Hannibal is At the Gates!

Well, lately I've been reading a whole lot of stuff.  My favorite book recently as been about Hannibal, who ruled over the city of Carthage.  Not just the city, which was the capital of the Carthaginian Empire, but the whole empire, too.

He was a nightmare for Rome.  You wouldn't think he could defeat all the Roman legions on his own, but he depended on mercenaries for most of his troops.  Those are soldier who are paid to fight.  He also recruited Celtic tribes and Gauls, who were eager to get back at the Roman Empire.  He also had some of the finest calvary troops in the land.

Roman troops, on the other hand, followed the strictest discipline and marched in strict formation.  Another problem was that they wore heavy armor.  And where weapons are concerned they used mostly short swords and daggers, similar to those of the Carthagians.

Hannibal's secret weapon was his brain.  He managed to outsmart those Romans nearly every time.   One example of how he did this was when he was up against 80,000 Romans.  His strategy?  Simple.  Make it so that the infantry soldiers have to walk backwards to form a slight U shape while they'r fighting.  Then have your horse troops run around to form an O with the Romans in the middle.  Then, pull out your swords and get to cutting down the Romans!  The only problem was that Hannibal's soldiers had to stop after a while because their swords grew dull from slicing through so many Romans.

Another thing he was famous for was taking all of his troops and his war elephants over the Alps.  He scared the armor off those Romans when they saw the elephants.  They must have thought they came from outer space or something!  Half of the elephants died in the harsh winter over the Alps - poor guys!  But I still wish I was there to see the Romans running scared.  In the end many of them got trampled by the elephant's big feet.

Anyway, the Romans finally defeated him before he reached their capital, and eventually destroyed the Carthaginian Empire.  I recommend you read, A Wicked History:  Hannibal, Rome's Worst Nightmare, by Philip Brooks.  All in all, he was a gruesome leader.