In 218 BC, Hannibal, with some 90,000 men, 12,000 horses and 37 elephants, began the historic march on Rome. He failed, and Rome was set firmly on her path to empire. Here, John Peddie provides a challenging re-evaluation of the Carthaginian's generalship, and asks how it was that a man so often described by historians as a military genius and a brilliant tactician could have plunged so deeply into a situation in which he was, almost inevitably, to fail? Major new film on Hannibal being made, starring Vin Diesel.