[Illustration: HANNIBAL'S ARMY CROSSING THE ALPS]
[Sidenote: =A Phoenician colony=]
=279. Carthage the Rival of Rome.= Just as Persia was the rival of
Greece, so Carthage was the rival of Rome. Carthage had been settled
by the Phoenicians, the traders of the ancient world. Carthage, the
richest of their colonies, was just across the Mediterranean from Rome.
In the days of her greatest power Carthage was said to have nearly a
million people. Rome and Carthage quarreled about the island of Sicily,
lying midway between them, and Rome was successful in driving her enemy
out of the island. The great Carthaginian general, Hannibal, when only
a boy took a solemn oath to carry on war with Rome without ceasing.
When he later became a famous general he still remembered his oath
against Rome. He gathered a mighty army from all Carthaginian colonies
as well as from the homeland. Soldiers came from all parts of Spain
and Gaul. From Africa came the finest body of cavalry in the world.
The strangest part of the body was a long line of war elephants driven
by their riders to trample down the Roman soldiers and to break their
solid lines.
[Illustration: ROMANS PLOWING THE GROUND WHERE CARTHAGE HAD STOOD]
The army came together in Spain and marched over the mighty Alps into
Italy. Their march was slow and hard. There were no roads at all
through the mountains. The army was often attacked by people living in
the mountains who hurled huge stones upon it.
After five months the army finally reached the plains of Italy, though
hundreds of brave soldiers had been lost.
Rome was stirred to her depths. A great army was raised to meet the
Carthaginians. But Rome had no general like Hannibal. For fifteen years
he remained in Italy, defeating every general sent against him.
[Sidenote: =How Hannibal made war=]
Hannibal's greatest victory was on the field of Cannae. Rome raised a
mighty army, 86,000 men. Hannibal had only 50,000, but he had faith
in his veterans, especially in the African horsemen. He arranged his
troops so that his center gave way easily. When the Romans thought
victory near, Hannibal's heavy troops on each wing attacked them from
both sides and his African horsemen struck them in the rear. The
Romans lost in killed and wounded 70,000 men.
The Romans hit upon the plan of sending an army to attack Carthage.
Hannibal had to rush his troops home to save his beloved city. In the
great battle of Zama Hannibal was defeated and Carthage fell.
[Sidenote: =The fate of Carthage=]
Rome would not permit a rival, so she wholly destroyed Carthage, her
great fleets of ships, her hoards of money, her stores of goods and her
great buildings. It is said that Romans sowed salt where Carthage once
stood so that nothing might ever grow there.