March 17th Daily

Please write a brief biography of Hannibal and explain whether or not you think his reputation (in Roman eyes) as a monster was deserved?

Hannibal was the Carthaginian general during the Second Punic War, a war between the Rome and Carthage. Hannibal, like most Carthage citizens, were born and raised to hate the Roman people and government, and they were taught at a young age how to battle against them. As the general of Carthage, he sneaked around the Roman area and was able to sneak up on them and attack them from behind in their worst moments. He was able to sneak his army from where modern day Spain is over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy, 50 miles away from Rome without even be spotted. He was considered the "boogie man" towards the Romans, such a scary person who sneaks up on you and your army when you least expect it. One of the most major battles of the Punic Wars was the Battle of Cannae. Carthage absolutely destroyed  the Roman army in this battle, even though they had much less people. In this battle, Hannibal used his great thinking skills and psychology to make the Romans believe that they were winning the battle by letting them split through the middle of his cavalry, them smashing them and blocking them in all aspects by his infantry and some more cavalry tribes who closed in on the Romans. Hannibal used his problem solving skills and great thinking to literally block the Roman army in between his army. In the Roman eyes, I would consider him a monster. He was a great fighter, thinker, and leader. Hannibal won some battles and lost some battles against Rome, but he still had an excellent army under his power as a general. If I was not looking at Hannibal in the eyes of a Roman, I would not say he was a monster. To any one else not fighting him, he was a great thinker and problem solver. I think that the Romans were truly afraid of him and how smart he was and that is why they considered him a monster.