1. military secrets

(According to the materials of V. Artemov and M. Magomedov.) It is believed that the campaign of the Kyiv prince Svyatoslav against the Khazar Khaganate in 965-967 ended in the complete defeat of Khazaria. But is it? At the dawn of the Middle Ages, Russia had many enemies - Avars, Varangians, Pechenegs, Polovtsy ... But ...

2. The great scientist of antiquity Archimedes, who lived two centuries before the birth of Christ, still delights the world with his wisdom and insight. Greek scientist, who owns the famous exclamation "Eureka!", discovered the fundamental laws of physics, built a celestial globe for astronomical observations who first measured the diameter of the sun...

3. (Based on materials by A. Nefedkin and Yu. Dmitriev.) Modern historians it is believed that chariots were invented 2300 years before the new era in Mesopotamia, but there is no exact evidence for this. However, by the time the horses were tamed by man, they still had little resemblance to ...

4. "The question of oil ... and other lighting substances is too close to the interests of Russia." So wrote the great Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev. And this is not an exaggeration, because almost all the major wars of the past 20th century clearly demonstrate the special strategic role of oil products. As for the Caucasian oil, then ...

5. (According to D. Miller.) The six-day war between Israel on the one hand and Egypt, Syria and Jordan on the other took place in June 1967. It ended in a serious defeat for the Arab countries. They lost a lot of territory, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and…

6. (According to the materials of V. Roshchupkin, A. Kolpakidi and E. Prudnikova.) Hitler's and other intelligence services developed plans to assassinate Stalin, believing that the elimination of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief would cause Soviet Union serious political damage and will affect the course of the war. To the all-powerful "red leader" in wartime...

7. As the front line approached the western regions of the Ukrainian SSR, the UPA no longer limited its activities to collecting intelligence about the Red Army, transferring it to German military intelligence, protecting communications from attacks by partisans operating behind enemy lines, and assisting the invaders in neutralizing Soviet landing forces ...

8. In the 16th century, the Spanish and French absolute monarchies fought for dominance in Europe. Their rivalry manifested itself with particular force in Italy, where the struggle for the division of the country was of a very fierce nature. The Pope, Venice, Switzerland, England and...

9. During the Second World War, many crimes were committed, not only on land, but also at sea, including by submariners. And not only the German ones, who were nicknamed "gray wolves". However, many of the perpetrators were not brought to justice, either due to a lack of…

10. (According to V. Smolensky.) This operation, carried out by British military intelligence, completely confused all the plans of the German command and allowed the Allied troops to avoid heavy losses during the battles in southern Europe. At 1800 British Summer Time on April 19, 1943, the submarine ...

11. (Based on the materials of I. Dmitriev.) Late in the evening of October 26, 1943, in the apartment of the resident of the VI Directorate of the RSHA (foreign intelligence of the SD) in Ankara, Obersturmbannführer Ludwig Moisisch, who officially held the position of secretary of the German embassy in Turkey, the phone rang. He picked up the phone and heard a voice...

12. (According to G. Dudko.) May 10, 1972, almost a year before the end of the Vietnam War, american aviation bombarded the Soviet ship of the Far Eastern Shipping Company "Grisha Hakobyan", which was under loading in the Vietnamese port of Kamfa. This was practically not mentioned in the Soviet press, ...

13. Who today does not know the famous legend of Troy and the Trojan horse? The Trojan horse itself has long become a household name - our ironic contemporaries even named a destructive computer virus after it. This myth is hard to believe, but the authenticity of the existence of Troy was confirmed by the excavations of the famous ...

14. From myths and legends, as well as from the works of many ancient authors, it is known about warlike female tribes that lived according to the laws of matriarchy. Amazons are female warriors! The question of their real existence still causes a lot of controversy among researchers, and archaeological finds give new...

15. Elephants are believed to have been tamed and first used for military purposes in India. It happened a long time ago, probably at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. From that moment on, the combat elephant troops firmly held a leading position in the armies of the states of Hindustan. Exactly…

16. The campaign of the Greek army in Asia Minor, described in Xenophon's Anabasis, can hardly be regarded as a major historical event that had a decisive influence on the fate of the peoples of the ancient world. A detachment of Greek mercenaries, numbering about 13,000 people, was attached to a large army assembled ...

17. The artistic image of Spartacus began its existence in revolutionary France. It is not known who was the first to "discover" the invincible leader of the slaves after many years of oblivion, but he was to the taste of agitated minds. His name began to be mentioned only with the addition of the epithet "hero". Here, of course…

18. In 5 AD Roman emperor Octavian Augustus appointed 55-year-old Publius Quintilius Varus as commander of the German legions, who knew nothing about military affairs, but was married to the niece of the princeps. For some reason, the short-sighted Var believed that the Germans see the main goal of their existence in ...

19. At the end of the 4th century, the Roman Empire, which by that time had split into Western and Eastern, had a new terrible enemy: the Huns - nomads who came from Central Asia. Back in 377, the Huns captured Pannonia (modern Hungary), but behaved relatively calmly and ...

20. History keeps many cases of hiding military secrets. An example of this is the famous "Greek fire", the likely forerunner of the modern flamethrower. The Greeks guarded the secret of their weapons for five centuries, until it was lost forever. So who and when for the first time in history applied ...

21. In 732, as the chroniclers testified, the 400,000-strong army of the Arabs crossed the Pyrenees and invaded Gaul. Later studies lead to the conclusion that the Arabs could have from 30 to 50 thousand warriors. Not without the help of the Aquitanian and Burgundian nobility, who resisted the process ...

22. (Based on materials by V. Vasiltsov.) It is believed that the main events crusades- wars "for the Holy Sepulcher" - unfolded on land. Much less is said in the writings of historians that the fleet was not only a means of delivering the crusaders to the Holy Land, but also ...

23. (According to D. Uvarov.) At the beginning of the 13th century, the French king Philip II Augustus seized a number of English possessions in France, including Normandy and a number of major cities which he drew to his side. Naturally, this immediately caused the reaction of foggy Albion, ...

24. (Based on materials by I. Antipenko.) From century to century, Russia waged countless wars for access to the Baltic Sea. Some of them have become textbooks, some are known only to narrow specialists. One of the main places in the history of pre-Petrine Russia is occupied by the armed conflicts of Veliky Novgorod with ...

25. (According to D. Zenin.) How many warriors fought on the Kulikovo field? According to a tradition dating back to the "Zadonshchina", a story of the XIV century, it is generally accepted that Mamai brought "countless countless" warriors to Kulikovo Field, while Moscow Prince Dmitry Ivanovich opposed ...

26. Since ancient times, man has sought to find a means by which he could confidently hit the target - on a hunt or in battle - from a long distance. At first it was a stone, which, like a spear, was delivered to the target by the muscular energy of a person ...

27. In the 14th century Turkish Ottoman Empire was strong and had a numerous well-organized army, consisting mainly of cavalry. In 1329, the Turks had an infantry corps of the Janissaries, which was finally formed in 1362. Having established itself in Europe and taking advantage of the ongoing internal unrest ...

28. As you know, gunpowder was invented by the Chinese. And not only because they were a developed nation, but also because saltpeter in China lay literally on the surface. Mixing it in the VI century with sulfur and charcoal, the Chinese used gunpowder for fireworks, and in ...

29. (Based on materials by D. Uvarov.) In military history, the problem of assessing losses is primarily the problem of assessing the sources that talk about these losses. As for the Middle Ages, until the XIV century, almost the only sources are chronicles. Only for the late Middle Ages become available ...

30. Many may not know what kind of battle during one of the Russian-Lithuanian wars took place near the Belarusian city of Orsha on September 8, 1514. Events that took place several centuries ago, if desired, it is always easy to whitewash or denigrate. However, let's try to look at it with an open mind. Strengthening the Moscow ...

31. The Ottoman Empire reached its apogee of military power and glory during the reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent (1520-1566). Following the conquest of Egypt, the Turkish fleet captured Rhodes in 1522, which allowed the Ottoman authorities to assert their dominance in the eastern Mediterranean. Having launched a struggle against the crusaders ...

32. (Based on the materials of S. Lekarev and V. Kodachigov.) 550 years ago, British intelligence introduced its agents in Russia. In the 16th century, the historical predecessors of the British "Secret Intelligence Service" (MI-6) launched in Russia, as modern intelligence officers would put it, active intelligence and subversive activities under ...

33. In the second half of the 16th century, the fanatical Catholic Philip II was considered the most powerful man on earth. The owner of the Iberian Peninsula dominated the Netherlands, over part of Italy and throughout America. The son of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, this gloomy, silent man declared...

34. The year 1600 was coming to an end. Spain has not yet recovered from the shock after the death of the Invincible Armada. In distant Rome, Giordano Bruno was burned. The first spyglass was invented in the Netherlands. And in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, controlled by Madrid since 1565, there was a real commotion: ...

35. (Based on the materials of A. Viktorov.) Back in 1581, Pskov during the Livonian War could not be taken by the Polish king Stefan Batory. The city on the Velikaya River shielded Russia and forced the enemy to start peace negotiations. History repeated itself 34 years later. The city tried again...

36. (According to the materials of E.B. Chernyak.) The head of the secret service of Cardinal Mazarin was Bishop Ondedey of Frejus. In terms of ability, he was far from the "grey eminence", but some of his agents were not inferior to the best scouts of Richelieu. Mazarin's secret service had its agents in a number of foreign ...

37. In full swing was the War of the Spanish Succession, which broke out in 1701 between France and the Austrian Habsburgs for hegemony in Europe. It involved two coalitions. One of them was headed by France, on the side of which were Spain, Bavaria, Cologne ...

How Scipio defeated Hannibal

Like Napoleon, Hannibal ended his military career with a heavy military defeat, but this circumstance did not overshadow his great achievements in military affairs. His short confrontation with the young Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio during the second Punic War(218-201 BC) is very reminiscent of the story of a student who, in the battle of Zama, surpassed his teacher and, in the end, defeated him.

Let's - first ourselves, and then together with Scipio - follow the course of that distant war and try to unravel the secret of Hannibal's victories.

The First Punic War (264-241 BC), which was waged against Rome by the father of the future "great Carthaginian", Hamilcar Barca, ended unsuccessfully for Carthage and led to the loss of Sicily, and with it dominance at sea. Young Hannibal, who received a versatile Greek education and participated in his father's campaigns in Spain, swore to Hamilcar to hate Rome forever and devote his whole life to fighting it.

