Studying Warlords – Hannibal Barca Part 2

hannibal barca elephants

Click here to read part 1.

Crossing the Alps

No one had expected Hannibal and the Carthaginian army to cross the alps. It wasn’t thought of as a viable option and no army had done it before. Few, if any people, even considered the possibility that it might actually be done. Because it is so rare for us humans to think outside of  of our belief systems in terms of our brain and its neural pathways, I find this to be incredibly fascinating. The coolest thing about it is that to this day, no one knows exactly how Hannibal managed to pull off this logistical feat – we only know that he did in fact manage to do it.

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Studying Warlords – Hannibal Barca Part 1

hannibal elephants 2

“I will either find a way, or make one.”

Background

Hannibal Barca is regarded as one of the greatest generals and military strategists in the history of mankind due to the astounding logistical feat of crossing the alps with 45000 men and 70 elephants. He ranked himself as second best in the history of war, placing only Alexander the Great and/or Pyrrhus above him, depending on what sources we get our information from. In either case it says something about his self-esteem.

Hannibal was the eldest son of the great warlord Hamilkar Barca who was responsible for uniting and transforming the Carthaginian Empire into the only  viable threat to the Roman Empire. From an early age Hannibal was instilled with hatred for Rome and is said to have sworn an oath to destroy Rome.

For fifteen years Hannibal and his army roamed around Italy and conquered much of it without any reinforcements from Carthage and remained undefeated by the Romans despite being consistently outnumbered. This was unprecedented in history as the Romans were superior in combat to everyone else.

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