The Punic language , also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian , is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language , a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages . An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal West Asia (modern Lebanon and north western Syria ), it was principally spoken on the Mediterranean coast of Northwest Africa , the Iberian Peninsula and several Mediterranean islands , such as Malta , Sicily , and Sardinia by the Punic people , or western Phoenicians , throughout classical antiquity , from the 8th century BC to the 6th century AD.
126-654: Hannibal ( / ˈ h æ n ɪ b əl / ; Punic : 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋 , romanized: Ḥanībaʿl ; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War . Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca , was a leading Carthaginian general during the First Punic War . His younger brothers were Mago and Hasdrubal ; his brother-in-law
252-529: A "South-Central" group which together with Aramaic forms Central Semitic. The Deir Alla Inscription and Samalian have been identified as language varieties falling outside Aramaic proper but with some similarities to it, possibly in an "Aramoid" or "Syrian" subgroup. It is clear that the Taymanitic script expressed a distinct linguistic variety that is not Arabic and not closely related to Hismaic or Safaitic, while it can tentatively be suggested that it
378-483: A considerable distance south of the River Ebro, and claimed the city as its protectorate . Hannibal not only perceived this as a breach of the treaty signed with Hasdrubal, but as he was already planning an attack on Rome, this was his way to start the war. So he laid siege to the city , which fell after eight months. Hannibal sent the booty from Saguntum to Carthage, a shrewd move which gained him much support from
504-545: A different status as such, rather being a normal sequence of a short vowel and a glide. Suchard proposes that: "*s, both from original *s and original *ṯ, then shifted further back to a postalveolar *š, while deaffrication of *ts and *dz to *s and *z gave these phonemes their Hebrew values, as well as merging original *dz with original *ḏ. In fact, original *s may have been realized as anything between [s] and [ʃ] ; both values are attested in foreign transcriptions of early Northwest Semitic languages". In Proto-Northwest Semitic
630-464: A direct or indirect object ('me, him', 'to me, to him') or as a possessive ('mine, his') the personal pronoun takes the form of a suffix. These suffixes can be combined with verbal forms, substantives, and paricles. Examples: The paradigm for the suffixed personal pronouns is: The relative pronoun, 'who, that, which', in both Punic and Neo-Punic is’ Š ( ’īs ). In late Neo-Punic M’ ( mū ) (originally an interrogative pronoun, 'what?') emerged as
756-628: A few of the Italian city-states that he had expected to gain as allies defected to him. The war in Italy settled into a strategic stalemate. The Romans used the attritional strategy that Fabius had taught them, which, they finally realized, was the only feasible means of defeating Hannibal. Fabius received the name "Cunctator" ("the Delayer") because of his policy of not meeting Hannibal in open battle, but through attrition. The Romans deprived Hannibal of
882-746: A form of the Aramaic language , spread throughout the Northwest Semitic region of the Levant, northern regions of the Arabian peninsula and southern regions of Anatolia, and gradually drove most of the other Northwest Semitic languages to extinction. The ancient Judaeans adopted Aramaic for daily use, and parts of the Tanakh are written in it. Hebrew was preserved, however, as a Jewish liturgical language and language of scholarship, and resurrected in
1008-462: A given verbal form may depend on: The numbers from one to ten are: Punic and Neo-Punic take part in the so-called "Semitic polarity ": the numbers 3-10 take the feminine form with masculine nouns, and vice versa. Thus with masculine BN ( bin , 'son') or YM ( yom , 'day'), numbers take the feminine form ending in -T , while with feminine ŠT ( sat , 'year'), they take the masculine form without -T . For example: Multiples of ten take
1134-582: A herd of cattle and drive them up the heights nearby. Some of the Romans, seeing a moving column of lights, were tricked into believing it was the Carthaginian army marching to escape along the heights. As they moved off in pursuit of this decoy, Hannibal managed to move his army in complete silence through the dark lowlands and up to an unguarded pass. Fabius himself was within striking distance but in this case his caution worked against him, as rightly sensing
1260-404: A lack of commitment from Carthage of men, money, and material—principally siege equipment. Whatever the reason, the choice prompted Maharbal to say, "Hannibal, you know how to gain a victory, but not how to use one." As a result of this victory, many parts of Italy joined Hannibal's cause. As Polybius notes, "How much more serious was the defeat of Cannae, than those that preceded it can be seen by
1386-455: A large number of loanwords from Italian . However, Punic was indeed spoken on the island of Malta at some point in its history, as evidenced by both the Cippi of Melqart , which is integral to the decipherment of Punic after its extinction, and other inscriptions that were found on the islands. Punic itself, being Canaanite, was more similar to Modern Hebrew than to Arabic. Today there are
SECTION 10
#17327658103691512-413: A large-scale battle and instead assaulted his weakening army with multiple smaller armies in an attempt to both weary him and create unrest in his troops. For the next few years, Hannibal was forced to sustain a scorched earth policy and obtain local provisions for protracted and ineffectual operations throughout southern Italy. His immediate objectives were reduced to minor operations centred mainly around
1638-583: A northern front and subduing allied city-states on the peninsula, rather than by attacking Rome directly. Historical events that led to the defeat of Carthage during the First Punic War when his father commanded the Carthaginian Army also led Hannibal to plan the invasion of Italy by land across the Alps. The task involved the mobilization of between 60,000 and 100,000 troops and the training of
1764-449: A number of common Berber roots that descend from Punic, including the word for "learn" ( *almid , *yulmad ; compare Hebrew למד ). Punic is known from inscriptions (most of them religious formulae) and personal name evidence. The play Poenulus by Plautus contains a few lines of vernacular Punic which have been subject to some research because unlike inscriptions, they largely preserve the vowels . Like its Phoenician parent, Punic
1890-696: A region corresponding with the Mediterranean coasts of modern Lebanon and Syria. There is a lesser supported theory that he was born in Malta , at the time, a part of Carthage . He had several sisters whose names are unknown, and two brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago . His brothers-in-law were Hasdrubal the Fair and the Numidian king Naravas . He was still a child when his sisters married, and his brothers-in-law were close associates during his father's struggles in
