Generalship and Sports: Where Babe Ruth and Roger Maris Meet Hannibal and Scipio

Babe Ruth's home run record has become something of a religious icon, that perfect 61 that seemingly ruined the life and career of a man who had every right to take his place in the Hall of Fame right alongside him, and the impact that this drunken alcoholic who would have been laughed out of the farm leagues in modern baseball has left on the game is absolutely undeniable. In many ways, The Babe has become synonymous with baseball, in much the same way that Hannibal Barca has become synonymous with ancient warfare and military strategy - and much like the pedestal of Ruth's records, this theory of Hannibal is unfounded.

I once took "The Punic Challenge", as I called it, where I entered three different major book stores: Walden Books, Books-a-Million, and Barnes and Noble. I perused the history and military aisles, pulling out every book I could find on the Punic Wars, military tacticians, biographies on great generals, and important battles, and to my utter dismay, nearly every single one put heavy emphasis on the Babe Ruth of ancient warfare with a surprising neglect to the man who not only put his own strategic prowess to shame, but crushed him on equal footing in an almost tournament style duel of two military titans.

As I continued to pour through the books, I grew increasingly frustrated as Hannibal's victories were covered in excruciating detail, and in the few cases where I could find even reference to Publius Cornelius Scipio they were hashed over as unimportant. As I continued to flip the pages, it conjured images of Billy Crystal's made for HBO film 61*, a tragic tale of a ballplayer who met all the same challenges as his predecessor, and was short changed by a society that was not ready to give up the mythos of The Babe.

No one could have grown up without having, in some way, heard the name of Hannibal Barca - although some would sooner associate the name with Anthony Hopkins's portrayal of the cannibal than the Carthaginian general. A brief summary of his victories include the ambuscade at Trebia, the successful ambush at Lake Trasimene, where a skillful, mock display of his forces led the Romans directly into an ambush with only a crystal lake to retreat to that quickly became a pool of blood. He later marched on to what has been lauded as one of the greatest military victories in world history at Cannae - where an outnumbered mercenary army managed to lure the Romans into an inadvertent flank of epic proportions, where Hannibal managed to use his own soldiers in place of trees to draw the Romans into an astonishing engulfment that resulted in a catastrophic loss for the Romans.

Armed with a total of three major battlefield victories and an overall campaign strategy that directly led to the destruction of the Carthaginian Empire, Hannibal has somehow become the pedestal on which every other future tactician would be judged, considered in the top three generals, alongside Napoleon Bonaparte and Alexander of Macedon.

A cursory glance of website forums and message boards shows a general consensus with the above list, suggesting that a single stroke of brilliance on a field in Cannae sealed Hannibal's place as one of history's immortals.

But who was Hannibal Barca the man? He was the son of renowned Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca, who met his end in a disastrous route during the First Punic War where he was driven into a river along with his panicked soldiers. Angered over this crushing defeat and the loss of the island of Sicily, Hannibal swore vengeance against the Romans, and devoted his life to this end, raising a mercantile army, and doing the impossible in crossing the Alps to attack Rome through Cisalpine Gaul, and later on Italy itself.

Hannibal has been reported in a number of ways - correlations have been drawn between Saladin of the Third Crusade, although a true look at Hannibal's glee in counting the rings of fallen Roman Knights certainly speaks against any great deal of compassion he felt for his fallen enemy. In fact, the general was a brutal man, different from his counterparts not because of his compassion, but because of his restraint. Indeed he lusted for Roman blood, but he would not let that jeopardize his objectives in destroying the fledgling Republic.

At the Battle of Trebia, he gave the Romans their first taste of defeat in the Second Punic War, devastating them and killing a number of the high class nobility.

Thus enters Publius Cornelius Scipio, a modest man eager to see Rome expand to its full potential. He was at Trebia, and although his own bodyguards at first refused to follow, he threw himself into the thickest of the fighting in the hopes of saving his uncle and father at the age of 18. Growing up in an era that learned to fear Hannibal's arrival in Italy, Scipio grew frustrated at the obvious lack of Rome's leadership. Unlike Hannibal's lust for vengeance and destruction of the Roman state, Scipio's intentions were wholly to destroy a threat to his society's survival, because no one else was available to do the job.

