Hannibal Barca was the leader of the Carthaginian Army during the Second Punic War (218 BCE-201 BCE ) between Rome and Carthage. He moved his army from Spain to Italy by crossing the Alps (a very difficult feat at that time) and traveling around Italy and decimating any Roman army that stood in his way, but he never conquered the city of Rome. We will discuss this war on Friday but before that I would like you to consider what it would have been like to be one of Hannibal's soldiers who crossed the Alps to attack Italy.
Please read this passage from Livy 21. 32. 6-7. It describes what was going through the minds of the soldiers when they first saw the Alps. I would like you to write a letter home to your "Mater et Pater" or "Uxor (wife)" describing where you are, what you are doing, any fears or anxieties, what you see, and anything else you think you would include. Remember that you came from Africa and Spain before planning to cross into Italy.
Other requirements: 1 page approximately, double spaced, 12 point, TNR font. If you make up names they should be properly written in Latin (Nominative case). You will be graded on how well you read and understood the account in Livy and expand it to your own purposes. Please do not quote the passage, but expand upon the ideas you come across, this is only to help as a way to get you to think in that mind set.
Due date: due in class on Friday for cultural discussion.
Livy 21. 32. 6-7
Then they [the soldiers] were restored to fear when it [the mountain] was perceived, although with the first report, in which truth is often born into greater fears by uncertainties, never the less having drawn near the height of the mountain and seeing the snow almost mixing with the sky, the shapeless huts situated on the cliffs, the pack animals and the herd animals shriveled with cold, the men unshaven and unclean, everything living and inanimate rigid with cold, and other thoughts more horrible than words told.
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