2016-410: A second relative pronoun. Both pronouns were not inflected. The combination ’Š M’ ( ’īs mū ) was also used in late Neo-Punic. A pronoun Š- ( si- ) was used to express an indirect genitival relationship between two substantives; it can be translated as 'of'. This uninflected pronoun was prefixed to the second of the two substantives. Example: There are two interrogative pronouns: Neither of
2142-467: A separate branch of Northwest Semitic (alongside Canaanite) or a dialect of Amorite. Central Semitic is a proposed intermediate group comprising Northwest Semitic and Arabic . Central Semitic is either a subgroup of West Semitic or a top-level division of Semitic alongside East Semitic and South Semitic . SIL Ethnologue in its system of classification (of living languages only) eliminates Northwest Semitic entirely by joining Canaanite and Arabic in
2268-457: A substantive and indicates that that substantive is an object in the sentence (mostly a direct object). Word order in Punic and Neo-Punic can vary, but this variation has its grammatical limits. For example, in a clause with an imperfect prefixing form the subject can either precede or follow the verb. However, as a rule, if the verb precedes it refers to the present, while if the subject precedes,
2394-524: A treaty with Rome whereby Carthage would not expand north of the Ebro so long as Rome did not expand south of it. Hasdrubal also endeavoured to consolidate Carthaginian power through diplomatic relationships with the native tribes of Iberia and native Berbers of the North African coasts. Upon the assassination of Hasdrubal in 221 BC, Hannibal, now 26 years old, was proclaimed commander-in-chief by
2520-430: A trick he stayed put. Thus, Hannibal managed to stealthily escape with his entire army intact. What Hannibal achieved in extricating his army was, as Adrian Goldsworthy puts it, "a classic of ancient generalship, finding its way into nearly every historical narrative of the war and being used by later military manuals". This was a severe blow to Fabius' prestige and soon after this his period of dictatorial power ended. For
2646-632: A war of attrition (the Fabian strategy ). Carthaginian defeats in Hispania prevented Hannibal from being reinforced, and he was unable to win a decisive victory. A counter-invasion of North Africa, led by the Roman general Scipio Africanus , forced him to return to Carthage. Hannibal was eventually defeated at the Battle of Zama , ending the war in a Roman victory. After the war, Hannibal successfully ran for
SECTION 20
#17327658103692772-479: A war-elephant corps, all of which had to be provisioned along the way. The alpine invasion of Italy was a military operation that would shake the Mediterranean World of 218 BC with repercussions for more than two decades. Hannibal's perilous march brought him into the Roman territory and frustrated the attempts of the enemy to fight out the main issue on foreign ground. His sudden appearance among
2898-533: A woman from Castulo , a powerful Spanish city closely allied with Carthage. The Roman epic poet Silius Italicus names her as Imilce . Silius suggests a Greek origin for Imilce, but Gilbert Charles-Picard argued for a Punic heritage based on an etymology from the Semitic root m-l-k ('chief, the 'king'). Silius also suggests the existence of a son, who is otherwise not attested by Livy, Polybius, or Appian . The son may have been named Haspar or Aspar, although this
3024-818: Is a division of the Semitic languages comprising the indigenous languages of the Levant . It emerged from Proto-Semitic in the Early Bronze Age . It is first attested in proper names identified as Amorite in the Middle Bronze Age . The oldest coherent texts are in Ugaritic , dating to the Late Bronze Age , which by the time of the Bronze Age collapse are joined by Old Aramaic , and by
3150-693: Is a series of trilingual funerary texts found in the Christian catacombs of Sirte , Libya : the gravestones are carved in Ancient Greek , Latin and Punic. It might have even survived the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb , as the geographer al-Bakri describes a people speaking a language that was not Berber , Latin or Coptic in Sirte , where spoken Punic survived well past written use. However, it
3276-697: Is chon chen liful yth binim ys dybur ch-innocho-tnu agorastocles yth emanethi hy chirs aelichot sithi nasot bynu yid ch-illuch ily gubulim lasibithim bodi aly thera ynnynu yslym min cho-th iusim Yth alonim ualoniuth sicorathii sthymhimi hymacom syth combaepumamitalmetlotiambeat iulecantheconaalonimbalumbar dechor bats . . . . hunesobinesubicsillimbalim esse antidamos sonalemuedubertefet donobun.hun ec cil thumucommucroluful altanimauos duber ithemhu archaristolem sitt esed anec naso ters ahelicot alemu [y]s duber timur mucop[m] suistiti aoccaaneclictorbod es iussilim limmim colus Northwest Semitic Northwest Semitic
3402-619: Is disputed. After he assumed command, Hannibal spent two years consolidating his holdings and completing the conquest of Hispania, south of the Ebro. In his first campaign, Hannibal attacked and stormed the Olcades ' strongest centre, Alithia, which promptly led to their surrender, and brought Punic power close to the River Tagus . His following campaign in 220 BC was against the Vaccaei to
3528-421: Is likely that Arabization of Punic speakers was facilitated by their language belonging to the same group (both were Semitic languages) as that of the conquerors and so they had many grammatical and lexical similarities. The idea that Punic was the origin of Maltese was first raised in 1565. Modern linguistics has proved that Maltese is in fact derived from Arabic , probably Siculo-Arabic specifically, with
3654-431: Is marked by a prefixed *n(a)-. It is mediopassive which is a grammatical voice that subsumes the meanings of both the middle voice and the passive voice. In other words, it expresses a range of meanings where the subject is the patient of the verb, e.g. passive, medial, and reciprocal. The stem of the suffix conjugation is *naqṭal-, and the stem of the prefix conjugations is *-nqaṭil-; as is the case with stative G-stem verbs,
3780-610: Is of fundamental importance in human history as the source and ancestor of the Greek alphabet , the later Latin alphabet , the Aramaic ( Square Hebrew ), Syriac , and Arabic writing systems, Germanic runes , and ultimately Cyrillic . From the 8th century BC, the use of Imperial Aramaic by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (935–608 BC) and the succeeding Neo-Babylonian Empire (612–539 BC) and Achaemenid Empire (539–332 BC),
3906-444: Is often argued that, if Hannibal had received proper material reinforcements from Carthage, he might have succeeded with a direct attack upon Rome. Instead, he had to content himself with subduing the fortresses that still held out against him, and the only other notable event of 216 BC was the defection of certain Italian territories, including Capua , the second largest city of Italy, which Hannibal made his new base. However, only
Hannibal - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-926: Is spoken in modern dialects with an estimated one million fluent speakers by endangered indigenous populations scattered throughout the Middle East, most commonly by the Assyrians , Gnostic Mandeans , the Arameans (Syriacs) of Maaloula and Jubb'adin , and Mizrahi Jews . There is also an Aramaic substratum in Levantine and Mesopotamian Arabic . Phonologically , Ugaritic lost the sound *ṣ́ , replacing it with /sˁ/ ( ṣ ) (the same shift occurred in Canaanite and Akkadian ). That this same sound became /ʕ/ in Aramaic (although in Ancient Aramaic, it
