Commander-in-Chief of the Carthaginian Forces

I’m always on the lookout for exceptional people to identify and analyze astrologically. Hannibal was a legend in his own time. But what made him the way he was?

The birth time is randomized, but I think it’s accurate, at least for our purposes. Mars is just about where it should be when he took over as Commander-in-Chief at age 25. That would make his Rising sign Scorpio, which is probably why we know so little about him.

When I drew up the Battle of Cannae chart, the pivotal planet was Saturn. I think this explains his character and effect on his troops: he was a younger version of his father, Hamilcar. If anything, he was his father’s son and heir in battle and in life. (The legends of him swearing an oath [under duress?] to his father that he would never be a friend of Rome are an indication of this: at the time he was just a boy, and he wanted to go with his father into battle on the Iberian peninsula.) At any rate, he certainly exceeded all expectations, even though he didn’t win the 2nd Punic War against Rome.

There are two inconjuncts, and I feel they explain far more than anything else does:

Sun Inconjunct Saturn

You will have to learn the difference between having self-control and discipline, on one hand, and totally denying yourself and self-expression, on the other. This aspect can mean that you feel extremely unworthy, which undermines your self-confidence and makes it hard to face obstacles in life with confidence and determination.

Uranus Inconjunct Pluto

This aspect indicates changes in the world of the people who were born at these times, changes that were difficult to understand because they were very revolutionary but subtle in many ways. The people born [in the 19th century] during the first period [1892-1894] experienced the consequences of these changes through having to fight in the First World War. The second group [1911-1912] reached maturity at the time of the Great Depression. Both the First World War and the Depression were expressions of the breakdown of the nineteenth-century world order that was dominated by Western Europe.

These inconjuncts are the reason that Hannibal’s battle strategy dictated how campaigns of war were to be fought, until the First World War, when everything changed.

And instead of committing suicide by his own sword, he swallowed poison: very Scorpio Ascendant, in my opinion. He was 65 years old.