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A passage from Seneca indicates that, in his time, a popular portrait of Hannibal was
as someone who continually sought warfare against Rome:
quemadmodum Hannibal Alpes superiecerit scribunt quemadmodum
confirmatum Hispaniae cladibus bellum Italiae inopinatus intulerit
fractisque rebus, etiam post Carthaginem pertinax reges pererraverit
contra Romanos ducem promittens exercitum petens; quemadmodum
non desierit omnibus angulis bellum senex quaerere adeo sine patria
pati poterat sine hoste non poterat.
Seneca, NQ, 3, Pref. 6.1
They write how Hannibal crossed the Alps, how he unexpectedly
carried to Italy a war supported by disasters in Spain; and how even
when his fortunes were dashed to pieces after Carthage he was still
obstinate and wandered among kings begging for an army and
promising to be a general against the Romans, and how as an old man
he did not stop searching for war in every corner of the world; he
could endure being without a country but he could not stand being
without an enemy.
Corcoran, 1971, 203-5
Seneca‟s use of the plural, scribunt, implies general agreement among the texts. Seneca
presents Hannibal as somone obsessed with war against Rome, continually seeking
support to underwrite his intentions. The passage closes with a memorable sententia that
neatly summarises an eternal enemy. 410
Silius Italicus‟ depiction of Hannibal in the aftermath of Zama is someone who
refuses to accept defeat. The epic Hannibal neither accepts Zama as „final‟ nor does he
seek peace. Instead he escaped from the battlefield and found a hiding place in
mountainous country while the Carthaginians capitulated of their own accord (Pun.
17.616-24). It is Juno, not Hannibal, who saves Carthage from destruction in the Punica
pleading for her city to be preserved when Jupiter tells her that the war must end at
Zama. She begs for Hannibal to be spared the indignity of exhibition in a Roman
triumph (Pun. 17.344-369). Jupiter grants her requests but warns her that one day
Carthage would be destroyed by another Scipio (Aemilianus) but if she took care of
Hannibal he would live to continue warfare, although never in Italy:
Sic Iuno, et contra breviter sic Iupiter orsus:
„do spatium muris, ut vis, Carthaginis altae:
stent lacrimis precibusque tuis. sed percipe, coniux,
quatenus indulsisse vacet. non longa supersunt
fata urbi, venietque pari sub nomine ductor,
410 Wilson, 2007, 429.
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