4158-477: Is the basic, most common, unmarked stem. The G-stem expresses events. The vowel of the prefix of the prefix conjugations in Proto-Northwest Semitic was *-a- and the stem was *-qṭul- or *-qṭil-, as in *ya-qṭul-u 'he will kill', while the stem of the suffix conjugation had two *a vowels, as in *qaṭal-a 'he has killed'. The G stative is like the fientive but expressing states instead of events. For
4284-614: Is the same as that of the D-stem, and similarly, the participle is to be reconstructed as *musaqṭilum. All of the stems listed here, except the N-stem, could bring forth further derivation. The "internal passive stems" (Gp, Dp, and Cp; Hebrew passive qal , puʕal , and hɔp̄ʕal ) aren't marked by affixes, but express their passivity through a different vowel pattern. The Gp prefix conjugation can be reconstructed as *yu-qṭal-u 'he will be killed'. Reflexive or reciprocal meanings can be expressed by
4410-521: Is today Africa and about the settling of new colonies in Iberia, North Africa and the Mediterranean. Neo-Punic refers to the dialect of Punic spoken after the fall of Carthage and after the Roman conquest of the former Punic territories in 146 BC. The dialect differed from the earlier Punic language, as is evident from divergent spelling compared to earlier Punic and by the use of non-Semitic names, mostly of Libyco-Berber or Iberian origin. The difference
4536-464: Is unclear whether these developments began in western Sicily and spread to Africa or vice versa. From the fifth-century BC, a shared set of alphabetic, orthographic, and phonological rules are encountered in Punic inscriptions throughout the western Mediterranean, probably due to Carthaginian influence. Punic literary works were written in the period before 146 BC. For example, Mago wrote 28 volumes about animal husbandry . The Roman Senate appreciated
4662-562: The Battle of Carrhae against the Parthian Empire . Hannibal had now disposed of the only field force that could check his advance upon Rome. He realized that without siege engines , he could not hope to take the capital. He opted to exploit his victory by entering into central and southern Italy and encouraging a general revolt against the sovereign power. The Romans appointed Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus as their dictator. Departing from Roman military traditions, Fabius adopted
4788-612: The Battle of Magnesia and was forced to accept Rome's terms, and Hannibal fled again, making a stop in the Kingdom of Armenia . His flight ended in the court of Bithynia . He was betrayed to the Romans and committed suicide by poisoning himself. Hannibal is considered one of the greatest military tacticians and generals of Western antiquity, alongside Alexander the Great , Cyrus the Great , Julius Caesar , Scipio Africanus , and Pyrrhus . According to Plutarch , Scipio asked Hannibal "who
4914-534: The Gauls of the Po Valley, moreover, enabled him to detach those tribes from their new allegiance to the Romans before the Romans could take steps to check the rebellion. Publius Cornelius Scipio was the consul who commanded the Roman force sent to intercept Hannibal. He was also the father of Scipio Africanus. He had not expected Hannibal to make an attempt to cross the Alps, since the Romans were prepared to fight
5040-695: The Iron Age by Sutean and the Canaanite languages ( Hebrew , Phoenician / Punic , Edomite and Moabite ). The term was coined by Carl Brockelmann in 1908, who separated Fritz Hommel 's 1883 classification of Semitic languages into Northwest ( Canaanite and Aramaic ), East Semitic ( Akkadian , its Assyrian and Babylonian dialects, Eblaite ) and Southwest ( Arabic , Old South Arabian languages and Abyssinian ). Brockelmann's Canaanite sub-group includes Ugaritic , Phoenician and Hebrew . Some scholars now regard Ugaritic either as belonging to
5166-612: The Matterhorn . Stanford geoarchaeologist Patrick Hunt argues that Hannibal took the Col de Clapier mountain pass, claiming the Clapier most accurately met ancient depictions of the route: wide view of Italy, pockets of year-round snow, and a large campground. Other scholars have doubts, proposing that Hannibal took the easier route across Petit Mount Cenis. Hunt responds to this by proposing that Hannibal's Celtic guides purposefully misguided
Hannibal - Misplaced Pages Continue
5292-691: The Mercenary War and the Punic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula . After Carthage's defeat in the First Punic War , Hamilcar set out to improve his family's and Carthage's fortunes. With that in mind and supported by Gades , Hamilcar began the subjugation of the tribes of the Iberian Peninsula (Modern Spain and Portugal). Carthage at the time was in such a poor state that it lacked a navy able to transport his army; instead, Hamilcar had to march his forces across Numidia towards
5418-516: The Pillars of Hercules and then cross the Strait of Gibraltar . According to Polybius , Hannibal much later said that when he came upon his father and begged to go with him, Hamilcar agreed and demanded that Hannibal swear that he would never be a friend of Rome as long as he lived. There is even an account of him at a very young age (9 years old) begging his father to take him to an overseas war. In
5544-515: The diphthongs ay and aw , respectively (for example Punic mēm , 'water', corresponds to Hebrew mayim ). Two vowel changes are noteworthy. In many cases a stressed long ā developed into / o /, for example in the third person masculine singular of the suffixing conjugation of the verb, baròk , 'he has blessed' (compare Hebrew baràk ). And in some cases that / o / secondarily developed into ū , for example mū , 'what?', < mō < mā (cf. Hebrew māh , 'what?'). In late Punic and Neo-Punic
5670-404: The glottal stop and pharyngeal and laryngeal consonants were no longer pronounced. The signs’ , ‘, h, and ḥ thus became available to indicate vowels. The ‘ayn ( ‘ ) came to be regularly used to indicate an / a / sound, and also y and w increasingly were used to indicate / i / and / o, u /, respectively. But a consistent system to write vowels never developed. In this section "Grammar"
5796-551: The strategy named after him , avoiding open battle while placing several Roman armies in Hannibal's vicinity in order to watch and limit his movements. Hannibal ravaged Apulia but was unable to bring Fabius to battle, so he decided to march through Samnium to Campania , one of the richest and most fertile provinces of Italy, hoping that the devastation would draw Fabius into battle. Fabius closely followed Hannibal's path of destruction, yet still refused to let himself be drawn out of
5922-657: The 19th century, with modern adaptations, to become the Modern Hebrew language of the State of Israel . After the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, Arabic began to gradually replace Aramaic throughout the region. Classical Syriac-Aramaic survives today as the liturgical language of the Assyrian Church of the East , Syriac Orthodox Church , Chaldean Catholic Church , and other churches of Syriac Christians . It