The policy of Hamilcar Barca after his death was at first continued by his son-in-law. Rome did not prevent this expansion of Carthaginian influence, since it was busy conquering Cisalpine Gaul, but bound the Carthaginians with a promise not to cross to the northern bank of the Ebro River. After the death of Hamilcar's son-in-law, the Carthaginian army proclaimed Hannibal their leader. After that, in Carthage, under pressure from the "barkids" - the parties of war and hatred for Rome - they were forced to recognize Hannibal as their commander. He could save his initially precarious position only by successful military operations - and in 218 BC he. laid siege to Saguntum, a Greek colony allied with Rome.

Carthage refused the demand of Rome to extradite Hannibal. The pretext for a war between two rivals for dominance in the Mediterranean was given, and a decisive struggle began.

After an eight-month siege of Saguntum, the city fell and was destroyed. This gave rise to the Roman Senate to announce the rupture of peaceful relations with Carthage. Thus began the second Punic War.

Hannibal immediately seized the initiative, having a professional, deeply devoted army. Surprisingly, the same mercenaries who killed their Carthaginian commanders so many times remained disciplined and obedient to Hannibal under all circumstances. He is almost the only one of the commanders who did not have to deal with soldier unrest and riots. His army of old African cadres, supplemented by a recruitment of Iberians, exceeded 50 thousand, formed separate tactical units, which, under the guidance of experienced generals, could independently maneuver on the battlefield.

The tactical superiority of Hannibal's army over the Roman militia was undeniable, and it was strengthened by the fact that Hannibal had excellent cavalry. The Numidians, allies of Hannibal, formed a very good light cavalry, and the Carthaginian heavy cavalry was capable of not only inflicting strong blows, but represented a regular unit under the command of officers educated by Hamilcar. They were a disciplined guard, never rushing for prey, but capable of maneuvering on the battlefield at the direction of the commander. In practice, these were the cuirassiers of antiquity.

With such an army, Hannibal could not be afraid of meeting in the field even with a twice superior enemy. He made a bold plan to cross the Pyrenees, the Rhone River and the Alps into Italy, defeat the Roman troops in the field, and then capture and destroy Rome. Under the dominance of the Romans at sea, this was the only way to transfer military operations to enemy territory. Hannibal did not follow the favorite tactics of the Roman military leaders, who skillfully waged war on the border with any opponents, but decided to transfer the war to the territory of the Roman Republic itself, where they simply did not expect such audacity from the Carthaginians. Hannibal risked refusing communications with the rear. His hopes rested on the possibility of establishing a base in front, in those areas of Italy that, under his blows, would fall away from Rome, which only at the moment of the fall of Saguntum decided to mobilize its forces.

Due to the unpopularity of the war among the allies and the poorest sections of the Roman population, the mobilization was incomplete, but the forces put up exceeded in number one and a half times the number of troops put up by Rome in the previous wars. The available forces were divided into three almost equal armies - one was supposed to keep the Gauls in obedience in the Po Valley, the other was sent to Spain to tie Hannibal there, but did not have time to intercept him even in Gaul, at the crossings over the Rhone, and the third concentrated in Sicily , ready to move the fight to the vicinity of Carthage.

It was this strategic dispersion of forces that predetermined the defeat of the first, best legions of the Roman militia.

And yet, pretty soon, Hannibal refused to take possession of the enemy capital - Rome.

Leaving 16,000 soldiers to defend Carthage and to secure his rear base in Spain as many soldiers under the command of Hasdrubal's brother, Hannibal, at the head of an army of 92,000, crossed the Ebro River and subjugated the Iberian tribes to the north of it.

After that, the Carthaginian commander left an 11,000-strong army on the conquered lands, and he himself crossed the Pyrenees at the Mediterranean Cape Creus.

Possessing a flexible mind and ingenuity, Hannibal, in order to achieve his goals, resorted to original and unexpected measures for the enemy. So, he attracted to his side the tribes of warlike Gauls in the south of modern France, defeated the insidious and forced the river Rodan (Rhone).

Soon his reconnaissance - 500 Numidian cavalry - reported to Hannibal that a Roman army of 24,000 people had blocked the path to Italy along the Mediterranean coast, camping near the well-fortified city of Massalia. Hannibal decided to go around the enemy to the north, putting up a barrier of cavalry and war elephants against him, and invade northern Italy through the Alps.

While Hannibal was crossing the Alps, the Roman commander Publius Cornelius Scipio - the father of Scipio Africanus - hurried to Northern Italy to cut off the path of the Carthaginians. In November 218 BC. Hannibal's army met on the Ticin River (modern Ticino) with the 25,000-strong Roman army of Scipio.

After the legendary crossing of the Alps, when Hannibal lost almost his entire army, he was left with about 20,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry and only a few elephants. Despite this, in the battle on Ticinus, the Romans suffered heavy losses, the Carthaginians destroyed almost the entire enemy cavalry. Scipio himself was badly wounded.

Having replenished his troops in Gaul to 30,000 people, Hannibal was not yet ready for the siege of Rome, which required five times more forces, given the impossibility of being based on sea supply and the need to simultaneously hold a vast area supplying the army.

Meanwhile, a small, but well-trained and disciplined Carthaginian army in December 218 BC. won another victory: on the Trebbia River, to the upper reaches of which Scipio withdrew with his infantry, joining the army of another Roman commander, Sempronius.

40,000 Romans were camped here in a well-fortified camp and did not want to go out to fight in the open field. But Hannibal outwitted the enemy: he allowed him to win a series of easy victories over his small detachments, while devastating all the villages around the enemy camp. A false attack by the Numidian cavalry, which crossed the river and lured the Roman cavalry out of the camp behind them, was the prologue to a big battle.

Against the advice of the wounded Scipio, Sempronius crossed the Trebbia, intending to attack Hannibal. Frozen in the cold winter water, the Romans fought valiantly, but after the attack of Mago's Carthaginian cavalry, their left flank fell into disarray, and they lost more than 30,000 people in the battle, while Hannibal's losses were probably a little more than 5,000 soldiers. Again the Roman cavalry suffered heavy losses.

Sempronius tried at first to hide from the Roman government, and even more so from the people, the true extent of the disaster. He reported to Rome that a battle had taken place, but bad weather prevented them from winning. However, gradually Rome learned the truth - and that the Carthaginians occupied the Roman camp, and that all the Gauls joined them, and that the Roman troops, or rather their remnants, took refuge in the cities, and that food was delivered to them from the sea along the Padus River: it was the only way which Hannibal could not control.

All this sowed a terrible panic in Rome. From day to day, they expected the approach of Hannibal's troops to Rome itself and saw neither hope of salvation, nor the possibility of obtaining outside help or effectively resisting.

However, Rome was not the primary goal of Hannibal. After wintering in the valley of the Padua River, the Carthaginians and Gauls launched an offensive into Central Italy. Here, in the spring of 217 B.C. Hannibal made the first detour in history.

Having made the transition through the snow-covered Apennine passes north of Genoa, he went south along the sea coast and in four days crossed the marshy swamps in the floodplain of the Arne (Arno) River, which was considered impassable during the spring flood.

During the transition, the Carthaginian army was overtaken by a storm, which forced the soldiers to stop; the strongest wind, rain and hail, and then frost devastated the ranks of the Carthaginians; many horses died and seven elephants from those that Hannibal still had after Trebbia.

"How Scipio Defeated Hannibal"

Hannibal himself rode on the only elephant he had left. Suddenly, due to dampness, poisonous swamp fumes, and insomnia, his eyes became inflamed, and since the commander had neither the time nor the opportunity to be treated, he later lost one eye.

Having descended from the Apennines, the Carthaginians and Gauls, unexpectedly for the enemy, found themselves between the Roman armies blocking the main roads to Rome, and the Eternal City itself. Hannibal moved to Placentia, where a battle soon took place - at first with a clear advantage in favor of the Romans, who, having put the Carthaginians to flight, pursued them to the very camp. However, Hannibal, introducing additional forces into the battle, forced the Romans to retreat. As a result, the Battle of Placentia ended in a draw. Both the Romans and the Carthaginians were forced to retreat: the former, as the historian Titus Livy says, to Lucca, and the latter to Liguria. There the Ligures delivered to Hannibal two Roman quaestors, Gaius Fulvius and Lucius Lucretius, two military tribunes, and five equestrians, most of them the sons of senators. Thus, the local tribes demonstrated their desire to establish allied relations with Hannibal and take part in his struggle against Rome.

The two main roads leading to Central Italy and Rome, which Hannibal bypassed, were blocked by the troops of the consuls Gaius Flaminius and Gnaeus Servilius.

After the usual reconnaissance, Hannibal found that his main and not very difficult task now was to provoke Flaminius into a battle in which the troops of Servilius would not take part. Flaminius also needed a victory in order to further strengthen his position, finally discredit and remove hostile aristocratic groups from power in Rome. Therefore, Flaminius would go into battle even if Hannibal did nothing at all.

But Hannibal was ahead. The area near Arretia (Arezzo), where the troops of Flaminius were stationed, he did not consider it convenient for battle and, leaving the enemy camp on the left, moved to Fasulami, and then went, without meeting resistance, already towards Rome, ruining and destroying the civilian population, burning houses and outbuildings. Flaminius followed. Seeing that the Roman troops were approaching, Hannibal, choosing for battle a mountainous area near Mount Kartona, near Lake Trasimene, ordered his soldiers to prepare for battle.

In April 217 B.C. Hannibal ambushed the army of Flaminius, who showed great carelessness. Caught in a narrow six-kilometer passage between the mountains and the lake, the Romans fell into a trap. About 30,000 soldiers, along with Flaminius, laid down their heads, the rest fled to the mountains.

After that, Hannibal put forward a new goal - to go to southern, semi-Greek Italy. In the first Punic War, the Italian Greeks supported Rome, for Carthage, dominating the seas, was a dangerous competitor to their trade. But now, with the fall of Carthage's maritime dominance, there was no rivalry. Hannibal could count on the help of these wealthy but unreliable allies of Rome. However, these forces were not enough.

He was still in no hurry to attack Rome, because he realized that unconquered Italy was a great danger. Meanwhile, Quintus Fabius, who had become dictator, chose the tactic of avoiding big battles, wearing down the Carthaginians with unexpected attacks. But the Roman plebeians, who reluctantly went to this difficult war, looked at its prolongation as a ruinous phenomenon for the poor people, a whole demagogic agitation was created against the cautious strategy of Fabius, nicknamed Cunktator (Slower). As a result, the impatient master of cavalry Muntius Rufus, who despised such behavior, received from the Senate the status of a commander equal to a dictator, and decided to give the enemy a battle at Geronia. And only a miracle - the timely help of Fabius - saved the ambitious Rufus from defeat.

While they were fighting in Spain, where the Scipio brothers, one of whom was the father of the future Scipio Africanus, ousted the Carthaginians and their allies, Rome, thanks to the time won by Fabius, nevertheless gathered a large 86,000-strong army, appointing Aemilius Paulus and Terentius Varro as commanders.

