Audio available later today.

The city of Carthage was located in North Africa, in what’s now Tunisia. At one time, Carthage controlled most of the western Mediterranean basin. But then Carthage was challenged by an upstart, the city of Rome. 

Carthage had a brilliant general, Hannibal Barca. Besides an army of about 50,000 men, Hannibal had 40 elephants, which he used like modern tanks to roll over the enemy. He annihilated a Roman army in Spain, then marched his own army overland, crossed the Alps — elephants and all — and invaded Italy from the north. 

Historian John Schmidt tells us about the battle that led to the rise of the Roman Empire.