122 Fun Facts About Hannibal

Hannibal's home city of Carthage lay in which modern country?

Tunisia holds Carthage's ruins, on the edge of modern Tunis; Rome razed the city in 146 BC, then refounded it about a century later as the chief city of its African province.

Livy praised the young Hannibal's courage but charged him with a 'more than Punic' what?

Treachery, 'a perfidy worse than Punic', is Livy's charge, set beside inhuman cruelty; yet the same passage admits he was first into every fight, last out, and slept on the ground among his sentries.

What does the cognomen Barca mean?

Lightning, or 'thunderbolt', is the usual reading of Punic brq. It was a personal byname rather than a family surname: 'Barcid' is a label historians coined later for Hamilcar's family.

At which river did Hannibal defeat the Carpetani coalition in 220 BC?

Returning laden with plunder, Hannibal put the Tagus between himself and the Carpetani, then cut them down as they forded it, his elephants patrolling the bank.

According to Polybius, what did Hannibal's father make him swear as a boy?

Never to be a friend of Rome: his father had him swear it at the altar, aged nine, before taking him to Spain, and Hannibal told the story decades later to convince a wary king of his loyalty.

Who first proclaimed Hannibal commander-in-chief in 221 BC?

His army in Spain acclaimed him as soon as its old commander was murdered; only then did Carthage's assembly meet, and it simply ratified the soldiers' choice.

Whose assassination in 221 BC brought Hannibal to supreme command in Hispania?

Hasdrubal the Fair, Hannibal's brother-in-law, was murdered by a Celtic servant in 221 BC; he had signed the 226 BC treaty with Rome fixing the Ebro as a boundary.

According to the Roman poet Silius Italicus, what was the name of Hannibal's wife from Castulo?

Imilce is a name known only from Silius Italicus's epic Punica; Livy says just that Hannibal took a wife from Castulo, so close was the Spanish town's alliance with Carthage.

Hannibal's attack on which Roman-allied city in Spain sparked the Second Punic War?

Saguntum, a Roman ally south of the Ebro, fell to Hannibal in 219 BC; a Roman embassy then offered Carthage the choice of war or peace.

What happened to Hannibal during the eight-month siege that began the Second Punic War?

A javelin wound in the thigh, taken when he came too close to the wall, Livy says; the assault slackened into a blockade until he healed, and the city still fell after eight months.

From which Spanish port, the Barcid capital, did Hannibal begin his march to Italy in 218 BC?

Cartagena, then called New Carthage, was his base; before leaving he posted Spanish troops to Africa and African troops to Spain, so each garrison stood surety for the other's loyalty.

According to Livy, what did Hannibal use along with fire to break through a rockfall in the Alps?

Vinegar, poured over rock his men had first heated with a great fire, crumbled it, Livy says; Polybius, writing far closer to the events, describes the blocked path but no vinegar.

What did researchers find below the Col de la Traversette in 2016 that may mark Hannibal's route?

Ancient dung: churned mud dated to about 218 BC and rich in bacteria from horse guts suggests thousands of animals passed. The clincher the team still hoped for was a tapeworm egg from an elephant.

On reaching Italy, Hannibal stormed a hostile tribe's chief town in the area of which modern city?

Turin lies in the land of the Taurini, whose stronghold Hannibal took in three days; he killed those who had resisted, and Polybius says the terror brought the neighbouring tribes over to him.

How did Rome's Senate answer Hannibal's offer to ransom the prisoners he took at Cannae?

It refused to pay: Livy says the Senate would not drain a treasury already spent on arming slaves, or enrich a Hannibal known to be short of money.

How did Hannibal disguise himself from assassins in the winter of 218–217 BC?

He wore differently dyed wigs, with clothes to match each one, Polybius says, so that even people who knew him well struggled to recognise him.

What caused Hannibal to lose the sight of his right eye during the march through the Arno marshes?

Four days and three nights wading through the flooded Arno marshes brought on an eye infection, usually identified as conjunctivitis, that cost Hannibal the sight of his right eye.