But Hannibal did not even make an attempt to move from a threat to Rome to its attack. He went the other way. The fact is that at that time only one third of Italy was a full-fledged territory of the Roman Republic, two thirds were subordinates who had not yet forgotten their former independence. It was to them that Hannibal turned, emphasizing that he came to Italy not to conquer, but to liberate peoples.

Hannibal released the captured Italians to their homeland so that they could spread the news about his power and nobility, and sold the captive Romans into slavery by the thousands.

At the end of July 216 BC. Hannibal quickly marched 50,000 of his soldiers to Cannae and captured the Roman warehouses with provisions there, challenging the Roman army stationed near the Aufid (Ofanto) river.

On August 2, the day when the command of the Romans passed to Terentius Varro, Hannibal, despite the superiority of the enemy, was confident of victory. But an ordinary victory was not enough for Hannibal - he needed the complete destruction of the Roman army, and he clearly set this goal for himself.

He brought his army to the battlefield in six columns. The two middle ones, totaling 20,000, were formed by the weaker Iberian and Gallic infantry, which were destined to withstand the main onslaught of the Romans. In order to provide moral support to these warriors, Hannibal with his brother and headquarters settled down behind them. They were surrounded by two columns of 6,000 African experienced veterans. Finally, the flank columns were purely cavalry: on the left flank - heavily armed cavalry - "cuirassiers" of Hasdrubal, on the right - light, mainly Numidian cavalry. Only 10,000 riders. An equal number of lightly armed horsemen with the Romans camouflaged Hannibal's front. The combat arrangement was obtained in the form of a horseshoe.

The Romans - 55,000 hoplites, 8,000 lightly armed, 6,000 horsemen, as well as the 10,000-strong garrison left in the camp - were built in a particularly deep phalanx (maniples - 10 people along the front, 12 in depth), in total at least 34 lines. Such a depth was caused by the desire to develop the maximum onslaught and not make the offensive too difficult due to the exorbitant length of the infantry front, which stretched for quite long distance. The cavalry was distributed along the flanks.

The battlefield itself, chosen by Varro on the northern bank of the Aufid, was a wide plain, bounded in the south by a river, in the north by dense bushes that protected the flanks of the Romans from enemy cavalry.

When the battle began, Hasdrubal with "cuirassiers" overturned the Roman horsemen and sent a detachment to the aid of the Numidians, who fought with the Roman horsemen of the left wing. The main mass of Hasdrubal's cavalry attacked the rear of the Roman phalanx and managed to push it.

At the front, the Romans decisively attacked the Gauls and Spaniards, inflicted heavy losses on them and forced the Carthaginian center to retreat. But the presence of Hannibal here kept the Gauls from breaking the front and fleeing. At the decisive moment, under the influence of a blow from the rear, the Roman phalanx stopped.

A stop for the phalanx meant its death. Africans attacked from the flanks, darts and arrows rained down on the Romans. Only the extreme ranks of the surrounded crowd of Roman legionnaires could act with weapons - the rear ones were able to increase the onslaught during the attack, but when the phalanx stopped, they presented only targets for flying stones, darts and arrows. Sensing victory, the Carthaginian mercenaries began to push the Romans everywhere, for whom it was increasingly difficult to use weapons. The position of the latter became hopeless.

After a long battle, 48,000 Romans were killed, among which were 25 top commanders and the consul Aemilius Paul. 6,000 Romans were taken prisoner. Few made it through: out of the remnants of 16 legions, the Romans later managed to form only 2 legions. Varro himself was lost somewhere among the fugitives.

These are very approximate figures, since there are very conflicting data on the losses at the Battle of Cannae. Titus of Livy claims that 48,200 Romans and their allies died, and 19,500 (!) Were taken prisoner. Polybius believes that about 70,000 (!) Romans died, and only 3,000 managed to escape. Eutropius claims that 60,000 infantrymen, 3.5 thousand cavalrymen and 350 senators and other noble people died in the Roman army. Orosius speaks of 44 thousand killed, and Florus - of 60 thousand. Plutarch gives a figure of 50,000 dead. According to him, 4,000 Romans were captured during the battle, and another 10,000 were taken later in both camps. The losses of the Carthaginians, according to Livy, amounted to 8 thousand killed, and according to Polybius - 5700. The Romans lost the consul Aemilius Paul, 21 military tribunes and 80 senators.

However, the figures relating to Roman losses and the description of the course of the battle by Roman historians are not credible. And the question of the sources from which Roman historians got information about the battle of Cannae, as well as about many other battles, remains open. It is clear that the legionnaires who survived the battle, and even the centurions and tribunes, would not have been able to give a more or less complete picture of the battle.

Only the surviving consul Terence Varro or one of the senior officers close to him could possess the relative completeness of information. However, judging by the reports of the same Plutarch, Titus Livius and Appian, the Roman military leaders already in the middle of the battle lost control of the troops and did not know exactly what was happening. Obviously, the true picture of Cannes could have been given by Hannibal or one of his closest associates, but, as far as is known, they did not leave memoirs, and if they did, then in historical tradition they didn't reflect.

It remains an unsolved mystery why the Roman infantry, which successfully pressed the Gauls, even being surrounded, could not, as in the battle of Trebbia, break through the weakened enemy front, allegedly deliberately made by Hannibal in the center much thinner than on the flanks, and escape? Titus Livy claims: "... After a long and repeated effort, the Romans, with their dense formation, representing an oblique line, broke the enemy phalanx, which stood out from the rest of the formation, which was rare, and therefore very weak. Then, when the defeated enemies retreated in fear, the Romans began to attack them and, moving through a crowd of fugitives who lost their heads in horror, at once penetrated first into the middle of the formation and finally, without meeting any resistance, reached the auxiliary detachments of the Africans, who, after the retreat of both flanks, remained in the center, which was significantly prominent and occupied before When the soldiers who made up this salient were put to flight, and thus the front line was first straightened, and then, as a result of further retreat, formed another bend in the middle, the Africans had already moved forward on the sides and surrounded the Romans with flanks, who imprudently rushed to the center of the enemy.Pulling the flanks further, the Carthaginians soon locked and enemies and from the rear. From that moment on, the Romans, having ended one battle uselessly and leaving the Gauls and Spaniards, whose rear ranks they beat hard, begin a new battle with the Africans, unequal not only because the encircled fought with those around them, but also because the weary fought the enemy, whose forces were fresh and vigorous..."

The Roman historian does not explain in any way why the Romans suddenly stopped pursuing the already fled Gauls and Iberians. After all, the front ranks of their infantry, pursuing the Carthaginian center, still could not take part in the battle with the Africans who had come in from the flanks. It is also unclear why the Roman and allied infantry could not avoid the death, which did not cost anything to get away from the heavily armed enemy hoplites.

Even if we take the smallest of the figures cited in the sources of Carthaginian losses at Cannae - about 6,000 killed, then this number should correspond to no less than 10,000 wounded. In this case, by the end of the battle, Hannibal should have had no more than 34,000 soldiers in the ranks. Each of them during the battle had to destroy at least one enemy warrior. And this despite the fact that only a minority of the army really participated in hand-to-hand combat - only the fighters of the advanced ranks ...

But one thing is certain: Hannibal, having twice the weakest infantry, for the first time in the history of military art, decided on a maneuver to cover both enemy flanks - to encircle the enemy. Cannes is an immortal example of risk: the weak Carthaginian center had to endure the brunt of the battle until the cavalry went to the rear and hit the flanks.

The Battle of Cannae was the peak of Hannibal's military career and at the same time his last major victory, which in ancient times was considered an unsurpassed example of military art.

However, what Hannibal had hoped for did not happen. In southern Italy, Rome's allies remained loyal to him, thanks to which Rome survived. The waverers were inclined towards Rome also by the fact that in the first battle of Nola, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, with two legions, heroically managed to repel the attacks of Hannibal.

After the complete defeat of the enemy army near Cannes, Hannibal had a good opportunity to go to Rome, but he did not use it. Or he simply did not take the risk, because by that time he had not formed a sufficient siege base, which he planned to create in the south. In addition, Hannibal was well aware that the city's population of several hundred thousand people could put new army, both at the expense of those who escaped after Cannes, and through the conscription into the army of all who could bear arms. The siege would inevitably drag on for months, if not years. Hannibal's army needed to be supplied all this time.

"How Scipio Defeated Hannibal"

Only Italy could be the supply base, since there was little hope for significant supplies from Carthage - the old enemy of Father Hannibal dominated the Carthaginian Senate. To create a solid supply base on the Apennine Peninsula, it was necessary to place Punic garrisons in a number of cities and to attract allies from among the Italic tribes recently conquered by the Romans. Only after that it was possible with some chance of success to approach the walls of Rome. In addition, Hannibal knew that after the defeat at Cannae, the Romans drafted into the army all able to bear arms, starting at the age of 17, forming four legions. The state ransomed 8,000 slaves, who made up two more legions. Due to all these circumstances, Hannibal has not yet decided to go to Rome.

As the Carthaginian army moved south, many Samnite tribes defected to Hannibal's side. He was supported by the largest city of Capua, but in the south of Italy, in the region of Magna Graecia, Naples, Cuma and Nola remained loyal to Rome.

Hannibal made an alliance with the Macedonian king Philip V, and in Sicily, Syracuse went over to the side of Carthage. But this did not help: a coalition was formed against Philip V in the Balkans from the Aetolian Union, a number of Greek cities and the Pergamon king Attalus I. Despite the fact that the Macedonians eventually won this war, Philip could not help Hannibal directly in Italy.

In 215 BC. there was a paradoxical situation: having captured a large number of cities and fortresses, Hannibal did not achieve a real victory. Rome had about 140,000 soldiers, including units in Spain, Gaul, Sicily; about 80,000 of them were concentrated against forty or fifty thousand soldiers of Hannibal. Following the new tactics promulgated by the Senate, the Romans avoided open clashes. Marcellus managed to repel the offensive of Hannibal's troops in the second battle of Nola.

The following year, having fought the third battle of Nola against Marcellus, Hannibal went to Apulia to capture the port city of Tarentum and devoted almost the entire year to operations against Tarentum, while his brother Hanno was defeated at Benevente by Tiberius Gracchus. All of Hanno's infantry was destroyed, and he himself escaped with a small detachment of cavalry. Later, he will still be able to defeat Gracchus in Bruttia.

Meanwhile, Syracuse, who declared themselves supporters of Carthage, fought the troops of Marcellus sent to Sicily. After a grueling siege, Marcellus will still be able to conquer Syracuse.

There were also Hasdrubal's battles in Spain against the two Scipio brothers, as a result of which both were killed, after which Spain south of the Ebro again became the possession of Carthage.

