Rise of Hannibal
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2023
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
He was one of the greatest enemies the Romans ever faced. An excellent general and a larger-than-life figure, he led an army across the alps and dealt a series of crushing defeats upon the Romans on Italian soil. His achievements have become a thing of legend and his name has become immortalised. He was Hannibal Barca. Hannibal rests amongst antiquity's greatest generals, but how did he rise to become such a stellar commander, leading his men to incredible victories against the then dominant powerhouse in the Mediterranean?
In this episode, Dr Louis Rawlings, Dr Adrian Goldsworthy and Dr Eve MacDonald explore the impressive ascent of the Carthaginian general to the status of one of the most famous military leaders in antiquity.
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First published August 2021
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Around this time of year in late 218 BC one of the most audacious military feats in ancient history occurred. |
| 0:12.0 | The crossing of the Alps with elephants by the |
| 0:15.5 | Carthaginian commander Hannibal Barker in his war against Rome. In this special episode, a fan favorite from our archive, we're telling the story of |
| 0:26.4 | Hannibal Barker's rise to power, how he ended up marching a large army over the snowy Alps into Italy and becoming one of the greatest enemies |
| 0:34.9 | that the Romans ever faced. |
| 0:37.7 | Our experts are Dr Louis Roolings, Dr Adrian Goldsworthy and Dr. Eve McDonald. |
| 0:44.0 | I really do hope you enjoy. |
| 0:46.1 | And here's the story after the death of Alexander the Great. |
| 1:05.0 | It's still the early stages of the Hellenistic period, but it's a time where |
| 1:09.0 | turmoil had seized the Western Mediterranean. |
| 1:12.7 | Dr Louis Rawlings, a walking encyclopedia on all things Hannibal |
| 1:16.8 | and the ancient Carthaginian military, |
| 1:19.1 | explains the unstable world which Hannibal was born into. Hannibal was born into. |
| 1:23.0 | Hannibal was born into a world war, essentially. |
| 1:27.0 | The Western Mediterranean was a flame. |
| 1:30.0 | The Romans and the Carthaginians were in the middle of a very long war, the first Punic War, |
| 1:34.9 | which started in 264 BC. Hannibal is born towards the end of that war, probably around |
| 1:41.5 | 247 BC, and his father is the prominent commander in the |
| 1:46.9 | Carthaginian overseas theatre fighting against the Romans in Sicily. |
| 1:50.4 | So Hannibal was born into a world where the Romans and the Carthaginians have been |
| 1:54.8 | going at it for more than a decade and a half and they still have quite a bit of |
| 1:59.8 | time to run as well. Carthaginians are also having to deal with other imperial concerns. |
... |
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