6048-478: The 4th century, Bir ed-Dreder LP2 . Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) is generally considered the last major ancient writer to have some knowledge of Punic and is considered the "primary source on the survival of [late] Punic". According to him, Punic was still spoken in his region (Northern Africa) in the 5th century, centuries after the fall of Carthage, and there were still people who called themselves "chanani" (" Canaanite ") at that time. He wrote around 401: And if
6174-522: The Canaanite group, the series of Semitic interdental fricatives become sibilants : *ð ( ḏ ), *θ ( ṯ ) and *θ̣ ( ṱ ) became /z/ , /ʃ/ ( š ) and /sˤ/ ( ṣ ) respectively. The effect of this sound shift can be seen by comparing the following words: Proto-Northwest Semitic had three contrastive vowel qualities and a length distinction, resulting in six vocalic phonemes: *a, *ā, *i, *ī, *u, and *ū. While *aw, *ay, *iw, *iy, *uw, and *uy are often referred to as diphthongs, they do not seem to have had
6300-418: The Carthaginian general. Most recently, W. C. Mahaney has argued Col de la Traversette closest fits the records of ancient authors. Biostratigraphic archaeological data has reinforced the case for Col de la Traversette; analysis of peat bogs near watercourses on both sides of the pass's summit showed that the ground was heavily disturbed "by thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of animals and humans" and that
6426-460: The Carthaginian heavy cavalry and the Numidians attacked the legions from behind. As a result, the Roman army was fully surrounded with no means of escape. Due to these brilliant tactics, Hannibal managed to surround and destroy all but a small remnant of his enemy, despite his own inferior numbers. Depending upon the source, it is estimated that 50,000–70,000 Romans were killed or captured. Among
SECTION 50
#17327658103696552-415: The Carthaginian oligarchy dictated the reinforcement and supply of Iberia rather than Hannibal throughout the campaign. In March 212 BC, Hannibal captured Tarentum in a surprise attack but he failed to obtain control of its harbor. The tide was slowly turning against him, and in favor of Rome. Punic language Punic is considered to have gradually separated from its Phoenician parent around
6678-692: The Carthaginians ancestral homeland of Phoenicia in Western Asia. Its precise vocalization remains a matter of debate. Suggested readings include Ḥannobaʿal , Ḥannibaʿl , or Ḥannibaʿal , meaning "Baʿal/The lord is gracious", "Baʿal Has Been Gracious", or "The Grace of Baʿal". It is equivalent to the fellow Semitic Hebrew name Haniel . Greek historians rendered the name as Anníbas ( Ἀννίβας ). The Phoenicians and Carthaginians, like many West Asian Semitic peoples, did not use hereditary surnames, but were typically distinguished from others bearing
6804-645: The Greek comedy, and Plautus took parts of this Punic version to give his Carthaginian character authentic speech. Moreover, in this way he could enter puns by introducing in his play would-be translators who, to comical effect, claimed to, but did not in fact, understand Punic, and thus gave nonsensical 'translations'. Yth alonim ualonuth sicorathi symacom syth chy mlachthi in ythmum ysthy alm ych-ibarcu mysehi li pho caneth yth bynuthi uad edin byn ui bymarob syllohom alonim ubymysyrthohom byth limmoth ynnocho thuulech- antidamas chon ys sidobrim chi fel yth chyl
6930-461: The Libyan mercenaries on the wings, swung around by the movement, menaced their flanks. The onslaught of Hannibal's cavalry was unstoppable. Hannibal's chief cavalry commander, Maharbal , led the mobile Numidian cavalry on the right which shattered the Roman cavalry opposing them. Hannibal's Iberian and Gallic heavy cavalry on the left, led by Hanno, defeated the Roman heavy cavalry after which both
7056-544: The Po Valley. Even before news of the defeat at Ticinus had reached Rome, the Senate had ordered Consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus to bring his army back from Sicily to meet Scipio and face Hannibal. Hannibal, by skillful maneuvers, was in position to head him off, for he lay on the direct road between Placentia and Arminum, by which Sempronius would have to march to reinforce Scipio. He then captured Clastidium, from which he drew large amounts of supplies for his men. But this gain
7182-464: The Po plains" taken together with "massive radiocarbon and microbiological and parasitical evidence" from the alluvial sediments either side of the pass furnish "supporting evidence, proof if you will" that Hannibal's invasion went that way. If Hannibal had ascended the Col de la Traversette, the Po Valley would indeed have been visible from the pass's summit, vindicating Polybius's account. By Livy's account,
7308-407: The Punic language is rejected by you, you virtually deny what has been admitted by most learned men, that many things have been wisely preserved from oblivion in books written in the Punic tongue. Nay, you ought even to be ashamed of having been born in the country in which the cradle of this language is still warm. Besides Augustine, the only proof of Punic-speaking communities at such a late period
7434-653: The Pyrenees, the Alps, and many large rivers. Additionally, he would have to contend with opposition from the Gauls , whose territory he passed through. Starting in the spring of 218 BC, he crossed the Pyrenees and, by conciliating the Gaulish chiefs along his passage before the Romans could take any measures to bar his advance, was able to reach the Rhône by September. Hannibal's army numbered 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 38 elephants, almost none of which would survive
7560-550: The Romans pre-emptively invaded the Po region in 225 BC. By 220 BC, the Romans had annexed the area as Cisalpine Gaul . Hasdrubal was assassinated around the same time (221 BC), bringing Hannibal to the fore. It seems that the Romans lulled themselves into a false sense of security, having dealt with the threat of a Gallo-Carthaginian invasion, and perhaps knowing that the original Carthaginian commander had been killed. Hannibal departed Cartagena, Spain (New Carthage) in late spring of 218 BC. He fought his way through
7686-824: The Second Punic War. Hannibal invaded Italy by crossing the Alps with North African war elephants . In his first few years in Italy, as the leader of a Carthaginian and partially Celtic army, he won a succession of victories at the Battle of Ticinus , Trebia , Lake Trasimene , and Cannae , inflicting heavy losses on the Romans. Hannibal was distinguished for his ability to determine both his and his opponent's respective strengths and weaknesses, and to plan battles accordingly. His well-planned strategies allowed him to conquer and ally with several Italian cities that were previously allied to Rome. Hannibal occupied most of southern Italy for 15 years. The Romans, led by Fabius Maximus , avoided directly engaging him, instead waging
SECTION 60
#17327658103697812-399: The absolute state or the so-called construct state. A word in the construct state has a close relation with the word that follows, a relation that is often translated by "of". For example, in the combination "sons of Hanno", "sons of" would be in the construct state, while "Hanno" would be in the absolute state. Morphology: The demonstrative pronoun 'this, these' was: The definite article
