Tom Holland

The Carthaginians are not allowed to go to war without Roman permission.

You can see that this is going to be a sea of troubles for the Carthaginians.

right could you go down in flames yeah it's that bad and there is actually a carthaginian senator called gisco who stands up and makes this case to a public assembly but hannibal hears him and he is infuriated and he physically hauls gisco down from the rostrum where he's standing with his own hands and this is not acceptable behavior at all and so everyone is very cross with him and hannibal

apologizes very gracefully.

And he says, look, I haven't been in the city since I was nine or whatever.

I've been living in an army camp all these decades.

My manners are very rough and ready.

So I do apologize.

However, he then goes on to say, Gisco is mad if he thinks that these terms from Scipio are bad.

They could have been much, much worse.

And he says, you know,

We will still be governing ourselves.

There will not be a Roman garrison planted in the middle of our city.

We still have our hinterland, and that hinterland is very rich and prosperous and fertile.

And he says, he makes an appeal to the Carthaginian people, I beg you not even to debate the matter.

Instead, pray with one single voice that the Roman people will ratify Scipio's terms.

And of course, Hannibal is the great enemy of Rome.

He is the man who year after year after year has been in the front line fighting the Romans.

And for him now to say we have to make peace means that there can really be no arguing with the case that he's making.

It's certainly the end of their military careers.