descent was very difficult; the pass by which he had to
go was covered with ice and he was compelled to cut a road out of the
rock. When he arrived in the plain, the army was reduced to half its
former number.

Hannibal met three Roman armies in succession, first at the Ticinus,
next on the banks of the Trebia, and last near Lake Trasimenus in
Etruria. He routed all of them. As he advanced, his army increased in
number; the warriors of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy) joined him
against the Romans. He took up position beyond Rome in Apulia, and it
was here that the Roman army came to attack him. Hannibal had an army
only half as large as theirs, but he had African cavalrymen mounted on
swift horses; he formed his lines in the plain of Cannae so that the
Romans had the sun in their face and the dust driven by the wind
against them; the Roman army was surrounded and almost annihilated
(216). It was thought that Hannibal would march on Rome, but he did
not consider himself strong enough to do it. The Carthaginian senate
sent him no reenforcements. Hannibal endeavored to take Naples and to
have Rome attacked by the king of Macedon; he succeeded only in
gaining some towns which Rome besieged and destroyed. Hannibal
remained nine years in south Italy; at last his brother Hasdrubal
started with the army of Spain to assist him, and made his way almost
to central Italy. The two Carthaginian armies marched to unite their
forces, each opposed by a Roman army under the command of a consul.
Nero, facing Hannibal, had the audacity to traverse central Italy and
to unite with his colleague who was intrenched against Hasdrubal. One
morning Hasdrubal heard the trumpets sounding twice in the camp of the
Romans, a sign that there were two consuls in the camp. He believed
his brother was conquered and so retreated; the Romans pursued him, he
was killed and his entire army massacred. Then Nero rejoined the army
which he had left before Hannibal and threw the head of Hasdrubal into
the Carthaginian camp (207). Hannibal, reduced to his own troops,
remained in Calabria for five years longer. The descent of a Roman
army on Africa compelled him to leave Italy; he massacred the Italian
soldiers who refused to accompany him and embarked for Carthage (203).
The battle of Zama (202) terminated the war. Hannibal had counted as
usual on drawing the Romans within his lines and surrounding them; but
Scipio, the Roman general, kept his troops in order and