Which Roman consul was killed with his army in the ambush at Lake Trasimene in 217 BC?

Gaius Flaminius, consul of 217 BC, died with some 15,000 men in the Trasimene ambush; Livy says Hannibal searched the field for his body to bury it, in vain.

According to Livy, what struck Italy during the battle at Lake Trasimene without the fighters noticing?

An earthquake, strong enough to level parts of towns and turn rivers from their beds, Livy and Plutarch both say; the two armies were fighting so hard that nobody felt it.

After the disaster at Lake Trasimene, Rome gave Fabius Maximus which office to stop Hannibal?

Dictator, an office Rome had left unused for years: with one consul dead and the other cut off, the people chose him themselves, and impatient voters later gave his deputy equal power.

What does Cunctator, the nickname Fabius Maximus earned against Hannibal, mean?

The Delayer: Fabius shadowed Hannibal for months without offering battle, and the poet Ennius later hailed him as the one man who saved Rome by delaying; such tactics are still called Fabian.

Trapped in Campania by Fabius, how did Hannibal slip his army out at night?

Torches tied to cattle's horns, some 2,000 oxen driven up a ridge in the dark, drew the Roman pass guards off to chase the lights, and his army walked out through the gap.

At Cannae, Hannibal placed his army so that the wind drove what into the Roman soldiers' faces?

Dust, whipped off the dry Apulian plain by a hot local wind, blew straight at the Romans, Livy and Plutarch say; Hannibal had chosen his campsite with his back to that wind.

Which two consuls commanded the Roman army on alternate days at the great battle of 216 BC?

Consuls Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus alternated command; Livy blames Varro, whose day it was, yet the Senate thanked him afterwards for not despairing of the Republic.

After his victories in Italy, what did Hannibal do with prisoners from Rome's Italian allies?

Freed them without ransom, telling them his quarrel was with Rome alone: Polybius says the aim was to turn Italy's cities against her, while Roman prisoners stayed in chains.

In Livy, which cavalry commander told Hannibal, 'You know how to gain a victory, but not how to use one'?

Maharbal, Hannibal's cavalry commander, urged an immediate march on Rome after the 216 BC victory; Livy records this rebuke when Hannibal declined.

Which Macedonian king pledged support to Hannibal after 216 BC, starting the First Macedonian War?

Philip V of Macedon made a treaty with Hannibal in 215 BC, but Rome's fleet and its Aetolian allies kept him busy in Greece until he made a separate peace in 205 BC, so his army never reached Italy.

What ended Hannibal's 15 years in Italy?

A recall home: Carthage ordered him back to defend Africa once a Roman army had landed there and begun winning; Livy has him groan that Carthage's own senate, not Rome, had beaten him.

Which Carthaginian led the anti-Barcid faction and argued against reinforcing Hannibal after his 216 BC victory?

Hanno the Great mocked the victory report and urged peace instead; Livy says few senators listened, and Carthage voted Hannibal Numidian horsemen, elephants and silver anyway.

Which city did Hannibal capture by surprise in 212 BC while failing to take its harbour?

Tarentum's gates were opened to Hannibal by local conspirators in 212 BC, but the Roman garrison held the citadel commanding the harbour; Fabius retook the city in 209 BC.

Which Roman consul, nicknamed the Sword of Rome, died in a clash with Hannibal's cavalry in 208 BC?

Marcus Claudius Marcellus, five times consul, rode out to reconnoitre near Venusia and into a Numidian ambush; Plutarch says Hannibal had the body cremated with honours and sent the ashes to his son.

At which 207 BC battle was Hannibal's brother killed while bringing reinforcements from Spain?

The Metaurus, on Italy's Adriatic side, is where the relief army from Spain was destroyed in 207 BC; the Romans cut off its commander's head and threw it down in front of Hannibal's outposts.

Which brother of Hannibal had his severed head thrown before Hannibal's camp in 207 BC?

Hasdrubal Barca had brought a second army over the Alps from Spain; when the head was thrown down, Livy says, Hannibal declared that he saw in it the doom of Carthage.

