His father, when Hannibal was just a boy, made Hannibal take a pledge to always hate the Romans. So he takes his army and all of his war elephants and all. He crosses Spain, mountains, the alps, and then goes into Italy. He ends up land down in the southeast of Rome, winning battle after battle. So then war sends their best generals and 60,000 troops in all, and they fight at Cannae. The romans greatly outnumbered the Carthaginians on the battle field. The Romans break through the Carthage force, but that was exactly what Hannibal wanted. they catch the Roman army in a semi-circle. 60,000 romans die in the battle. Greatest military defeat in the history of Rome and one of the single day greatest defeats in the history of the world.
He did not have enough people/supplies to siege the city of Rome. Instead, he ends up battling the Romans at Zama. This time, Hannibal attacks first and sends in the war elephants. The Romans were scared to death of the war elephants. But they cam up with a plan. When the elephants charged, the Romans let them come in, and then once the elephants were confident, the Romans blew horns to scare the elephants. And the elephants turned around and run into the Carthaginian line. The Romans are victorious. The general in charge of the Roman legions was Scipio. For the rest of history he is known as Scipio Africanus. (note to self-know this name)
Hannibal escapes but is never able to get an army large enough to fight Rome again.
In the thir Punic wars, Scipio's son, Scipio Aemilianus, takes his troops down and sieges Carthage.
Cato the Elder was known for ending all of his speeches that he gave with the words "Carthage must be destroyed." He campaigned hard for a complete end to the wars between Roe and Carthage and burned down Carthage.
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