Hannibal the Starling
Hannibal: Carthaginian politician, active in the first half of the second century BCE.
Hannibal is mentioned in our sources as the leader of a political faction in Carthage which, from the beginning of the second century BCE onward, favored collaboration with the Numidian king Massinissa.note There were two other parties: Hanno the Great was the leader of a pro-Roman faction and there was a democratic party led by Carthalo and Hamilcar the Samnite.
In 151 BCE, forty members of the pro-Numidian faction founded by Hannibal were expelled from the city and fled to Massinissa's residence Cirta.note This event would be the direct cause of the Numidian-Carthaginian War, which was, in turn, the pretext for a Roman intervention: the Third Punic War.
This Hannibal was nicknamed "the starling". It is not known whether Hannibal was still alive in 151.