7938-475: The army and confirmed in his appointment by the Carthaginian government. The Roman scholar Livy gives a depiction of the young Carthaginian: "No sooner had he arrived...the old soldiers fancied they saw Hamilcar in his youth given back to them; the same bright look; the same fire in his eye, the same trick of countenance and features. Never was one and the same spirit more skilful to meet opposition, to obey, or to command[.]" Livy also records that Hannibal married
8064-614: The behaviour of Rome's allies; before that fateful day, their loyalty remained unshaken, now it began to waver for the simple reason that they despaired of Roman Power." During that same year, the Greek cities in Sicily were induced to revolt against Roman political control, while Macedonian King Philip V pledged his support to Hannibal— initiating the First Macedonian War against Rome. Hannibal also secured an alliance with newly appointed tyrant Hieronymus of Syracuse . It
8190-487: The cities of Campania . The forces detached to his lieutenants were generally unable to hold their own, and neither his home government nor his new ally Philip V of Macedon helped to make up his losses. His position in southern Italy, therefore, became increasingly difficult and his chance of ultimately conquering Rome grew ever more remote. Hannibal still won a number of notable victories: completely destroying two Roman armies in 212 BC, and killing two consuls, including
8316-475: The combat area. Hannibal drew up his least reliable infantry in the centre in a semicircle curving towards the Romans. Placing them forward of the wings allowed them room to fall back, luring the Romans after them, while the cavalry on the flanks dealt with their Roman counterparts. Hannibal's wings were composed of the Gallic and Numidian cavalry. The Roman legions forced their way through Hannibal's weak centre, but
8442-427: The crossing was accomplished in the face of huge difficulties. These Hannibal surmounted with ingenuity, such as when he used vinegar and fire to break through a rockfall. According to Polybius, he arrived in Italy accompanied by 20,000 foot soldiers, 4,000 horsemen, and only a few elephants. The fired rockfall event is mentioned only by Livy; Polybius is mute on the subject and there is no evidence of carbonized rock at
8568-514: The dead were Roman consul Lucius Aemilius Paullus , two consuls for the preceding year, two quaestors , 29 of the 48 military tribunes, and an additional eighty senators. At a time when the Roman Senate was composed of no more than 300 men, this constituted 25–30% of the governing body. This makes the battle one of the most catastrophic defeats in the history of ancient Rome , and one of the bloodiest battles in all of human history, in terms of
8694-407: The defensive. This strategy was unpopular with many Romans, who believed that it was a form of cowardice. Hannibal decided that it would be unwise to winter in the already devastated lowlands of Campania, but Fabius had trapped him there by ensuring that all the exit passes were blocked. This situation led to the night Battle of Ager Falernus . Hannibal had his men tie burning torches to the horns of
8820-610: The district beyond, Flaminius (partly for fear of popular reproach and partly of personal irritation) would be unable to endure watching passively the devastation of the country but would spontaneously follow him... and give him opportunities for attack." At the same time, Hannibal tried to break the allegiance of Rome's allies by proving that Flaminius was powerless to protect them. Despite this, Flaminius remained passively encamped at Arretium. Hannibal marched boldly around Flaminius' left flank, unable to draw him into battle by mere devastation, and effectively cut him off from Rome, executing
8946-908: The emphatics were articulated with pharyngealization. Its shift to backing (as opposed to Proto-Semitic glottalization of emphatics) has been considered a Central Semitic innovation. According to Faber, the assimilation *-ṣt->-ṣṭ- in the Dt stem in Hebrew (hiṣṭaddēḳ ‘he declared himself righteous’) suggests backing rather than glottalization. The same assimilation is attested in Aramaic (yiṣṭabba ‘he will be moistened’). Three cases can be reconstructed for Proto-Northwest Semitic nouns ( nominative , accusative , genitive ), two genders (masculine, feminine) and three numbers (single, dual, plural). Proto-Northwest Semitic pronouns had 2 genders and 3 grammatical cases . nominative Reconstruction of Proto-Northwest Semitic numbers. The G fientive or G-stem (Hebrew qal )
9072-437: The famed Marcus Claudius Marcellus in a battle in 208 BC. However, Hannibal slowly began losing ground—inadequately supported by his Italian allies, abandoned by his government, either because of jealousy or simply because Carthage was overstretched, and unable to match Rome's resources. He was never able to bring about another grand decisive victory that could produce a lasting strategic change. Carthaginian political will
9198-428: The first recorded turning movement in military history. He then advanced through the uplands of Etruria , provoking Flaminius into a hasty pursuit and catching him in a defile on the shore of Lake Trasimenus . There Hannibal destroyed Flaminius' army in the waters or on the adjoining slopes, killing Flaminius as well (see Battle of Lake Trasimene ). This was the most costly ambush that the Romans ever sustained until
9324-592: The flanks. However, most or all of his war elephants had died of injuries or the cold that winter and none took part in the succeeding battles at Lake Trasimene and/or Cannae. Hannibal quartered his troops for the winter with the Gauls, whose support for him had abated. Fearing the possibility of an assassination attempt by his Gallic allies, Hannibal had a number of wigs made, dyed to suit the appearance of persons differing widely in age, and kept constantly changing them, so that any would-be assassins wouldn't recognize him. In
9450-424: The form inherited from Proto-Semitic (i.e. *yuqaṭṭil-u), or as *-a-, which is somewhat supported by evidence from Ugaritic and Hebrew (*yaqaṭṭil-u). The C-stem (Hebrew hip̄ʕil ) more often than not expresses a causative meaning. The most likely reconstructions are *haqṭil- (from older *saqṭil-) for the stem of the suffix conjugation and *-saqṭil- for the stem of the prefix conjugations. The reconstructed prefix vowel
9576-412: The form of a plural ( -īm ) of the word for 10 or 3-9: One hundred is M’T ( mīt ), its dual M’TM ( mitēm ) is 200; 1000 is ’LP ( ’èlef ), and 10,000 is RB’ ( ribō ). An important particle is the so-called nota objecti , or accusative particle , ’YT (’et) (rarely ’T ; usually T- before a substantive with definite article or with demonstrative pronoun). It is placed before
9702-513: The fourth century AD, Punic was still spoken in what is now northern parts of Tunisia and Algeria , other parts of Northwest Africa, and the Mediterranean . A version of Punic, known as Latino-Punic was written in the Latin alphabet and is known from seventy texts. These texts include the 1st-century Zliten LP1 and the second century Lepcis Magna LP1 . They were even written as late as
