130 free Hannibal trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Hannibal trivia quiz follows the Carthaginian general from the oath he swore to his father as a boy to the poison he took in Bithynia forty years later: the siege of Saguntum, the march over the Alps with elephants, the ambush at Lake Trasimene, the double envelopment at Cannae, fifteen years loose in southern Italy, defeat at Zama, reform as sufet and a long exile at foreign courts. The easy questions cover the outline: his city, his father, the mountains, the great battle of 216 BC, the Roman who finally beat him and the phrase Romans shouted when disaster loomed. The harder half is for readers of Polybius and Livy: the meaning of Barca, the wigs he wore among the Gauls, the vinegar and the rockfall, the eye he lost in the Arno marshes, the cattle with burning horns, the number of senators who died at Cannae, Maharbal's rebuke, the bronze tablets at Crotona, the trumpets at Zama, the reforms to the Hundred and Four, the philosopher he called an old fool, the clay pots of snakes, and the prophecy about Libyssan earth. Every answer was checked against Hannibal's encyclopaedia entry before publishing. If you enjoy this, try our Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Roman Empire quizzes next.
30 of 130 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Hannibal's home city of Carthage lay in which modern country?
Tunisia
He is revered there as a national hero, with a TV channel and a railway station named after him.
Q 02Who was Hannibal's father?
Hamilcar Barca
He drowned in battle while conquering Hispania for Carthage.
Q 03What does the cognomen Barca mean?
Lightning
Hannibal's father earned it for the swiftness and ferocity of his attacks.
Q 04The name Hannibal combines the Phoenician name Hanno with which deity?
Baal
Suggested readings of the name mean the lord is gracious or the grace of Baal.
Q 05According to Polybius, what did Hannibal's father make him swear as a boy?
Never to be a friend of Rome
One story has the nine-year-old held over a sacrificial fire while he swore it.
Q 06How old was Hannibal when the army proclaimed him commander-in-chief in 221 BC?
26
Livy says the old soldiers fancied they saw his father Hamilcar in his youth given back to them.
Q 07Whose assassination in 221 BC brought Hannibal to supreme command in Hispania?
Hasdrubal the Fair
He was Hannibal's brother-in-law and had signed a treaty with Rome fixing the Ebro as a boundary.
Q 08According to the Roman poet Silius Italicus, what was the name of Hannibal's wife from Castulo?
Imilce
Silius also mentions a son, otherwise unattested by Livy, Polybius or Appian.
Q 09Hannibal's attack on which Roman-allied city in Spain sparked the Second Punic War?
Saguntum
The city fell after an eight-month siege; a Roman envoy then offered Carthage the choice of war or peace.
Q 10How long did Hannibal's siege of the city that started the war last?
Eight months
Hannibal sent the booty home to Carthage, a shrewd move that won government support.
Q 11From which Spanish city did Hannibal set out for Italy in the spring of 218 BC?
New Carthage (Cartagena)
He left 20,000 troops behind to garrison the conquered region.
Q 12How many elephants did Hannibal's army have when it reached the Rhône?
38
Almost none survived the Alps, and most that did died of injuries or cold in the first winter.
Q 13According to Livy, what did Hannibal use along with fire to break through a rockfall in the Alps?
Vinegar
Polybius never mentions it, and no carbonised rock has been found at the likely spot.
Q 21Which Roman was appointed dictator after Trasimene and refused to meet Hannibal in open battle?
Quintus Fabius Maximus
Many Romans thought his strategy cowardice, and his term as dictator was not renewed.
Q 22What nickname did Fabius earn for refusing to engage Hannibal in open battle?
Cunctator, the Delayer
The strategy of attrition named after him is still called Fabian.
Q 23Trapped in Campania by Fabius, how did Hannibal slip his army out at night?
He tied burning torches to the horns of cattle
Q 14Which pass does W. C. Mahaney argue Hannibal crossed, citing disturbed peat and horse-gut bacteria?
Col de la Traversette
Radiocarbon dating of the churned ground gave about 218 BC, the year of the march.
Q 15According to Polybius, roughly how many foot soldiers did Hannibal have left when he reached Italy?
20,000
That would mean he had lost almost half his force since the Rhône.
Q 16Which Roman consul was wounded at the Ticinus in 218 BC and rescued by his teenage son, the future Africanus?
Publius Cornelius Scipio
He had expected Hannibal to come by sea and had already sent most of his troops to Spain.
Q 17Fearing assassination by the Gauls in the winter of 218–217 BC, how did Hannibal disguise himself?
He wore differently dyed wigs
The Gauls' enthusiasm for his cause had cooled after a winter of hosting his army.
Q 18What caused Hannibal to lose the sight of his right eye during the march through the Arno marshes?
Conjunctivitis
His men marched four days and three nights through flooded land, and many were lost.
Q 19Which Roman consul was killed with his army in the ambush at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC?
Gaius Flaminius
Hannibal searched in vain for his body on the lakeshore afterwards.
Q 20Hannibal's manoeuvre around the Roman flank before Trasimene is called the first recorded example of what?
A turning movement
It cut the Roman army off from Rome and provoked a hasty pursuit into a defile.
Romans chased the moving lights along the heights while the army crept through an unguarded pass.
Q 24At which 216 BC battle in Apulia did Hannibal envelop and destroy a Roman army of 50,000 to 80,000?
Cannae
It remains one of the bloodiest single days in human history and is still taught in military academies.
Q 25Which two consuls commanded the Roman army on alternate days at the great battle of 216 BC?
Varro and Paullus
Livy blamed the reckless Varro, whose turn it supposedly was, but the Senate later pardoned him.
Q 26How many Roman senators died in the great defeat of 216 BC?
80
That was a quarter to a third of a Senate of no more than 300 men.
Q 27Which cavalry commander told Hannibal, 'You know how to gain a victory, but not how to use one'?
Maharbal
He had led the Numidian horse that shattered the Roman cavalry on the right wing.
Q 28Which Macedonian king pledged support to Hannibal after 216 BC, starting the First Macedonian War?
Philip V
He never sent Hannibal meaningful help and was soon tied down by Rome's Greek allies.
Q 29Which city, then the second largest in Italy, defected to Hannibal and became his base?
Capua
Rome besieged and retook it in 211 BC despite Hannibal's march on Rome to draw the armies off.
Q 30For roughly how many years did Hannibal occupy most of southern Italy?
15
He never lost a battle there but could not win a decisive victory without reinforcements.