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Polybius states that Hamilcar Barca asked those around to stand back a little (Hist.
3.11.6), while he led his son to the altar, thus a mention of witnesses adds to the
credibility of the story, but they are nameless and ultimately can only be described as a
detail that adds to the scene but not the veracity of the narrative. Nevertheless Walbank
believes there was no particular reason to doubt the authenticity of the story „as it goes
back to Hannibal‟s own information to Antiochus.‟ An unknown factor, as Walbank
observes, is how Polybius learned of the story; Walbank summarises the scholarship
that speculated on Polybius‟ sources, adding a suggestion that Polybius may have
learned of the story from Aetolian exiles in Italy, concluding that the story had
„widespread circulation since it is well established in the annalistic tradition‟ for which,
unfortunately, he gives the two references in Livy (Livy, 21.1.4; 33.19.2). 93
The scholarly focus on Polybian source material does not take into account how
Polybius adapts the story to his text and the consequent effect on his representation of
Hannibal. The story is placed much later in the text than Hamilcar Barca‟s departure for
Spain in 221 where Polybius notes only that Hamilcar Barca was accompanied by his 9-
year old son, Hannibal (Hist. 2.1.5). At this point Polybius maintains the audience focus
on Hamilcar and the anecdote about the youthful Hannibal swearing enmity to Rome is
delayed until Histories 3 where it follows Hannibal‟s rise to power in Spain, forming
part of the introduction of Hannibal to the narrative (Hist. 3.11.3-8).
The context in which Polybius places the story is relevant to the Roman concept of
fides. It is in the form of an anachronistic illustration given by the „older man‟ Hannibal
to King Antiochus in an effort to convince the king of Hannibal‟s continuing loyalty and
long-standing hatred of Rome. Therefore Polybius introduces Hannibal as a man who
lived by the oath he swore as a child and this underlying theme is supported by the
notion of a veteran general like Hannibal referring to such a childhood memory when he
had the examples of Cannae, Trasimene, and 17-years of continuous warfare to illustrate
his antipathy to Rome. Polybius glosses over these and any detail of Hannibal‟s other
successes against the Romans with the comment that Hannibal had tried to defend
himself to no avail with the king (Hist. 3.11.4-5). If Polybius‟ elision of these events
was because he had not yet related the stories of Cannae, Trasimene etc., and did not
wish to pre-empt his own narrative, he need not have used the context of the „older man‟
93 Walbank, 1957, I, 314: cites Meltzer, 1879-96: „oral tradition within the Scipio family.‟ Cf. De Sanctis,
1907, 23; Leuze, 1923, 247-68: Polybius learned of it through Silenus or Sosylus.
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