# Hannibal  ## Metadata - Author: [[Theodore Ayrault Dodge]] - Full Title: Hannibal - Category: #books ## Highlights - Carthage was really the capital of a great North African empire, as Rome was of the Italian peninsula. ([Location 150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=150)) - Carthage was first at sea; Rome on land. Rome, always intolerant of powerful neighbors, of necessity fell to quarreling with her great rival, unwilling to content herself with less than the supremacy on both elements. ([Location 154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=154)) - According to other writers Carthage (Karthada, or new town) was founded in the ninth century B.C., as a mere trading colony by the Tyrians, who were joined in the venture by some other Phœnician cities. ([Location 175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=175)) - Her form of government grew to be an aristocracy of capitalists with a limited popular suffrage, controlled by a senate of one hundred and four members, ([Location 178](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=178)) - From the beginning of the fifth to the middle of the third century B.C. Carthage was at the height of her power. ([Location 187](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=187)) - The extent of the entire capital as it was when destroyed in 146 B.C. has been hidden by the ages. ([Location 191](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=191)) - Tyrian architects were hired to build the temple of Solomon. ([Location 196](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=196)) - She was wrapped up in money-making; there was a sad lack of higher motives and intelligence in her statecraft, though her social life was unquestionably of a high order. Albeit her commercial activity made her prosperous, Carthage was able only to propagate; she could not create. ([Location 200](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=200)) - Macro’s treatise on agriculture was the best known of antiquity. It was used even by the Romans and is highly praised by Cato and Pliny. ([Location 211](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=211)) - CARTHAGE depended for both army and navy on mercenaries, which she got from all her dependencies and the barbarian nations with which she traded. ([Location 241](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=241)) - CARTHAGE preferred mercenary troops to a system of personal military service. Her citizens being mostly traders or rich planters, whose time was too valuable to the state, or whose social position was too high, to allow them to spend their years in the ranks, it was natural that a standing army should grow up by permitting substitution. ([Location 255](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=255)) - The Carthaginian citizen was found only to a limited numerical extent in the army. But in the cavalry, where wealth was required and honor sought, and especially in a corps d’élite called the Sacred Band, — the body-guard of the commander-in-chief and a sort of training-school for officers like the Macedonian Pages, — and in the higher official berths, he was fairly well represented. ([Location 288](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=288)) - The best of these mercenary troops were the Iberians from the Spanish peninsula. Among the most recklessly brave were the half-naked Gauls, who at a very early period served for pay in the Carthaginian ranks. ([Location 304](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=304)) - It may be said that the Carthaginian government was at the mercy of the men it paid. No nation can ever build a permanent structure, unless the individuals who govern are and remain themselves the defenders of the country. ([Location 326](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=326)) - The political system of Carthage from the earliest times was rotten, and money could buy anything. ([Location 332](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=332)) - In the fifth century there had been an attempt by an army-commander named Malchus to seize the reins of government, and there was at once constituted the above-named gerousia or Elders’ War Council of one hundred and four senators, who thereafter were the supreme commanders, and who directed and controlled all military operations, however distant, drew up the plans of campaign, required strict compliance with their demands, and rewarded or punished the successful or unsuccessful captains as they chose. ([Location 337](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=337)) - The War Council’s plan could rarely accord with the existing facts; generals dared assume no responsibility; their conduct was apt to be indecisive or weak; and if a campaign was successful, it was in spite of the system. ([Location 342](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=342)) - In view of this thoroughly wrong-headed policy, it is a wonder that Carthage rose at all. But her growth was not a military growth like that of Rome. It was due strictly to successful commerce and rich agriculture, and to the fact that she stood in a location which kept her from contact with the stronger nations. ([Location 347](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=347)) - The Numidian cavalry, under which name came the irregular light horse of scores of tribes, was the most numerous and perhaps the most useful of the Carthaginian soldiery. ([Location 393](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=393)) - In early times the Carthaginians employed chariots; and after the war with Pyrrhus, elephants. ([Location 405](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=405)) - If they lost their heads and turned, they might be still more dangerous to their own friends. For this reason, during the Second Punic War, their drivers carried mallet and spike to kill them in case they should grow unmanageable or treacherous. ([Location 409](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=409)) - This circumstance, coupled to one other, that the government was, as it were, a shuttlecock between the two families headed by Hamilcar