And the city of Capua, which joined the Carthaginians and to help which he sent Hanno, Hannibal could not help. Hanno's campaign ended in failure - 6,000 Carthaginians fell in battle, but could not lift the siege. At the beginning of the winter of 211 BC. The 60,000-man Roman army under the command of Fulvius and Claudius was simultaneously attacked by the city garrison and the main forces of Hannibal. The operation also did not bring success - due to the sluggishness of the besieged, it was not possible to save the city. Then Hannibal decided to distract the enemy and announced a campaign against Rome, which caused the Romans to go down in history with an exclamation of horror: "Hannibal is at the gate!" Having made his deceitful maneuver and returning to Capua, Hannibal, to his grief, found him capitulating.

Hannibal's persistent requests to send reinforcements from Carthage remained unanswered. Now he could rely only on his own forces, which with each military clash with the Romans inexorably decreased.

Meanwhile, a new figure appeared on the political and military arena of Roman history - Publius Cornelius Scipio, the son of one of those Scipios who died in Spain. The Roman Senate in 210 BC sent a twenty-five-year-old youth to take command of the troops in Spain, where Scipio fairly quickly restored Roman power north of the Ebro. Then, in 209 B.C. marching with an army of 27,500 people reached New Carthage (Cartagena), and with an unexpected attack quickly took the city, blocked from the sea by the Roman fleet.

A quick-witted young man with extraordinary abilities managed to comprehend the secret of the tactical superiority of the Carthaginians and from now on sought to dismember the Roman battle order, to make its individual parts capable of independent maneuver. He united the maniples into cohorts - a kind of battalion capable of independent maneuvering; created a second line of battle order; and his transition from a phalanx to a formation in several lines represented a tactical evolution towards the creation of a battle formation with an independent general reserve.

"How Scipio Defeated Hannibal"

But all this was possible only if the legion lost many of the outdated qualities of the republican militia.

Previously, remaining for decades in the ranks, the Roman policeman was reborn as a professional soldier, lost his civic feelings, his admiration for the law, and strove for prey. Even in his homeland, complaints began to come in from the civilian population he offended. And as the authority of the law faded, another authority arose in the Roman soldier - the authority of his leader. In such conditions, the Roman Senate had to either remain under the old forms of command and formation of the armed force, and in this case, abandon the final victory over Carthage and the conquest of the whole world, or sacrifice constitutional guarantees to the idea of ​​​​victory and organize the armed force, solely guided by the requirements of the military. affairs.

And the Senate took the second path. There they realized that it was unthinkable to oppose Hannibal with consuls - children in military leadership. At first, Rome began to elect the same people known for caution and military knowledge to the posts of consuls, not paying attention to the time of their reign limited by the constitution. Then Rome went a step further and gave military leaders too young to be elected consuls consular rights. When Scipio landed in Africa with the Roman army, consular powers were approved for him not for a year, but indefinitely - as long as the military situation required it. It was this policy that allowed Rome to defeat Carthage, and then conquer Macedonia and Syria and, thus, create the skeleton of a world state. But that will be later.

In the meantime, the Romans, under the leadership of Fabius Cunctator, who became consul for the fifth time (!), Thanks to the betrayal of Hannibal's Italian allies, entered Tarentum. Despite this significant loss, Hannibal was able to continue the war and keep the much larger and more effective Roman armies in a stalemate. In 208 BC. he defeated Marcellus at Asculum. And soon Marcellus fell into an ambush and died.

Meanwhile, Scipio in Spain, after various maneuvers and several skirmishes, defeated Hasdrubal at the battle of Becula, although he did not inflict much damage on the Carthaginians. And Hasdrubal himself, on the orders of Hannibal, went to Gaul, leaving Spain to Scipio.

The movement of Hasdrubal's troops became known to the Roman consul Claudius Nero. In 207, the Romans ambushed the enemy near the Metaurus River and defeated him. Hasdrubal, realizing that all was lost, deliberately broke into the Roman cohort in order to die.

As proof of their victory, the Romans sent Hannibal the severed head of his brother. However, he did not even think of leaving Italy, continuing to fight with great persistence. Meanwhile, the tactics of Rome, aimed at prolonging the war and exhausting the forces of the Carthaginian army on Italian soil, began to bear fruit. Isolation from the rear bases put Hannibal's troops in an extremely difficult position.

The last attempt to help Hannibal's army was made by his brother Magon. In 205 BC. he crossed from Spain to the Balearic Islands, and then to the Ligurian coast of Italy with 12,000 infantry and 2,000 horsemen. However, the Romans blocked it, and, despite the support of the Ligurians and Gauls, Magon could not help Hannibal.

Meanwhile, Scipio, with an army already educated in the spirit of linear tactics that had won success in the Iberian Peninsula, further increased the combat training of his troops by exercises and maneuvers and landed in 205 on the African coast near Carthage. Scipio was unable to besiege Carthage, but he managed to intervene in Numidian affairs, capture the sheikh, who was the mainstay of Carthaginian influence, and create an advantage for his opponent Massinissa, who unexpectedly undertook to help Rome.

In the autumn of 203 BC. Hannibal with the remnants of his army was urgently recalled from Italy to defend Carthage. Hannibal arrived in Africa with foot soldiers, but almost without cavalry. Returning to his homeland after a 16-year absence, he set about reorganizing his army, which took up to nine months. The army was formed in order to avoid the intervention of civil power, not in Carthage itself, but in the small seaside town of Hadrumetum.

Finally, in the summer of 202 BC. Hannibal began hostilities against the Romans. The latter did not yet have at their disposal a single port and were based on the Utica peninsula. Massinissa, with the promised 10,000 soldiers, had not yet joined Scipio's army, which had about 25,000 fighters for operations in the field.

The Roman army was in the Bagradas valley when Scipio was informed that Hannibal, with 35,000 troops, was moving just between him and the area to the west from which the Numidians were expected.

Any other commander in the place of Scipio would have withdrawn to the Utica peninsula, where there was a fortified base, after which he would certainly have been blocked by Hannibal and would have lost influence on the Numidians. But Scipio took a risk: he abandoned his communications with the sea, with a quick flank march to the west, he himself went to reunite with Massinissa and, having received reinforcements from him of 6,000 horsemen and 4,000 infantry, moved towards Hannibal. The collision took place on October 19, 202 BC. at Naragara, but in history it is known as the Battle of Zama.

This battle between two armies of 35,000 is a very interesting example of the first use of linear tactics by the Romans in history.

Hannibal had not yet had time to create cavalry, and here the Romans outnumbered him three times. Infantrymen were more at Hannibal. And besides, Hannibal had several dozen elephants.

Hannibal distributed his cavalry evenly along the flanks and instructed her - without engaging in a stubborn battle, run in front of the Roman and Numidian cavalry in order to lead the enemy away from the battlefield during the pursuit. The elephants camouflaged the infantry battle formation and gave Hannibal a gain in time - not to draw the foot soldiers into a serious battle until it became clear whether the trick with the enemy cavalry had succeeded.

The Carthaginian strategist built the infantry in two lines: the first - the Carthaginian militia, the second - experienced veterans who returned from Italy, along with Hannibal himself. If the Roman cavalry had not been able to be diverted from the battlefield, both lines, under the cover of elephants, could have retreated to the fortified camp without being drawn into a decisive battle.

At first, Hannibal's trick worked. The Roman cavalry, pursuing the Carthaginian, fled the battlefield. Then came the Carthaginian foot soldiers. A fierce hand-to-hand fight was launched by the first line, and the second line, splitting in two, came out from behind the flanks of the first for a decisive double envelopment of the Roman infantry. But the astute Scipio, who already had a second line, unexpectedly responded to this maneuver with a counter-manoeuvre - parts of the second line of the Romans came out from behind the flanks of the first and quickly engaged the enemy, who was about to surround the Romans. The battle retained the character of a head-on collision on an ever-expanding front for quite a long time. Some advantage was gained by the fiercely fighting Carthaginian infantry, but the battle dragged on for a long time. Parts of the Roman cavalry began to return to the battlefield, and the Carthaginians had to retreat in very difficult conditions.

There was a fact: the teacher - Hannibal - found a worthy student in Scipio.

Moreover, the Romans learned to deal with the enemy's war elephants - they put them to flight, and they brought great confusion to the ranks of the African infantry.

In the end, Hannibal lost. The army of Carthage lost 10,000 people, while the victors - one and a half thousand. It was from this triumphant moment for him that the Roman commander received the nickname Scipio Africanus.

And the war, which rested only on the invincibility of Hannibal, was ended in the shortest possible time with his defeat. The main consequence of the battle at Zama was the loss of Carthage's faith in the possibility of a successful struggle against Rome, in an independent future.

In 201, the Roman Republic and Carthage concluded an extremely difficult peace for the vanquished, although Hannibal insisted on continuing the war. The Second Punic War ended with the complete military defeat of Carthage: he handed over his entire fleet to Rome and was obliged to

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The future ancient politician and military leader Scipio Africanus was born in Rome in 235 BC. e. He belonged to the Cornelii, a noble and influential family of Etruscan origin. Many of his ancestors became consuls, including Father Publius. Despite the fact that the Scipios (a branch of the Cornelian family) were influential in the political arena, they did not differ in wealth. Another important feature of this family was Hellenization (exposure to Greek culture), when it was not yet widespread.

The beginning of a military career

Scipio Africanus, whose childhood is practically unknown, began to fall into the Roman chronicles after, in 218 BC. e. chose a military career. She determined his entire future. The choice was not random. Just in this year, Rome declared war on its southern neighbor Carthage. This Phoenician state was the republic's main competitor in the Mediterranean. Its capital was in northern Africa. At the same time, Carthage had many colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and Spain (Iberia). It was to this country that Scipio's father, the consul Publius, was sent. His 17-year-old son went with him. In Spain, the Romans were to face Hannibal.

At the end of 218, Scipio Africanus took part in a major battle for the first time. It was the battle of Ticin. The Romans lost it because they underestimated their enemy. But Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus himself only became famous under Ticinus. Upon learning that his father was attacked by enemy cavalry, the young warrior rushed alone to the aid of the consul. The horsemen fled. After this episode, Cornelius Scipio Africanus was awarded an honorary award for his courage in the form of it. It is significant that the brave young man defiantly refused him, declaring that feats are not done for the sake of recognition.

Further information about the young man is contradictory. So it is not completely established whether he participated in subsequent battles with the Carthaginians of that period. These inaccuracies are due to the fact that antique era left us many sources that directly refute each other. At that time, chroniclers often resorted to falsifications to denigrate their enemies, while others, on the contrary, overestimated the merits of their patrons. One way or another, there is a version that in 216 BC. e. Scipio Africanus was a military tribune in the army that fought at the Battle of Cannae. If this is true, then he was extremely lucky to stay alive and avoid captivity, because the Romans then suffered a crushing defeat from the troops of Hannibal.

