#hamilcar

Young Hannibal Swears Enmity to Rome

by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini

‘When I come to age, I shall pursue the Romans with fire and sword and enact again the doom of Troy. The gods shall not stop my career, nor the treaty that bars the sword, neither the lofty Alps nor the Tarpeian rock. I swear to this purpose by the divinity of our native god of war, and by the shade of Elissa.’

Young Hannibal Swears Enmity to Rome by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini

The story depicted in this painting is related by Livy in The War with Hannibal: The History of Rome from its Foundations. After bringing the African War to a close, Hamilcar, commander of Carthage during their defeat to Rome in the First Punic War, was offering sacrifices before transporting his army to Spain, the boy Hannibal, nine years old, was coaxing his father to take him with him, and his father led him up to the altar and made him swear with his hand laid on the victim that as soon as he possibly could he would show himself the enemy of Rome.