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His Brother Hasdrubal: Commander in Spain. After the First Punic War, the Barcids carved out a new Carthaginian empire in Spain. Hannibal was made commander there in 221 B. c., following the assassination of his brother Hasdrubal brother-in-law Hasdrubal, who had succeeded Hamilcar in 228. Hannibal was then 26 years old. Combining Hasdrubal's policy of building Carthaginian power by diplomacy and Hamilcar's policy of military conquest, he married a Spanish princess, took hostages from various tribes to ensure their loyalty, and extended Punic power toward the Ebro River, which had been fixed by treaty with Rome in 226 as the northern limit of Carthaginian expansion.
Crossing of the Alps. Hannibal left Spain for Italy in the spring of 218 with about 35,000 seasoned troops. his brother Hasdrubal force included elephants. Since Rome controlled the seas, he went overland across the Pyrenees and the Alps, leaving a brother, Hasdrubal, in Spain to raise additional troops and exploit the silver resources of the Iberian peninsula to pay for the war.
The army that Hasdrubal was leading to the Bjjid of his brother Hasdrubal brother was defeated at the Metauro in 207, and four years later Hannibal was died to Africa, where Scipio had landed in At Zama (q.v.), southwest of Carthage, a ive battle was fought in 202 between the two :rals; the Carthaginian army was destroyed, gh Hannibal himself escaped. By the terms tpeace, negotiated in the following year, Car-ge was forced to surrender Spain and all the diterranean islands which it held, pay an in-nity, and agree to wage no wars outside and none in Africa itself without Rome's _.sion. |
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