Scipio was distinguished by a strong character and bright. There is an episode when, having learned about the desire of several commanders to desert due to the defeats of the republic, he burst into the tent of the conspirators and, threatening them with a sword, forced them to swear allegiance to Rome.

roman avenger

Scipio's father and uncle died during that time. From the family, only his older brother Lucius remained (his mother died in childbirth). In 211 BC. e. Publius put forward his candidacy for the post of curule aedile in order to support a relative in his own political campaign. In the end, both were elected. Scipio the African Senior began his own civilian career, which would later also be marked by numerous successes.

Shortly before being elected aedile, the military man participated in the successful siege of Capua. After the capture of this city, the Roman authorities began to consider a plan for a campaign in Spain. In this country, the Carthaginians had many cities and ports, which were sources of food and other important resources for the victorious army of Hannibal. So far, this strategist has not been defeated, which meant that the Romans needed a new strategy.

It was decided to send an expedition to Spain, which was supposed to deprive Hannibal of his rear. Due to the endless defeats at the people's assembly, none of the generals dared to put forward their candidacy. No one wanted to stand up after another defeat. At this critical moment, Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus offered to lead the army. His father and uncle died the day before. For the military, the campaign against Carthage became personal. He spoke of revenge for the defeat of Rome, after which he was elected proconsul. For a 24-year-old young man, this was an unprecedented success. Now he had to justify the aspirations and hopes of his fellow citizens.

Spanish campaign

In 210 BC. e. Scipio the African senior, together with the 11,000th army, went to Spain by sea. There he joined forces with the local propraetor's army. Now he had 24,000 men in his hands. Compared with the Carthaginian contingent in the Pyrenees, this was a rather modest army. There were three Phoenician armies in Spain. The commanders were Hannibal's brothers Magon and Hasdrubal, as well as the namesake of the latter Hasdrubal Giscon. If at least two of these troops united, then Scipio would have been threatened with inevitable defeat.

However, the commander was able to take advantage of all his minor advantages. His strategy was completely different from that followed by his predecessors, who suffered defeat from the Carthaginians. Firstly, it used cities north of the Iber River, once founded by Greek colonists, as its bases. Scipio Africanus especially insisted on this. The brief biography of the strategist is full of episodes when he made extraordinary decisions. The Iberian campaign was just such a case. Scipio understood that there was no point in landing in the south, where the enemy positions were especially strong.

Secondly, the Roman commander turned for help to the local population, dissatisfied with the rule of the Carthaginian colonizers. These were the Celtiberians and the northern Iberians. The army of the republic acted in concert with the partisans, who knew the area and the roads there very well.

Thirdly, Scipio decided not to give a general battle immediately, but to gradually wear down the enemy. To do this, he resorted to fleeting raids. There were four in total. When the next army of the Carthaginians was defeated, the Romans returned to their bases, there they restored their strength and again went into battle. The commander tried not to move too far from his own positions, so as not to be cut off from the rear. If you add up all these principles of a strategist, then you can understand what Scipio the African Senior became famous for. He knew how to make the most optimal decision and always used his own advantages and weaknesses of the enemy with maximum efficiency.

Conquest of Iberia

The first major success of Scipio in Spain was the capture of New Carthage, a major port that was the stronghold of the regional rule of African colonists. In ancient sources, the story of the conquest of the city was supplemented by a story that became known as "the generosity of Scipio Africanus."

Once, 300 Iberian hostages of a noble family were brought to the commander. Also, the Roman soldiers gave Scipio as a gift a young captive, distinguished by rare beauty. From her, the commander learned that the girl was the bride of one of the hostages taken. Then the leader of the Romans ordered her to be given to her fiancé. The prisoner thanked Scipio by bringing his own large detachment of cavalry into his army and since then faithfully served the republic. This story has become widely known thanks to the artists of the Renaissance and modern times. Many European masters (Nicola Poussin, Niccolo del Abbate, etc.) depicted this ancient story in their pictures.

Scipio achieved a decisive victory in Spain at the Battle of Ilipa in 206 BC. e. Commander-in-Chief Hasdrubal Giscon fled to his homeland. After the defeat in Carthage, they decided to abandon the Iberian possessions. Roman power was finally established in Spain.

Homecoming

At the end of 206 BC. e. Scipio Africanus returned triumphantly to Rome. Publius Cornelius spoke to the Senate and announced his victories - he managed to defeat four enemy armies and drive the Carthaginians out of Spain. During the absence of the commander in the capital, in power, he had many envious enemies who did not want the political take-off of the strategist. This first opposition was led by Quintus Fulvius Flaccus. The Senate denied Scipio a formal ritual of triumph. However, this did not prevent the commander from becoming a real folk hero. Ordinary Romans enthusiastically greeted the winner.

However, the war with Carthage was not yet over. Although Punic rule in Spain was a thing of the past, Rome's enemies still controlled North Africa and some of the Mediterranean islands. Scipio went to Sicily. If the Republic succeeded in recapturing this island, it would become an excellent springboard for a further attack on North Africa. Having landed in Sicily, the commander with a small army was able to enlist the support of the local population (mainly Greek colonists), promising him to return all the property lost during the ongoing war.

African campaign

In the summer of 204 BC. e. Scipio, together with an army of about 35 thousand people, left the Sicilian coast and went to Africa. There it was to be decided whether the Roman Republic would become a key power in the ancient Mediterranean. It was those successes of the commander in Africa that made him known as Scipio Africanus. Photos of his busts and sculptures from different parts of the Roman state show that he really became a legendary figure for his compatriots.

First attempt to take Utica ( Big City northeast of Carthage) ended in nothing. Scipio, along with his army, wintered right on the African coast, without owning at least some significant settlement. At this time, the Carthaginians sent a letter to their best commander Hannibal, in which they demanded that he return from Europe to his homeland and defend his country. In order to somehow stretch the time, the Punians began to negotiate peace with Scipio, which, however, ended in nothing.

When Hannibal arrived in Africa, he also arranged for a meeting with the Roman general. The following proposal followed - the Carthaginians leave Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Spain in exchange for a peace treaty. However, Publius Cornelius refused to accept such terms. He objected that the republic already actually controlled all these lands. Scipio, for his part, proposed a tougher version of the agreement. Hannibal refused. It became clear that bloodshed was inevitable. The fate of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus was to be decided in a face-to-face confrontation.

Battle of Zama

The decisive Battle of Zama took place on October 19, 202 BC. e. The Numidians, the indigenous inhabitants of the African continent, also came out on the side of the Roman Republic. Their help was invaluable to the Latins. The fact was that the Romans for a long time puzzled over how to neutralize Hannibal's most formidable weapon - elephants. These huge animals terrified the Europeans, who had never dealt with such beasts. Archers and riders sat on elephants, shooting their enemies. Such a "cavalry" had already demonstrated its effectiveness during Hannibal's attack on Italy. He led the elephants through the high Alps, which led the Romans into even more confusion.

The Numidians, on the other hand, were well aware of the habits of elephants. They understood how to neutralize them. It was these animals that the Africans took up, eventually offering the Romans the best strategy (more on that below). As for the numerical ratio, the aspect ratio was about the same. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus short biography which already consisted of many campaigns, brought to Africa a well-knit and well-coordinated army, which unquestioningly carried out the orders of its long-term commander. The Roman army consisted of 33,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry, while the Carthaginians had 34,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry.

Victory over Hannibal

The army of Publius Cornelius met the attack of the elephants in an organized manner. The infantry made way for the animals. Those on high speed swept through the formed corridors without hitting anyone. In the rear, numerous archers were waiting for them, who fired at the animals with dense fire. The decisive role was played by the Roman cavalry. First, she defeated the Carthaginian cavalry, and then hit the infantrymen in the rear. The ranks of the Punians trembled and they ran. Hannibal tried to stop them. Scipio Africanus, however, got what he wanted. He turned out to be the winner. The Carthaginian army lost 20 thousand killed, and the Roman - 5 thousand.

Hannibal became an outcast and fled far to the east. Carthage admitted defeat. The Roman Republic received all of his European and insular possessions. The sovereignty of the African state was significantly undermined. In addition, Numibia gained independence, which became a faithful ally of Rome. Scipio's victories ensured the dominant position of the republic throughout the Mediterranean. A few decades after his death, the Third Punic War broke out, after which Carthage was finally destroyed and turned into ruins.

War with the Seleucids

The next ten years passed peacefully for the commander. He came to grips with his political career, for which he had not had enough time before because of regular campaigns and expeditions. To understand who Publius Cornelius Scipio the African Senior is, it is enough to list his civil positions and titles. He became consul, censor, senate trailer and legate. The figure of Scipio turned out to be the most significant in the Roman politics of his time. But he also had enemies in the face of the aristocratic opposition.

In 191 BC. e. the commander again went to war. This time he traveled east, where Rome was in conflict with the Seleucid Empire. The decisive battle took place in the winter of 190-189. BC e. (due to conflicting sources, the exact date is unknown). As a result of the Syrian war, King Antiochus paid a huge indemnity to the republic in the amount of 15 thousand talents, and also gave her land in modern western Turkey.

Judgment and death

After returning to his homeland, Scipio faced a serious problem. His opponents in the Senate initiated a lawsuit against him. The commander (together with his brother Lucius) was accused of financial dishonesty, theft of money, etc. Was appointed state commission, which forced the Scipios to pay a large fine.

This was followed by a period of behind-the-scenes struggle with the opponents of Publius Cornelius in the Senate. His main antagonist was Mark Porcius Cato, who wanted to get a censorship position and sought to destroy the faction of supporters of the famous military leader. As a result, Scipio lost all his posts. He went into self-imposed exile on his estate in Campania. Publius Cornelius spent the last year of his life there. He died in 183 BC. e. at the age of 52. Coincidentally, his main military opponent Hannibal, who also lived in exile in the east, died at the same time. Scipio turned out to be one of the most prominent people of his time. He managed to defeat Carthage and the Persians, and also made a distinguished career in politics.

Scipio dies in Letterne; and at the same time (as if fate wished to unite the deaths of the two greatest men) Hannibal voluntarily takes the poison ...

Titus Livy. History of Rome from the founding of the city

The position of Hannibal and Scipio after the war was as different as the fate of the winner and the vanquished can be. And even more. Power in Carthage passed to longtime opponents of the warlike Barkids. They did not dare to deal with the son of Hamilcar Barca, as the Punians usually did with a military leader who was defeated (as we remember, they were crucified on crosses).

