Life of Hannibal
Cornelius Nepos was born around 110 BC in Cisalpine Gaul, the Po valley in the north of Italy, and died around 24 BC. He spent most of his life in Rome as a man of letters rather than a politician, and counted Cicero and Atticus among his friends; Catullus dedicated his book of poems to him.
His best-known work, De Viris Illustribus (On Famous Men), was a collection of short lives in at least sixteen books, arranged in pairs so that Romans could be compared with foreigners: generals with generals, historians with historians. Only the book on foreign generals survives complete, together with lives of Cato the Elder and Atticus. The Life of Hannibal comes near the end of that book.
Nepos writes biography, not history. He wants his readers to understand character and to draw moral lessons, so he chooses revealing episodes, skips over long campaigns in a sentence, and often tells us directly what to think. His Latin is generally plain and clear, which makes him a good author to read early, but he can be compressed, and he likes neat contrasts, superlatives and pointed closing phrases.
- 264–241 BC
- The First Punic War. Hannibal’s father Hamilcar commands in Sicily; Carthage loses and must give up the island.
- 237 BC
- Hamilcar goes to Spain to build a new empire for Carthage, taking the nine-year-old Hannibal, who swears never to be a friend of Rome.
- 221 BC
- Hannibal, aged about 25, takes command of the Carthaginian army in Spain.
- 219–218 BC
- He captures Saguntum, a city allied to Rome, which starts the Second Punic War, then marches over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy.
- 218–216 BC
- Victories at the Ticinus, the Trebia, Lake Trasimene and Cannae, the worst defeat in Rome’s history.
- 216–203 BC
- Years in southern Italy without the reinforcements or siege equipment to take Rome itself.
- 203–202 BC
- Recalled to defend Carthage, he is defeated by Scipio at Zama.
- 196–195 BC
- As suffete, one of Carthage’s two chief magistrates, he reforms the city’s finances; accused by his enemies of plotting with Antiochus, he flees.
- 195–183 BC
- Exile: at the court of Antiochus III, briefly on Crete, then with Prusias of Bithynia. When Rome demands his surrender he takes poison, in about 183 BC.
A-level questions on Nepos ask how he presents Hannibal, and how his Latin shapes the reader’s response. Things to look out for as you read:
- the narrator stepping in to judge, compare or reassure (quod nemo dubitat, non est infitiandum);
- comparisons between Hannibal and Rome, and between Hannibal and the Carthaginians who undermined him;
- superlatives and sweeping words (omnes, semper, numquam);
- antithesis and balanced clauses that sum up a judgement in a phrase;
- speed: whole campaigns in a sentence, and slowing down for the episodes that reveal character, such as the oath, the snakes and the poison.
- Is Nepos’ Hannibal a hero, a villain or a tragic figure? Use examples from at least three chapters.
- How does Nepos manage to praise Rome’s greatest enemy without offending his Roman readers?
- Nepos gives as much space to Hannibal’s exile as to his war in Italy. Why might a biographer make that choice?
- How important is cunning, as opposed to courage, in Nepos’ picture of Hannibal?
- How reliable do you think Nepos is? Where does he show awareness of his sources, and where does he simply tell a good story?