Barca, representing the patriotic aristocrats, and by Hanno, who marshaled the democratic peace-party, could terminate in but one way. ([Location 466](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=466)) - It is a curious fact that out of the six greatest captains of history, three, Alexander, Hannibal and Frederick, owe their armies to their fathers’ skill as organizers, and the two former came honestly by their military genius. ([Location 479](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=479)) - But the invasion of Sicily by Carthage was repelled by Gelon, king of Syracuse, with a loss to the Carthaginians, according to Herodotus and Diodorus, of three hundred thousand men, — not a soul of this vast force returning to Carthage. This is not improbably an exaggeration. ([Location 501](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=501)) - The Romans were good distance marchers, but careless in camp and outpost duty. In fortification and sieges they were behind the Greeks. But the one thing in which they excelled was in making every detail of their organization bend to the offensive idea, and in carrying this out with vigor and consistency. Their one rule was always to attack. ([Location 539](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=539)) - The earliest Græco-Italian military organization, from which Rome derived its own, was probably a Homeric collection of the stoutest warriors on horseback. By the time of the kings this had, from the demands for greater numbers, changed to the Dorian phalanx of hoplites, with the horsemen on the flanks, and no doubt a few irregular skirmishers in front or flank. ([Location 555](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=555)) - The change from kingdom to republic in no wise altered the military scheme of Rome. The commanders of the army were the two consuls instead of the kings. These, outside of Rome, had almost unlimited power. ([Location 601](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=601)) - The right to serve in the army was the exact complement to the duty to so serve; to be a citizen meant to be a soldier. Stated shortly, the jus militiæ called all men into service between seventeen and forty-five years of age, with certain stated exceptions. ([Location 609](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=609)) - The burly Gauls laughed at the little Romans until they got to close quarters with them. The height was usually from five feet to five feet three inches. Men exceeding this height were not considered strong. Men under five feet were sooner accepted. ([Location 619](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=619)) - The bitterest punishment for a Roman citizen was to be declared unworthy to serve. ([Location 631](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=631)) - Not even the Spartans in their palmiest days had a system in which physique and personal devotion, added to broad intelligence, were thus united. ([Location 637](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=637)) - and the best men, that is, the non-commissioned officers, were in the front rank, so as to make the steel edge to the legion, as it had existed for centuries in the phalanx. ([Location 644](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=644)) - About the middle of the fourth century B.C. the lines of the legion had got changed. The third class was now in the middle line, and the men were called hastati, from their long lance; the second class, esteemed better, was in front, and hence called principes. This order gave the first blow with seasoned troops. The first or best class was in the third line, and hence called triarii. These three made up the heavy foot of the phalanx — or legion — which was still about three thousand strong, of which six hundred were triarii and twelve hundred each principes and hastati, more or less according to circumstances. The fourth and fifth classes were rorarii, young soldiers, and accensi, supernumeraries, who furnished the light troops. They varied from one thousand to sixteen hundred in number. In line they stood in the rear; in battle they had no special place, but were used wherever needed. ([Location 665](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=665)) - What is peculiarly marked in the tactics of the Romans, and worthy of repetition, is the fact that they always took the initiative; they always attacked, never awaited attack. ([Location 688](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=688)) - Polybius tells us how the armies were recruited. When the consuls had been elected the war-tribunes were chosen, twenty-four in all, fourteen from those who had served five years and ten from those who had served ten. ([Location 740](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=740)) - Arrived at rendezvous, the recruits were usually assigned by the tribunes: those from seventeen to twenty-five years old to the light foot, now all called velites; those from twenty-five to thirty to the hastati; those from thirty to forty to the principes; those from forty to forty-five to the triarii. Exceptions were, however, made in recognition of ability or service. ([Location 771](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=771)) - The cavalry was by no means as good. This arm had never been a favorite with the Romans. It was considered as a mere auxiliary to the foot. The horsemen’s equipment was not as thoroughly made, nor were their weapons as well fashioned, as those of the foot. ([Location 799](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=799)) - The Romans, up to the battle of Lake Trasimene, were careless about their order of march. The armies moved from one camp to the next in any convenient manner and without precautions, and were liable to surprises and ambuscades. Fabius Cunctator did much to obliterate this evil, and there was introduced a regular method of march (agmen) in one or more columns, by cohorts, or variously by the flank. ([Location 889](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=889)) - As from earliest times, the Romans still always attacked. No nation ever grasped the idea of the initiative so