Hannibal left a bronze record of his campaigns near Crotona, written in which two languages?

Punic and Greek: Livy says he set the inscription up at the temple of Juno Lacinia before leaving Italy, and Polybius later found it there and copied its troop numbers.

What did Hannibal and the Roman commander do on the eve of the battle of Zama?

Met in person to talk peace: with only an interpreter present, Hannibal offered Rome Spain and the islands, and Scipio answered that Carthage must surrender or fight.

Which Numidian king's defection to Rome gave Scipio the cavalry superiority at Zama?

Masinissa, a Numidian prince, went over to Scipio in 206 BC, hoping to win Numidia from his rival Syphax; his horsemen decided the cavalry fight at Zama.

What civic office did Hannibal win in Carthage after the war?

Elected sufet, Carthage's chief magistrate, Hannibal went after embezzling officials and reorganised the finances so that Rome's indemnity could be paid without new taxes.

Besides a 10,000-talent indemnity, what did Rome's 201 BC peace forbid Carthage to do without its consent?

Wage war was the ban that mattered: when Numidia kept seizing its land, Carthage could not legally fight back, and when it finally did, Rome had its pretext to destroy the city.

How did Hannibal reform Carthage's board of judges, the Hundred and Four?

He made their term one year instead of life after a treasury official bound for the board ignored his summons; Livy says the judges' lifelong hold on citizens' property and reputation had made them hated.

Which Seleucid king, known as 'the Great', took Hannibal in as a military adviser in exile?

Hannibal fled to Antiochus III the Great in 195 BC after Roman envoys, tipped off by his enemies at Carthage, accused him of plotting with the Seleucid king.

How did Hannibal reportedly rate the philosopher Phormio's lecture to him on generalship?

The ravings of an old fool: he said he had seen many silly old men but none sillier. The story's point is that a man who had never seen a camp was lecturing Rome's greatest enemy on war.

Commanding a Seleucid fleet in 190 BC, Hannibal was beaten at sea by the navy of which Greek island?

Rhodes sent the fleet that met him off Side, on Turkey's south coast; its better-handled ships crippled half his line, and the squadron he had built never joined the main Seleucid fleet.

At which battle was the Seleucid king decisively defeated, after which he agreed to hand Hannibal to Rome?

Magnesia broke the king's army, and Rome's first peace demand was Hannibal's surrender; he fled before he could be handed over, and ancient writers send him to Crete or Armenia before Bithynia.

What did Hannibal have hurled onto Eumenes of Pergamon's ships to win a sea battle for Bithynia?

Pots of venomous snakes smashed on the decks, and the laughing Pergamene crews fled once they saw what was loose; Hannibal had first sent a herald with a letter just to find the king's ship.

At whose court in Bithynia did Hannibal spend his final years?

Prusias I of Bithynia sheltered Hannibal and used him as a commander against Pergamon, but finally bowed to Roman pressure to give him up.

According to Livy and Cornelius Nepos, how did Hannibal die?

Poison, as soldiers closed in on his house: Nepos says he always carried a dose. Pausanias instead has him die of a fever after cutting a finger on his own sword.

Which Roman ex-consul, famed for proclaiming Greece free, went as envoy to Bithynia shortly before Hannibal's death there?

Titus Quinctius Flamininus came as envoy to the king; Livy is unsure whether he demanded Hannibal or the king offered him, and has Hannibal mock Romans too impatient to wait for an old man to die.

According to Pliny and Plutarch, Hannibal's tomb was at Libyssa, in north-west Turkey, on which sea?

Libyssa, near modern Gebze on the Gulf of İzmit, lies on the Sea of Marmara; an oracle had said Libyssan earth would cover him, which he took to mean Libya.

Which Roman orator used 'Hannibal ad portas' as a byword for sudden peril?

Cicero used 'Hannibal ad portas', Hannibal at the gates, in his Philippics; it recalls 211 BC, when Hannibal camped outside Rome and the very field he camped on still sold at auction for its full price.

