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Epitaphs and literary portraits
There are four negative aspects to Hannibal‟s character which feature in a series of four
literary portraits by Polybius: Greed, cruelty, lack of fides and impiety (Hist. 9.22.1-10;
9.24.1-26.11; 10.33.1-8; 11.19.1-7). Polybius acknowledges that these traits are often
standard accusations, and, in respect of Hannibal, Polybius offers explanations and
extenuating circumstances to counter each one, except for the charge of impiety (Hist.
9.24.1; 9.25-26.11). These explanations include the influence of Hannibal‟s diverse
friends, his lack of reliable manpower resources forcing him to break treaties with
Italian towns that he cannot garrison, and one of his officers by the same name
(Hannibal Monomachus) was said to have been largely responsible for the acts of
cruelty in Italy. The summary of this particular characterisation closes with the remark
that the accusations of monetary greed came primarily from Hannibal‟s Carthaginian
enemies, while the accusations of cruelty came primarily from the Romans (Hist.
9.26.11).
There are no such accusations about Hannibal in Cornelius Nepos‟ biography. Nepos
introduces and presents Hannibal as an eternal enemy of Rome, living by his childhood
oath; in this guise Hannibal continues to command the Carthaginian army even after the
Carthaginians have made peace with Rome (Nepos, Hann. 1.1; 7.1). When the Romans
objected to his activities, Hannibal was recalled from the army and made a political
leader at Carthage (a „king,‟ rex factus est). 437 Hannibal is depicted as a „good king‟ as
he ensured, through taxation, that the indemnity was paid to Rome and the Carthaginian
treasury left with a surplus (Nepos, Hann. 7.5). When Hannibal‟s term of office ended,
he suspected that certain envoys coming from Rome intended to demand his person, and
made his escape. Hannibal is proved correct, because in his absence, he is declared an
exile (Nepos, Hann. 7.7). Nepos leaves condemnation of the consul Flamininus to his
reader but the depiction of a consul, the highest possible office at Rome, hastening after
an old man, coupled with the imagery of a frightened Prusias is unmistakeably negative
for the Roman (Nepos, Hann. 12.1-5).
Livy‟s opening literary portrait of Hannibal, too, is overwhelmingly positive. The
negative characteristics are given in a few lines at the close; they are strongly worded
but somewhat different from ones given by Polybius:
437 McGushin, 1985, 42, reads „rex‟ as Nepos simplifying the term for his audience.
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