Military historians consider Hannibal to be among the greatest of military commanders that ever lived. His fame goes beyond the borders of Africa. Because of his place in military history, people often question his origin and black African ethnicity. Despite the strong evidences supporting black African presence in North Africa, Euro-centrists completely deny the black African existence in the ancient civilization of Carthaginian partly because they seek to portray Hannibal Barca as either a Greek or European with a heavy tan. The confirmed black African ethnicity of Hannibal Barca in a sense would redeem significant elements of afro sentimental efforts, and this validation could seemingly place African military leaders of antiquity in greater respectable narratives.
The legendary Queen Dido found the Phoenician city of Carthage in 814 BCE. Carthage grew in size before it eventually gained independence around 650 BCE. It began to spread its influence throughout North Africa. Ancient Carthage was a diverse population of people largely from Africa, but also from parts of the Mediterranean world. The Phoenicians were a mixed population and historians view them as more of a culture rather than a homogeneous ethnic population. The Phoenicians were constantly on the move because of their economic and military motivations, and they attempted to influence and even blend into the societies they contacted. This Phoenician environment facilitated the rise of the Barca military family. The Carthaginian general named Hamilcar Barca led an expedition into Spain. However, the Carthaginian government never authorized Hamilcar’s expedition, but Hamilcar Barca the father of Hannibal was very ambitious and he was in pursuit of power and glory. To understand the greatness of Hannibal, many historians seek to understand his Father because Hannibal Barca was merely a continuation of Hamilcar Barca’s legacy.
The Barca family’s control of Spain ensured their power in Carthage. After Hamilcar conquered parts of Spain, he was able to amass great wealth from plunder, which filled his public treasury. This wealth bought him a proper army and it helped to purchase the majority support from the Carthaginian Senate. The gold he acquired from the Spanish mines was enough to buy off the Carthaginian political process. This gave the Barca family total control over Carthage and they ruled with impunity. Hamilcar was in charge of all the forces on land and at sea. He wanted to make Carthage ready because he knew that Rome had its own ambition and could not be trusted.
Hamilcar fought in the latter end of the First Punic War when he developed his hatred towards all things Roman. He passed down his hatred for Rome to his son Hannibal. According to legend, Hannibal promises his father that he would always consider Rome his chief enemy. When Hannibal took control of the Carthaginian forces at the age of 25, tensions with Rome grew and Hannibal began to put together a large army by 220 BCE. As the Roman frontier began to expand into Spain, Hannibal began to campaign there in order to ensure Carthaginian control. During several encounters, Hannibal took city after city. It was during this period, the legend of Hannibal began to rise. Hannibal marched from Spain crossing into southern France, marching through the mountainous Alps, and eventually reaches Italy. His military victories and tactics were the best. Hannibal consistently outmaneuvered Roman general after Roman general. The Romans even sought to avoid direct battle with Hannibal at one point not only did Hannibal win the respect of his enemy, but also he won the respect of his troops by living the same hard life they did eating the same foods, and even sleeping on the ground. His triumphant feats in battle against arguably the greatest military force on the planet made him the greatest military strategist and tactician in human history, according to many military historians.
With such a great commander in military history, some historians began inquiring about Hannibal Barca’s physical appearance. They largely inquire because there exist no consistent portrayals of him and he came from the continent of Africa. Afrocentric historians are fascinated with Hannibal because he came from Africa with great military accomplishments in antiquity and he is possibly of the same origin of many afro-descendant populations.
The portrayals of Hannibal are definitely confusing. Whatever position scholars take on the ethnic or racial identity of Hannibal appears to have its problems because historians and artists have presented multiple drawings, paintings, and sculptures of Hannibal to the public from various original backgrounds, and they seem to have this conflict with historical honesty, ethnocentrism, and maintaining the status quo. Another likely reason for this confusion is the Romans themselves after taking Carthage probably destroyed most evidence of Hannibal’s physical appearance.
To resolve this issue, the only thing scholars can do is review what they already know, but from a different angle. Western historians often show three images of Hannibal Barca, which they believe are portraits of the great commander. Regrettably, they present these images without significant historical analysis. All three of these images have shown a Caucasian male with a Mediterranean look. The best chance of actually having a general idea of Hannibal’s physical features is from coins made during his lifetime. Historians have discovered about eight coins, which appear to be associated with either Hannibal himself or the nation-state of Carthage. Strangely, out of the eight coins many researchers believe were from the time of Hannibal, mainstream western archeologists do not recognized five of the coins. When some scholars analyze these five coins, they see the face of a man with typical black West African features. There are no historical, archeological, or scientific reasons for scholars to ignore these five coins.
Archaeologists discovered one of these five coins in Italy and they dated it around 217 BCE. They found the coin near Lake Trasimene where Hannibal defeated the Romans. Critics claim that Hannibal never minted coins in Italy, but that simply is not true. Hannibal would have coins minted of him-self to demonstrate that he is the new power and ruler of Rome. Other critics claim that even though he minted coins in Italy the featured African on the coin is merely an elephant driver and not Hannibal himself. This argument makes no sense because Carthaginians would never waste their time and effort minting a coin that did not represent either a pagan god or an elite person, such as a Queen, a King, or military commander. This coin found in Italy likely represents Hannibal, but scholars will never know if Hannibal was a black African military commander.
PRIMARY SOURCES: The Art of War; Andrew Roberts; 2010. The Book of War; Dwight Jon Zimmerman; 2008. The Book of Weapons; Dwight Jon Zimmerman; 2009.The Book of Inventions; Thomas J.Craughwell; 2008. Home Team History on Should Black Me