In Livy's account, whom did Hannibal name as greater generals than himself when Scipio asked?

Hannibal ranked Alexander first and Pyrrhus second, himself third; asked where he would stand had he beaten Scipio, he said first of all, a sly compliment to his conqueror.

Which North African-born Roman emperor is said to have built Hannibal a white marble tomb at Libyssa?

Septimius Severus came from Leptis Magna in Libya; the Byzantine scholar John Tzetzes says he faced the tomb in white marble because he too was of Libyan stock.

Which German strategy for World War I drew on Hannibal's envelopment tactics of 216 BC?

The Schlieffen Plan's author, chief of the German general staff, wrote a treatise called Cannae and wanted his sweep through Belgium to encircle and annihilate the French as Hannibal had the Romans.

How did Hannibal get his allies' warships past a Roman-held citadel to sea in 212 BC?

Hauled them through the streets on wheeled carriages, along a level road from the harbour to the open sea; the astonished townsmen then blockaded the Roman garrison from the water.

Which psychoanalyst wrote that Hannibal had been his boyhood hero?

Sigmund Freud wrote in The Interpretation of Dreams that Hannibal was his boyhood favourite; the Semitic general's war on Rome stood for Jewish tenacity against the Catholic Church.

A cenotaph to Hannibal was built in 1981 near Gebze, Turkey, reflecting the interest of which leader?

Atatürk's interest set off a search for Hannibal's grave; the exact site was never fixed, so the cenotaph opened near Gebze in 1981 is a symbolic tomb, raised as a mark of his respect.

Which actor was announced in 2023 to star in a Netflix film about Hannibal?

Denzel Washington was attached in November 2023. When an MP in Hannibal's homeland questioned the casting in parliament, the culture minister called it fiction and Netflix's right, and said she was negotiating to have scenes shot there.

Before Zama, what did the Roman commander do with Hannibal's spies caught in his camp?

Showed them round and freed them: Scipio had an officer point out everything they wished to see, then sent them back to report it, a show of confidence that Polybius says filled Hannibal with admiration.

What did Hannibal take from the body of a Roman consul killed in an ambush in 208 BC?

His signet ring: Hannibal sealed a forged letter with it to trick the town of Salapia into opening its gates, but the dead man's colleague had already warned the cities and the ruse failed.

In which season did Hannibal's army reach the top of its Alpine pass in 218 BC?

Late autumn: Polybius and Livy both date the summit to the setting of the Pleiades, with new snow lying on old; on the way down it sent men and pack animals sliding off the track.

What did Hannibal show his exhausted troops from the top of the Alps to lift their spirits?

The plains of Italy below lay spread at their feet; Livy has him tell the men they were now crossing the barriers not only of Italy but of Rome itself.

One founding legend says Hannibal's father named which Spanish city after himself?

Barcelona, anciently Barcino, was long said to take its name from Hamilcar Barca, its legendary founder; historians find no evidence that the name has anything to do with the Barcids.

Which Roman commander lost the Battle of the Trebia in December 218 BC?

Tiberius Sempronius Longus, lured across the icy Trebia into an ambush, lost the war's first major battle near modern Piacenza in December 218 BC.

Hannibal's first clash with a Roman army in Italy, a cavalry fight, was near which river?

Ticinus, the modern Ticino, saw Hannibal's Numidian riders outflank the Romans and strike from behind; the beaten army slipped away behind a broken bridge, and some 600 men left to guard it were captured.

At Cannae, which part of Hannibal's line fell back by design to trap the Romans?

The centre, a thin bulge of Gauls and Spaniards, bent back under the Roman advance; the African infantry on either side then turned inward, and the returning cavalry shut the trap from behind.

Historian Adrian Goldsworthy compared Rome's dead in Hannibal's victory of 216 BC to which later battle's first day?

The Somme (1916) is his comparison: Britain lost over 19,000 dead on its first day, and Goldsworthy sets Hannibal's victory beside it, where the surrounded legions were pressed together and killed where they stood.

In the ancient accounts, what hid Hannibal's troops on the hills above Lake Trasimene in 217 BC?