The cowardly descendants of the Phoenician settlers were afraid of even a beaten lion and tried to completely destroy it with the hands of their enemies - the Romans. According to Livy, when making peace, the Carthaginians wanted to shift all the blame onto the shoulders of Hannibal: “Among the ambassadors, Hasdrubal stood out, who was nicknamed the Goat by the people: he always stood for peace and was an opponent of the entire camp of the Barkids. The more convincing sounded his statement: not the state, but the ambition of a few is the fault of the war. The senators seemed to be moved; they say that a certain senator, indignant at the Carthaginians for their treachery, asked what gods they would swear when making peace, if those by whom they had previously sworn were soon deceived. “All the same,” Hasdrubal said in response, “who so severely punish the violators of the contract.”

The party of his opponents in the Carthaginian Senate did not long triumph over Hannibal. The conditions of the predatory peace aroused the indignation of the people. The rebellious crowds threatened to destroy the rulers of the city, who thought more about their own benefit. In such a situation, they decided to call on Hannibal as an adviser, because he was the only one who did not change courage and reason. While negotiations were underway with the Romans, Hannibal managed to gather a small army (6 thousand infantry and 500 horsemen), with whom he was in the Hadrumet area.

“Carthage, exhausted by the war,” says Livy, “it was difficult to make the first monetary contribution; in the Carthaginian Senate mourned and wept. Hannibal, they say, laughed, and Hasdrubal the Kozlik reproached him: he laughs at the common grief. And he himself is to blame for these tears.

“If,” Hannibal answered, “a look that distinguishes facial expressions could penetrate into the soul, then it would become clear to you that this laughter, for which you reproach me, comes from a heart not joyful, but almost distraught from troubles. Let it be out of time, but still better than your stupid and vile tears. We should have cried when they took away our weapons, burned our ships, forbade us to fight with external enemies - then we were wounded to death. Do not think that the Romans took care of your peace of mind. Not a single large state can remain at rest for a long time, and if there is no external enemy, it will find an internal one: it is so very strong people there seems to be no one to be afraid of, but their own strength weighs them down. And we only feel the general calamity insofar as it concerns our private affairs, and the loss of money hurts us the most. When the armor was stripped from the defeated Carthage, when you saw that among so many African tribes, only he, the only one, was unarmed and naked, no one groaned; and now, when everyone has to contribute from private funds his share in paying the tribute imposed on us, you sob, as at a public funeral. I'm afraid you will soon realize that today you cried over the smallest of your troubles!

So said Hannibal to his compatriots.

These words of the commander turned out to be prophetic.

While the son of Hamilcar steadfastly endured the disasters that fell to his lot, the minion of fate, Publius Scipio, basked in the rays of glory and enjoyed the triumph. The enthusiasm of the crowd is shared by ancient historians. Polybius describes the attitude of the Romans towards his hero in this way: “The feelings with which the people waited for Publius corresponded to his significant deeds, and therefore the magnificence and delight of the crowd surrounded this citizen. In fact, having lost all hope of driving Hannibal out of Italy and averting the danger that threatened themselves and their friends, the Romans now not only felt free from all fear and misfortune, but also the masters of their enemies, which is why their joy was boundless. When now Publius appeared in triumph and the memory of past worries was revived by the spectacle of the accessories of the triumph, the Romans forgot all boundaries in expressing gratitude to the gods and love for the culprit of change.

However, even then there were those who wanted to taste a piece of Scipio's glory. “Consul Gnei Lentul was eager to get Africa: if the war lasts, then the victory will be easy; if the war is over, then glorious will be the consul under whom the great war ended, ”says Livy. However, even a consular comrade understood that it was not only unfair, but also useless to compete with Lentulus with Scipio. The Senate asked the popular assembly: to whom should the command in Africa be given; and all 35 tribes answered: Publius Scipio.

Scipio was the first to receive the nickname African to his name. Even Livy cannot explain its origin: “whether it was given by the soldiers attached to him, by the people, or by flatterers from the inner circle, like those who, in the memory of our fathers, called Sulla the Happy, and Pompey the Great. It is reliably known that Scipio is the first commander who received his nickname, produced on behalf of the people he conquered; then, following this pattern, people whose victories were far from the Scipios left to their descendants magnificent inscriptions on their images and loud nicknames.

And what about Hannibal - defeated, humiliated, deprived of the means to continue the fight against the hated enemy? In the character of Hannibal, he tried to figure it out, one might say, a contemporary - Polybius. He found that "some of his character traits are the most controversial." Some considered Hannibal "too cruel, others - greedy. But concerning Hannibal and statesmen in general it is not easy to pronounce a correct judgment; for some say that the nature of man is revealed in extraordinary circumstances, and some people show themselves in happiness and power, others, on the contrary, in misfortune, no matter how much they both restrained themselves before. For my part, I find this judgment incorrect.

It remains only to agree with Polybius. Hannibal was different, but never weak and weak-willed, never did the great Punian give up in complete impotence. Hannibal has always been Hannibal. Defeated by Scipio, he appeared in native city, where power belonged to the "council of one hundred and four" hostile to the Barkids (a control body and the highest judicial authority in Carthage, where they were elected according to the nobility of the family).

“In those days, the estate of judges dominated in Carthage,” Livy characterizes this council. - They were all the stronger because their position was for life - in it the same people remained permanently. Property, good name, everyone's life itself - everything was in their power. If someone offended someone from their class, everyone took up arms against him; with the hostility of the judges, the accuser was immediately on such a case.

In an environment of unbridled dominion by the Carthaginian aristocracy, Hannibal was elected sufet (a position similar to the Roman consul). He immediately encountered the hostility of the all-powerful council. Even the quaestor, who was supposed to move to the estate of judges, refused to obey Hannibal, hoping for "the strength of the future power." The unfortunate man did not know the great Punyan very well. “Hannibal sent a messenger to seize the quaestor, and when he was brought to the meeting, he denounced not only him, but all the judges, before whose arrogance and power laws and officials are powerless.”

Overnight, Hannibal changed the ancient state structure Carthage. He passed a law that judges should not be elected for life, but for one year; and no one could hold the office for two consecutive terms. Having taken away the monopoly on unlimited power from the aristocracy, the son of Hamilcar undermined its financial well-being. The fact is that the representatives of the oligarchy amicably plundered the duties and various fees that came to the treasury; as a result, Carthage did not have enough money even to pay annual payments to Rome.

Livy writes: “Hannibal first found out what duties exist in harbors and on land, what they are charged for, what part of them goes to cover ordinary state needs and how much is embezzled by embezzlers. Then he announced at the meeting that after recovering the missing sums, the state would be wealthy enough to pay tribute to the Romans without resorting to a tax on individuals, and he kept his promise.

Unable to get rid of Hannibal on their own, the Carthaginian nobility began to set the Romans against him. Denunciations that Hannibal wanted to raise the whole of Africa to war followed one after another. Fools! By such an expression of obedience to Rome, they tried to maintain their high position, but they only achieved that they deprived their homeland of the only person who could resist the predator, who was rapidly taking over the whole world. Even Publius Scipio Africanus, according to Livy, long resisted taking action against Hannibal: “He believed that it was not fitting for the people of Rome to subscribe to the accusations emanating from the haters of Hannibal, to humiliate the state by interfering in the strife among the Carthaginians. Is it worthy, not content with the fact that Hannibal is defeated in the war, to become like informers, to back up slander with an oath, to bring complaints?

Nevertheless, the Romans did not fail to take advantage of the occasion to quench their hatred for their longtime enemy. A high embassy from Rome arrived in Carthage with the sole purpose of ridding the world of Hannibal forever. And although the true purpose of the embassy was classified (it was said that the Romans had come to settle the dispute between Carthage and Masinissa), Hannibal immediately sensed the danger. “Having prepared everything in advance for flight,” Livy reports, “he spent a day in the forum in order to avert possible suspicions, and at dusk he went out in the same ceremonial dress to the city gates, accompanied by two companions who were unaware of his intentions.” The horses were waiting for Hannibal at the appointed place. The whole night passed in a furious gallop, and the next day he arrived "at his seaside castle, which is between Acilla and Taps." There was a pre-equipped ship with rowers - the son of Hamilcar foresaw everything one step ahead and was ready for any vicissitudes of fate. “So Hannibal left Africa, lamenting more about the fate of his fatherland than about his own.”

Hannibal will never again set foot on the land of Carthage. He spent the rest of his life wandering, but he was no pathetic homeless vagrant. The eternal enemy of Rome continued to fight against the hated state; he wandered the world in search of allies, he sought them and found them. And he brought more trouble to the Romans.

“Hannibal safely reached Tire,” Livy describes his path after fleeing Africa, “there, among the founders of Carthage, he was received as a glorified compatriot, with all possible honors. From there, a few days later, he sailed to Antioch, where he learned that the king had already moved to Asia. Hannibal met with his son, who was celebrating the festival with games in Daphne, and was treated kindly by him, but, without delay, he sailed on. He overtook the king at Ephesus. He still hesitated and could not dare to go to war with Rome - the arrival of Hannibal played a significant role in his final decision.

Actually, the Syrian king Antiochus sooner or later had to enter into a confrontation with the Romans. Rome no longer imagined its existence without war; he believed that the defeat of the main rival gave the right to dictate his will to the rest of the peoples of the planet. Immediately after the end of the 2nd Punic War, Rome entered the struggle for possession of the Eastern Mediterranean. In 200 B.C. e. victorious legions landed in Macedonia. The decrepit descendants of Alexander the Great at one time entered into an alliance with Hannibal and now they were cruelly paying for their recklessness. After the victory in Macedonia, the interests of the Romans and Antiochus began to intersect, and only a sword could untie another Gordian knot.

The Syrian king did not have the courage to understand, appreciate, or accept the grandiose plans and plans of Hannibal. Antiochus expected to engage the Romans in Greece. However, acting against neighbors in the territories adjacent to Syria, he, of course, could not crush Rome, but only angered him.

Antiochus III the Great

According to Appian, Hannibal declared that Antiochus would never be able to break the Roman forces in Greece, as "they would have local provisions and supplies in abundance." Appian goes on to say:

Therefore, he advised Antiochus to seize some part of Italy and, moving from there, to fight with the Romans, so that their position both inside and outside the country would become more precarious.

“I have experience with Italy,” he said, “and with ten thousand people I can seize convenient places in it and send to Carthage to friends with an assignment to raise a people who have long been dissatisfied and have no loyalty to the Romans; he will immediately be filled with courage and hope if he hears that I am devastating Italy again.

Antiochus listened to his words with pleasure and, believing that it was a big deal to get help for the war in the person of Carthage. ordered him to immediately send people with instructions to his friends.

Hannibal found a certain "very dexterous" Tyrian Ariston, promised him a generous reward and sent him to Carthage. However, Ariston's mission ended in failure: he did not have time to notify Hannibal's supporters, as he was exposed and hastily fled from the city. Hannibal never managed to incite his own people to another adventure.