Hannibal Barca's fundamental strategy against Rome involved invoking terror in its citizens, and appealing to conquered client states to revolt against Roman rule and join with him. To achieve this end, he intended to cross the Roman Alps, put intense pressure on Roman cities, and score major land victories over the beleagured Republic in the hopes of demonstrating his military superiority, and to accentuate the point of futility in Rome's allies.

The war itself began with an assault on one of Rome's key Spanish allies along the Po River, and the eventual crossing of the respected boundary between the two empires. From here, Hannibal's plan was launched: he would leave his own territories to the frozen Alps with his elephants and mercenaries, he would cross the deadly mountain range, and arrive in Italy.

Rome immediately responded in the only way Hannibal could have hoped, they sent army after army to defeat him, usually headed by pompous aristocrats who saw this as their chance to climb the Senatorial ladder. Understanding Roman tactics, Hannibal often used Roman strengths against them, such as their emphasis on crushing the center line in battle, which led to the catastrophe at Cannae, or emphasizing his own strength in cavalry against the relatively horseless Roman army.

Over and over, Rome continued to send less than competent generals eager for glory, each time with less and less experienced soldiers against Hannibal's increasingly experienced army.

As Scipio's courage and zeal earned him the head of a newly amassed army, he shifted the Roman focus of the war significantly. For some time, Rome had foolishly felt that the surest way to defeat Carthage was to crush Hannibal and his parading mercantile army, but Scipio recognized that he was essentially an isolated threat, too busy chasing Roman armies around Italy and receiving minimal support from the home front. With Hannibal's foolish decision to enter into a sea of Roman territory, it became impossible to reinforce him with the equipment and manpower necessary to drive the victories of Cannae home.

Thus, with Hannibal occupied in his pursuit of the Roman consul, Flavius, across Italy, Scipio launched a masterful campaign that broke the Carthaginian backs in Europe, uniting the oppressed Spanish tribes together under Roman rule, destroying Carthage's Numidian king, appointing a Roman friendly one in his place, and destroying Hannibal's primary supply of soldiers, foodstuffs, and war material. Having successfully driven the Carthaginians' lines to a point that any further invasions of Italy would be impossible, the time was now ripe to attack Carthage itself.

This shift in strategy, emphasizing that the war was against Carthage, and not Hannibal, worked wonders and drew a panic from the Carthaginian Senate. Suing for peace, the Carthaginian senate made generous terms with Scipio - terms that were later betrayed when Hannibal arrived, accentuated by the Senate's burning of the diplomats' ship to properly convey their distaste for Rome.

And so began one of the most important battles of world history - which finds itself in roughly 40% of books at worst, and 60% at best.

Scipio chose the battleground, and retreated well to the south, where Hannibal was urged to pursue him. They met on a desolate battleground known as Zama - the site of what could be termed the military Heavy Weight Championship of the World.

With an inferior infantry force and nothing to match Hannibal's elephants, he turned to his men to give a rousing speech - reminding them of each of their achievements in the past, and warning them that at this point there could be no retreat. On the continent of Africa no one would give them shelter, they would be sold as slaves, and certainly there was no flight to the sea. It was either victory or death.

Without going into too much detail about the battle - that will be for a later article - Scipio's forces met the mercenary front lines with a clash, and held them at bay while his Numidian allies on the flanks tarried with Hannibal's own cavalry. The Elephants had been diminished significantly in a panic, and those who had not fled had been killed or routed by now.

After a horrific display of heavy fighting, a bit of barbarity from the Carthaginians' own soldiers against the mercenaries and a brilliant flank by Scipio's Numidian allies, Hannibal's army was utterly annihilated. Forced to flee, Hannibal marched in defeat back to Carthage, where his nation was pressed for crippling peace terms.

And yet it is Hannibal that passes into history - Scipio is often only occasionally mentioned as "That Roman at Zama". After crushing the only major threat to Rome at the time, solidifying Spain, and personally destroying Hannibal's best in an open test of generalship, he is consistently cited as the inferior general, rarely even making it into the top ten.

Scipio's treatment by history would be akin to denying Wladimir Klitschko his heavy weight championship belt, even after each of his current title defenses.