• Hannibal was born to Hamilcar Barca, the commander of the Carthaginian army, in 247 BCE.
• Even as a child of about nine, he joined his father's expedition to conquer the Iberian Peninsula. Legend has it that Hannibal's father made him swear to hate the Romans forever.
• Hasdrubal, Hamilcar's son-in-law was appointed commander of the army after Hamilcar's death in 228 BCE.
• In 221 BCE, Hasdrubal was killed in a dispute, and Hannibal became the army's commander.
• Hannibal continued his father's conquest of Spain, and captured a Roman settlement, Saguntum in 219 BCE. Rome demanded Hannibal's surrender, and Carthage's refusal to comply led to the Second Punic War in 218 BCE.
• Leaving New Carthage with an army of 50,000, he undertook a great trek across the Alps (even though his army had numerous elephants) in a fortnight, to attack the Romans from the north.
• After recruiting locals to replenish his army, he defeated the Romans, led by Scipio Africanus, at the Battle of Ticinus, and at the Battle of Trebia, both in 218 BCE.
• In 217 BCE, in a suprise attack he defeated Flaminius' Roman army at Lake Trasimene.
• The following year, 216 BCE, Hannibal decimated another Roman army at the Battle of Cannae.
• However, after that, Carthage refused to send him reinforcements. He later lost the support of other groups in Italy so he could not recruit new soldiers. He did not have adequate siege weaponry to take Roman cities. Lastly, the Roman general, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, delayed having a decisive encounter with Hannibal.
• In 211 BCE, Hannibal tried to take Rome, but failed.
• In the next few years, there were no deciding battles, and Carthage was losing the war.
• Finally, in 203 BCE, Hannibal returned to North Africa to defend Carthage.
• At the Battle of Zama in 202 BCE, he was defeated by Scipio Africanus.
• Then he concluded peace with Rome from Carthage, and set about reforming Carthage. However, Roman intervention forced to him to escape to the Seleucid empire in Syria, where he commanded part of the navy.
• After Antiochus III, the Seleucid emperor was defeated at Magnesia by the Romans in 190 BCE, a treaty was signed surrendering Hannibal to the Romans. Hannibal fled again to Bithynia.
• Rome's repeated demands for his surrender caused Hannibal to poison himself in 182 BCE.

Hannibal - A biography