Hannibal ante portas (ENG)

Day 635, 11:30 • Published in Serbia Hungary • by montaigne

I love history. According to some people history repeats itself. Maybe in the crucial moments the historical personalities are following the same unexplainable logic.

Have a look at Hannibal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal
The biggest military genious, a remarkable strategist, a statesman, who loved his people and his country more than anything else. He was the one, who decided to conquer Rome.

He needed tanks, so he transported by ships elephants accross the Bering Strait (I mean the Giblaltar) and then crossed the Rocky Mountains (I mean the Alps), forged alliance with the French (I mean the Gauls) and then headed toward Rome.

The Romans have tried to stop him at Ticinus River, than at Trebia River, and than followed two legendary battles at Trasimene Lake and at Cannae. In these four battles Rome lost an unbelievable amount of soldiers, estimated today to be as much as 150.000.

After the Cannae Battle the road was open to Rome. From this point the story starts to get a bit confused. According to some historians a local war between Greeks and Makedonians made him stop, according to others Hannibal just got scared in front of the opportunity but there are also speculations, that his generals and allies started to dispute over the pludner. Nobody knows the real reason why Hannibal decided to bypass Rome.

During these days the citizens of Rome were shouting in their desperacy: "Hannibal ante portas = Hannibal in front of our gates."

History did not give him a second chance. 14 years later at Zama Rome won against Carthago. Rome demolished the Carthagian walls, plundered the city, destroyed the fleet and slained the population. Hannibal was one of the few ones to escape, butRomans chased him till the end of his life. He has been poisoned 20 year later.



NOTE: Any resemblance between this short story and a Peace contract between PEACE and USA is not deliberate, just unavoidable.