Hannibal’s March

Alps and Elephants

by Sir Gavin R. De Beer

ISBN: 978-1-59416-124-7

First published 1956

89 pages

Cover image: An early colour photograph of the Alps/Library of Congress

Design: John Hubbard

Publisher: Westholme Publishing

5/5 Stars

How did Hannibal get his elephants over the alps? What route did he take? How could he proceed in hostile territory with the legions of Scipio looking for him along the Gaulish coastline?

De Beer was the former Director of the British Natural History Museum and presents a well argued and well-researched investigation into the most likely route Hannibal took across the Alps. Of course, all Carthaginian records of what happened were destroyed by Rome, we only have their historians’ word on what happened, (although we do have multiple sources from the Roman world).

What brings this book alive is the anecdotes, tales and witticisms of Hannibal himself. His brothers were also great generals, he had a wife and child, he outlived his defeat by some years, and even met his old rival Scipio in his retirement/exile.

We can see Hannibal’s likeness in the Carthaginian coins recovered;

and we can see very definitively that African elephants were used, with their humps over their hind quarters;

The scale of Hannibal’s achievement can perhaps only be understood by a modern analogy – imagine if, in 1942, Rommel had taken 20,000 men and 37 tanks, landed in Scotland and proceeded to maraud through England and Wales, undefeated, until 1955.

Finally, on the last page before the back cover, De Beer leaves us with his judgment of the route Hannibal took.