The historic gallery of portraits and paintings: and biographical review : containing a brief account of the lives of the moost celebrated men, in every age and country : and graphic imitations of the fines specimens of the arts, ancient and modern : with remarks, critical and explanatory (Band 5) (London: Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe, 1809)

HANNIBAL.
Hannibal, the son of Amilcar, the Carthaginian
general, inherited, from his father, the most implacable
hatred towards the Romans. When a boy, it is said,
he made him swear at the altar, that when he was ca-
pable of bearing arms he would declare himself the
enemy of Rome. Hannibal, at an early age, set out for
Spain, where he served under his father until his death,
when he returned to his native country. Asdrubal, how-
ever, who succeeded Amilcar, desired the Carthaginian
senate to send him Hannibal, who was then in his
twenty-second year. The young warrior, on joining the
army, attracted immediately the notice of the troops,
who beheld in him Amilcar, their former general. Dur-
ing the three following years he employed himself in all
the exercises that could form an able officer. Asdrubal
being dead, the soldiers unanimously, young as he was,
elected him their commander. He was then twenty-six,
and their choice was confirmed by the people of Carthage.
From the moment he was appointed general, he con-
ceived the idea of carrying ihe war into Italy. To effect
this, he made several complaints to the Carthaginians
against the Saguntines, and entreated of th? senate the
liberty of acting towards Saguntum in any manner he
might judge advantageous to the state. He then at-
tacked the city, it being in alliance with the Romans,
carried it, and razed it to the ground.
The capture of Saguntum was the beginning of the
second panic war. Hannibal persuaded, as he frequently
125