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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| 0:48.0 | Hello anybody walking the riverbank near the northern Italian town of Pertensa on a freezing cold morning in December |
| 0:54.9 | 218 BC would have seen an extraordinary spectacle. About 60,000 troops accompanied by scores |
| 1:02.2 | of war elephants battled through driving snow to attack |
| 1:05.3 | and route to the Roman army encamped on the other side of the river. |
| 1:09.0 | At the head was one of the greatest generals the world has ever seen. |
| 1:11.7 | His name was Hannibal. He came from Carthage in |
| 1:14.0 | northern Africa and he had led his forces, elephants and all across Spain, across |
| 1:18.1 | France, excuse me, and into Italy across the Alps. His victory at the Battle of the Trevius struck fear |
| 1:25.0 | into the hearts of the Roman Republic and it was the first skirmish in all the most celebrated |
| 1:30.0 | of 15 years of conflicts in Roman history the Second Punic War. Hannibal was an |
| 1:34.9 | inspirational leader whose tactical genius earned the respect not just of his |
| 1:39.2 | enemies but a modern general from Napoleon to Wellington to Storm and Norman Schwarzkov. |
| 1:44.4 | With me to discuss Hannibal and the second Punic War are Eleanor Gorman, senior lecture in |
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