HANNAY, James (1827–1873), critic, novelist, and publicist, was born at Dumfries in 1827, and came of the II innays of Sorbie, an ancient Galloway family. He entered the navy in 1840 and served till 1845, when he adopted literature as his profession. In 1857 Hannay contested the Dumfries burghs in the Conservative interest, but without success. He edited the Edinburgh Courant from 1860 till 1864, when he removed to London. In July 1868 he was appointed British consul at Barcelona, a post which he occupiad till his death on the 8th of January 1873. While at Barcelona he contributed to English periodicals ; and his letters to the Pall Mall Gazette " From an English man in Spain " were highly appreciated. Hannay s best books are Singleton Fontenoy, Satire and Satirists, Eustace Conyers, and Essays from the Quarterly Review. Satire not only shows loving appreciation of the great satirists of the past, but is itself instinct with wit and fine satiric power. The book sparkles with epigrams and apposite classical allusions, and contains admirable critical estimates of Horace (Hinnay s favourite author), Juvenal, Erasmus, Sir David Lindsay, George Buchanan, Boileau, Butler, Dryden, Swift, Pope, Churchill, Burns, Byron, and Moore. The Essays are full of learning and historical knowledge, and are lit up with sunny humour and brilliant flashes of wit and poetry. Hannay passionately admired three things learning, literary genius, and good blood. He showed great interest in the history and fortunes of aris tocratic families; and his wonderful skill in matters of heraldry and genealogy is recognized by highly competent authorities (see Masson's Life of Milton, vol. i. p. 8). He was a ripe Latin scholar; and his style is marked by grace, vivacity, and poetical feeling. He was intimate with his leading literary contemporaries, and wrote the valuable notes to Thackeray s English Humorists.
In addition to contributions to Punch and the leading reviews, Hannay issued the following works -.Biscuits and Grog, Claret Cup, and Hearts are Trumps (1848) ; King Dobls (1849) ; Sketches in Ultramarine; Singleton Fontcnoy (1850); an edition of the Poems of Edgar Allan Foe, to which he prefixed an exquisite essay on the poet s life and genius (1852) ; Sands and Shells and Satire and Satirists (1854) ; Eustace Conycrs (1855) ; Essays from the Quarterly Review (1861) ; Characters and Criticisms, consisting mainly of his contributions to the Edinburgh Courant (1865) ; A Course of English Literature (1866); and a family history entitled J. /ires Hundred Years of a Norman House (1867).
HANNIBAL. Hannibal was a very common Cartha ginian name. Its final syllable lal occurs repeatedly, as a sumx,_in Punic names, and is in fact taken from the chief Phoenician deity, Baal. The entire name denotes, according to a probable interpretation, "the favour of Baal." The famous Hannibal, the hero of the Second Punic War, was the son of Haniilcar Barca, and was born in 247 b.c. He and his two brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago, were called by the father " the lion s brood." At the aire of nine he begged his father, who was leaving Carthage for Spain, to take him with him. The request was granted, but not before he had sworn at that father s bidding on the altar of sacrifice eternal enmity to Horns. That vow determined his life s future. In Spain he was bred up in camps under his father s eye. He was present at the battle in which his father fell in 228 b.c., being then in his nineteenth year. Hamilcar s son-in-law, Hasdrubal, succeeded to the command. Eight years afterwards, in 221 b.c., he was struck down by an Iberian assassin. Meantime the young Hannibal had proved himself thoroughly able both " to obey and to com mand." It was a matter of course that the soldiers with one voice at once hailed him as their general.
His first object w r as to complete the work of his father and his father s successor. Spain, he felt, must be more thoroughly overawed, if it was to be a base of operations against Rome. He pushed into the heart of the country, crossed the Tagus, and crushed the resistance of the tribes of the interior. Two campaigns sufficed for the conquest of all Spain to the south of the Ebro, except Saguntum, a town considerably south of the Ebro and some way to the north of the modern Valencia. It was a Greek colony from Zacynthus (Zante), and had grow r n into a rich and prosperous place, but, what was now far more important, it was in friendly relations with Rome. To attack it therefore would be like throwing down the gauntlet to the Roman senate and people. But Hannibal was able to tell the home Government at Carthage that the Saguntines were molesting Carthaginian subjects in the neighbourhood. Without awaiting an answer, he began the siege. Roman ambassadors at the solicitation of envoys from Saguntum landed on the coast, but were told by Hannibal that he could not see them. They went on to Carthage, but their remonstrances, though the subject of along debate, were in vain. Eight months passed away, and Saguntum, after a gallant defence, was forced to surrender. Hannibal got a rich booty for his army, and went into winter quarters at New Carthage (Cartagena). Again a Roman embassy went to Carthage and insisted on his being given up. The demand was refused. By the close of the year 219 b.c. the Second Punic War was in fact begun.
Hannibal s resolution was now taken. He prepared at once to invade Italy. He had a numerous and efficient army and a well-filled exchequer. All who shrank from the expedition he dismissed to their homes. In the spring of 218 b.c. he began his great march from New Carthage with an army of 90,000 foot, 12,000 horse, and 37 elephants. The Ebro was easily crossed. In the country beyond he had some fighting with the native tribes, and there he left Hanno, with a force of 10,000 foot and 1000 horse to- secure the passes between Spain and Gaul. Again he sent back all in whom he saw signs of hesitation. With a con siderably diminished army he passed the Pyrenees at Bellegarde and encamped at Iliberris (Elne). Some Gallic tribes, alarmed at his advance, had assembled in the neigh bourhood, but he soon conciliated their chiefs and persuaded them that he meant them no mischief. So he continued his march without molestation to the Rhone.
Meanwhile the Romans had done little or nothing to check their enemy. At last the consul, Publius Cornelius Scipio, arrived at Massilia (Marseilles), and was surprised to find tLat Hannibal was about to cross the Rhone. But he was too late to oppose the passage, and Hannibal crossed the river probably at some point near the village of Roquemaure. He then followed its course, marching up its left bank to its junction with the Isere at Valence, and entered what was known as the " Island of the Allobroges." It w r as from thence that he began his famous passage of the Alps.
