Maybe Hannibal wasn't so horrible

[Wuotans Krieger]

Hannibal also sacrificed his own daughter to Baal to gain favor as I recall.
Oh and he also used African mercenaries in his war against Rome.

Africans were not unknown in the Roman Army. Indeed one was even an African saint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Maurice

[jagdmesser]

Chpt III SPAIN

P 47 – 50

From a hidden door before the altar came the High Priest Achololim in white. All sound ceased. “Hamilcar, son of Hasdrubal son of Hannibal of the line and lineage of Barca and even too of Dido, why do you come to wake the serpents of Melkarth? “

“You know, Achololim, why I come.Let it be done.”

From behind, a eunuch covered me in a mantle of blood red. Two more brought a black dog. One held its head, one its feet above the fire before the stone. My father stepped forward, tooka sword and with one stroke cut the dog in two. Its blood hissed on the fire. “May this fate befall you, Hannibal, son of Hamilcar if you break this oath,” Achololim intoned. The acolytes moaned, the drums beat again.

To Achololim’s right was a trough of stone. A white bullock was lead there, then a black ewe, symbols of day and night. My father cut their throats. Blood filled the trough. I moved forward and then plunged in my arms. I remember to this day the words I took from Achololim and swore.

“By the eight fires of the Cabiri, by the stars, meteors and volcanoes, by the cave of Hadrumetum and the Passage of Askroket, by slaughter, by all that burns, by desert, by sun, moon and earth” yes now I remember! – “hialpi mer sva Melkarth, ok Eschmoun, ok him almattki an Panit . . . I swear by the serpents of Melkarth, by Eschmoun, by the blackness of Panit I swear this great oath of the seven hates to Rome, undying enmity to Rome, no peace to Rome, no truce to Rome, no mercy unto Rome so long as I shall live or any Roman walk upon the land or sail upon the sea. By my being, all these things I swear.”

Yes I took this hate from my father. But I have honed and whetted, refined it, made it mine.It has been alembic of my soul.

I returned home in a litter with my father silent from the vow. Still bloody – I was not to wash until next dawn – I went with my father to the pleasure garden. Sitting on a bench of beki wood we each sought our own. A stork flew ponderously overhead and I thought of the fear of the carp in the pond as the great bird’s shadow crossed the water where they swam. So too did some strange fleeting fear pass over me and now I know that fear again for Carthage. How have I tried to save her. She will not save herself.

My father leant forward, eyes narrowed, anger in his voice. “Carthage, Hannibal is all but spent. That which our war with the Romans did not cost us, our war with the mercenaries has. Our treasury is empty. Sicily and Malta, Sardinia, Corsica and Ebuza, all are closed to us yet even so the cursed Romans demand their indemnity of gold.

“The Council has deliberated and decided. We will build a new Cartage - in Spain. Silenus will instruct you, but in Spain there is gold and silver, olibanum, tin and precious stones. And there, Hannibal, there I will build a new army. And then, Hannibal, then” and his eyes burned into me as he grasped me by the shoulder – “then there is Rome.” He broke off. There was only the passing of a listless wind through the trees above us and the ripples of the frightened fish on ponds.

If the Truceless War had taught me of fighting and generalship, preparations for our departure to Spain taught me things of equal importance. Hour upon hour sat in his hall with Hamilax, pouring over lists and maps and plans. He had to take 12,000 troops, 3,000 horse, 40 elephants. Thirty patched up galleys were to accompany him. Then there were the miners and the weavers, goldsmiths, clerks and scriveners, carpenters, harness menders, cooks and slaves, the body to the head. As an exercise, my father had me act as quartermaster.

With Silenus then I too drew up my plans and so passed the first months of my tenth year. How much does a man eat, a horse, an elephant? How long does a pair of boots last? How many nails do you need to build a fort? How many blacksmiths do you need to shoe 3,000 horse? Will garum keep for several months or more?

Of course I continued with my other lessons with javelin, spear, sword and horse, but my mornings were devoted to my plans. These my father would order submitted for his scrutiny sometimes in Greek, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in Punic and so I learned language as I learned logistics. I learned too from Silenus of the geography, peoples, customs, and languages of Spain.

Of the west and southern coasts we already knew much. At Tartessus, our legends told, our forefathers fromTyre had founded a great city before even Carthage. It grew from trade in tin but when, three centuries ago it refused the sovereignty of Carthage, it was destroyed, its children slaughtered, its women sold into slavery. When our admiral Admago left the place, he dropped a lump of iron overboard, vowing by Eschmoun that Tartessus should never be peopled again until the iron floated to the surface. Such prisoners as were taken were stoned to death in Carthage. Admago had the head of the Tartessian leader, one Abracus, put into a skin full of human blood. “So,” he said, “does one enemy of Carthage have his fill of blood.” So did Carthage deal with those who would defy her. And now?

Just down the coast from Tartessus, my great-great-grandfather Hannibal had founded a colony of Carthage at Gadez, a huge and natural harbour. Inland of that, at Medina and Sidine, were the silver mines that yielded much already and promised more. Going first to Gadez and settling up there, my father planned to subjugate or ally the tribes, raise troops, develop trade and then, north-east across the peninsula, found a city of New Carthage, Cartakhena.

Subjugate or ally. That things too I learned too from Spain and my father. The Truceless War taught me how to deal with enemies. But in Spain I saw another way to deal with enemies is to make them your friends.


Book HANNIBAL by Ross Leckie.

Before 'political correctness' - When men were men.

[jagdmesser]

HANNIBAL


Sworn to Vengeance, Driven to Conquer.


It is 200 years before the birth of Christ. Rome is the new superpower of the ancient world and believes she is invincible. But one man is determined to challenge her authority. He is a man bound by oath to avenge the wrongs inflicted on his home and, in pursuit of revenge, he will stop at nothing.


At the young age of 26 Hannibal masterminded one of the most daring military moves in history by crossing the Alps with 40,000 soldiers and 37 elephants. He marched his army 1,500 miles to challenge the Romans on their own soil. It was an act so daring that few people believed it possible.


Hannibal was to forge a reputation as a warrior general and become one of the greatest military leaders of all time. He was to become Rome’s worst nightmare. This is the epic story.

[Eternal Anglo]

I'm not sure, on one hand I think the Rome of the time was far superior to the mercantile Semites of Carthage and their barbaric religion but had Carthage defeated Rome, they, unlike the Romans, weren't really about colonizing or assimilating defeated people, as I understand it they just liked to have a small presence in the territories within their spheres of influence, and dominate economically. It's impossible to look through a crystal ball and see how the world would have been, but it certainly would have been interesting to see how western Europe would have developed with no Caesarean genocide in Gaul, no Christianity, no immigration from the Semitic world or its associated religious practices (of which Christianity was only one). Granted I wonder if maybe technology would have progressed more slowly without the Roman springboard to jump from with their roads, and aqueducts, and ships, and whatnot, but some people, like Varg for example, would argue that's not necessarily a bad thing.