Was Hannibal Ever Close To Getting To Rome?

The final question in need of asking is, was Hannibal ever close to completing his was Hannibal ever close to getting to Rome. The answer to that question is that Hannibal withdrew before he could attempt the final attack on Rome. As explained by Polybius, The consuls Gnaeus Centumalus and Publius Sulpicus Galba… then boldly led out these troops Drew them up in battle order in front of the city, and thus checked Hannibal’s intended attack. The Carthaginians had at first pressed forward eagerly with the alluring hope that they might even capture Rome by direct assault; but when they saw the enemy drawn up in battle formation… they abandoned the idea of attempting a direct attack, and turned instead to ravaging the surrounding
As Leonard Cottrell stated Hannibal had a sense of arrogance, as well as confidence, an example being when he attended “a lecture given by an academician named Phormio, on “the duties of army commanders.” after the lecture Antiochus asked Hannibal what he thought of it. “well” replied Hannibal… “I’ve listened to some old fools in my time, but this one beats them all.” Another example would be in a meeting with Scipio his antagonist who asked “Hannibal whom he esteemed the third greatest general. “Myself beyond doubt,” replied the Carthaginian. Scipio laughed and then asked, “what would you have said if you had conquered me?” “then” came the reply, “I would have placed Hannibal… before all other commanders.” It was the “memory of Hannibal [which] would endure, brilliant as a general… [as] the Historian Arnold Toynbee would say his searing course of conquest left an imprint still diescernible in Italy.” As Spray writes in the book Hannibal “we have the impression that [Hannibal] had admirers and faithful adherents rather than men who were personally close to him. His peers in Carthage were suspicious of him and were jealous of the power and fame of the Barca family.” Lastly the Romans viewed Hannibal “[as] the cause of great evil. They insisted that Hamical and his sons had consciously provoked a war.” With all the people of that time’s view on Hannibal in the eyes of those in the ancient world it’s in the book Hannibal which gives the best summary of who Hannibal was. As written by Spray “[Hannibal] was and rained Carthage’s loyal servant, no more and no less. That is how we read him from his actions: a great man unshakeable faithful to his native