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By nature he was eager for action and faithless to his plighted word, a
past master in cunning but a strayer from justice. Once armed, he had
no respect for Heaven; he was brave for evil and despised the glory of
peace; and a thirst for human blood burned in his inmost heart.
Adapted from Duff, 1996, 7-9.
The allusion to Hannibal‟s thirst for human blood may well refer to the battlefield, but,
in one portrait, Polybius records that Hannibal Monomachus suggested to Hannibal that
the men may have learn to eat human flesh in order to sustain themselves in enemy
territory. Polybius does not believe Hannibal resorted to such action, and suggests that
the violence attributed to the Carthaginians in Italy was at the hands of this other
Hannibal (Hist. 9.24.6).
Silius Italicus presents a second character portrait of Hannibal on his accession to
power in Spain. It echoes Livy in terms of Hannibal‟s physical similarities to his father,
Hasdrubal:
hinc studia accendit patriae virtutis imago,
hinc fama in populous iurati didita belli,
hinc virides ausis anni fervorque decorus
atque armata dolis mens et vis insita fandi.
214
Pun. 1.185-8
The reflection in him of his father‟s valour; the report, broadcast
among nations, that he was the sworn enemy of Rome; his youth eager
for action and the fiery spirit that well became him; his heart equipped
with guile, and his native eloquence.
Duff, 1996, 18-9.
This image is not as strongly negative as Livy‟s portrait because Hannibal‟s guile is not
directly linked to the breach of fides. It is, perhaps, closer to the images given by
Cornelius Nepos and Polybius; the reference in line 186 to Hannibal being well known
abroad as a sworn enemy of Rome seems comparable to Polybius‟ anecdotal
introduction of Hannibal‟s conversation with Antiochus. 440 Silius follows this passage
with a geographic digression on Africa, before inserting another short portrait of
Hannibal:
primus sumpsisse laborem,
primus iter carpsisse pedes partemque subire,
si valli festinet opus. nec cetera signis,
quaecumque ad laudem stimulant; somnumque
negabat
naturae noctemque vigil ducebat in armis,
440 Polybius introduces Hannibal as an eternal enemy by means of reporting the conversation with
Antiochus (Hist. 3.12.1).