
Carthage had to make a peace treaty with Rome on very harsh terms. Hannibal, who was brought to the head of finance and economy after the war, was dismissed from his duty after a while after putting the country in order, upon the pressure of the Romans.
Hannibal, who went into self-imposed exile due to the rising opposition against him, first went to Armenia, the Seleucid Empire, and Bithynia, where he served as a military adviser in the palaces.
When he realized that he was going to be handed over to the Romans by the Bithynian authorities in 183 or 182 BC, he took his own life by drinking the poison known to be in his ring. Although the place of his grave is unknown, there is a monument built in his memory in Gebze, near Istanbul, in Turkey, where he died. The Hannibal Monument was built at the request of Atatürk, the founding father of the Turkish Republic.