Hannibal Coming to a Theater Near Your: Beware of Hollywood
Hannibal the Carthaginian (Wikipedia photo)
Once again Hollywood is preparing to re-write history. Nothing wrong if they get their facts right, but between wrong information and excessive romanticizing, true history may end up being diluted by a commercially-focused Hollywood.
Two famous American actors are rumored to be competing to get their version of the Hannibal story into the silver screen. One of them is said to be forging ahead with a release date of 2011. I am not sure whether the other gave up but one of them already has the title of “Hannibal the Conqueror.” In naming their names in an earlier version of this article, I was wisely advised by a savvy man not to do it or I could be sued. So I will refrain from mentioning any name at this point.
The race to get a movie out there is further magnified by the fact that America has its first president of African decent. Therefore there is potential consumer appetite for all that is Africanism. After all, the Greeks have their heroes with the likes of Alexander. Same for the Romans as there is no shortage of charismatic personalities. The Asians do also with the likes of Genghis Khan and other impressive names. Why not Africans? Here comes Hannibal. And Hannibal is the perfect candidate. Not because he was exceptionally better than other Africa leaders, though it may be the case in the arts and science of waging war, but because his story is placed within a very Euro-centric context. He went after the emerging power of Rome; something that probably can be easily positioned to an audience of American or European viewers familiar with the Roman world.
While I think this could be a good initiative especially as America is looking for alternatives to its Euro-centric views, even if the motive is to fill those theaters and cinemas, such movies risk to diminish the history of Carthage, geographically located in today’s Tunisia, in North Africa, and turn it into a circus-like event. Imagine the cinematography of mixing professional bodybuilders with massive elephants crossing the Alps to battle the equally extraordinary armies of Rome! The imagery alone may be misleading in many ways.
Hannibal and the Carthaginians have had tremendous historical impact. Nothing that can be summarized in two hours. Their strength and dominance may have been the reasons why the Romans decided to build a military organization so as to reclaim today’s Southern Italy from a Carthaginian protectorate. The Southern Italians then felt more affinities with Carthage than Rome. Trade and cultural ties linked Carthage to Sicily and other regions, something that annoyed the Romans who sought to end that protectorate. But Rome was no match to Carthage, and its incredibly intelligent General Hannibal, a man who already had some personal issues and scores to settle with the Romans basically since he was born. He is often credited for inventing and applying some of the military strategies that are used today. He reportedly applied some of the most efficient offensive and defensive tactics that became case studies in institutions like West Point. For instance, in one single battle, the Carthaginians and their allies, including the Numidians (currently called Imazighen or Berbers) were so efficient that they destroyed 20% of Rome’s entire male population by eliminating some 60,000 Roman soldiers. Nothing to be particularily proud of but a historical fact, anyway.
Of course the imagery associated to Hannibal is the elephants crossing the Alps. But for many people interested in the real story, it is much more than that. For instance, while the Carthaginians, who are of Phoenician origin (say Lebanon and Syria today), were the lead in the Punic wars, they could not have achieved their goals without their allies who had issues with the Romans. For instance the Numidian cavalry (North Africa’s Berbers) used their fast offensive attacks on horses to diminish the sizes of the Roman armies at their edges. The Numidian cavalry was the first one in recorded history to use psychological operations or PSYOPS to demoralize enemy forces. They were agile, fast, and extremely provocative. So much so that Hannibal used to send them at night to harass the resting Roman troops, enraging their generals, and forcing them to make deadly mistakes based on emotional decisions.
In some sense, the Numidians have had a strategic role in the success of Hannibal and the Carthaginians. But, without any doubt, and in an ironic move, they also played a central role in destroying Carthage. After crossing the Alps, Hannibal virtually dominated the Romans, bringing Rome to its knees. But instead of marching onto Rome and finish off what he was set to achieve, he decided that Rome was weak enough not to destroy it. That was a mistake that Rome would not make. After rebuilding their capabilities, and establishing a professional army, the Romans decided that the best strategy was to take on Carthage in Carthage itself. Acknowledging the weakening of Carthage, the Numidian King Massinissa, a historical ally of Carthage decided that it would make a more strategic sense for his survival and that of his people to ally himself to the Romans. In the final push to destroy Carthage, the Numidian cavalry again intervened in the course of history to further weaken the Carthaginians, to hit them with the final blow and hand over the victory to the Romans. The rest was history.
This tiny overview is obviously not enough to understand the history, its context and its implications on the global scene. I doubt that the unnamed American actors will do better. However, for those of you who appreciate intelligent analyses of high caliber, I highly recommend a terrific lecture from the outstanding Stanford University professor Patrick Hunt. You can download the lectures from iTunes directly into your iPod and it’s all free. In this case, just head for itunes.stanford.edu and follow the link. Once on the Stanford page, you can search for Patrick Hunt. If you don’t have an iPod, no panic, download the m4a files here.
The lecture lasts several hours, I think about 22 hours if I recall. But by the time you are done, your understanding of the Punic wars, the Carthaginians and Hannibal will be excellent enough for you to face Hollywood with your own critical views and opinions. Although Professor Hunt touched on the Numidians a little bit, I was hopping he would provide more about them. However, the lecture was worth the 22 hours and I have learned a great deal of the history that affected this region of North Africa.
Review by Arezki Daoud
daoud@north-africa.com
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Google
Myspace
Email to a friend
Print version
Plain text
Home
Set as homepage
Add to favorites
Mobile site
Rss
Plain text
Archive
Comments (2 posted):
I mostly agree with you about the Hollywood way to put the History on the screen. Did you see "Troy" or "Alexander" ? Real disasters.
The problem is: what does Hollywood know about our history ? Nothing,I suppose: they have just to pack a money-maker product for people not well informed about ancient history.
Achilles in "Troy" is ridiculous and Romans are generally described as they were nazists,merciless and depraved conquerors, not to mention they spread civilisation all over the Europe and beyond.
The Punic Wars were a complex matter were two almost same aged mediterranean powers (Carthage was born in 814 b.C. and Rome in 753 b.C.) crashed inevitably the one against the other.
Strong personalities arose from this situation,Hannibal above all: what can we say ?
Let's hope Hollywood forget the film about Hannibal !
Best regards
Francesco Ghio
Livorno
Italy
Post your comment