Warmatrix

Hannibal Barca is considered to be one of the greatest generals of history, a master of both tactics and strategy. He was a Carthaginian, arch-enemy of Rome, but could not defeat that city.
Hannibal was born in 247 BCE. He grew up during the time of Carthage's struggle with Rome, the Punic wars. His father was Hamilcar Barca, the leading Carthaginian general in the First Punic War. From early on he was raised to be a military commander. In 229 BCE his father died while on campaign in Iberia, with Hannibal serving as an officer in the army. Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal then took over, but in 221 BCE was assassinated and then Carthage appointed Hannibal is his place.
For two years the young general campaigned in Iberia, completing the conquest of the south, already showing great tactical skill. Carthage needed that territory to replace the loss of Sicily and Sardinia. Rome, anxious of any show of power from Carthage, provoked Hannibal by making alliance with the city of Saguntum, which lay in Carthaginian territory. He did not wait out the diplomatic maneuvers but besieged the city and took it; soon afterwards the Second Punic War was declared.
In the First Punic War naval superiority in the southern Mediterranean had switched from Carthage to Rome, blocking any naval attack by the former. So instead Hannibal advanced over land, crossing the Pyrenees and the Alps, a plan that was conceived earlier by Hasdrubal. First the general sent envoys to the Gauls in Gallia Cisalpina, the Po valley, to make sure that when he would descend from the Alps he would meet friends instead of enemies. The army, 90,000 infantry, 12,000 cavalry and 40 elephants strong, set off from New Carthage in the spring of 218 BCE. It had to fight its way north and east most of the time, against Gauls and Romans, and garrisons had to be left behind to guard the rear. Hannibal arrived at the Alps in the autumn, but did not want to wait for spring, afraid of giving the Romans too much time to prepare. So he crossed in late autumn, battled the cold and the terrain, fought off some barbarian tribes and emerged into Italy with only 26,000 men, though he was quickly reinforced by the Gauls.
The Romans, who had neglected to stop or hamper his advance enough, were surprised but quickly moved their two consular armies up to meet him. At the Trebia river Hannibal used his light Numidian cavalry to provoke the still cold and hungry Romans into attack. They were ambushed by Hannibal's younger brother Mago and their light troops and cavalry were quickly beaten. The Romans had lost the battle, but their heavy infantry held its own and retreated more or less intact.
In the next year Hannibal moved south through very wet weather and lost his right eye due to an infection. He rode upon the last remaining elephant; the rest had succumbed to hunger and the weather. In a smart tactical move he lured one of the two Roman commanders, Gaius Flaminius, into battle by ravaging the countryside, outflanking him and cutting off his supply lines. At Lake Trasimene he laid an ambush, hiding most of his troops in the hills and woods. When the Romans moved up, he attacked them while they were still in marching order. Their rear was quickly beaten, the center held out for a while and the front managed to escape, but without attributing much to the battle. The battle was one of the largest ambushes in history.
Hannibal went on to fight the Romans a third time, at Cannae. This time there was no opportunity for an ambush, but again Hannibal outwitted the enemy by luring the Romans into an encirclement on the battlefield itself, delivering the greatest defeat they had ever suffered. Tens of thousands of Roman soldiers were killed or captured and Rome nearly lost control of southern Italy.
Despite scoring victory after victory, Hannibal lacked enough troops to attack the city of Rome itself. He tried to deprive the Romans of their allies and was, especially after Cannae, partly successful in that, but never enough. The war descended into a strategic stalemate, the Romans trying to win by attrition. Over the next few years, Hannibal scored several more victories but the Romans gained complete control over Sicily and eroded his power base. Hannibal did not get reinforcements from Carthage and in 203 BCE, after holding his ground for nearly 15 years in Italy, was recalled.
The Romans, now under the capable command of Publius Cornelius Scipio, had gone over to the offensive in Africa. At the battle of Zama they won a decisive victory over Hannibal. He now had to battle rival Carthaginian factions, not with weapons but diplomacy and again came out on top. However the Romans, afraid of their old nemesis, forced him into exile. In stages he moved eastwards into Greece and Asia Minor, acting as a military advisor for several kings. Eventually, around 182 BCE, the Romans hunted him down and forced Prusias I of Bithynia, who was sheltering him at the time, to surrender him. Hannibal did not want to end that way and took poison.
During his career, Hannibal showed a keen sense of terrain, weather and reconnaissance. He always gathered as much information as he could, planned his battles in detail and almost always outwitted the Romans, who in comparison to him acted rather dumb. Hannibal had a very good grasp of tactics and was a master of ambush, of feints and counterattacks. He also proved to be a master of logistics and managing morale; he walked, ate and slept among his soldiers. Overall, as a general, he was far ahead of his time.