craven.fr (.ox.ac.uk)

The introductory lecture to Stanford's course on Hannibal is one of the most chilling, disturbing things I have ever listened to. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, I think it is extremely important to listen to for some people.

The lecture in question gives background into some of the practices of the ancient Carthaginians, in order to better understand Hannibal's culture and the things that would be weighing on him psychologically in the course of his war with Rome. Apart from that connexion, though, Hannibal and the Punic wars do not really figure into this lecture. Rather it details the discovery of a facet of Carthaginian culture that history had tried to erase from memory: the widespread practice of sacrificing their first born sons when they were little boys.

Obviously, to me as a father, this was disturbing material to hear about, so I don't think I need to justify why this lecture chilled me so. Rather, the question is why, for some, I so strongly recommend listening to it.

For one, the Carthiginian civilisation was arguably the most advanced in the world at its prime, and inarguably it was near the top of the list. For a civilised human culture to develop along lines so alien to what we think of as civilisation today is an important revelation. Hearing about the Carthiginian practices poses important questions: What does it mean to be human? What attrocities are we as a species capable of if we develop in the wrong direction—and how can we ensure that we develop in the right direction, or even understand reliably what "right" is, if our "natural" senses can be so perverted?

Secondly, developing a better understanding of Carthaginian culture is absolutely necessary in order to understand another somewhat influential historical figure: Abraham. Carthage was actually a prosperous colony of the Canaanite Phœnician civilisation, and shared a common language and religion with those peoples. The same peoples who occupy a large part of the Old Testament. The story in Genesis of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is, I believe, completely incomprehensible without the context of the Canaanite practices that this lecture describes.

These are dark questions, and it is easy to understand why they are not often addressed (indeed, this is why knowledge of the Carthiginian sacrifices—or at least of their reality and extent—was lost to us until recently). But for those who wish to understand the story of Abraham, the life of Hannibal, or some very probing questions on human nature, I think that the first lecture of this course is an important element.