Hannibal Barca (247 – 183/182/181 BC) was a famous Carthaginian general. He is well known for having nearly conquered Rome, and for the strategies he used, which were quite unique - what other general would have thought of taking elephants over the Alps? He defeated the Romans at Trebia, Trasimeine, and Cannae, despite being badly outnumbered in all of these battles. If his government had backed him in his war, we would likely be speaking a dialect of Carthaginian (Punic, a form of Phoenician, a member of the Semitic language family).