=Hannibal.=--Hannibal, who directed the whole of the second war and
almost captured Rome, was of the powerful family of the Barcas. His
father Hamilcar had commanded a Carthaginian army in the first Punic
war and had afterwards been charged with the conquest of Spain.
Hannibal was then but a child, but his father took him with him. The
departure of an army was always accompanied by sacrifices to the gods
of the country; it was said that Hamilcar after the sacrifice made his
infant son swear eternal enmity to Rome.
Hannibal, brought up in the company of the soldiers, became the best
horseman and the best archer of the army. War was his only aim in
life; his only needs, therefore, were a horse and arms. He had made
himself so popular that at the death of Hasdrubal who was in the
command of the army, the soldiers elected him general without waiting
for orders from the Carthaginian senate. Thus Hannibal found himself
at the age of twenty-one at the head of an army which was obedient
only to himself. He began war, regardless of the senate at Carthage,
by advancing to the siege of Saguntum, a Greek colony allied with
Rome; he took this and destroyed it.
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