\paperw7290 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \b Hannibal (Carthage ca. 274 BC - 183 BC)\par
\b0 The son of Hamilcar Barca, he took command of the Carthaginian army afte
r the death of Hasdrubal (221 BC), continuing to implement his father's policy of expansion. Thus in 219 BC he conquered Saguntum, an ally of Rome, sparking off the Second Punic War. He crossed the Alps to invade Italy and raise the peoples of the penins
ula against Rome. The mobility of his army and his strategic genius earned him a series of victories against the Roman legions, at the Ticinus and Trebia (218 BC), at Lake Trasimene (217 BC), and finally at Cannae (216 BC). But the Romans recovered, took
back control of Spain, and defeated and killed Hannibal's brother Hasdrubal at the Metaurus (207 BC). As a result Hannibal was deprived of reinforcements and retreated to Campania. From there he sailed for Carthage to come to the aid of his fellow count
rymen, under attack from P. Cornelius Scipio. Defeated at Zama (202 BC), he decided to flee to the East. Afraid of being handed over to the Romans, he poisoned himself in Bithynia in 183 BC.\par
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\b Hasdrubal (Carthage 242 - 207 BC)\par
\b0 The so
n of Hamilcar Barca and brother of Hannibal, who entrusted him with the command of the army in Spain. He won several battles there but was eventually defeated by P. Cornelius Scipio at Baecula (208 BC). While attempting to join Hannibal in Italy, he was
defeated and killed at the battle of the Metaurus river (207 BC).\par
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\b Herodotus (Halicarnassus 484 BC - Thourioi ca. 426 BC)\par
\b0 A Greek historian, he was sent into exile for political reasons. As a result he traveled extensively, in Greec
e, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Persia, gaining a great deal of first-hand experience of these cultures. He wrote his Histories, later divided into nine books, on the conflict between Greeks and Persians up until 478 BC, giving much space to the earlier histor
y of the Persian empire and including a number of interesting geo-ethnographic digressions on Egypt, Scythia, and Libya. He is considered the father of all historians.\par
rchitect and city planner, he was active mainly after the Persian wars and was responsible for the construction of the Piraeus, the colony of Thourioi (445/444 BC), and, according to some, the city of Rhodes as well. Tradition has it that it was he who d
eveloped the gridiron plan typical of Greek and Roman cities, with a regular subdivision of the urban area by streets running in a north-south and east-west direction.\par
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\b Homer (8th cent. BC)\par
\b0 He was the most famous epic poet of Greece
, and is traditionally believed to be the author of the Iliad and Odyssey. In reality we have no reliable biographical information, and even his blindness may be legendary. The Iliad, in twenty-four books, recounts an episode from the tenth year of the T
rojan War. The Odyssey, also divided into twenty-four books, tells of Ulysses' adventurous voyage from Troy to Ithaca.\par
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\b Horatius Cocles\par
\b0 Legendary Roman hero who according to tradition had single-handedly prevented the Etruscan soldi
ers of Porsenna from crossing the Sublician bridge. According to Polybius he was killed, but Livy claims that he was saved and honored for his heroism.\par
