Hannibal

Hannibal Barca was a Carthaginian general who led the most dangerous challenge faced by the Roman Republic. After expanding Carthaginian power in Iberia, he began the Second Punic War and crossed the Alps into Italy in 218 BC. Victories at Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae destroyed successive Roman armies, but he could not force Rome to surrender. Recalled to Africa, he was defeated by Scipio at Zama and later died in exile while avoiding Roman capture.

Ben Kane’s Hannibal trilogy follows the war through Roman and Carthaginian characters, while Ross Leckie’s Hannibal gives the general a first-person fictional voice. He also appears in many novels about Scipio Africanus and Cannae. Fiction is drawn to the Alpine crossing and tactical brilliance, but the larger story depends equally on diplomacy, manpower, siege warfare and Rome’s refusal to negotiate.

Steven Saylor’s Roma places Hannibal within a narrative shaped by social change and the pressures of ordinary life, political ambition and government, and family, marriage and personal loyalty. Ben Kane’s Clash of Empires is set after sixteen years of war, Hannibal’s army faces Rome at Zama. Other novels featuring Hannibal include Griff Hosker’s Shadow of the Lone Wolf.

In non-fiction, Hannibal is discussed in Lindsay Powell’s Hannibal of Carthage, Livy’s Hannibal’s War, and Polybius’s The Rise of the Roman Empire. In Lindsay Powell’s Hannibal of Carthage, Hannibal of Carthage recounts the career of the commander who carried the Second Punic War from Iberia across the Alps and into Italy.