Hannibal: A Hellenistic Life (47 page)

5.
Claire Stocks’ recently published book on
The Roman Hannibal
looks specifically at the creation of Hannibal as a Roman hero/anti-hero in Silius Italicus and more broadly in Roman literature. There is a great deal of relevant and thoughtful detail on the means by which the Romans used Hannibal and constructed the enemy although it was published too late to fully incorporate all the arguments into this book.

6.
All references to passages in Polybius used throughout the book refer to
The Histories
from the Loeb Classical Library text unless stated otherwise. For Polybius, Livy and the sources for the Punic Wars there is an enormous bibliography a selection consulted here includes, Walbank, vols 1–3; Champion, 2011; Eckstein, 2012, 2010 and 1989; see Levene, 2010; Jaeger, 2010 and 2006 and Feldherr, 2010, Gruen, 1978, Moore, 2010, Ridley, 2000 on Livy. Cornell (ed.), 2013 covers the fragmentary Roman historians such as Cato and Fabius Pictor; Mineo, 2011 the sources outside Polybius; Krings, 2005 on Sosylus in Polybius; there are sections in Hoyos, 2007, 2005 and 1998 that cover the relevant sources and details on the fragmentary pro-Carthaginian sources as well; Lancel, 1999, Lazenby, 1998, and Miles, 2010 provide clear overviews of the source material.

7.
The negative portrayal in Livy’s portrait of Hannibal may be based on Sallust’s Cataline (
Bellum Cat.
5.3–5) as has been frequently noted: see Rossi, 2004, 376 and note 40.

8.
The ancient Phoenicians may have referred to themselves as
Kn’nm
. In English the term is Canaanites, familiar from the Hebrew Bible. Evidence from the later Roman Empire and for the use of the term Canaanite as a self-reference for Punic/Carthaginian people up until St Augustine’s time see Aubet, 2001, 9–13. For the evidence of a much discussed
tessera hospitalis
found at Carthage with the name
Puinel
in Etruscan dating from the sixth–fifth centuries
BCE
and its possible implications on the term Punic see Palmer, 1997, 49 n. 95; Prag, 2006, 8; and Fentress, 2013, 162–164.

9.
The term Punic is used for a range of linguistically linked cultures across the central/western Mediterranean. For a nuanced discussion see Prag, 2006 as well as Erskine, 2013; Gruen, 2011, 115–140 and Palmer, 1997, 48–50.

10.
See Gruen, 2011, 115–140 on an assessment of the stereotype, Miles, 2010, 241–246 and 2011 on Hannibal and propaganda, Brizzi, 2006 on the legend. Barceló, 1994 looks at the Carthaginians in the Greek sources pre-Hannibal.

11.
Here the terms Hannibalic War and Second Punic War are employed somewhat interchangeably and although other titles might be more appropriate, especially the ‘Romano-Carthaginian Wars’ (Toynbee, 1965, 1–2) or even ‘Double Punic War’ (Lancel, 1999, 1) they are less commonly employed. See more on the Punic label in Prag, 2006; and the Roman response to Carthage in Erskine, 2013; see Franko, 1994 on the use of
Poenus
and
Carthaginensis
. For the Phoenicians and the link to the colour purple see articles in Longo (ed.), 1998 especially Acquaro: 99–110. Bunnens, 1983, on the differentiation between Phoenician and Punic in the ancient sources; Krahmalkov, 2000, 11 on the Punic and Phoenicians names; see also Hoyos, 2010, 1.

12.
This view was by no means universal and the destruction of Carthage did not have unanimous support at Rome – far from it. See Gruen, 2011, 130–131. For detailed discussions on the causes of the Second Punic War see Rich, 1996, and Hoyos, 1998 and a nuanced look at the development of the Punic stereotype can be found in Gruen, 2011, 115–140. For an overview and bibliographical references for the destruction of Carthage see Le Bohec, 2011.

13.
For the historians of Hannibal’s war see Walbank, vol. 1, 28–29 on the sources, Lazenby, 1998, 258–264 for a list and overview. See also Krings, 2005; Mineo, 2011; Schepens, 1989.

14.
Walbank, vol. 1, 28–29 on Silenus and the other unknown pro-Carthaginian sources Polybius may have used. All references to Cornelius Nepos refer to his biographies of
Hamilcar
or
Hannibal
(books 22 and 23) included in his work
On Great Generals of Foreign Nations.

