Please write a brief biography of Hannibal and explain whether or not you think his reputation (in Roman eyes) as a monster was deserved.

Hannibal grew up in the African country of Carthage. He was born during the first Punic war which started his hatred for the Romans at a young age. One of his most famous achievements was at the start of the Second Punic War, when he marched an army, which included war elephants, from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy. In his first few years in Italy, he won over several Roman allies. Hannibal occupied much of Italy for 15 years, however a Roman invasion of North Africa forced Hannibal to return to Carthage, where he was defeated by Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama. Scipio studied Hannibal's tactics and made his own to counter act Hannibal's tactics. Hannibal is still regarded among the greatest generals through out history like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Scipio, and Pyrrhus of Epirus. In the eyes of the Roman commoners, I believe that he was right to be called a monster because of the amunt of people he killed and the tremendous threat he possed to the Roman Empire. I feel though to the Roman military leaders who could appriciate the genious of his battle tactics, he was a great general and somewhat of a monster because they could fully understand Hannibal unlike the rest of the Roman people.

Works Cited:

"Hannibal -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 01 Mar. 2010. .
"Hannibal." Livius. Articles on Ancient History. Web. 02 Mar. 2010. .