No fan of Hannibal

When radio stations ask me to contribute to classical programmes, I tend to say yes unless there is very good reason not to. (Television is another matter. There you have to look nice: what I call, the frock problem. You also need to give up something like an hour off your time for every minute they transmit, which raises an obvious effort/reward issue).

But when Irish Newstalk e-mailed me to ask if I would join in a discussion about Hannibal, my first reaction was to say no. Two problems. First, I don’t have all that much to say about Hannibal (except that, if the criteria of good generalship is actually winning, then Hannibal falls down my rankings pretty quickly – along with Spartacus, Napoleon and a whole lot of other blokeish heroes). Second, I am in Los Angeles – and I am doubtful that the phone line is good enough to do a radio discussion with Dublin.

Newstalk, however, was confident that I would be nicely audible – so I agreed to do a live discussion, going out 7.00 pm in Dublin (my 11.00 am). In truth, I was only just up…and I actually did it from bed.

My learned discussants (Philip de Souza, from University College Dublin; and Gregory Daly, author of a book on Hannibal’s victory at Cannae) tended to admire Hannibal’s strategic brilliance. He managed to defeat the Romans in battles in which he was vastly outnumbered, he had scored the PR victory of getting an elephant or two across the Alps, and he had seen that the Achilles Heel of the Romans was their potentially disaffected allies – and so set about winning them over to his side. So far, so good. But, smart tactician that he was, it’s clear that he didn’t have a Plan B.

Finally, when the Romans put into practice their un-glamorous but effective scorched earth policy (master-minded by the truly brilliant Fabius Cunctator, ‘the Delayer’), Hannibal really didn’t know what to do.

I was left thinking that Hannibal was made into a hero by his Roman enemies. The Second Punic War was, in a way, the Romans’ Dunkirk – a brilliant victory partly because it was by the skin of their teeth. No-one wants a victory over a feeble enemy. It suits national identities to score a narrow victory over a flawed but worthy enemy.  Indeed the Romans spent the rest of their history investing in Hannibal’s near genius . . . and, in Virgil’s case retrojecting the enmity of Rome and Carthage back into the time of myth.

I was also left thinking that it was very relaxing doing a radio interview from bed. I am used to driving down to Radio Cambridgeshire, sitting inside a small and lonely studio and communicating through headphones which always threaten a distracting echo. I am not sure about the quality of sound through my Los Angeles apartment phone, but there was something very enjoyable about chatting away to the live listeners, as if 'phoning a friend'.

Maybe lots of radio interviews happen this way. After all, how would you know?

Comments

[Elberry]

the point about not having a fall-back plan is just; a general like Patton would probably be a good example of another strategist whose victories came from maintaining the momentum of attack, hence his standing order to advance and never dig in. It works fine unless for some reason you're halted. Hannibal, like Patton and Marshal Ney, was a flamboyant rather than cold-hearted general.

[Claudius Iohannes]

Mary, your point that the great "winners" of history tend to be the great losers at the end is well taken. As long as Hannibal or Napoleon's genius for tactics on the battlefield held up, their mystique held up, and their foes hated and feared them. But ultimately their foes got it together and managed to start throwing monkey wrenches into the victory-machines, at the tactical level but more importantly at the strategic and social level, witness Cunctator. Even Hitler's war evidenced this pattern, although his genius was for politics and brinkmanship rather than war.

[Tony Francis]

"Whiskey has killed more men than bullets, but most men would rather be full of whiskey than bullets." Logan Pearsall Smith

"If you drink, don't drive. Don't even putt." Dean Martin

"Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking." Dave Barry

"Why ruin perfectly good gin with Vermouth?" Anonymous

[Philip Sellew]

Some of our best discoveries are untentional, I would have thought!

[Tony Francis]

"Who Is History's Biggest Blowhard?" Your mention of the Roman's inflating the prowess of Hannibal raises an interesting question: Who is history's biggest blowhard? I am somewhat at a loss, since I have always studied Egypt at the expense of Rome. But my vote goes for Ramses II. From Amelia Edwards' description of Abu Simbel in her 1891 book, reprinted in "The World of the Past", a 1963 rendering edited by Jacquetta Hawkes: "... we find Ramses leading a string of captives [before the gods Amen-Ra, Mut and Khons]... the north side of the Great Hall ... is filled with a picture from top to bottom...to fully describe it would take many pages... this is a whole campaign ...described in Homeric simplicity.... the king in his chariot pursues a crowd of fugitives... chariots charging at full gallop... Ramses drives before him some fugitives, who are trampled down, seized, and dispatched on the spot." Egypt is full of descriptions of this kind from Ramses II. There are also many huge statues of him. Recent analysis has indicated most of these huge battles were little more than slight skirmishes. Anyway, a man who is reported to have fathered more than 100 children would appear to have spent little time outside the Royal Harem. Ramses II gets my vote.

[Tony Francis]

I want to clear the record on this: I happened to be in a state of complete sobriety at the time of the post in question. (It was 9 in the morning!) I was in a hurry to go do something else. This reminds me of something Hunter S. Thompson said:"Drugs and alcohol have always worked for me, but I can't recommend it!"

[Tony Francis]

I didn't think it was an insult... I just thought it was amusing.

[Annie Francis]

No need to be insulting, Mr. Sellew

[Tony Francis]

The "untillectuals" was accidental. But is was one of those accidents which, in retrospect, looks brilliant. As you will notice, the letters "u" and "i" are adjacent, so it was a slight motor spasm; and lack of proof-reading. Now the only question for you to ponder is: "was this caused from too much, or too little blood alcohol?" (I'm not telling!)

[Philip Sellew]

Tony Francis' best bit is his possibly intentional untellectuals.

[jtpickett]

While I'm sure the audience doesn't compare to "American Idol" or something like that, a fair number of Americans actually *do* watch C-Span, which reaches 85% of us households (nielsen, 2006). Sometimes this is to keep up with what our elected officials are up to in session, but most of the time it is to watch raucous sessions of the PM's questions in your house of commons, which are much funnier than your sitcoms.

[Candadai Tirumalai]

The Romans ploughed Carthage into the ground but some centuries later Augustine came from Carthage and in "The City of God" taught the Romans a new set of lessons.

[Tony Francis]

Dear Mr. Appel, You must recall in 1962, we only had three TV channels, and were glad to have them. They even went off the air after midnight. One time, they were supposed to show a late night movie, and the station manager cancelled it, saying he wanted to go home. Times were different. Then we got PBS (People's Broadcasting Service). I must confess I am a total TV addict. I have it on 24 hours a day. History Channel, various news channels, CNBC, ESPN. I don't watch PBS much. I even watch mindless sit-coms, when nothing else is on. I have watched C-Span author's segments. To be honest, some of those are too boring even for me, and I go somewhere else. If I am not watching it, I doubt anyone is!

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Mary is really going Hollywood! Next, yoga and purgatives in Topanga Canyon overlooking Malibu.

Mr. Francis, commercial TV is not suited for long static discussions on the causes of medieval fights spilling onto the 21st century. However, if you google C-Span, an American cable channel, you'll see that people of your dispositon have set up a boring long winded service. Fortunately, it's by subscription only and not through taxes as the BBC.

[Tony Francis]

Barbara Tuchman appeared on television after the 1962 publishing of her book, "The Guns of August". When asked about her book, she began, "In order to understand the root causes of World War I, we must go back to Europe of the 1200's..." A producer was reputed to have said, "Good God, get her off there!" So much for untellectuals and US television.