firmly. Nothing but their dread of Hannibal ever altered this habit. ([Location 903](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=903)) - The rule was what should be done; circumstances dictated what was done. Such was the technical battle-method. ([Location 937](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=937)) - Moreover, the Romans seemed unusually free from sickness and camp epidemics, — the very reverse of the Carthaginians. ([Location 966](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=966)) - Historians are wont to refer to Hannibal’s men as veterans and to the Romans as raw recruits. At the outset such were the conditions, but they did not long obtain. The Roman raw levies needed but one or two short campaigns and a slight degree of success to be superior as soldiers to all but a few of the best Punic troops. ([Location 968](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=968)) - The Romans were careless though rapid marchers, until Hannibal taught them logistics; and their battle-method not only grew in art under the same great master, but ha first showed them what strategy could do. ([Location 1011](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1011)) - The centurion who was the eagle-bearer had singular privileges. He was a knight, and could attend councils of war. The above-named officers were selected for courage, experience and good sense, and all wore badges of rank on helmet and armor, and bore stout sticks of vine with which to inflict summary chastisement for minor offenses. ([Location 1023](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1023)) - Thus the ranks, from the highest down, ran: consul, prætor or quæstor who was army-leader or general; legates, generals of division; tribunes, who in turn acted as brigadiers or as colonels, or when there was one for each cohort, as battalion-chiefs or majors; centurions or captains, sub-centurions or lieutenants; signifers, ensigns or color-sergeants; decurions or Corporals. ([Location 1034](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1034)) - The weight carried in modern days by the soldiers of various countries, including clothing worn, runs from fifty-six to sixty-four pounds. It is made up roughly of the following items: Clothing, say 18 pounds; rifle and cartridges, 20 pounds; knapsack, packed, 13 pounds; haversack, packed, 5 pounds; intrenching tools, 4 pounds; belts, etc., 2 pounds; canteen, filled, 2 pounds. Total, 64 pounds. Including his clothing, the Roman soldier, with the load above given, must have carried something over eighty-five, pounds, much more than half his own average weight. ([Location 1098](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1098)) - One mile beyond the limits of the city, the Roman general had absolute power of life and death over every man and officer in his army, — himself alone the judge, though indeed it was usual for him to call a Council of War in important cases. Punishments were immediate and severe. Stripes were cruel; the Roman soldier was beaten with rods, the allied with sticks. Death was inflicted by beheading, hanging and flogging; the fustuarium was a species of running the gauntlet of his fellow soldiers, who stoned or beat the criminal, whom, if he escaped with his life, no one, not even his family, thereafter dared harbor. By the law of the Twelve Tables (449 B.C.), he was condemned to death who instigated war on Rome, betrayed a citizen to the enemy, fought in battle without keeping his proper order, left his century or post, failed in his duty, deserted his post or his colors, threw away his weapons or mutinied. ([Location 1120](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1120)) - A body of men who fled in battle was decimated, that is, each tenth, eighth or even fifth man was executed; the troops were not allowed to camp thereafter with the others, and in lieu of wheat received bailey as rations. ([Location 1126](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1126)) - Until taught by bitter experience in their defeats by Hannibal, the Romans practiced logistics little. They moved from camp to camp without any particular order or precaution, and were quite open to surprises. Outpost-duty was not well done, but the Romans at all periods were rapid and untiring marchers. After Trasimene, Fabius Cunctator saw the necessity of precaution, and the Roman marches were thereafter more carefully conducted, with a proper van and rear-guard, and flankers. ([Location 1146](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1146)) - The palisades carried by the infantry were at once put to use. A ditch was dug and a wall of earth was quickly thrown up and strengthened by these palisades, pointed sometimes upward, sometimes outward, and held together by the flexible branches, which the men had been careful not to cut off. These were much better than the shorter, thicker palisades of the Greeks, and held so much more firmly in the earth that the enemy could not readily pull them out in assaulting the camp. ([Location 1201](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1201)) - The success of Rome lay in its homogeneity, its single purpose, its cohesion as a people and its persistency, and in the remarkable skill with which it moulded its military organization into the shape best suited to its purpose. ([Location 1331](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1331)) - The Greeks, with all their cleverness, by refusing to learn from others, to alter their organization to suit changing times and conditions, and to conform to new ideas, remained at a standstill. ([Location 1341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1341)) - THE early wars of Rome had the character of raids. The two interesting facts in them are that Rome always took the offensive; and that she always gained in strength by her wars, rather than lost. Even her defeats and disgraces were profitable in their lessons. After the siege of Veii war became somewhat more methodical, and the Samnite wars showed up Rome in the quality of conqueror. ([Location 1364](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01DWL6V5Q&location=1364))