7. Ancient Rome’s Boogeyman
Hannibal won at Cannae and in many other battles, but he did not win the war. The Romans learned their lesson, and avoided open battle with Carthage’s military genius. They kept Hannibal bottled up in southern Italy for years, while they attacked the Carthaginians on other fronts, seizing their empire in Spain, and defeating their allies in Sicily. Eventually, Roman general Scipio Africanus led a counter-invasion against Carthage itself, and Hannibal was recalled to defend the homeland. There, he lost the climactic battle of the war at Zama, in 202 BC. Hannibal was eventually forced into exile, and took his own life circa 182 BC in Bithynia, in today’s Turkey, to avoid capture by vengeful Romans.
