Kliatva Gannibala:Zhizn' i voina velichaishego vraga Rima (16+) - Prevas D.

At the age of 63, surrounded by Roman legionaries in a small fortress on the shores of the Bosphorus, the great commander of Antiquity chose to die at the hands of his servant, so as not to be captured. Hannibal is a truly Homer tragic hero; according to legend, as a child at the altar of the gods of Carthage at the insistence of his father, he swore an oath to fight forever with Rome and fulfilled this promise. Having unleashed the Second Punic War - the most destructive in the ancient world, he committed what was considered impossible in that era: a heroic passage through the Alps with troops and battle elephants - and invaded Italy. A brilliant strategist and tireless warrior, Hannibal defeated the Roman armies, twice as many as his army, and for years kept Rome on the brink of disaster. The American historian John Prevas went all the way on the heels of Hannibal - from North Africa and Spain through the Pyrenees and the Alps to Italy and Asia Minor, visited every battlefield where he fought, and visited the site of each ancient city besieged by him. The ancient sources that came to us represented the Carthaginian commander as a bloodthirsty and selfish man, incapable of mercy. But as Prevas convincingly demonstrates, all the outstanding people who create history and change its course inevitably do evil.