History has it that when Hannibal was a young boy, his father, ruler of Carthage, held his son over a fire and made him swear eternal enmity toward Rome. It was not necessary: The fire already burned in Hannibal’s breast. In time, that flame would destroy the flower of the Roman legions. In an almost unbelievable feat of courage and endurance, Hannibal led his army over the Pyrenees and Alps to challenge Rome’s hegemony. And he succeeded against astonishing odds. They clashed at last. In the Battle of Cannae, Hannibal’s foot soldiers, cavalry, and war elephants enveloped and massacred an army twice the size of his own contingent. In one of the bloodiest battles ever fought in all history, between fifty thousand and seventy thousand of Rome’s troops were massacred or captured.