15.
The ‘greatest enemy’ is a much used label for Hannibal: see Lancel, 1995, 1, and the title of Hoyos, 2008, among many others. I have used Iberia and Iberian peninsula for what is commonly termed Spain here throughout except where Spain is preferred in some translations.

16.
A comment taken from the editorial notes of Rachael Lonsdale, editor at Yale.

17.
There is an enormous bibliography on the life of Hannibal and the Punic Wars and the following selection provides bibliographical references on the study of Hannibal over the past one hundred and fifty years: Walbank’s commentary on Polybius provides essential bibliography for the key source on Hannibal; Toynbee, 1965, provides a detailed bibliography and looks at the impact on Italy and this has recently been discussed by Fronda, 2010. Brizzi, 1984 on the study of Hannibal; Seibert, 1993a and 1993b on the scholarship and the history; Barceló, 2004a; Hoyos, 2005 on the Barcid family; see Miles, 2010 for a current bibliography on Carthage; see Stocks, 2014 for the Roman sources and the creation of Hannibal.

18.
The Phoenicians came roughly from what is known today as Lebanon – see Aubet, 2001, 13–17, who outlines the region with maps.

19.
Discussion in Bonnet, 2005 looks at the representation of Carthage as ‘the other’ in both ancient and modern historiography.

Chapter 1 Hannibal and Carthage

1.
Translation here from John Dryden.

2.
Hnb’l
in the Punic language. Benz, 1972, 133–137 and 339, Krahmalkov, 2000, 270; for a comprehensive list of Carthaginian names and their meanings see Halff, 1963–4, Benz, 1972 and Krahlmakov, 2000.

3.
I use the central Mediterranean as more accurate in a purely geographical rather than social/political sense. For a discussion on East and West in Hellenistic history, see Purcell, 2013.

4.
For Phoenician colonization see variously in Aubet, 2001, Moscati (ed.), 2001, Lancel, 1995, Niemeyer, 1995, Lipinski, 2004, Neville, 2007.

5.
For the development of Phoenicians as seafarers and explorers of the Mediterranean see Millard, 2000 and for the adoption of the alphabet by the Greeks in the
c.
ninth century, Millard, 1976. See Horden and Purcell, 2000, 134 on the redistributive networks and more generally on cabotage. The ancient author Diodorus Siculus tells us that ‘the Phoenicians, who from ancient times on made voyages continually for purposes of trade, planted many colonies throughout Libya and not a few as well in the western parts of Europe’ (5.20.1).

6.
Demand for precious metals drove Phoenician exploration and subsequent political and population pressures on the Phoenician cities led to settlement there as well. See Aubet, 2001, 79 on Phoenician luxury goods for the Eastern market, Aubet-Semmeler, 2002, 79–112 on the economics of Phoenician colonization.

7.
Gades is used here. Other passages (1 Kings 10: 23 – Tharshish; 2 Chronicles 9: 21 – Tarshish) refer to the faraway region whence gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks are brought. See Lipinski, 2004, 225–265 for a complete analysis of the different meanings behind Tarshish in sources. See also Bunnens, 1979 on the literary evidence and also López-Ruiz, 2009 for a recent exploration of the implications of the Tarshish-Tartessos interpretation.

8.
See Aubet, 2001, 257–291, Aubet-Semmler, 2002 and Neville, 2007 on the economy of the Phoenician settlements in southern Spain.

9.
The Latin author Velleius Paterculus claimed that Cadiz in Iberia was founded in 1110
BCE
(1.2.3). Utica, a Phoenician colony just north of Carthage, was founded not long after Cadiz (Pliny,
NH
19.63) and then exactly 287 years after Utica, Carthage was founded (Pseudo-Aristotle, c
oncerning reported wonders 134)
. See Aubet, 2001, 194–211, 214–231, and Neville, 2007, 11, who points out that in the Iberian peninsula, so far, no archaeological evidence exists for settlement before the late ninth century
BCE
/early eighth century
BCE
.

10.
A comprehensive discussion of Carthage’s literary, mythological and actual foundation can be found in Lancel, 1995, 1–34; see also Aubet, 2001, 214–218. Evidence from the analysis of animal bone samples provided radiocarbon dates of
c.
835–800
BCE
, see Docter, et al., 2005. Bechtold and Docter, 2010 survey the amphorae evidence for the early centuries at Carthage. For the evidence for the rapid growth of Carthage in the early phases see Docter, 2003–3. See also Ameling, 2013 on the development of the city.

