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Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in 218 BC was one of the major events of the Second Punic War, and one of the most celebrated achievements of any military force in ancient warfare.〔Lancel, Serge, ''Hannibal'', p. (71 )〕 Bypassing Roman and allied land garrisons and Roman naval dominance, Hannibal managed to lead his Carthaginian army over the Alps and into Italy to take the war directly to the Roman Republic. ==Background== After the final Carthaginian naval defeat at the Aegates Islands,〔Walbank 1979, p. 187〕 the Carthaginians surrendered and accepted defeat in the First Punic War. Hamilcar Barca (Barca meaning lightning),〔Dodge 1994, p. 131〕 a leading member of the Patriotic party in Carthage and a general who operated with ability in the course of the First Punic War, sought to remedy the losses that Carthage had suffered in Sicily to the Romans. In addition to this, the Carthaginians (and Hamilcar personally)〔Walbank 1979, p. 189〕 were embittered by the loss of Sardinia. After the loss of the war to the Romans, the Romans imposed terms upon the Carthaginians that were designed to make Carthage a tribute-paying city to Rome and simultaneously strip it of its fleet.〔Delbrück 1990, p. 303〕 While the terms of the peace treaty were harsh, the Romans did not strip Carthage of her strength; Carthage was the most prosperous maritime trading port of its day, and the tribute that was imposed upon them by the Romans was easily paid off on a yearly basis while Carthage was simultaneously engaged by Carthaginian mercenaries who were in revolt.〔 The Carthaginian patriot party was interested in conquering Iberia, a land whose variety of natural resources would fill its coffers with sorely needed revenue〔Delbrück 1990, p. 312〕 and replace the riches of Sicily that, following the end of the First Punic War, were now flowing into Roman coffers. In addition, it was the ambition of the Barcas, one of the leading noble families of the patriotic party, to some day employ the Iberian peninsula as a base of operations for waging a war of revenge against the Roman military alliance. Those two things went hand in hand, and in spite of conservative opposition to his expedition, Hamilcar set out in 238 BC〔〔Dodge 1994, p. 146〕〔Paton 1922, p. 243〕 to begin his conquest of the Iberian peninsula with these objectives in mind. Marching west from Carthage towards the Pillars of Hercules,〔Walbank 1979, p. 111〕 where his army crossed the strait and proceeded to subdue the peninsula, in the course of nine years〔〔〔 Hamilcar conquered the southeastern portion of the peninsula.〔 His administration of the freshly conquered provinces led Cato the Elder to remark that "there was no king equal to Hamilcar Barca." In 228 BC,〔 Hamilcar was killed, witnessed by Hannibal,〔Mommsen 1862, p. 94〕 during a campaign against the Celtic natives of the peninsula.〔 The commanding naval officer, who was both his son in law〔 and a member of the Patriotic party – Hasdrubal "The Handsome"〔〔 – was awarded the chief command by the officers of the Carthiginian Iberian army.〔〔Dodge 1994, p. 147〕 There were a number of Grecian colonies along the eastern coast of the Iberian peninsula, the most notable being the trade emporium of Saguntum.〔 These colonies expressed concern about the consolidation of Carthaginian power on the peninsula, which Hasdrubal's deft military leadership and diplomatic skill〔 procured. For protection, Saguntum turned to Rome; Rome sent a garrison to the city and a diplomatic mission to Hasdrubal's camp in Cartagena,〔 informing him that the Iberus river must be the limit of the Carthaginian advance in Spain.〔〔Paton 1922, p. 273〕 The conclusion of the treaty and the embassy were sent to Hasdrubal's camp in 226 BC.〔〔Mommsen 1862, p. 92〕 In 221 BC,〔 Hasdrubal was killed by an assassin.〔Walbank 1979, p. 190〕〔Dodge 1994, p. 148〕〔Paton 1922, p. 331〕 It was in that year that the officers of the Carthaginian army in Iberia expressed their high opinion of Hamilcar's 29-year-old〔 son, Hannibal,〔 by electing him to the chief command of the army.〔〔 Having assumed the command (retroactively confirmed by the Carthaginian Senate〔) of the army that his father had welded through nine years of hard mountain fighting, Hannibal declared that he was going to finish his father's project of conquering the Iberian peninsula, which had been the first objective in his father's plan to bring a war to Rome in Italy and defeat it there. Hannibal spent the first two years of his command seeking to complete his father's ambition while simultaneously putting down several potential revolts that resulted in part from the death of Hasdrubal, which menaced the Carthaginian possessions already conquered thus far. He attacked the tribe known as the Olcades and captured their chief town of Althaea.〔 A number of the neighboring tribes were astonished at the vigor and rapacity of this attack,〔 as a result of which they submitted to the Carthaginians.〔 He received tribute from all of these recently subjugated tribes, and marched his army back to Cartagena, where he rewarded his troops with gifts and promised more gifts in the future.〔 During the next two years, Hannibal successfully reduced all of Iberia south of the Ebro to subjection, excepting the city of Saguntum, which, under the aegis of Rome, was outside of his immediate plans. Catalonia and Saguntum were now the only areas of the peninsula not in Hannibal's possession.〔Dodge 1994, p. 157〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hannibal's crossing of the Alps」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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