Hannibal Barca, being of the Lion's Brood as they were called1, was sworn to vengeance of Rome at the age of nine2 by his father Hamlicar Barca before embarking for the conquest of Spain. He was always driven by this one desire: to rid Carthage of the Romans. He never had a unified army of one race or language; his army consisted of all the enemies of Rome and followers of Hannibal. He was never defeated in his campaign against Italy, over fifteen years of fighting.3 He was an accomplished politician and judge of character. His very presence reduced the Roman senate to cowardice fear. Yet in this, the Second Punic War, Hannibal's nation of Carthage was defeated. Hannibal Barca, undefeated in battle until the Battle of Zama, lost a war where he had won his every field of battle because of Roman use of his very own battle tactics against Carthage.
Hannibal's exact birth date and even year is unknown, but estimated to be in the year of 247 BCE.4 He grew up fluent in the Carthaginian tongue, Greek, and Latin. When he was nine, his father took him to the temple in Carthage and made him swear an oath to never be a friend of Rome and to extract vengeance for the First Punic War. He followed his father when Hamlicar decided to create a new Carthaginian empire in Spain. He studied military tactics of his father and the Romans, and also of the various peoples of the Western Mediterranean. His father drowned in the field in 228 BCE.5 He then became a cavalry commander under Hamlicar's son-in-law Hasdrubal the Handsome. This Hasdrubal ruled only until 221 BCE when he was assassinated by a celt.6 Hasdrubal the Handsome was an excellent diplomat and politician, and .
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was very successful in consolidating Hamlicar's gains in Spain and winning some Celtiberian tribes to Carthage. He also founded the city of Cartagena, or as it was known in Rome, Carthago Nova.7 He discovered many silver mines in Spain, which financed Carthage's war until Spain was taken by Scipio Africanus.