Why did Hannibal attack rome and how did it end?

Answer 1

his father made him promise that he would hate rome with his last breath.

everything started with some territory issues in the isles arround the italic peninsule, ruled by cartaghe in that moment.

There where 3 punic wars (Rome vs Carthago) and the 3rd one ended with the Cartagho capital erased from the map. Burned and planted with salt.

Answer 2

Hannibal invaded Italy, but did not attack Rome because he lost his siege machines while crossing the Alps in the snowy winter. it was said that he wanted to attack Rome for revenge for the First Punic War and for having fraudulently seized Sardinia and Corsica which belonged to Carthage. He provoked the war by seizing the Spanish city of Saguntum which was a Roman ally. He then made a dash for Italy from his base in Carthaginian southern Spain. Initially he routed the armies of the Romans and their allies four times, causing panic in Rome. However he then lost the was because:

1) Hannibal lost his siege machines when he crossed the Alps in the snowy winter to enter into Italy from the Carthaginian possessions in Spain. Without these he could not attack Rome. Thus, after routing the Romans three times (in northern and central Italy), he went to southern Italy instead of heading for Rome.

2) The Romans adopted a strategy of attrition: they avoided open battle and harassed him with guerrilla tactics to wear him down.

3) Hannibal smallish invasion army needed Rome's allies in Italy to switch sides to increase his forces and weaken Rome. When this materialised in the south, after winning the battle of Cannae (in the south), it proved insufficient. Hannibal set up his headquarters in Capua (Italy's second largest city near Naples and not far from Rome) which had switched sides. However, he failed to seize or retain two strategic cities in this area and two attempts at sending him reinforcements were foiled. The Romans besieged Capua. Hannibal had to leave the area. Moreover, Rome's allies in central Italy remained loyal.

4) The military manpower of Rome and her allies was massive. Rome was able to keep raising new armies and gradually regained control of southern Italy. They also suppressed a rebellion in Sicily. Hannibal lost many men and half of his cavalry. A cavalry far superior in numbers had been a key to his victories. His tactics became more defensive.

5) The Romans intercepted and routed the army of Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother. He was bringing and siege machines and the badly needed reinforcements from Spain to Hannibal. At this point Hannibal's campaign in Italy came to a dead end. He spent the last four years of his campaign in Italy stuck in Calabria (the toe of Italy) whose mountains were easy to defend.

6) In Carthage the peace faction refused to send reinforcements to Hannibal from Africa.

7) The Romans found in Scipio Africanus a general who could match Hannibal. He defeated the Carthaginians in Spain and Rome took over their Spanish territories. Reinforcements to Hannibal could no longer be sent from there. Carthage also lost her main source of wealth, the silver mines in Spain.

8) Scipio Africanus began a campaign in Tunisia (where Carthage was). Hannibal was recalled from Italy to fight in Tunisia. Scipio defeated him in the last battle of the war, the battle of Zama.

9) The western Numidians of Algeria switched allegiance from Carthage to Rome. They had supplied half of Hannibal's cavalry. Now they supplied 2/3 of the Roman cavalry in the Battle of Zama in Tunisia, near Carthage. The two cavalries were equal in size. The quality of Hannibal's army was lower than it had been before. Rome won this battle which was the final one and played a key role in victory,

Answer 3

Hannibal wanted to shift the dispute between Rome an the Carthage into Rome's backyard, and recruit the Italian peoples resentful of increasing Roman domination to support him. After a dozen year of this, Rome retaliated by attacking Carthage itself in Tunisia forcing Hannibal's withdrawal home, where he was defeated. Rome exacted a crippling financial penalty in settlement.