HANNIBAL & CASTRO (incomplete)

 

Hannibal Barca - the menace from the south, who entered the Italian peninsula from the north and roamed the length and breadth of enemy territory with impunity for fifteen long years left a legacy written in the blood and ink of Romans. Literally. For despite being educated in Greek (the language of the learned) and keeping two Greek secretaries all of Hannibal’s personal records have been destroyed. All that remains are the records of Roman historians like Polybius and Livy. Though they paint a vicious picture of the Carthaginian, the man’s actions speak louder than words.

 

The tragic David and Goliath story of the small merchant state of Carthage against the empire-building Romans is fascinating. As is the tactics used by Hannibal and his band of mercenaries that have become textbook guerilla warfare. They bring barbaric battle into the realm of intellect and psychology.

 

Hannibal made efficient use of his limited but varied resources. Crack-units of officers were used to command strikes into the belly of the Roman war-machine, while foot-soldiers and infantry tackled and distracted the bulk of enemy troops. Horsemen harassed the enemy flanks and raided camps and supply trains while elephants provided psychological impact. Hannibal himself was the sole authority on where and when the battle should be fought - not even the opposing Roman general had a say in this matter. In this manner he was able to turn his vastly outnumbered army into Rome’s worst nightmare. The saying ‘Hannibal is at the gates’ didn’t enter popular culture for trivial reasons.

 

While Rome bankrupted itself raising legion after legion, Hannibal simply replenished his army by recruiting deserters and captives. They were given a simple choice - fight on the Carthaginian side as free soldiers or die. Hannibal’s tactics of living of the land was textbook Sun-Tzu.

 

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What did one of the world’s greatest military strategists have in common with one of the world’s longest serving heads of state? Separated by millennia and oceans, did these giants have any common ground?

 

David versus Goliath

 

Both Hannibal Barca and Fidel Castro led vastly outnumbered and outweaponed states against superpowers.

 

Rome’s expansionist policy in the fourth century was matched only by that of the United States today; as were unequal treaties forced on smaller neighbours. Just like Fidel’s small island state forced the world’s only remaining superpower into a game of nuclear one-upmanship right in it’s own backyard (The Cuban Missle Crisis), Hannibal roamed the length and breath of Rome with impunity while waging war, and even set up winter headquarters on Roman soil

 

Longevity

 

Castro has dealt with no less than ten US presidents ( -?-) and Hannibal faced off with no less than (_?) Roman consuls and dictators while waging a fifteen year battle on enemy territory without once having to retreat out of defeat.

 

Strategy

 

Hannibal is credited with being the father of military strategy (though he was an admirer of Alexander the Great, Pyrrhus and his own adversary Scipio Africanus). His mastery in adapting to any situation in battle and politics and coming out on top is the stuff of military legend. The psychological tactics that Hannibal used to defeat his enemies by humiliating and annihilating them are awesome - like the time he staged the trapping, cornering and slaughter of Rome’s finest at Lake Transimae? and at Cannae by adapting his actions to the Roman general’s temperament.

 

Fidel Castro turned the small island state that the American mafia used as a gambling outpost into a military force to be reckoned with by taking the American government head on. He overthrew the puppet dictator, shamelessly nationalized American business interests and allied himself with the Soviets who shared his communist ideology. By arming Cuba with nuclear technology he struck fear deep into every American for the duration of the Cuban Missle Crisis and despite having to back down, refused to stop badgering his gargantuan neighbour.

 

Invincibility

 

Both Castro and Hannibal gave of an aura of invincibility to their enemies. The numerous and audacious failed assassination attempts of the CIA are comical, and excellent propaganda for Castro. Hannibal’s repeated success on the battlefield mystified the Romans, who bankrupted themselves replacing legion after legion to tackle the Carthaginian general.

 

Broken Alliances

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes

1. Maps

2. Kennedy and the ban on Cuban cigars after taking delivery of a final box