Antiochus III the Great (Image on the coin)

At the court of King Antiochus, a meeting took place between the main opponents of the 2nd Punic War. Scipio was part of the Roman embassy sent to Syria. Livy reports the following conversation between Scipio and Hannibal: “At the same time, when asked which commander, according to Hannibal, is the highest, he answered: Alexander the Great, because with a small army he defeated countless enemy hordes and reached such edges that no one even hoped to see. When asked who he considers second after Alexander, he replied: Pyrrhus, because he was the first to learn how to set up a camp correctly, he took the cities best of all and had guards. When asked who the third was, he named himself. Scipio laughed and asked: "What would you say if you defeated me?" - and that one: "Then I would consider myself superior to both Alexander and Pyrrhus, and all."

In Syria, Hannibal never managed to realize his enormous talent, to realize grandiose plans. The generals of Antiochus watched zealously, lest the Punic stranger take away their bread. “No one is so prone to envy as those whose talent does not correspond to their origin and position, for they hate valor and giftedness in others,” Livy said on this occasion.

Antiochus was going to send a fleet with Hannibal to Africa to attach Carthage to the anti-Roman coalition, but the naval commanders convinced the king of the futility of this event. "Immediately the decision to send Hannibal, the only useful decision taken by the king at the beginning of the war, was canceled." Hannibal participated only in a naval battle with the Rhodos-Roman fleet. The fleet of Antiochus was defeated, although the left wing, commanded by Hannibal, brilliantly repulsed the attack of the Rhodians and even went on the offensive.

It seemed that the gods turned away from the man who wanted to turn the whole world, but Hannibal courageously continued to argue with fate. In 189 BC. e. Antiochus suffered a crushing defeat from the Romans and was forced to accept all the peace terms offered. According to one of the requirements of the Romans, the Syrian king was to extradite Hannibal.

And this time the eternal enemy of the Romans slipped from their hands. He crossed over to the island of Crete, "in order to think about where to go next." Danger continued to follow Hannibal - in Crete, he almost became a victim of the greed of its inhabitants. Cornelius Nepos tells how the inventive Punian escaped a new misfortune: “Then this most cunning man in the world noticed that he would get into great trouble because of the greed of the Cretans if he did not come up with some way out. The fact is that he brought with him great wealth and knew that the rumor about them had already spread. Then he came up with this method: he took a lot of amphorae and filled them with lead, sprinkled with gold and silver on top. These vessels, in the presence of the noblest citizens, he placed in the temple of Diana, pretending to entrust his fortune to the honesty of the Cretans. Having misled them, he poured all his money into copper statues that he brought with him, and threw these figures in the courtyard of the house. And so the Cretans with great zeal guard the temple not so much from strangers as from Hannibal, fearing that he would not extract treasures without their knowledge and take them away with him. In this way he preserved his property and with it safely crossed over to Prusius, king of Bithynia.

“With him, he hatched all the same plans against Italy and even achieved the fact that he set up and armed the king against the Romans,” testifies Cornelius Nepos. “When he was convinced that he was not strong enough on his own, he persuaded other kings to his side and attracted warlike tribes.”

Hannibal

The Romans vigilantly followed the events in distant Asia. Having entered into an alliance with the Pergamon king Eumenes, they forced him to start a war with Prusius. Thanks to Roman support, the king of Pergamon was successful on land and at sea. And then Hannibal, inexhaustible in military tricks, used a new weapon in one of the naval battles. “Believing that the elimination of Eumenes would facilitate the fulfillment of all his other plans, Hannibal decided to destroy him in the following way: in a few days they were to fight at sea,” says Cornelius Nepos. - The enemy had a numerical superiority, and therefore, inferior in strength, Hannibal had to fight with the help of cunning. And so he ordered to get as many live poisonous snakes as possible and ordered them to be placed in clay pots. Having gathered a great number of these reptiles, he called the sailors on the very day of the upcoming battle and gave them an order to attack with their combined forces on a single ship - the ship of Tsar Eumenes, limiting himself in relation to others only to defense; this, they say, they can easily do with the help of a crowd of reptiles, but he himself will take care to inform them on which ship the king is. And he promised them a generous reward if they killed the king or captured him.”

No less ingeniously Hannibal determined which ship was the king of Pergamon. Before the start of the battle, he sent an ambassador to the enemy fleet - supposedly for negotiations. Since the people of Pergamum thought that Hannibal's man had arrived with peace proposals, they sent him directly to the king. Eumenes was very surprised when, having opened the letter, he found nothing in it but insults. And then the angry king ordered the battle to begin.

Following Hannibal's plan, the Bithynians unanimously attacked the king's ship. Tom barely managed to escape and take refuge in one of his fortified harbors. However, Eumenes' fleet continued to fight, “when clay pots suddenly fell on them ... These projectiles at first aroused laughter among the fighters, since it was impossible to understand what it all meant. When they saw that their ships were swarming with snakes, they were horrified by the new weapons and, not knowing what to escape from in the first place, they fled and returned to their camps. So Hannibal cunningly defeated the army of Pergamon. And not only in this battle, but also in many other land battles, he defeated the enemy with the help of the same tricks.

As Hannibal was determined to fight the Romans to the last breath, so the Romans did not give up hope to destroy the most dangerous enemy in their long history. In 183 BC. e. The Roman ambassador Titus Quinctius Flamininus arrived at the palace of Prusius. He "reproached the king for harboring a longtime sworn enemy of Rome, who prompted the Carthaginians to fight against them, and then King Antiochus," and hinted that if Bithynia did not want to test the power of Roman weapons, he would have to break the law of hospitality and extradite Hannibal.

Hannibal, as always, was prudent. In the house given to him by Prusius, he arranged seven underground passages, including several secret ones. The Punian tried to use one of them when he saw that his dwelling was surrounded by a dense ring of warriors. However, this underground path was discovered and blocked. And then Hannibal ordered to prepare a drink with poison. Taking the deadly cup, he said wearily:

– Finally, let us take the heavy care off the shoulders of the Romans, who consider it too long and difficult to wait for the death of the old man they hate.

The end of Hannibal is amazing, like his whole life. He fought from an early age until the age of 63; moreover, he fought himself, not hiding behind the backs of the soldiers. Livy in his biography says: the son of Hamilcar "was the first to rush into battle, the last to leave the battlefield." All my life, do not let go of the sword and die from poison as an old man - such are the vagaries of human fate!

Titus Flamininus hoped to gain great fame by delivering Rome from Hannibal. However, according to Plutarch, the majority of Roman senators, according to Plutarch, “Titus’ act seemed disgusting, senseless and cruel: he killed Hannibal, who was left to live like a bird, too old, already tailless, having lost its wild habits and unable to fly anymore. Killed unnecessarily. Only out of a vain desire that his name be associated with the death of the Carthaginian leader.

However, Plutarch notes, “there were those who approved of his actions, and Hannibal, while he was alive, was considered a fire that had only to be blown up: after all, even in his younger years, Hannibal was not afraid of his body and hands to the Romans, but art and experience in conjunction with the malice and hatred that possessed him, which do not decrease in old age, for the nature of man remains unchanged, and fate, in its inconstancy, teases with new hopes every time and pushes to new beginnings the one whom hatred has made an eternal enemy.

“He was buried at Libissa in a stone sarcophagus,” reports Aurelius Victor, “on which the inscription is still intact: Hannibal lies here.” This Roman historian lived in the 4th century AD. e., that is, 500 years after the death of Hannibal.

Thousands of books have been written about the great Carthaginian, his image will excite the hearts of people as long as the world will stand. The leader of the disappeared people deserved eternal memory from his descendants, and the ambitious Titus Flaminin hoped in vain that it was he who put the final end to the “Hannibal case”.

The deeds of Hannibal, his aspirations, the meaning of the many years of struggle were very accurately expressed by the historian S. I. Kovalev. Let us finish with his words the story of the brilliant Carthaginian commander, who, despite amazing feats, considered himself inferior to Alexander and Pyrrhus:

“The whole life of Hannibal, starting from the first childhood oath and ending with the last breath in distant Bithynia, was permeated with one feeling and one thought. This feeling is hatred for Rome, the thought is a struggle with Rome. But just as the heroes of ancient tragedy were doomed to die in an unequal struggle with fate, so Hannibal was destined to fall in a hopeless struggle with historical necessity. He was defeated in Italy without experiencing a single defeat. Enemies did not allow him to improve his state. His grandiose plan to unite all anti-Roman forces was shattered by the contradictions between the Hellenistic monarchies, by the narrow-mindedness and petty envy of Eastern politicians. And he was exhausted in the struggle. One person, no matter how brilliant he may be, cannot go against the course of history, cannot change its heavy tread. Hannibal set to work, doomed to death in advance. The unification of the slaveholding system of the Mediterranean and its raising to the last, highest stage of development was a historical necessity. But this great task could only be carried out by a united Italy, that is, ultimately Rome, for no other state ancient world was not in more favorable conditions. The daring genius of Hannibal wanted to force the history of the world to take a different path, putting Carthage at the head of the final stage in the development of antiquity. It would indeed be a completely different version of world history. But Carthage did not have enough strength to create this option, so another path won - the Greco-Roman, that is, the European one, and the one who fought against it with all his might died, leaving nothing but a glorious memory in the millennia. ".

And what about Scipio, this darling of fate?

For some time he continued to be in the lead roles. In 194 BC. e. Scipio was elected consul for the second time. The winner did not forget Hannibal and his relatives. In 190 BC. e. consular position was received by his brother Lucius. Publius Scipio helped him to get a command in the war with Antiochus, and as a legate he himself took part in the military campaign.

The Romans looked through their fingers at all the maneuvers of the Scipio clan as they walked heavy wars with Carthage, Macedonia, Antiochus. But now serious opponents have ended, and the privileged position of Publius Scipio began to annoy the strict champions of the law or simply envious people. In 187 BC. e. the tribunes of the people demanded in the senate from both Scipios an account of the money spent from the indemnity of Antiochus. Publius, proud of his merits and surrounded by popular love, replied that he had an account, but he was not obliged to report to anyone. However, the prosecution did not back down from its plan, and Scipio sent his brother for documents. When the book was delivered, Publius, in front of the senate, tore it up and offered to restore the report from scattered pieces.

Most likely, not everything was in order with Scipio's reports. He was not a greedy man, although he was accustomed to dispose of the booty captured in the war at his own discretion and did not always spend state money for its intended purpose. Polybius relates that after the completion of the Carthaginian triumph, "the Romans uninterruptedly held brilliant games and gatherings for many days at the expense of the generous Scipio."

