Who was the Carthaginian General that led elephants over the Alps to attack Rome?
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and (by the Romans) the War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 202 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic. This war between Rome and Carthage ended when Hannibal was defeated at the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. Over the course of their existence, the two states fought three major wars (Punic Wars) with each other.
In 218 BC, the Carthaginian general Hannibal (fully named Hannibal Barca) led an army of more than 90,000 men, 15,000 horses and mules and famously around 40 elephants northeast through Europe and crossed the Alps to attack the Roman Republic from the north.
Hannibal's crossing of the Alps was one of the major events of the Second Punic War, and one of the most celebrated achievements of any military force in ancient warfare. Bypassing Roman and allied land garrisons and Roman naval dominance, Hannibal managed to lead his Carthaginian army over the Alps and into Italy to take the war directly to the Roman Republic.
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