Inside the Mind of Hannibal: What Caused Him to Become Rome’s Most Hated Man?
Watching your father’s brave, heroic and selfless act in order to preserve your own life must leave a permanent mark.
They were fearsome and powerful Vetton warriors, and when they saw his father’s face he was a marked man. Young Hannibal Barca was only twelve years old. He watched his father remove his helmet, purposely drawing the feared Vetton warriors away, and their attention off the young man whose life, although he didn’t realize it, was being saved from imminent danger. His father’s body was carried away by a flooded river. Fatherless, and etched deeply within by an enormous paternal influence, both in words and deeds, all this was crystallized by the added emotion of watching his father disappear. Never again would he be able to see his physical form or even express his grief at a funeral.
A Carthaginian shekel, dated 237-227 BC, depicting the Punic god Melqart (equivalent of Hercules/Heracles), most likely with the features of Hamilcar Barca, father of Hannibal Barca; on the reverse is a man riding an elephant. (Public Domain)