Some time later, Lucius and Publius were accused of embezzling public money. Publius was unable to provide any help to his brother; only the intercession of the people's tribune Gracchus saved the latter from prison. The censor Mark Cato, as a sign of dishonor, deprived Lucius Scipio of his horse - dishonor consisted in the fact that the horse was taken away publicly, during the solemn procession of riders.

In 184 BC. e. Publius Scipio was summoned to court on charges of accepting a bribe from Antiochus. This time, judging by what Aurelius Victor writes, the winner of Hannibal resorted to demagogy. He walked up to the rostral platform and said:

- On this day I defeated Carthage: it seems to be a good thing. Let us ascend the Capitol and offer our prayers to the gods.

All those present at the trial joined Scipio, leaving the accuser alone.

However, according to Roman law, a person who did not appear in court was obliged to leave the fatherland. And Scipio voluntarily went into exile. He died in 183 BC. e. - in that same year in distant Bithynia, his rival Hannibal took poison. Fate linked their lives so closely that even the last point was put at the same time for both.

“Dying in the village,” says Livy about the last hours of Scipio’s life, “he. ordered to bury him there and erect a monument there, not wanting to be buried in an ungrateful fatherland.

“Worthy of memory husband! exclaims Titus Livius. “He is more famous for his military exploits than for any of his peacetime activities. Moreover, the first half of his life was more glorious than the second, because he spent all his youth in wars, and with the onset of old age, the glory of his exploits faded, but there was no food for the mind.

How different in misfortune are these two great men!

The conqueror Scipio was turned into an exile by the efforts of the senate; defeated Hannibal came to Carthage, where he was hated by everyone who was related to power, he deprived the "council of one hundred and four" lifelong privileges, and took illegal income from the most influential people of the state. Unable to break the will of Hannibal, the insignificant compatriots got rid of him only with the help of the Romans. Scipio could not resist a bunch of envious people. No matter how much they praised the talent of Scipio, it was not he himself who defeated Hannibal, but Scipio's luck, and as soon as she ceased to favor the Roman commander, he appeared in a miserable, helpless form. Scipio was betrayed by his own citizens; Hannibal during his endless wars, as Polybius testifies, “used the services of quite a few foreigners; meanwhile, no one ever slandered him, he was never abandoned by people who participated in his enterprises and placed themselves at his disposal.

Illustrated history.

Hannibal, Scipio and Carthage.

One day Scipio asked Hannibal who he considered the greatest general. In response, I heard the names of Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus and ... Hannibal. The indignant winner of Hannibal reminded the Carthaginian of this. “If I had defeated the Romans, I would have placed myself first,” he replied calmly.

Suvorov and Napoleon also highly valued Hannibal's military talent.

Hannibal - the most terrible and powerful enemy of Rome

Hannibal, in his youth, accompanied his father on numerous campaigns, participated in the campaign against Spain during the First Punic War (264-241 BC), fought Roman soldiers on an equal footing with adult men, defending the right of Carthage to possess Sicily and its dominance in the Mediterranean.

It was at this time that Hannibal, having hated Rome, gave his father an oath to devote his life to the fight against the Roman state.

Severino Baraldi. Young Hannibal

He remained faithful to this oath all his life. The expression "Hannibal's oath" has become a household word.

Titus Livius (Book XXI; 4, 3 ff.) said that Hannibal “endured heat and cold with equal patience; he determined the measure of food and drink by natural need, and not by pleasure; chose the time for wakefulness and sleep, not distinguishing day from night; many often saw how he, wrapped in a military cloak, slept on the ground among the soldiers standing on posts and on guard.

He was far ahead of the horsemen and foot soldiers, he was the first to enter the battle, the last to leave the battle. According to Cornelius Nepos, Hannibal was fluent in Greek and in Latin and wrote to Greek some books.

Hannibal during the parade in Capua in 211 BC

The commander was distinguished by ingenuity and resourcefulness. In one of the battles, Hannibal ordered pots with snakes to be thrown at his enemies.

Hannibal's army crosses the Alps

Battle of Cannae 216 BC e. - the first example of an environment in history that has become a classic. Although more than two thousand years have passed since then, this battle is still studied in detail in military academies around the world. The same battle is considered one of the bloodiest battles. The loss of the Romans 50 thousand (according to other sources 60 thousand), the loss of the Carthaginians - 10 thousand.

During the siege of the city of Tarentum, Hannibal acquired two agents there - Nikon and Filemen. To meet with Hannibal, Philemen began to go hunting at night, and the guards of the city gates were so used to this that they opened the gates for him at the first signal. Late at night, Hannibal silently led his army to the city. Filemen, who had gone “hunting”, returned, woke up the watchman, and with the words: “It is hardly possible to hold a huge carcass,” went inside. The size of the huge boar struck the guard, and while he was looking at the beast, Filimen hit him with a horn; armed Carthaginians burst into the gate and opened the city gates. On another section of the city wall, Nikon attacked the sleeping guards, killed them and also opened the gate. Hannibal's army entered the sleeping city.

Using the labor of warriors, whose idleness seemed dangerous to him, this great commander planted huge expanses of Africa with olive trees.

During the passage through the Clusian marshes (217 BC), flooded by the flood of the Arno River, Hannibal developed a severe inflammation of the eyes, as a result of which he lost one eye, and throughout his life he had to wear a bandage.

There is the only lifetime image of Hannibal, his profile on a coin of Carthage, minted in 221 at the time of his election as a military leader.

The military victories of Hannibal, the commercial successes of the Carthaginians aroused the hatred of the Romans. "Carthage must be destroyed!" - with this phrase, the famous orator, Roman Senator Cato ended all his speeches.

Severino Baraldi. Siege of Carthage.

Severino Baraldi. Assault on Carthage

Carthage resisted fiercely. Slaves were freed and drafted into the army. The townspeople handed over all the gold and jewelry to buy weapons and grain. Women cut their hair to make ropes for catapults. The most precious thing was sacrificed to Baal - hundreds of children; to the roar and moaning of the crowd, they were burned in the womb of a huge bronze statue of a bloodthirsty god. With their bare hands, throwing stones from the walls, the Carthaginians managed to repel the first assault, the Romans were forced to move on to a siege that lasted three long years. And only the city, exhausted from hunger, surrendered to the Roman legionnaires.

The Romans doomed the city to destruction.

“Seventeen days Carthage burned. For seventeen days, lemon and almond trees writhed in flames, once diligently cared for by gardeners. Collapsed arches and vaults of temples erected by the hands of industrious Phoenician builders; buildings that stood for hundreds of years and worthy of standing for many centuries perished. The treasures of the Carthaginian merchants and the miserable belongings of the poor were burned in the fire. Libraries were burning, storing the experience and wisdom of the people.

Carthage burned for seventeen days, and on the eighteenth it rained; it seemed that the sky could not stand it and burst into tears. It rained all day long."

Nemirovsky A. I. Tiberius Gracchus.

The legend says that the Roman commander Scipio looked at the burning city for a long time, quietly repeating the words of Homer: "There will be no day, and sacred Troy will perish ...". Then he ordered to level the charred ruins, sprinkle the earth with salt so that nothing could grow here, and draw a furrow with a plow - as a sign that the place where Carthage stood was cursed forever and ever.

Carthage

“The pomegranate is broken, and the grains of rubies glow like a red cohort. Feasts in the gardens of Hamilcar, night in the invisible crowns of cypresses, torches over the tables and the sea somewhere far below, grapes and baked antelopes, a black slave cuts meat and a concubine with a deep navel, looking into her eyes, pours wine. Below, the night city, triremes and biremes sleep in the galley harbor and only the lighthouse flickers. Sleeping and fornicating great city…
But the braids of women, cut off for catapults, did not help, the walls did not save - Rome!
Scipio, called the Serpent, sat on a stone and watched the legion line up in three lines. "Besides, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed!" - he had been in the ground for a long time, this stubborn old man Cato, or rather, his ashes were in an urn not on the Apian Way, and two thousand years later, as a boy, I learned these words in Latin - because they sound beautiful: "Besides, Carthage ... "-" Praeteria cenzio Kartaginum delendam essay..."
The first line cut down the vines, the second trampled them on the ground, and the third of the shields scattered salt - so that nothing would grow in this place. The dust settled, bulls were harnessed to the yoke and, as a sign of a curse, a furrow was drawn through the place where the city was. They say that Scipio wept when he said that the same would happen to Rome - perhaps. For us, all the ruins are similar ...
I walked along the gray sand, stood among the stones, split acrateria and Roman columns - I can no longer understand where the Senate of Carthage was, where the palaces are, and where the stables of elephants, only shells under my feet and the sea still sparkles in the distance. It's hard to believe - but it really happened!
Acrylic, canvas and relief pastes have returned what I have seen more than once - a pomegranate is broken, ruby ​​seeds glow with pristine, eternal power, juice flows down my hand, and - Ave, Chartagenum!

Lavrentiev B. Carthage. Essay

Severino Baraldi. Hannibal against the backdrop of burning Carthage

At the request of the Romans, Hannibal was expelled from Carthage and fled to Syria. Even at the end of his life, he often repeated: "Hannibal was defeated not by Rome, but by the Carthaginian Senate."

With the words “We must save the Romans from anxiety. They are already waiting too long for the death of one old man. ”The 64-year-old Hannibal took the poison that was constantly with him, poured into the ring.

Severino Baraldi. Hannibal and Scipio

After the victory over Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in Africa, the famous Roman commander Scipio received the nickname African.

In painting, the plot “Generosity of Spice” is popular.

During the Second Punic War, Scipio's legionaries presented him with a lovely captive as a gift. The commander thanked the soldiers, but after learning that she loves another, Alucia ordered to find the girl's relatives. Parents came to the leader of the Romans with rich gifts, hoping to ransom their daughter. But Scipio refused wealth and let the girl go home on the condition that the ransom money should be her dowry at the wedding.

Peter Paul Rubens c. 1616 - 1618

Nicolas Poussin

The idea that the artist is pursuing here is the main idea of ​​classicism - victory over those who are most difficult to defeat, victory over oneself. The ancients said that it is easier to destroy a city than to conquer oneself. Here Scipio wins the most difficult victory - a victory over his passions, over himself. Reason triumphs, reason is above all, the winner gives the bride to her lawful groom. ... Poussin places all the figures in a very narrow spatial zone between the foreground and the image of burning Carthage.

From the description of the picture - http://kraeved1147.ru/gmii-nikolya-pussen-stsipion/

Van Dyck

Ironically, Scipio and Hannibal would die in the same year, 183 BC.

The opponent of Scipio Metellus, letting his sons go to his funeral, admonished them: -

"Go, my children, you will never have to attend the funeral of a greater man."

The great Petrarch dedicated the poem "Africa" ​​to Scipio.