Earthlyrealm.com - Hannibal's Last Words

Liberemus diuturna cura populum Romanum, quando mortem senis exspectare longum censent. Translation: Let us ease the Roman people of their continual care, who think it long to await the death of an old man.

Hannibal (Canaanite, Punic or Carthaginian — ‘, Ba'al is my grace, or Ba'al has given me grace), son of Hamilcar Barca, (247 BC - ca. 183 BC, short form Hannibal) was a Carthaginian military commander and tactician, later also working in other professions, who is popularly credited as one of the finest commanders in history. He lived during a period of tension in the Mediterranean, when Rome (then the Roman Republic) established its supremacy over other great powers such as Carthage, Macedon, Syracuse, and the Seleucid empire. He is one of the best-known Carthaginian commanders. His most famous achievement was at the outbreak of the Second Punic War, when he marched an army, which included war elephants, from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy.

During his invasion of Italy, he defeated the Romans in a series of battles, including those at Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae. He maintained an army in Italy for more than a decade afterward, never losing a major engagement, but could not force the Romans to accept his terms for peace. A Roman counter-invasion of Africa forced him to return to Carthage, where he was defeated in the Battle of Zama. After the war he successfully ran for the office of suffet. He enacted political and financial reforms to enable the payment of the war indemnity imposed by Rome. However, his reforms were unpopular with members of the upper Roman class forcing Hannibal to go into exile. During his exile, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military advisor to Antiochus III in his war against Rome. After Antiochus III met defeat and was forced to accept their terms, Hannibal fled again, making a stop in Armenia, where he worked as a planner for the new capital. His flight ended in the court of Bithynia where he may have achieved an outstanding naval victory by means of biological warfare and was afterwards betrayed to the Romans.

Hannibal is universally ranked as one of the greatest military commanders and tacticians in history. Military historian