Hannibal

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.5 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2012

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and achievements of Hannibal. One of the most celebrated military leaders in history, Hannibal was the Carthaginian general who led an entire army, complete with elephants, across the Alps in order to attack the Roman Republic. He lived at a time of prolonged hostility between the two great Mediterranean powers, Rome and Carthage, and was the Carthaginians' inspirational leader during the Second Punic War which unfolded between 218 and 202 BC. His career ended in defeat and exile, but he achieved such fame that even his enemies the Romans erected statues of him. Centuries later his tactical genius was admired and studied by generals including Napoleon and Wellington.

With:

Ellen O'Gorman Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Bristol

Mark Woolmer Senior Tutor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham

Louis Rawlings Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at Cardiff University.

Producer: Natalia Fernandez.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time for more details about In Our Time
0:04.1	and for our terms of use, please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio for.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, anybody walking in the riverbank near the northern Italian town of Percensia
0:16.5	on a freezing cold morning in December 218 BC would have seen an extraordinary spectacle.
0:23.1	About 60,000 troops accompanied by scores of war elephants battled through driving snow
0:28.5	to attack and rout to the Roman army and camped on the other side of the river.
0:32.8	At the head was one of the greatest generals the world has ever seen.
0:35.5	His name was Hannibal, he came from Carthage in Northern Africa and he had ladies forces,
0:40.2	elephants and all across Spain, across France, excuse me, and into Italy across the Alps.
0:46.3	His victory at the Battle of the Treviors struck fear into the hearts of the Roman Republic
0:50.7	and it was the first skirmish in all the most celebrated of 15 years of conflicts in Roman
0:56.0	history, the Second Punic War.
0:58.4	He was an inspirational leader whose tactical genius earned the respect, not just of his
1:03.0	enemies, but of modern generals, from Napoleon to Wellington to Stormen and Norman to Vatsikov.
1:08.3	We need to discuss Hannibal and the Second Punic War are Eleanor Gorman, senior lecturer in
1:13.2	classics at the University of Bristol, Mark Walmer, senior tutor in the Department of
1:18.0	Classics and Ancient History at the University of Durham, New Orleans, senior lecturer in
1:22.5	ancient history at Cardiff University.
1:25.6	I don't know when Hannibal came from Carthage in Northern Africa, can you tell us a bit
1:29.6	about the Carthage Union Empire he came from?
1:32.4	Well the Carthage Unions were a Phoenician people, so they'd originally settled from
	...

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