Hannibal (Mirko Jelusich)

Hannibal is a historical-biographical novel by the Austrian writer Mirko Jelusich about the Punic military leader Hannibal .

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"Hannibal" was published for the first time in 1934 by Speidl publishing house in Vienna. Jelusich tells the life story of Hannibal from his childhood up to his suicide, with which the general preempts the capture by the Romans .

At the beginning of the novel, his father Hamilcar has the boy Hannibal swear before the gods in the temple of Carthage to devote his entire life to the destruction of Rome. The path of Hannibal's life is thus predetermined. Jelusich portrays Hannibal as a brilliant and prudent man of power who subordinates his life to the great goal of destroying Rome; because after their constant geographical expansion only the people of the "Roman wolves" or the "Punic wildcats" can survive.

The novel is written in simple language, legible and was therefore also popular in the 1930s as a “novel for young people”. The description of the hike over the “white wall” of the Alps , in which Jelusich proves his poetic power of language, should be emphasized . In the battles he fights in Italy, Hannibal is portrayed as a genius and cunning general who ultimately only fails because of the merchant spirit of the “council of the ancients”, the Carthaginian government. The latter does not grant him the means necessary for the tangible overthrow of Rome. Jelusich paints Hannibal's image of a pragmatic man of power, who is also capable of trusting friendship with the Spartan Somylos and affection for a girl who has loyally accompanied him as a maid. The novel does not reach psychological depth, however, but remains an excitingly narrated sequence of historical processes, which are correctly reproduced in the sequence.

Hannibal is not only glorified, but his unscrupulousness is shown. In his final battle against the Romans, which he knows he can only lose if he follows the instructions of the council of ancients, he does just that and defeats them with full awareness of the defeat to come. He leaves his doomed army, on the one hand, to show all of Carthage that the instructions of the council of the ancients were wrong. He was supposed to have the elephants finally sent by Carthage march in the front row against the Romans. Although Hannibal sees through the tactics of the Romans, which lead to the fact that the elephants will ultimately even turn against the Punic army, he follows the tactically incorrect instructions. On the other hand, Hannibal also leaves his army to be available as a general to defend Carthage against Rome. In Carthage, Hannibal is elected head of government by the people. He proves to be a tough reformer who abolishes all nepotism in Carthage. This leads to the fact that the upper class of Carthage, on whom he passes the taxes to be paid to Rome, defamed him with the Romans. Warned by a Roman envoy, he evades arrest by the Romans by fleeing and hiring himself out as a general for other empires in the fight against Rome.