The steady advance of the Carthaginian arms in Spain
caused much uneasiness in Rome and at length led that city to declare war.
Carthage herself was not unwilling for a second trial of strength. Her leading
general, Hannibal, who had been winning renown in Spain, believed that the
Carthaginians were now in a position to wage an aggressive war against their
mighty rival. And so the two great Mediterranean powers, each confident of
success, renewed the struggle for supremacy.
HANNIBAL
At the opening of the conflict Hannibal was not quite
twenty-seven years of age. While yet a mere child, so the story went, his
father had led him to the altar, and bade him swear by the Carthaginian gods
eternal enmity to Rome. He followed his father to Spain and there learned all
the duties of a soldier. As a master of the art of war, he ranks with Alexander
the Great. The Macedonian king conquered the world for the glory of conquest;
Hannibal, burning with patriotism, fought to destroy the power which had
humbled his native land. He failed; and his failure left Carthage weaker than
he found her. Few men have possessed a more dazzling genius than Hannibal, but
his genius was not employed for the lasting good of humanity.
