Hannibal the Rhodian


Hannibal, distinguished by Polybius as was a prominent Carthaginian. During the First Punic War, when the Romans were besieging Lilybaeum, he was able to use the superior speed of his specially built ship to avoid the Roman fleet and gain valuable intelligence that he reported to the Carthaginian commander Adherbal and to the Carthaginian Senate. The Romans finally caught and defeated him making use of a captured Carthaginian quadrireme. The Romans used his ship to thwart subsequent Carthaginian blockade runners and modeled their subsequent naval vessels on it.

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