The War with the Romans
The War with the Romans is essentially a plaque erected by Hannibal just before his departure from Italy in 608 AY [1] to tell the story of the Second Roman War and what he had accomplished throughout it. It is a brief summary that happened to survive history purely by chance. The original is maintained in Rhegion, while a copy was made for the Museum of Carthage. [2]
1. In my twenty-sixth year, I succeeded my brother [3] as commander of the army in Iberia with the support of the people [4]. I continued to prosecute the wars against the enemies of my father and my uncle without violating any laws or treaties. In my first year I defeated the Olcades in battle and forced them to surrender. In the next year I defeated the Vaccaei in a number of battles and made them submit. On my return from this campaign I was attacked by a coalition of tribes but I defeated them.
2. The Romans, fearing my progress against the Iberians, illegally allied with Saguntum. This being a violation of our treaties, I besieged Saguntum until it submitted. I then sought the support of the leading families in Carthage for my actions and received it.
3. I marched the army north, gaining the support of many Celtic tribes. I marched over the Alps, and defeated the Romans in consecutive battles. [5] I then descended south upon Italy, and vanquished the armies that opposed me in consecutive battles. [6] I sought new friends to support my victories, and found many allies among the Italians and the king of the Macedonians.
4. For nine years the Romans refused battle, forcing me to survive off the land while they watched me from a distance. As time went on many of their allies unwillingly returned to bondage. Then my brother defeated the Romans in Iberia and took an army to Italy. After defeating my pursuers, we marched on Latium. There we defeated the Romans in a great battle and brought peace to the world again. I took from them Sardinia and Sicily, and made them provinces once again.
[1] – 206 BC.
[2] – Apparently Hannibal did something similar to this before leaving for Africa IOTL. I thought it’d be neat to its equivalent survive here.
[3] – Hasdrubal the Fair. He was actually his brother-in-law.
[4] – There was an institution in Carthage called the Popular Assembly (well, I’ll give it a more fitting Punic name later) that was democratically elected and by this point in Carthage’s history was actually quite powerful. One of the assembly’s functions was to approve the appointment of generals.
[5] – The Ticinus and the Trebia.
[6] – Lake Trasimene and Cannae.