Hannibal managed to change the course of the war and secure a victory for Bithynia at sea. It involved a stratagem so ingenious that the men of Pergamum when they encountered it were completely demoralised, broke off the action, and fled. It had occurred to Hannibal that in the semi-open vessels of that time, where the oarsmen were naked and even the marines were only lightly clad, nothing could be more fearsome than the explosion on board of ‘bombs’ of poisonous snakes. The countryside of Bithynia was scoured for them and they were then packed in slithery heaps inside pottery jars. When the two fleets engaged, and the jars bursting on the decks of the opposing ships released their venomous contents, there was widespread panic—and the Bithynians secured their victory.

Rome, like all imperial powers, depended upon the smaller states that fell within its orbit feeling secure, and Rome was not used to her allies and clients being defeated. Shortly after this incident the envoys of King Prusias were summoned to Rome to explain why they were at war with Pergamum in the first place. The king had kept Hannibal’s presence in his country secret, but one of the envoys was not so discreet. The Roman Senate at once declared that this enemy of their people must be surrendered. Flamininus, a Roman general distinguished in affairs of the East, heard of Hannibal’s whereabouts and determined that the Carthaginian should never escape again as he had so often in the past. ‘Hannibal must be tracked down and captured or killed’, in the words of Plutarch, ‘like a bird that has grown too old to fly, and lost its tail feathers.’

Hannibal had long known what his fate would be if the Romans ever laid hands upon him. In a just cause, as he saw it, he had made war upon them for their infamous treatment of Carthage at the conclusion of an earlier war. He had taken an army right through Spain and into what is now France, crossed the river Rhône, traversed the Alps at a time of the year when no one believed it possible, and invaded Italy. For fifteen years he had used Italy as his battlefield and his home, destroying Roman armies with almost contemptuous ease. Hearing now from his servants that his house was surrounded by soldiers, he is said to have remarked: ‘It is now time to end the anxiety of the Romans. Clearly they are no longer able to wait for the death of an old man who has caused them so much concern.’

His irony mocked his enemies to the last. When the Romans burst into the house they found their great adversary lying dead; even in his very end he had eluded them. 

 

 

 

I

 

A DISPUTED WORLD

 

The dark giant lay sprawled on the sands of Tunis. Far to the north the new champion of the arena lifted his arms in triumph. The galleys passed upon the sea, the soldiers laid down their arms, cities were rebuilt and peace was everywhere welcomed. The supine giant was unconscious, but not dead. Slowly he began to raise himself upon his elbows.

 

Hannibal was born six years before the end of the first great war between Rome and Carthage. He was the son of Hamilcar Barca, Barca being one of the most distinguished families in Carthage. Their name meant ‘Thunderbolt’, and they could trace their descent back to Queen Elissa (Dido), the legendary founder of the great North African city. Hannibal’s birth in 247 B.C. coincided with the appointment of his father to the supreme command of the city’s forces by land and by sea. There is a legend that his birthplace was the small island of Malta, a Carthaginian colony, but it is almost certain that it was Carthage itself. Hamilcar’s palace lay in that city of tall white buildings climbing the hill of Byrsa. It overlooked the deep Gulf of Tunis and the African Mediterranean flickering to the north.

Hannibal was only to know Carthage in the early years of his life, after which, throughout the formative years of young manhood and into middle age, he would be in Spain and Italy. He would see the city again only when, to all intents and purposes, his cause was lost and Carthage was ultimately doomed. Yet it was this city that inspired him to lead her armies against Rome, that fired him to lead them across the Alps and to carry into Italy a war that lasted for sixteen years and was described by the Roman historian Livy as ‘the most memorable of all wars ever waged’.

Qart Hadasht, New Town, Carthage to the Romans, was traditionally said to have been founded in 814 B.C. by Phoenician traders who had discovered an ideal site for a trading settlement on a small peninsula well sheltered and deep in the Gulf of Tunis.