OCR GCSE Ancient History Hannibal and the Second Punic War 218 to 201 BC overview quiz quiz

Hannibal's siege of Saguntum, a Roman ally

The Battle of Cannae, where Hannibal surrounded and destroyed a huge Roman army in 216 BC

Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with his army and war elephants on his march into Italy

The loss of the island of Sicily to Rome at the close of the earlier First Punic War

The founding of New Carthage in Spain as the Barcid family's wealthy base of power and trade

Rome's seizure of Sardinia after the First Punic War

Hannibal's childhood oath to his father Hamilcar that he would always be an enemy of Rome

Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with his army at the very start of the war in 218 BC

By sailing his whole army by sea straight across the Mediterranean and landing it on the coast of Italy

By marching east through the island of Sicily and then crossing the narrow strait onto the Italian mainland

By marching from Spain and crossing the Alps

By first sailing to Carthage to gather Gallic allies, and only then shipping the combined army to Italy

Hannibal was heavily defeated here and lost most of his army in his first major battle in Italy

Scipio invaded Africa and threatened the city of Carthage, forcing Hannibal to be recalled home

The Romans captured New Carthage, the great Barcid base in Spain, cutting off Hannibal's supplies

Hannibal ambushed and destroyed a Roman army in fog along the lake shore

A double envelopment that surrounded the Roman army

A single massed frontal charge straight into the centre of the Roman line, smashing through it head-on

A surprise night attack on the Roman camp while the legions were asleep and unprepared for battle

The use of tall siege towers to break through the defences that the Romans had built around the field

Attacking the city of Carthage in Africa directly while Hannibal was still campaigning in Italy

Avoiding pitched battle and wearing Hannibal down by delay

Building a much larger navy to defeat the Carthaginian fleet and cut Hannibal off from the sea

Allying with Carthage against the Gauls and other tribes who were threatening Rome from the north

He was killed at Cannae during the fighting, leaving his army in Italy without its brilliant commander

He simply ran out of war elephants, which had been the one weapon that made his army able to beat the Romans

He lacked siege power and numbers to take Rome, most allies stayed loyal, and Carthage sent little help

He never actually reached central Italy at all, and so was unable to march on the city of Rome itself

He pulled all his forces back to defend the walls of Rome and simply waited for Hannibal to attack the city

He led an army north to attack Hannibal's supply route through the Alps and seal off the mountain passes

He burned the entire Carthaginian fleet as it lay at anchor off the coast of the island of Sicily

He invaded Africa, forcing Carthage to recall Hannibal

He opened lanes in his lines so the elephants charged through harmlessly

He killed every one of the elephants with massed archers before they could reach his front line at all

He stampeded the elephants back towards their own side by driving them on with blazing torches and fire

He captured all the elephants beforehand in a raid, so that Hannibal had none left to use in the battle

Carthage was razed to the ground at once and its people sold into slavery, ending the city completely in 201 BC

Carthage gave up its fleet and Spain, paid a huge indemnity, and could not make war without Rome's permission

Carthage kept all of its territory and its fleet, and paid Rome nothing at all, since the war had ended in a draw

Carthage became a full part of the Roman state, with its citizens made Romans and its lands turned into a province

He fought in the war himself as a soldier and so wrote down everything from his own first-hand experience

He was a Carthaginian, so he gives the defeated side's own account of the war rather than the Roman version

He wrote a few decades later, used good sources and was carefully analytical about causation

He was the only ancient writer to mention the war at all, so there is no other source to compare him against

He bitterly hated Rome and wrote his whole account in order to attack and discredit the Roman cause

He never once mentions Hannibal at all, leaving out the single most important figure of the entire war

He relied only on archaeology and physical remains, and made no use of any earlier written accounts

He wrote over a century later and is more dramatic and patriotic than analytical