9828-687: The government; Livy records that only Hanno II the Great spoke against him. In Rome, the Senate reacted to this apparent violation of the treaty by dispatching a delegation to Carthage to demand whether Hannibal had destroyed Saguntum in accordance with orders from Carthage. The Carthaginian Senate responded with legal arguments observing the lack of ratification by either government for the treaty alleged to have been violated. The delegation's leader, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus , demanded Carthage choose between war and peace, to which his audience replied that Rome could choose. Fabius chose war. This campaign
9954-485: The greatest general was", to which Hannibal replied "either Alexander or Pyrrhus, then himself". Hannibal was a common Semitic Phoenician-Carthaginian personal name. It is recorded in Carthaginian sources as ḤNBʿL ( Punic : 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋 ). It is a combination of the common Phoenician masculine given name Hanno with the Northwest Semitic Canaanite deity Baal (lit, "lord") a major god of
10080-457: The harsh conditions of the Alps. Hannibal outmanoeuvred the natives who had tried to prevent his crossing, then evaded a Roman force marching from the Mediterranean coast by turning inland up the valley of the Rhône. His exact route over the Alps has been the source of scholarly dispute ever since (Polybius, the surviving ancient account closest in time to Hannibal's campaign, reports that the route
10206-423: The language before 146 BC are largely hidden from us by the adherence of Carthaginian scribes to a traditional Phoenician orthography, but there are occasional hints that the phonology and grammar of Punic had begun to diverge from Phoenician after the sixth century BC. The clearest evidence for this comes from Motya in western Sicily, but there are also traces of it in sixth-century Carthaginian inscriptions and it
10332-639: The late third millennium to the mid-second millennium BC and the language of the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions dated to the first half of the second millennium otherwise constitute the earliest traces of Northwest Semitic, the first Northwest Semitic language attested in full being Ugaritic in the 14th century BC. During the early 1st millennium, the Phoenician language was spread throughout the Mediterranean by Phoenician colonists , most notably to Carthage in today's Tunisia . The Phoenician alphabet
10458-514: The meantime, the Romans hoped to gain success through sheer strength and weight of numbers, and they raised a new army of unprecedented size, estimated by some to be as large as 100,000 men, but more likely around 50,000–80,000. The Romans and allied legions resolved to confront Hannibal and marched southward to Apulia . They eventually found him on the left bank of the Aufidus River, and encamped 10 km (6 mi) away. On this occasion,
10584-545: The multitudes of other Carthaginians named Hasdrubal and Mago, but this practice is ahistorical and is rarely applied to Hannibal. Hannibal was one of the sons of Hamilcar Barca , a Carthaginian leader, and an unknown mother. He was most likely born in the city of Carthage, located in what is present-day northern Tunisia , one of many Mediterranean regions colonised by the Canaanites from their homeland in Phoenicia ,
10710-493: The northern tribes to the foothills of the Pyrenees , subduing the tribes through clever mountain tactics and stubborn fighting. He left a detachment of 20,000 troops to garrison the newly conquered region. At the Pyrenees, he released 11,000 Iberian troops who showed reluctance to leave their homeland. Hannibal reportedly entered Gaul with 40,000 foot soldiers and 12,000 horsemen. Hannibal recognized that he still needed to cross
10836-416: The notation " XX (xxxx)" is used, where XX is the spelling in Punic characters (without vowels), while xxxx is a phonetic rendering, including vowels, as can be reconstructed from Punic language texts written in the Latin or Greek alphabets. Nouns, including adjectives, in Punic and Neo-Punic can be of two genders (masculine or feminine), three numbers (singular, dual, or plural), and in two 'states',
10962-403: The number of lives lost in a single day. After Cannae, the Romans were very hesitant to confront Hannibal in pitched battle, preferring instead to weaken him by attrition, relying on their advantages of interior lines, supply, and manpower. As a result, Hannibal fought no more major battles in Italy for the rest of the war. It is believed that his refusal to bring the war to Rome itself was due to
11088-517: The office of sufet . He enacted political and financial reforms to enable the payment of the war indemnity imposed by Rome. Those reforms were unpopular with members of the Carthaginian aristocracy and in Rome, and he fled into voluntary exile. During this time, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military advisor to Antiochus III the Great in his war against Rome. Antiochus met defeat at
11214-534: The only two-tier rockfall in the Western Alps, located below the Col de la Traversette (Mahaney, 2008). If Polybius is correct in his figure for the number of troops that he commanded after the crossing of the Rhône, this would suggest that he had lost almost half of his force. Historians such as Serge Lancel have questioned the reliability of the figures for the number of troops that he had when he left Hispania. From
11340-651: The peace party led by Hanno II the Great . Hanno had been instrumental in denying Hannibal's requested reinforcements following the battle at Cannae. Hannibal started the war without the full backing of Carthaginian oligarchy. His attack of Saguntum had presented the oligarchy with a choice of war with Rome or loss of prestige in Iberia. The oligarchy, not Hannibal, controlled the strategic resources of Carthage. Hannibal constantly sought reinforcements from either Iberia or North Africa. Hannibal's troops who were lost in combat were replaced with less well-trained and motivated mercenaries from Italy or Gaul. The commercial interests of
11466-482: The prefix conjugation of stative roots, the vowel of the prefix was *-i- and it contained an *a vowel, e.g. *yi-kbad-u 'he will become heavy', while the second vowel of the suffix conjugation was either *-i-, as in *kabid-a 'he is/was/will be heavy', or *-u-, as in *ʕamuq-a 'it is/was/will be deep'. Whether the G-stem stative suffix conjugation has *i or *u in the stem is lexically determined. The N-stem (Hebrew nip̄ʕal )
11592-507: The prefix vowel is *-i-, resulting in forms like *yi-nqaṭil-u 'he will be killed'. The D-stem (Hebrew piʕel ) is marked by gemination of the second radical in all forms. It has a range of different meanings, mostly transitive. The stem of the suffix conjugation is *qaṭṭil-, and the same stem is used for the prefix conjugations. It is not clear whether the Proto-Northwest-Semitic prefix vowel should be reconstructed as *-u-,
11718-478: The same lines. Charles Krahmalkov is of the opinion that the first ten lines are Neo-Punic, the next ten Punic. Krahmalkov proposed the theory that Plautus, who often translated Greek comedies into Latin, in this case too reworked a Greek original, the Karkhedonios ('The Carthaginian'; Athenian comic poet Alexis wrote a play with this title). In this case, there probably also existed a Punic translation of
