Hannibal Barca was one of the greatest enemies of the Roman Empire and a nightmare for its people. After the First Punic War his father Hamilcar Barca made him swear that one day he would defeat the Romans and avenge his loss. At the age of nine he went to the altar and swore to his father that he was a friend of Rome. He would never be friends with Rome and would eventually lead his army to Rome at the start of the Second Punic War. Hannibal spent 16 years of his life in Spain training in military camps. Learn different types of war tactics and learn to become a sharp-minded commander so that you can eventually manage the Carthage army. In 221 BCE son-in-law of Hamilcar Barca; Hasdrubal was murdered. At the age of 26, Hannibal was now the new commander of the Carthaginian army. Just 5 years before Hannibal became commander, the Ebro Treaty with Rome stated that they could not cross the Spanish Ebro River with the idea of ​​conquering it. There was a city south of the treaty line known as Saguntum that was allied with Rome. In 219 Hannibal decided to conquer Saguntum because they had supposedly attacked local tribes allied with Carthage. It took Hannibal 8 months to conquer the city of Sagunto. This was the beginning of the Second Punic War. At that time the Romans controlled the Mediterranean Sea with their navy, so the only safe route for Hannibal was to travel by land. If he had taken the sea route he would have been crushed by the Roman Navy. Taking the overland route meant crossing the Alps, the largest land barrier in Europe. This would not be an easy task for him and his army. The total journey from Spain to Italy while crossing the Alps was approximately 1,500 miles, which would have taken him 5 months to complete. The army of... middle of paper... onwards would push his troops across the gorge, with thick fog working against him and his troops covering the hills. The Roman forces would eventually push into the punchbowl and Hannibal would then unleash his trap. The Romans would be taken by surprise. Hannibal's men would strike fast and hard killing many soldiers before they could even draw their swords. Many Roman soldiers were pushed back into the lake where they reportedly drowned due to their heavy armor. After about 3 hours of battle about 15,000 Roman soldiers were killed and an equal number were taken prisoner, their leader Flaminius was also killed. Hannibal's losses were only 2,500. Hannibal freed many of the Italian prisoners by telling them that the war was not against them but the real enemy was Rome. He did this because he wanted to gain their trust and convince them to fight with him against Rome.