Laura Van Straten, age 17, of Wilmington, Del., for her question:
WHAT DID HANNIBAL DO?
One of the greatest feats in military history was accomplished by the Carthaginian general Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca. Between 218 B.C. and 217 B.C., Hannibal marched on Rome from Spain across the Alps.
Leaving New Carthage (now Cartagena), Spain, with an army of about 40,000, including cavalry and a large number of elephants carrying baggage and later used in battle, Hannibal crossed the Pyrenees and the Rhone River and traversed the Alps in 15 days.. He was beset by snowstorms, landslides and the attacks of hostile mountain tribes.
After recruiting additional men among the friendly Insubres, a Gallic people of northern Italy, to compensate for the loss of about 15,000 men during the long march, Hannibal subjugated the Taurini, a tribe hostile to the Isubres.
A Roman army brought up from Sicily tried to stop Hannibal's advance. But Hannibal maneuvered the Romans into an ambush and defeated them in the Battle of the Trebia River. He moved on to central Italy in 217 B.C. and there tricked a Roman army into following his army. He then destroyed the Romans in an ambush on the shores of Lake Trasimeno.
In 216 B.C. Hannibal found himself far outnumbered by the Romans at Canae, in southern Italy. He arranged his men in an arc. When the Romans attacked, the center of the formation retreated and the two sides with the help of Hannibal's superior cavalry encircled and crushed the Romans. The Carthaginians killed about 50,000 enemy troops in one day in the worst defeat ever suffered by a Roman army.
Hannibal was the greatest general and statesman of Carthage, an ancient North African city. He was called home in 203 B.C. and was finally defeated by Scipio at Zama, in northern Africa, in 202 B.C. The war ended in 201 B.C. with Rome the victor in spite of Hannibal's great effort.
After the war, Rome allowed Carthage to govern itself. Hannibal headed the government and Carthage made a rapid recovery under his leadership.
But Hannibal fled eastward in 195 B.C., after he heard that the Romans were going to demand his surrender. He found protection with King Antiochus III of Syria, who was about to go to war with Rome.
Antiochus made little use of Hannibal's military genius and lost the war in 189 B.C. Hannibal then fled to Bithynia, an ancient country in what is now Turkey, where he died in 183 B.C. at the age of 64.
Hannibal's excellent military strategy and leadership ability helped him overcome great handicaps and defeat armies much larger than his own. Hannibal united men of varied backgrounds under his command. Even under poor conditions, his men followed him with confidence.