|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
Hannibal My name is Hannibal. I was born in 274 BC and was the eldest son of Hamilcar Barca. At the time I was born, the First Punic War was going between the Romans and the Carthaginians. My father Hamilcar had a plan. His plan was to travel to Spain by way of land and develop it into his personal empire. When I was nine, I swore along with my brothers on a sacrificial animal that we would forever hate Rome and its people. After this was said and done, I accompanied my father and his army to Spain. After crossing the Straight of Gibraltar, my father made a base at Lucentum. Then, my father died. With my father dead, my brother-in-law, Hasdrubal the Handsome, took over in his place. But soon after, he was assassinated, and I took over where my father left off. I took my army and started for Italy, the secret destination of my father. Upon travelling the border of Spain, I had a few skirmishes with some native tribes until we landed ourselves in Saguntum. In order to arouse the Romans attention, we attacked it and proceeded to plunder it. I thought this would force Rome into declaring war but such did not happen. Finally, Rome sent over some of their highest nobles to Carthage to discuss the attack upon Saguntum. After much arguing, Rome declared war once again upon Carthage. Thus was the start of the Second Punic War. After Saguntum had been totally destroyed, I took my army of about sixty thousand troops to the Pyrenees. When we arrived there, many realized that we were going to march to Italy and they did not want to make a trip over the Alps after the Pyrenees, so I dismissed about seven thousand members of my army who did not want to continue the journey. At that point, my army consisted of about fifty thousand infantry, nine thousand cavalry, and thirty-seven elephants. After making it through the Pyrenees, my army and I came to a halt at the Rhone River. When we thought we could cross, a tribe of natives who owned all the land around the river opposed our crossing. To assure our crossing, I sent some of my army up the river and told them to cross it. Then they were to swing around and smoke signal me when they were ready for me to start crossing. When they did smoke signal me, I gave the signal to cross, and of course, the hostile natives were there to greet us. But they didn’t know that part of my army had just taken over their camp and was following up from behind them. They were so frightened that they retreated in mass confusion. After we rested and disembarked, Scipio, a Roman general, found out about me crossing the Rhone and sent an army to meet me.
Approximate Word count = 1866
Approximate Pages = 7.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|