Hannibal
1. You are going to see a short piece of film (ten minutes) about Carthage.
After you have seen the film, you have to use the following terms to make a
logical story about it. The story has to be at least 15 sentences long.
The terms are:
Third century bc, Carthage, trading, languages, rulers of
the sea, warships, Rome, Hannibal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXnxdVcnqI0
2. Read the story of Hannibal and answer the following questions.
Also write down difficult words and translate them.
a. In which century did Hannibal leave Carthage to fight the Romans?
b. Why did Rome and Carthage fight a series of wars?
c. What things suggest Hannibal was a great general?
d. What did the Romans first try to do to get Hannibal out of Italy? Why did
this fail?
e. What was the successful Roman strategy for getting Hannibal out of Italy?
Story of Hannibal
Hannibal’s father, Hamilcar Barca had been a general in the first war
between Carthage and Rome. He taught his son to hate the Romans
and made him swear to fight them. By the age of 29, Hannibal was
commander of the Carthaginian army. In 218 BC, Hannibal captured
the town of Saguntum in Spain – a town the Carthaginians had
agreed that Rome could rule. The Romans declared war. They got
ready to take armies to Spain and Africa. They controlled the
Mediterranean Sea, so knew Italy could not be attacked that way.
They never considered that he might march his troops 1,500 miles
and through two mountain ranges to reach Italy. But this is what he
did.
Hannibal and his army left Carthage Nova (modern Cartagena in Spain) in 218 BC. He
had an army of about 100,000 soldiers from Africa, Spain and Gaul. He also had 37
elephants. The Carthaginians used elephants to charge into the lines of enemy
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soldiers to break them up. The army marched through Spain and crossed the
Pyrenees, crossing the River Ebro on the way. As they marched through France they
had to cross the deep, wide River Rhone. To get the elephants across the river,
Hannibal told his men to build two huge rafts 61m by 15.25m and tie them together.
The raft furthest from the bank was heaped with earth. The elephants crossed the
first raft to the second, thinking it was dry land. Then the raft was set loose and
sailed across the river. They needed several trips to get all the elephants across.
The next huge obstacle that the army had to face was the Alps. Many of his soldiers
were scared of making the crossing. Hannibal said: On the other side of those
mountains is Italy. The ancient Gauls crossed these mountains with their wives and
children. You are soldiers, carrying nothing but your weapons. Either admit that the
Gauls are better than you, or follow me and look forward to ending your journey at
the gates of Rome.
His men followed him. The journey was amazingly difficult and dangerous. Many
soldiers and some of the elephants slipped and fell to their death, especially as they
went down into Italy. Then their path was blocked by a huge rock. Neither the
soldiers nor the elephants could move it. But Hannibal did not give up. He had his
soldiers working in teams to break up the boulder, until it could be pushed away.
The army continued into Italy.
The first Roman army to fight the Carthaginians was led by a general called Scipio.
He had been chasing all over the Mediterranean trying to catch up with them. They
finally met, and fought, by the River Trebia. The Carthaginians won. Winter came,
and there could be no more fighting until spring. Hannibal and his army camped and
rested over the winter. In their first battle with the Romans in the next year they
won again, killing 15,000 Roman soldiers. The people of Rome panicked. They
wanted to send a huge army to beat Hannibal at once. They were terrified he would
attack Rome. But Hannibal did not have enough men or equipment to capture Rome
and the general in charge of the Roman army, Quintus Fabius, knew this. He wanted
to let Hannibal and his army wear themselves out attacking other Italian cities, then
attack. He was overruled and replaced. The new general in charge led a huge army
of 90,000 soldiers into battle against Hannibal at Cannae. They lost and 70,000
soldiers died. Hannibal’s army only lost 6,000 soldiers. However, he still was not
strong enough to capture Rome. The Romans decided to attack Spain and Carthage
and this made the Cathaginian leaders call Hannibal home to defend them. He was
defeated at the Battle of Zama (in modern Tunisia) in 202 BC. In 182 BC he poisoned
himself to avoid being captured by the enemy he had so nearly destroyed.
www.Docentgeschiedenis.nl - 2012