Editing Hannibal (section)

===Military history===
[[File:Joseph Mallord William Turner 081.jpg|thumb|right|The material of legend: in ''[[Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps]]'' (1812)  [[J. M. W. Turner]] envelops Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in [[Romanticism|Romantic]] atmosphere.]]

Hannibal is generally regarded as one of the best military strategists and tacticians of all time, the double envelopment at Cannae an enduring legacy of tactical brilliance. According to [[Appian]], several years after the Second Punic War, Hannibal served as a political advisor in the Seleucid Kingdom and [[Scipio Africanus|Scipio]] arrived there on a diplomatic mission from Rome.
{{blockquote|It is said that at one of their meetings in the gymnasium Scipio and Hannibal had a conversation on the subject of generalship, in the presence of a number of bystanders, and that Scipio asked Hannibal whom he considered the greatest general, to which the latter replied "[[Alexander the Great|Alexander of Macedonia]]".

To this Scipio assented since he also yielded the first place to Alexander. Then he asked Hannibal whom he placed next, and he replied "[[Pyrrhus of Epirus]]", because he considered boldness the first qualification of a general; "for it would not be possible", he said, "to find two kings more enterprising than these".

Scipio was rather nettled by this, but nevertheless he asked Hannibal to whom he would give the third place, expecting that at least the third would be assigned to him; but Hannibal replied, "to myself; for when I was a young man I conquered Hispania and crossed the Alps with an army, the first after [[Hercules]]."

As Scipio saw that he was likely to prolong his self-laudation he said, laughing, "where would you place yourself, Hannibal, if you had not been defeated by me?" Hannibal, now perceiving his jealousy, replied, "in that case I should have put myself before Alexander". Thus Hannibal continued his self-laudation, but flattered Scipio in an indirect manner by suggesting that he had conquered one who was the superior of Alexander.

At the end of this conversation Hannibal invited Scipio to be his guest, and Scipio replied that he would be so gladly if Hannibal were not living with [[Antiochus III the Great|Antiochus]], who was held in suspicion by the Romans. Thus did they, in a manner worthy of great commanders, cast aside their enmity at the end of their wars.<ref name="appian">Appian, ''History of the Syrian Wars'', §10 and §11 at [https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_02.html Livius.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151227081451/http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_syriaca_02.html |date=27 December 2015 }}</ref>}}

Military academies all over the world continue to study Hannibal's exploits, especially his victory at [[Battle of Cannae|Cannae]].<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Messer |first1=Rick Jay |title=The influence of Hannibal of Carthage on the art of war and how his legacy has been interpreted |date=2009 |hdl=2097/1503 |hdl-access=free |citeseerx=10.1.1.582.1385 }}</ref>

[[File:Hannibal in Italy by Jacopo Ripanda - Sala di Annibale - Palazzo dei Conservatori - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016 (2).jpg|thumb|right| Hannibal's celebrated feat in crossing the Alps with [[war elephant]]s passed into European legend: detail of a fresco by [[Jacopo Ripanda]], {{circa | 1510}}, [[Capitoline Museums]], Rome.]]

Maximilian Otto Bismarck Caspari, in his article in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition]] (1910–1911), praises Hannibal in these words:
{{quotation|As to the transcendent military genius of Hannibal there cannot be two opinions. The man who for fifteen years could hold his ground in a hostile country against several powerful armies and a succession of able generals must have been a commander and a tactician of supreme capacity. In the use of strategies and ambuscades he certainly surpassed all other generals of antiquity. Wonderful as his achievements were, we must marvel the more when we take into account the grudging support he received from Carthage. As his veterans melted away, he had to organize fresh levies on the spot. We never hear of a mutiny in his army, composed though it was of North Africans, Iberians and [[Gauls]]. Again, all we know of him comes for the most part from hostile sources. The Romans feared and hated him so much that they could not do him justice. Livy speaks of his great qualities, but he adds that his vices were equally great, among which he singles out his more than [[wikt:fides Punica|Punic perfidy]] and an inhuman cruelty. For the first there would seem to be no further justification than that he was consummately skillful in the use of ambuscades. For the latter there is, we believe, no more ground than that at certain crises he acted in the general spirit of ancient warfare. Sometimes he contrasts most favorably with his enemy. No such brutality stains his name as that perpetrated by [[Gaius Claudius Nero]] on the vanquished [[Hasdrubal Barca|Hasdrubal]]. Polybius merely says that he was accused of cruelty by the Romans and of avarice by the Carthaginians. He had indeed bitter enemies, and his life was one continuous struggle against destiny. For steadfastness of purpose, for organizing capacity and a mastery of military science he has perhaps never had an equal.<ref name="1911britannica">{{Cite EB1911 |last= Caspari |first= M.O.B. |wstitle= Hannibal (general)}}</ref>}}

