Customer Reviews

The True Story of Hannibal

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I bought this for a friend's daughter to help get more information for a project. This video was amazingly detailed for not being too terribly long. Great reference material for reports, or just interesting to watch if you like Carthage, or Rome, or battle strategies and are eager to learn more about them.

I found the movie quite entertaining but historically inaccurate in several key details. It would have been far better to have produced a film that gave a more balanced description of the two great figures of the 2nd Punic War, namely Scipio Africanus and Hannibal. The film flirts with Scipio's character, but does absolutely no real justice to him and his great achievements - after all, he was the victor! Among the details badly treated are 1) P. Scipio's (i.e. Scipio's father) monumental decision to send his legions,with his brother, onto Spain after learning of Hannibal's crossing of the Alps - the film has us believe he faced Hannibal with his full legions which, of course is untrue. This decision is absolutely paramount to the development and outcome of the War! 2) The film keeps juggling and confusing numbers - for example, 70,000 of Hannibal's men died crossing the Alps? Really? 3) The film tells us that Hannibal was forced to remain in Italy by command of the senate in Carthage, but that is, of course, untrue - he only left Italy when he was recalled by Carthage after Scipio had destroyed all the armies in Spain and Africa! He is said to have cried over having to leave Italy. The film should not be looked at as history, but merely entertainment - as such it is certainly that. The truly interested viewer needs to know they are not being educated as to historical facts. But what else should one expect from the BBC?