11844-492: The same name using patronymics or epithets . Although he is by far the most famous Hannibal, when further clarification is necessary he is usually referred to as "Hannibal, son of Hamilcar", or "Hannibal the Barcid", the latter term applying to the family of his father, Hamilcar Barca . Barca ( Punic : 𐤁𐤓𐤒 , BRQ ) is a Semitic cognomen meaning "lightning" or "thunderbolt", a surname acquired by Hamilcar on account of
11970-507: The seemingly impassable Arno, but he lost a large part of his force in the marshy lowlands of the Arno. He arrived in Etruria in the spring of 217 BC and decided to lure the main Roman army under Flaminius into a pitched battle by devastating the region that Flaminius had been sent to protect. As Polybius recounts, "he [Hannibal] calculated that, if he passed the camp and made a descent into
12096-416: The sheer size of the army required both generals to command a wing each. This theory is supported by the fact that, after Varro survived the battle he was pardoned by the Senate, which would be peculiar if he were the sole commander at fault. Hannibal capitalized on the eagerness of the Romans and drew them into a trap by using an envelopment tactic . This eliminated the Roman numerical advantage by shrinking
12222-406: The soil bore traces of unique levels of Clostridia bacteria associated with the digestive tract of horses and mules. Radiocarbon dating secured dates of 2168 BP or c. 218 BC, the year of Hannibal's march. Mahaney et al . have concluded that this and other evidence strongly supports the Col de la Traversette as being the "Hannibalic Route" as had been argued by Gavin de Beer in 1954. De Beer
12348-522: The specific root consonants certain deviations of the standard verbal paradigm occur. For example in the group I- n (verbs with first consonant N- ) the n may disappear through assimilation . Summary: In Punic there was no one-on-one correlation between form and use. For example, the suffix form (perfect) is often translated by a present tense, but it may also refer to the past or future. Tense, aspect, and mood of verbal forms were determined by syntax, not by morphology. The tense, aspect and mood of
12474-578: The spring of 217 BC, Hannibal decided to find a more reliable base of operations farther south. Gnaeus Servilius and Gaius Flaminius (the new consuls of Rome) were expecting Hannibal to advance on Rome, and they took their armies to block the eastern and western routes that Hannibal could use. The only alternative route to central Italy lay at the mouth of the Arno . This area was practically one huge marsh, and happened to be overflowing more than usual during this particular season. Hannibal knew that this route
12600-470: The start, he seems to have calculated that he would have to operate without aid from Hispania. Hannibal's vision of military affairs was derived partly from the teaching of his Greek tutors and partly from experience gained alongside his father, and it stretched over most of the Hellenistic World of his time. The breadth of his vision gave rise to his grand strategy of conquering Rome by opening
12726-408: The story, Hannibal's father took him up and brought him to a sacrificial chamber. Hamilcar held Hannibal over the fire roaring in the chamber and made him swear that he would never be a friend of Rome. Other sources report that Hannibal told his father, "I swear so soon as age will permit...I will use fire and steel to arrest the destiny of Rome." According to the tradition, Hannibal's oath took place in
12852-607: The swiftness and ferocity of his attacks. Barca is cognate with similar names for lightning found among the Israelites , Assyrians , Babylonians , Arameans , Arabs , Amorites , Moabites , Edomites and other fellow Asiatic Semitic peoples. Although they did not inherit the surname from their father, Hamilcar's progeny are collectively known as the Barcids . Modern historians occasionally refer to Hannibal's brothers as Hasdrubal Barca and Mago Barca to distinguish them from
12978-409: The time that Carthage became the leading Phoenician city under Mago I , but scholarly attempts to delineate the dialects lack precision and generally disagree on the classification. The Punics stayed in contact with the homeland of Phoenicia until the destruction of Carthage by the Roman Republic in 146 BC. At first, there was not much difference between Phoenician and Punic. Developments in
13104-482: The town of Peñíscola , today part of the Valencian Community , Spain. Hannibal's father went about with the conquest of Hispania . When his father drowned in battle, Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal the Fair succeeded to his command of the army with Hannibal (then 18 years old) serving as an officer under him. Hasdrubal pursued a policy of consolidation of Carthage's Iberian interests, even signing
13230-419: The two armies were combined into one, the consuls having to alternate their command on a daily basis. According to Livy, Varro was a man of reckless and hubristic nature and it was his turn to command on the day of battle. This account is possibly biased against Varro as its main source, Polybius, was a client of Paullus's aristocratic family whereas Varro was less distinguished. Some historians have suggested that
13356-443: The two pronouns was inflected. In Punic and Neo-Punic there was no exclusive indefinite pronoun. Whenever such a pronoun might be needed, it was circumscribed by means of words like ’ḤD (’ḥḥad) , 'one', ’Š (’īs) or ’DM (’adom) , 'a man, a person', or KL (kil) , 'all'. The nucleus of Punic and Neo-Punic verbs is a "root" consisting of three or, sometimes, two consonants. By adding prefixes and suffixes, and by varying
13482-441: The upper Guil valley and the upper Po river is the highest pass. It is moreover the most southerly, as Varro in his De re rustica relates, agreeing that Hannibal's Pass was the highest in Western Alps and the most southerly. Mahaney et al . argue that factors used by De Beer to support Col de la Traversette including "gauging ancient place names against modern, close scrutiny of times of flood in major rivers and distant viewing of
13608-419: The verb refers to the future. The repertoire of possible ways in (Neo-)Punic to express a certain combination of tense, aspect, and mood seems to be more restricted than in Phoenician, but at the same time the rules seem to have become less strict. Act V of Plautus's comedy Poenulus opens with Hanno speaking in Punic, his native language, in the first ten lines. Then follows a slightly different version of
13734-806: The vowels that are inserted into the root, the various forms of the verb are formed. These belong to six "stems" (conjugations). The basic, and most common, stem type is the Qal. The other common stems are: A few other stems are found only very rarely: The paradigm of the Qal is (the verb B-R-K ( barok ), 'to bless', is used as an example): The following Niph‘al forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: P-‘-L , fel , 'to make'; < Phoenician pa‘ol ): The following Pi‘el forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: Ḥ-D-Š , ḥados , 'to make new, to restore'): The following Yiph‘il forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: Q-D-Š , qados , 'to dedicate'): Many (Neo-)Punic verbs are "weak": depending on