Even the Roman chroniclers acknowledged Hannibal's supreme military leadership, writing that "he never required others to do what he could not and would not do himself".<ref>[http://www.carpenoctem.tv/military/hannibal.html Hannibal] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111017053457/http://www.carpenoctem.tv/military/hannibal.html |date= 17 October 2011 }} at ''CarpeNoctem.tv''</ref> According to Polybius 23, 13, p.&nbsp;423:
{{blockquote |It is a remarkable and very cogent proof of Hannibal's having been by nature a real leader and far superior to anyone else in statesmanship, that though he spent seventeen years in the field, passed through so many barbarous countries, and employed to aid him in desperate and extraordinary enterprises numbers of men of different nations and languages, no one ever dreamt of conspiring against him, nor was he ever deserted by those who had once joined him or submitted to him.}}
[[File:Museum of Antiquities Hannibal.JPG| thumb |upright|A bust of Hannibal, 17th century, [[Museum of Antiquities (Saskatoon)]]]]

Count [[Alfred von Schlieffen]] developed his "[[Schlieffen Plan]]" (1905/1906) from his military studies, including the envelopment technique that Hannibal employed in the [[Battle of Cannae]].<ref>{{cite book|last= Daly|first= Gregory|author-link= Gregory Daly|title= Cannae: The Experience of Battle in the Second Punic War|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qayiX4SFonkC&pg=PR10|year= 2003|publisher= Psychology Press|isbn= 978-0-415-32743-5|page=x}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Cottrell |first=Leonard |author-link=Leonard Cottrell |url= |title=Hannibal: Enemy of Rome |publisher=Perseus Books Group |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-306-80498-4 |page=134}}</ref> [[George S. Patton]] believed himself a reincarnation of Hannibal—as well as of many other people, including a Roman [[legionary]] and a Napoleonic soldier.<ref>"Any man who thinks he is the reincarnation of Hannibal or some such isn't quite possessed of all his buttons", quoted by {{cite book|last= D'Este|first= Carlo|author-link= Carlo D'Este|title= Patton: A Genius for War |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cz-hBWYOTnEC&pg=RA7-PA815|year= 1996|publisher= HarperCollins|isbn= 978-0-06-092762-2}}, p. 815</ref><ref>Hirshson, Stanley, ''General Patton: A Soldier's Life'', p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xOLMGBKbjGUC&dq=Patton,+reincarnated&pg=RA1-PA163 163]</ref> [[Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.]], the commander of the [[Coalition of the Gulf War]] of 1990–1991, claimed, "The technology of war may change, the sophistication of weapons certainly changes. But those same principles of war that applied to the days of Hannibal apply today."<ref>Carlton, James, ''The Military Quotation Book'', New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 2002. {{ISBN?}}{{Page?|date=May 2023}}</ref>

According to the military historian [[Theodore Ayrault Dodge]],
{{blockquote|Hannibal excelled as a tactician. No battle in history is a finer sample of tactics than Cannae. But he was yet greater in logistics and strategy. No captain ever marched to and fro among so many armies of troops superior to his own numbers and material as fearlessly and skilfully as he. No man ever held his own so long or so ably against such odds. Constantly overmatched by better soldiers, led by generals always respectable, often of great ability, he yet defied all their efforts to drive him from Italy, for half a generation. Excepting in the case of Alexander, and some few isolated instances, all wars up to the Second Punic War, had been decided largely, if not entirely, by battle-tactics. Strategic ability had been comprehended only on a minor scale. Armies had marched towards each other, had fought in parallel order, and the conqueror had imposed terms on his opponent. Any variation from this rule consisted in ambuscades or other stratagems. That war could be waged by avoiding in lieu of seeking battle; that the results of a victory could be earned by attacks upon the enemy's communications, by flank-manoeuvres, by seizing positions from which safely to threaten him in case he moved, and by other devices of strategy, was not understood... [However,] for the first time in the history of war, we see two contending generals avoiding each other, occupying impregnable camps on heights, marching about each other's flanks to seize cities or supplies in their rear, harassing each other with [[guerrilla|small-war]], and rarely venturing on a battle which might prove a fatal disaster—all with a well-conceived purpose of placing his opponent at a strategic disadvantage... That it did so was due to the teaching of Hannibal.<ref name="dodge" />}}