HANNIBAL. 532 HANNIBAL. Missouri, E 2). It has steamboat communica- lion with various cities on the river; a large trade in lumber, tobacco. Hour, and agrirultural produce, and manufactures of lumber, stoves, shoes, car - wheels, cigars, cement, and lime. Among the features of the city are the public library building, the United States Government building, the municipal buildings, the city park, and a long iron and steel railroad and wagon bridge across the river. Settled in 1S19, Hanni- bal was incorporated as a town in 1839. The government is conducted under a charter of 1845, revised in 1873. The mayor, annually elected, controls appointments to the administra- tive departments, those to the library board and finance committee alone being ratified by the council, which is unicameral, and of which the executive is a member. The school board is chosen liy the people. The city owns and operates its electric-light plant. Population, in 1890, 12,- 857; in 1900, 12,780. HANNIBAL (Phoenician, grace of Baal, Gk. 'Ai'fifSa^^ A)iiiib(is) . A common name among the (arthaginian.s. the list of those famed in his- tory extending to fourteen or fifteen. The great- est of all was the Hannibal of the Second Punic War, the son of Hamilcar Barca. He was bom in B.C. 247. When he was nine years old he accompanied his father on his Spanish expedi- tion, and before starting swore an oath of eternal hatred to the Roman name, which he kept through liis whole life. After the death of Hamilcar he was employed by Hasdrubal. his brother-in-law, in most of the military operations which he undertook. When Hasdrubal was as- sassinated, the army with one voice elected Hanni- bal commander-in-chief — an appointment 'which the authorities at Carthage at once ratified. Han- nibal, at this time in his twenty-sixth year, un- dertook the command, for he longed to strike a death-blow at his country's rival by attacking her on her own soil. Before he entered on a task of such magnitude he deemed it prudent to com- plete the subjugation of Spain, and accordingly spent two years in contests with some tribes hitherto independent of Carthage. Saguntum, a city in alliance with Rome, was attacked by him on the ground that its inhabitants were making aggressions on the Torboletes. subjects of Car- thage. After a siege of eight months the city was taken, and the Romans, after an embassy had unsuccessfully demanded the surrender of the general who had thus violated the treaty, de- clared war in B.C. 218. Having taken measures for the defense of Africa and Spain during his absence, he started from New Carthage in B.C. 218, with 90.000 foot and 12,000 horse. This force was much thinned by his contests with the tribes between the Iberus and the Pyrenees, by the necessity of leaving Hanno with 11,000 men to keep them in subjection, by desertion in the passage of the Pyrenees, and by his sending home a portion of his Spanish troops. His object in this last act was to inspire the soldiers with thorough confidence in themselves and their gen- eral. From the Pyrenees he marched to the Rhane without opposition, since Scipio was at Massilia, four days' march from the point where Hannibal crossed the river in the face of the Celtic hordes who sided with the Romans. His next great difficulty was the passage of the Alps, which he effected in fifteen days, in spite of the attacks of the mountain tribes, the snows, storms, and other dilliculties. Much discussion has taken place as to whether Hannibal crossed the Cottian Alps by the pass of Mont Genfevrc (or Cenis), or the Graian Alps by the pass of Little Saint Ber- nard. For the former route, Michelct, Thierry, and most French writers argue; and for the lat- ter, with better reasons, Niebuhr, Arnold, Monmi- sen, and others. After allowing his army (now about 26,000 strong) some time to recruit in the rich vil- lages of the friendly Insubrians, he first sub- dued the Taurini, a tribe hostile to the Insu- brians, and took their chief city after a siege of three days, and thus forced into alliance with him all the Ligurian and Celtic tribes on the upjwr course of the Po. Scipio, having returned from Massilia, took the command of the army in the north of Italy, and met Hannibal on the plain near the river Ticinus. The Romans were en- tirely routed, and Scipio, who was severely wounded, retreated across the Po. The armies again met at the Trebia, with a like result, though the Romans, who had received reenforce- ments, were much more numerous. These battles were fought in B.C. 218. Having wintered in the neighborhood of the Po, and levied additional troops among the Gauls, most of whom were now his friends, Hannibal started southward as soon as spring permitted, marching through Liguria and the swamps of the Arno. In this difficult route immense numbers of his beasts of burden and horses perished, and he himself lost the sight of one eye. He next inflicted a severe defeat, near Lake Trasumenus, on the consul Flaminius. After this victory he crossed the Apennines to Picenum and Apulia, and thence reerossed to the fertile Campania, which he ravaged. Thither Fabius was sent with an army to oppose him, but no general engagement took place, the consul en- deavoring to lead Hannibal into snares, which he succeeded in doing; but the Carthaginian extri- cated his army by a .stratagem, and returned to Apulia. He wintered at Cannae, and in June, or. according to others, in August (2d) of B.C. 2 Hi. almost annihilated a Roman army of 90,000 men under Terentius Varro and ^I^Imilius Paulus, in Ihe battle which was fought a little below the town. About 50,000 are said to have fallen, in- cluding .-Emilius Paulus, and a host of Roman knights, senators, and other distinguished per- sons. Here Hannibal committed, perhaps, the greatest military error of his life, in not march- ing direct to Rome: but it is supposed that he refrained in order to allow the tribes of Italy to declare in his favor. Many in the south of Italy did attach themselves to his interests, but not in such numbers as he had anticipated. After some delay he marched on Neapolis, which he did not succeed in taking, but the gates of Cajjua were opened to him. and here he wintered. The ener- vating eflect which the luxury of Capua is said to have had on his army has been greatly over- drawn; but his residence there forms, in one point of view, the turning-point in the war, which from this time became more of a desultory kind. Hannibal's great purpose was to arm the Italian nations against Rome, and so to crush her power by means of her own subjects; the Romans, on the contrary, henceforth avoided coming to a pitched battle with the Carthaginians, but sought rather to keep the tribes in awe and harass Han-