13860-514: The war in the Iberian Peninsula. With a small detachment still positioned in Gaul, Scipio made an attempt to intercept Hannibal. He succeeded, through prompt decision and speedy movement, in transporting his army to Italy by sea in time to meet Hannibal. Hannibal's forces moved through the Po Valley and were engaged in the Battle of Ticinus . Here, Hannibal forced the Romans to evacuate the plain of Lombardy , by virtue of his superior cavalry. The victory
13986-597: The west, where he stormed the Vaccaen strongholds of Helmantice and Arbucala. On his return home, laden with many spoils, a coalition of Spanish tribes, led by the Carpetani , attacked, and Hannibal won his first major battlefield success and showed off his tactical skills at the battle of the River Tagus. Rome, fearing the growing strength of Hannibal in Iberia, made an alliance with the city of Saguntum , which lay
14112-569: The winter, Hannibal found comfortable quarters in the Apulian plain. In the spring of 216 BC, Hannibal took the initiative and seized the large supply depot at Cannae in the Apulian plain. By capturing Cannae, Hannibal had placed himself between the Romans and their crucial sources of supply. Once the Roman Senate resumed their consular elections in 216 BC, they appointed Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus as consuls . In
14238-462: The works so much that after taking Carthage, they presented them to Berber princes who owned libraries there. Mago's work was translated into Greek by Cassius Dionysius of Utica . A Latin version was probably translated from the Greek version. Further examples of Punic works of literature include the works of Hanno the Navigator , who wrote about his encounters during his naval voyages around what
14364-741: Was Hasdrubal the Fair , who commanded other Carthaginian armies. Hannibal lived during a period of great tension in the Mediterranean Basin , triggered by the emergence of the Roman Republic as a great power with its defeat of Carthage in the First Punic War. Revanchism prevailed in Carthage, symbolized by the pledge that Hannibal made to his father to "never be a friend of Rome". In 218 BC, Hannibal attacked Saguntum (modern Sagunto , Spain), an ally of Rome, in Hispania , sparking
14490-627: Was already debated). The most influential modern theories favour either a march up the valley of the Drôme and a crossing of the main range to the south of the modern highway over the Col de Montgenèvre or a march farther north up the valleys of the Isère and Arc crossing the main range near the present Col de Mont Cenis or the Little St Bernard Pass . Recent numismatic evidence suggests that Hannibal's army passed within sight of
14616-589: Was due to the dialectal changes that Punic underwent as it spread among the northern Berber peoples . Sallust (86 – 34 BC) claims Punic was "altered by their intermarriages with the Numidians ". That account agrees with other evidence found to suggest a North African Berber influence on Punic, such as Libyco-Berber names in the Onomasticon of Eusebius . Neo-Punic is mostly known from inscriptions, including Lepcis Magna N 19 (= KAI 124 ; 92 AD). Around
14742-462: Was embodied in the ruling oligarchy . There was a Carthaginian Senate, but the real power was with the inner "Council of 30 Nobles" and the board of judges from ruling families known as the " Hundred and Four ". These two bodies came from the wealthy, commercial families of Carthage. Two political factions operated in Carthage: the war party, also known as the " Barcids " (Hannibal's family name), and
14868-437: Was evolving from Phoenician ha- to an unaspirated article a- . By 406 BCE, both variants were attested in the same inscription ( CIS I 5510 ). Although in later times the h- was no longer pronounced, the "historical" spelling H- kept being used, in addition to ’- and Ø-, and one even finds Ḥ- . The personal pronouns, when used on their own, are: (forms between [...] are attested in Phoenician only) When used as
14994-456: Was full of difficulties, but it remained the surest and certainly the quickest way to central Italy. Polybius claims that Hannibal's men marched for four days and three nights "through a land that was under water", suffering terribly from fatigue and enforced want of sleep. He crossed without opposition over both the Apennines (during which he lost his right eye because of conjunctivitis ) and
15120-464: Was minor, but it encouraged the Gauls and Ligurians to join the Carthaginian cause. Their troops bolstered his army back to around 40,000 men. Scipio was severely injured, his life only saved by the bravery of his son who rode back onto the field to rescue his fallen father. Scipio retreated across the Trebia to camp at Placentia with his army mostly intact. The other Roman consular army was rushed to
15246-560: Was more closely related to Northwest Semitic. The time period for the split of Northwest Semitic from Proto-Semitic or from other Semitic groups is uncertain. Richard C. Steiner suggested in 2011 that the earliest attestation of Northwest Semitic is to be found in snake spells from the Egyptian Pyramid Texts , dating to the mid-third millennium BC. Amorite personal names and words in Akkadian and Egyptian texts from
15372-516: Was not without loss, as Sempronius avoided Hannibal's watchfulness, slipped around his flank, and joined his colleague in his camp near the Trebia River near Placentia . There Hannibal had an opportunity to show his masterful military skill at the Trebia in December of the same year, after wearing down the superior Roman infantry, when he cut it to pieces with a surprise attack and ambush from
15498-460: Was one of only three interpreters—the others being John Lazenby and Jakob Seibert—to have visited all the Alpine high passes and presented a view on which was most plausible. Both De Beer and Seibert had selected the Col de la Traversette as the one most closely matching the ancient descriptions. Polybius wrote that Hannibal had crossed the highest of the Alpine passes: Col de la Traversette, between
15624-696: Was originally planned by Hannibal's brother-in-law Hasdrubal the Fair, who became a Carthaginian general in the Iberian Peninsula in 229 BC. He maintained this post for eight years until 221 BC. Soon the Romans became aware of an alliance between Carthage and the Celts of the Po Valley in Northern Italy. When Hannibal arrived in the Po Valley, roughly 10,000 Celtic tribesmen joined his army. The Celts were amassing forces to invade farther south in Italy, presumably with Carthaginian backing. Therefore,
15750-447: Was written from right to left, in horizontal lines, without vowels. Punic has 22 consonants. Details of their pronunciation can be reconstructed from Punic and Neo-Punic texts written in Latin or Greek characters (inscriptions, and parts of Plautus's comedy Poenulus , 'The Little Punic'). The vowels in Punic and Neo-Punic are: short a, i, and u ; their long counterparts ā, ī, and ū ; and ē and ō , which had developed out of
15876-413: Was written with qoph ), suggests that Ugaritic is not the parent language of the group. An example of this sound shift can be seen in the word for earth : Ugaritic /ʔarsˁ/ ( ’arṣ ), Punic /ʔarsˁ/ ( ’arṣ ), Tiberian Hebrew /ʔɛrɛsˁ/ ( ’ereṣ ), Biblical Hebrew /ʔarsˁ/ ( ’arṣ ) and Aramaic /ʔarʕaː/ ( ’ar‘ā’ ). The vowel shift from *aː to /oː/ distinguishes Canaanite from Ugaritic. Also, in
#368631