11.
This version of the legend is found in Justin,
Epitome
18.4–5, and discussed in Niemeyer, 2002, 44–45; Bonnet, 2011, 377. For a king list of Tyre see Aubet, 2001, 56. The Phoenician for Pygmalion and Mettenos is
Pumai
and
Mattan
. According to Justin, Elissa and her ships stopped at Kition on Cyprus and brought 80 virgins from the sanctuary of Astarte/Aphrodite with them in order that the men could have wives.

12.
Lancel, 1995, 25. See Bonnet, 1989, 289–90; 2006, 370–371. This story may reflect legal traditions that can be found in the Hebrew Bible referring to acquisition of land as discussed by Lipinksi, 2004, 478–481.
Byrsa
in Greek etymology means ‘hide’. For a full examination of the story and meaning of the word
Byrsa
see Lipinski, 2004, 477–492, Scheid and Svenbro, 1985.

13.
See Bonnet, 2011, 377; used recently by George R.R. Martin, whose city Qarth in
The Game of Thrones
seems clearly based on legends of Carthage.

14.
Earlier translations of the Carthaginian parts of the
Aeneid
in English begin with Chaucer’s
The Legend of Good Women
in the late fourteenth century and run through Marlowe’s
Dido, Queen of Carthage
of the late sixteenth. Virgil was extremely popular in the seventeenth century and Dryden’s translation remains one of the classic texts. See the complete list of
Virgil in English
in Gransden (ed.), 1996.

15.
For Marlowe’s Dido, Elizabeth I of England, virginity and political power see Williams, 2006. Ben Jonson’s Cary-Morison ode, published in 1640, equally noted ‘prodigious Hannibal’s’ deeds in the public imagination (see more below in chapter 4). In 1761 Admiral Sir John Lindsay named his illegitimate daughter by an African slave Dido, which only confirms the impact of the legend on the public imagination, see King, 2004.

16.
See also Aubet, 2001, 214–218.

17.
The story of Aeneas and Dido may appear as early as the epic poem of Gn. Naevius, the
Bellum Poenicum
, about the first Punic War written at the end of the third century
BCE
. The version without Aeneas appears in Timaeus of Tauromenium frag. 23 and Justin,
Epitome
18.4–6. See Gruen, 1990, 11–13, and also Erskine, 2001, 198–205 who discusses the Trojan links.

18.
Niemeyer, 2002, 44–45.

19.
The Punic world: ‘the southern mainland and most of the islands of the western Mediterranean basin’ with five specific regions including western Sicily, the southern Iberian peninsula, Ibiza, and the North African Mediterranean shore extending into the Atlantic. Following van Dommelen and Gomez Ballard, 2008, 3 who note the continued flourishing of Punic culture through to the first century
BCE
. Lancel, 1995, 49–93 on the birth of the city and Miles, 2010, 58–81 both provide excellent overview of this period.

20.
The continuous pressure on Tyre from Assyrian and Babylonian forces (throughout the seventh and sixth centuries) must have had an impact. It has often been argued that the Babylonian capture of Tyre (in 575
BCE
) was the rupture point for the colonial foundations but the intention of the capture was to participate in the Tyrian trade and profit from it, so may not have been as disruptive as originally thought, claims Neville, 2007, 163–164.

21.
The stories of King Malchus and his expeditions to Sardinia, perhaps part legendary due to his name
mlk
, meaning just ‘the king’, correspond to this time in Carthaginian history. Malchus and his two sons are the first mention we have of a Carthaginian ruling family after Dido, see Justin,
Epitome
, 19.1.1, 18.7.19.

22.
Ionian Greeks from Asia Minor being pushed out by the Persian expansion there were settling in the region. This is a very simplified account and the influence of the foundation of Massalia (Marseilles) is key to this battle.

23.
See Krings, 1998, 93–160 on Alalia. The battle of Alalia, a Cadmean victory, is specifically referred to in Herodotus. Thucydides (1. 13, 6) mentions another battle between the Carthaginians and the Massalians (also a Phocaean foundation). These two battles may be conflated in the sources. See Rawlings, 2010, 253–257 on the Punic Thalassocracy.

24.
For a detailed account of the treaties see Seratti, 2006.

25.
Some scholars have traced the appearance of Carthage in Herodotus from the middle of the sixth century
BCE
to the beginning of the fifth century as reflecting the expansion of Carthaginian power and their replacement of the Tyrians in the western Mediterranean, as in Krings, 1998, 104–106 with a detailed bibliography.