As Carthage's commanding general and effective leader Hannibal (247–183 BC) crossed the Alps in 218 BC with a multi-ethnic and superbly professional army to confront the Romans in their own land. His early victories at the river Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae employed daringly unconventional tactics, culminating at Cannae in near-total annihilation of the much larger Roman army. For several years Carthage dominated most of the western Mediterranean's lands, encircling Rome and what remained of her allies. But Hannibal's hopes of forcing Rome to submit and establishing Carthage's permanent ... More

As Carthage's commanding general and effective leader Hannibal (247–183 BC) crossed the Alps in 218 BC with a multi-ethnic and superbly professional army to confront the Romans in their own land. His early victories at the river Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae employed daringly unconventional tactics, culminating at Cannae in near-total annihilation of the much larger Roman army. For several years Carthage dominated most of the western Mediterranean's lands, encircling Rome and what remained of her allies. But Hannibal's hopes of forcing Rome to submit and establishing Carthage's permanent dominance were frustrated by the Romans’ uncompromising resistance under leaders like Fabius ‘the Delayer’ and Marcellus ‘the sword of Rome’. Hannibal's own strategic decisions, especially not to march directly on Rome after victory at Trasimene in 217 and more famously after Cannae in 216, contributed to the stalemate that followed. In 202 his new equal in military genius, Scipio Africanus, ended his and Carthage's greatness at the battle of Zama. Hannibal, however, was elected civilian leader (sufete) of Carthage in 196 and reformed the city's corrupt politics and finances, then was forced into exile by his enemies with Rome's connivance. After years in the Hellenistic Greek east, he took poison to avoid being seized by his unforgiving Roman foes. Yet Greeks and Romans remembered him with admiration—even paradoxical affection—as an honourable foe, and his reputation as one of history's greatest commanders endures.