Hannibal as an administrator and economist

[Carl Jung was right]

One of the most peculiar things about Hannibal is that he seemed to possess as much of an uncanny talent in statecraft as he did in war. After the end of the Second Punic War, he was elected as suffet of the city and in only a year or so managed to not only straighten out the city's finances, but actually make it prosperous again. Considering that the city was devastated by a decades old war, crippling debt and massive reparations, this seems like an impressive achievement. Apparently Carthage's new found success also alarmed the Romans greatly, who demanded his immediate expulsion.

This is particularly interesting nowadays, because we see many powerful and wealthy nations appearing to hinge on the verge of an economic disaster from which they can't climb out. Can anyone shed some light on what measures Hannibal undertook to revive Carthage's economy?

[HannibalB]

Hannibal was much more than a general, and it is a shame his activities after Zama are not as well documented as his activities during the Second Punic War. He did much for Carthage after the war - remaining as a general after Zama for about two years (up to 200BC) and before he was a sufete, he spent his time reimposing Carthage's control over her Libyan subjects inland at least as far as Sicca and eastwards to the Gulf of Sirte.

He also started repairing the damage done by Scipio and Masinissa's campaigns, and began replanting olive trees. Not only would this restore state authority, it would keep his remaining troops usefully busy until they could be paid off.

Before Hannibal was a sufete, in 197 the treasury was close to collapse, due to the corruption of some members of the court of 104, they had even tried to fool the Romans by giving them serious adulterated talents in 199, strained relations with their own people, and even worse, Masinissa. Citizens had to pay out of their own money for the year's war-indemnity, making up for the self-enriched idiots of the court of 104.

In 196, Hannibal took office and acted swiftly, investigating the corrupt court, hauling the recalcitrant before the citizen assembly, and passing a new law that removed judges lifetime tenure, made membership annually electable and also banned re-election for a second consecutive year.

He next enacted reforms that cleaned up the treasury and recovered much of the stolen money. The special tax was dropped, enriching the public.

He oversaw the physical development of a new residential and commercial district which was built on unused ground on the southern slope of the Bysra hill. It had carefully laid out, well-drained streets lined by shops and apartments with Greek style peristyle courtyards. This area was named the 'quartier Hannibal' by archeologists and prospered until the fall of Carthage.

His reforms succeeded, and really, he achieved more for his country in one year than he did for the twenty he was in Spain and Italy.


Bibliography

Hannibal: Rome's Greatest Enemy by Dexter Hoyos

[Linke]

Imagine if Hannibal had been king of Carthage with full authority

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Not to go too far off topic, but what exactly was Carthage's form of government? I understand they had some sort of elected judges that managed the city?

For such an important historical nation, there is surprisingly little information on Wikipedia.

[ImperatorAndreas]

You have to thank the Romans for that XD

[HannibalB]

Not to go too far off topic, but what exactly was Carthage's form of government? I understand they had some sort of elected judges that managed the city?

For such an important historical nation, there is surprisingly little information on Wikipedia.

Just some brief information for you:

It changed from a monarchy to an oligarchy long before the time of Hannibal.

Sadly, the political structure of the Carthaginian Republic is not very well known, the only evidence coming from bits and pieces scattered from various writers, like Aristotle, Herodotus, Diodorus, Appian, Nepos and Justin. We do know the Greeks appear to have thought highly of the republic, but they present it in a very idealised and theorised way.

The Carthaginian senate was called the adirim, the sufettes were chief magistrates. The term sufette is attested by Punic inscriptions. Aristotle gives us a brief glimpse of Carthaginian politics, and says that the sufetes would have been of wealth and high birth. Cornelius Nepos tells us that there were two sufetes (though he writes in the Greek term for kings) and that they were elected annually. The adirim functions appear to be as broad as the Roman senate's, deciding on war and peace, most likely needed ratification by an assembly of citizens, handling foreign nations, and authorising military matters, while some domestic decisions are also recorded, namely confiscating Hannibal Barca's property in 195 BC.

There are several other bodies known. One is mentioned by Livy and appears to be a smaller senatorial body, consisting 30 members Livy calls 'the most sacred council', who were the leading senators, and though they are not mentioned by that name in other sources, we do see groups of 30 senators in other cases, particularly during the Truceless war. Hoyos believes they were probably ex-sufetes, and were largely an honorific body of eminent senators (The Carthaginians, p.31).

Aristotle mentions a mysterious arm of government called the 'pentarchies', who do not appear in another source, which were five-man commissions, who served without pay and controlled important matters, including judging cases at law. We have no other evidence they existed, but there is an inscription attesting to a ten man board for sacred places. There was also a commission of 30 supervising taxes.

We have mention of treasurers and accountants who had power to penalise persons failing to pay customs dues. There was a chief (rb, or rab) in charge of finances. Another strong political position was created, that of the generals, separating military duties from civil (very unlike Rome!), and the nemesis set up to try generals known as the court of one hundred and four, and Aristotle calls this the greatest authority in Carthage' and likens it to the 5 ephors of Sparta which could indicate they dealt with the administration of both civil and military areas.

Lastly there is the assembly of citizens simply called the m' (ham) who met in the cities market place, and is mentioned by Justin in his story of Malchus who appears to have been treated with a respect and could elect magistrates and vote on policy decisions. We have no definite information how they operated though, but it is thought from a Latin inscription found in Thugga strongly influenced by Carthage, that they had a voting arrangement (gates) of local clans and residents of different sections of the town, but it's speculation.

From about the 5th century down to the second, the affairs of the republic seemed to be handled by military men, and in particular, dominant families and their supporters, such as the Magonids and Barcids, all of which came from landowning families rather than mercantile.

[Carl Jung was right]

I ask a question like this, and then Hannibal himself comes in this thread and he's like..."Yup I sure am pretty awesome, but I can't remember what exactly was it that I did it was so long ago lol"