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Hannibal: Romans
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Upon the assassination of Hasdrubal in 221 B.C., Hannibal, at the age of 26, was immediately proclaimed commander in chief by the entire army, an appointment soon afterward ratified by the Carthaginian Senate. Making New Carthage his headquarters, Hannibal consolidated Carthaginian power in Spain by attacking and defeating the Olcades on the upper Guadiana and the Vaccaei and Carpetani beyond the Tagus. In the spring of 219 he besieged Saguntum, a city south of the Iberus River (Ebro) and an ally of Rome. Although he did not formally break the treaty of 226, which had defined the Iberus River as the line of demarcation between the Roman and Carthaginian spheres of influence, the blockade of Saguntum and its final destruction after an 8-month siege brought about the declaration of war.
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The most important ancient sources on Hannibal are Livy's books 21-39 (an ancient excerpt can be found here) and books 3-16 of the World history by Polybius of Megalopolis. Both make excellent reading. Additional information can be found in Appian's Roman history, especially the parts on the Hannibalic war, the Spanish war, the African war, and the Syrian War.
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After the attack dogs went loose on shore, Hannibal diverged from his initial plan, and tried to continue the plan himself by landing on the Roman shore on the Italian peninsula. He was shortly imprisoned by one solder, who threw a brick at his head in frustration of being unable to fit it into the cobblestone roadway he was making(ironically) to Carthage. Hannibal was imprisoned in a cell somewhere in the Roman senate and wasn't allowed communication with anybody. However, he was allowed to have a harp player, where he gained a love for Grecian music. Hannibal was then used by Mark Anthony and Cicero to get inside the mind of the killer of Julius Caesar (who Hannibal claimed was Serbian Terrorists).
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In the Spring of 216 B.C. Hannibal captured the large supply depot at Cannae in the Apulian plain. He had placed himself between the Romans and their source of supply. The Roman Senate resumed their Consular elections in 216. They chose Caius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus as Consuls. The Romans raised a new army that was much larger than ever before. The total strength of the army which faced Hannibal was between 90,000 and 100,000 men.
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When Hannibal (in his own language: Hanba'al, "mercy of Baal") was born in 247 BCE, his birthplace Carthage (today a suburb of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia) was losing a long and important war. It had been the Mediterranean's most prosperous seaport and possessed wealthy provinces, but it had suffered severe losses from the Romans in the First Punic War (264-241). After Rome's victory, it stripped Carthage of its most important province, Sicily; and when civil war had broken out in Cartage, Rome seized Sardinia and Corsica as well. These events must have made a great impression on the young Hannibal.
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Hannibal was aware that the Romans preferred to engage in set-piece battles on open ground and at the time of their own choosing. As a result, Hannibal ensured that his men were well fed and rested during the night, then he sent out a force to attack the Roman camp and provoke them into attacking. The Romans, alarmed by an almost unheard-of night offensive, hungry and bleary-eyed with sleep, unwisely forded a freezing winter stream in an attempt to engage their enemy. They were outflanked and cut to pieces, partly because Hannibal had possessed the foresight and artifice to make his cavalrymen lie their horses down among shrubs and bushes in ambush.
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