Hannibal Failure

Was Hannibal's career a failure of the most spectacular kind?

Xander Pendleton

Hannibal Barca was a Carthaginian military general who promised as a kid to always think of Rome as his enemy. He grew up and fought against Rome, but in the end he failed to win after fighting many battles. Even though Hannibal’s career was technically considered a failure, it is believed by some that his career was not entirely bad. In this essay we will talk about Hannibal’s rise to power, the Second Punic war, and his later career and death. When studying the career of Hannibal the subject of failure is important because although he was judged a failure by some at the time, history proved him to be a success in many ways. Hannibal Barca was born in 247 BC

Hannibal showed a great amount of dedication to this war by walking across the Alps in the winter just to surprise the Romans. While he was on the way to surprise them he got support from the ferocious Celtics who, like the Carthaginian, hated Rome. Hannibal had to leave about 20,000 men home with his brother Hasdrubal to keep watch over Spain. Hannibal brought about 100,000 men with him and many elephants, but by the time he reached the Po River he had lost many men leaving him with only about 60,000 soldiers and few elephants. Finally in 217 BC Hannibal made it to Italy and fought the Battle of Lake Trebia head-to-head with the Roman general Scipio. Hannibal destroyed them and pushed further into Italy. On the way to the next battle, Hannibal got an eye infection that blinded one of his eyes. Knowing his next opponent, general Flaminius, he decided to do an ambush by Lake Trasimene. Over 30,000 Romans were killed, including Flaminius, making it another huge victory for Hannibal. The Romans realized Hannibal was too strong to defeat on the battlefield so they started to delay in order to built up a huge army and wipe Hannibal out. The Romans planned on using sheer numbers to defeat Hannibal, but he intended to outsmart them with his battle tactics. When the battle started, Hannibal's cavalry broke through and quickly defeated the Romans cavalry but the Roman infantry managed to push Hannibal back. As described by Joshua E. VerHage, “Then suddenly, amidst Roman cries of victory, Hannibal signaled the commanders of his wings to wheel inward against the Romans while the Carthaginian cavalry attacked the rear. With this tactic Hannibal encircled the entire Roman army. The Roman cries of victory turned to cries of horror as the Carthaginian army slaughtered the