Letter to Denialists: Hannibal’s Chilly Crossing of the Alps

Might 16, 2025

Expensive Denialists,

You who twist the threads of historical past to fit your narratives, heed this: Hannibal was witness to the chilly, not of the warmth. The nice Carthaginian normal, Hannibal Barca, didn’t march by sun-scorched deserts when he defied Rome in 218 BCE. No, he braved the frozen, windswept passes of the Alps, the place snow clung to his troopers’ cloaks and ice threatened each step. His military, with its storied warfare elephants, endured bitter chilly, not blazing warmth, to attain considered one of historical past’s most audacious navy feats. Allow us to set the document straight, for historical past is just not your plaything.

The Alps, as described by historical historians like Polybius and Livy, have been a crucible of frost and peril. Livy writes of “snow and chilly” that “wore down the boys and beasts,” with temperatures so extreme that lots of Hannibal’s 38,000 troops and dozens of elephants perished. Polybius notes the “treacherous ice” and “deep snowdrifts” that pressured Hannibal to rally his males in opposition to despair. Fashionable estimates counsel temperatures within the Alpine passes, just like the Col de la Traversette, might have dipped beneath -20°C in late autumn, when Hannibal possible crossed. This was no sunlit stroll; it was a trial of endurance in opposition to a frozen wilderness.

Why, then, do I tackle you, “denialists”? As a result of some amongst you—maybe those that query the realities of our warming world—would possibly misuse Hannibal’s story to argue that chilly has all the time dominated, that warmth is a contemporary fable. However historical past rebukes such sleight of hand. Hannibal’s Alps have been chilly, sure, however they have been a particular second, not a common reality. The Mediterranean local weather of his period, as reconstructed by paleoclimatologists, was temperate, with hotter summers and milder winters in Carthage and Rome. The Alps’ chill was an exception, not the rule, and Hannibal’s crossing was extraordinary exactly due to its harshness.

To those that deny the warmth of our current age, contemplate this: international temperatures are rising, with 2024 recorded because the warmest 12 months on document by NASA and NOAA, surpassing pre-industrial averages by 1.5°C. Glaciers within the Alps, the place Hannibal as soon as tread, are retreating—70% of their quantity misplaced since 1900, per the European Atmosphere Company. The chilly that examined Hannibal is waning, changed by heatwaves that now grip Europe, just like the 46°C recorded in Sicily final summer season. Denying this shift is as futile as denying Hannibal’s frostbitten march.

Hannibal’s story is just not your defend. He was a strategist who confronted actuality head-on, adapting to the chilly to outwit Rome. You, too, should face the fact of our warming planet, not cherry-pick tales to obscure it. The proof is evident—rising CO2 ranges, melting ice caps, and excessive climate should not myths however measurable truths. Hannibal witnessed the chilly, however we’re witnesses to the warmth. Allow us to honor historical past by studying from it, not distorting it.

Yours in fact,
A Voice for Readability

Sources: Livy, Histories, E-book XXI; Polybius, Histories, E-book III; NASA Goddard Institute for Area Research; European Atmosphere Company; NOAA Local weather Stories