Thick morning mist kept the Romans from seeing the ambush until their column was strung out along the shore of Lake Trasimene; struck from all sides while still in marching order, many were driven into the lake.

How many war elephants did Hannibal bring to the Rhône on his march to Italy in 218 BC?

Polybius counts 37 elephants at the Rhône; all but one died in the cold after the winter battle at the Trebia, and tradition names the survivor Surus, the animal Hannibal rode through the Arno marshes.

Which troops formed Hannibal's third and last infantry line at Zama?

His veterans from Italy stood in reserve behind the mercenaries and the Carthaginian levies, Polybius says; they fought the legions to a standstill until the enemy cavalry rode back and struck them from behind.

What did Rome use to foil Hannibal's elephants at Zama?

Open lanes ran through the Roman army because each unit stood directly behind the one in front, not in the usual chequerboard; elephants were driven down them, and others, scared by trumpets, turned on Hannibal's own cavalry.

Carthage was founded around 814 BC by colonists from which city in present-day Lebanon?

Tyre founded Carthage, the 'New City', about 814 BC; legend makes the founder its princess Elissa, or Dido, who fled after her brother, King Pygmalion, had her husband killed.

In legend, Dido cut an oxhide into strips to encircle a hill that was then named what?

Byrsa, Greek for 'oxhide', was the citadel hill of Carthage; the legend says Dido was granted only as much land as a hide could cover and cut it into thin strips.

Which epic poem, published around 19 BC, is the best-known source for Dido's story?

In the Aeneid, Books 1 and 4, Virgil has the love-sick queen Dido kill herself on a pyre when Aeneas sails from Carthage; the poem was left unfinished at his death in 19 BC.

Which Roman senator ended his speeches with 'Carthago delenda est'?

Cato the Elder came home from an embassy to Carthage alarmed at how rich it had grown again, and from then on closed every Senate speech, whatever its subject, with 'Carthage must be destroyed'.

Hannibal's name, a common one in Carthage, invokes the favour of which god?

Baal, 'lord', was a title of Carthage's chief god, and the name pairs it with a word for grace or favour; so many Carthaginian names end in -bal because they call on the same god.

Which mountain range did Hannibal's army cross first, months before it reached the Alps?

The Pyrenees came first; before the climb Hannibal sent thousands of his Spanish troops home, left a force to hold the country behind him, and went on with a smaller army.

Which Italian city did Hannibal's brother Mago capture in his 205 BC invasion?

Genoa, ancient Genua, fell to Mago Barca by surprise after he sailed from Minorca in 205 BC; badly wounded in a later defeat, he was recalled and, Livy says, died of the wound at sea.

Which Gustave Flaubert novel, set during Carthage's Mercenary War, gives Hannibal a fictional sister as its heroine?

Salammbô (1862) follows the mutiny of Carthage's unpaid soldiers; its priestess heroine, the commanding general's daughter, is invented, and a rebel leader's theft of the city's sacred veil drives the plot.

According to Polybius, what did Rome copy to build its first war fleet?

A Carthaginian ship that ran aground gave Rome's novice shipwrights their model, and the crews learned to row on benches set up on dry land while the copies were being built.

Scipio's 206 BC victory in Spain was won against which of Hannibal's brothers?

Mago shared the command that day with Hasdrubal Gisco, who was no relation of Hannibal's; Mago got away, and the following year he landed an army in northern Italy.

Hannibal's army included famed slingers recruited from which group of islands?

The Balearic Islands bred slingers so prized that ancient writers claimed boys there were given no bread until they had hit it with a sling-stone; Hannibal sent them out ahead of his line to open his battles.

Sophonisba, the Carthaginian wife of two Numidian kings, drank poison rather than face what fate?

Being paraded in a Roman triumph was what she feared once Scipio claimed her as a captive, so her new husband supplied poison instead; Livy has her call it a wedding gift and drink it calmly.

Which two leaders commanded Carthage's side at the Battle of the Great Plains in 203 BC?

Hasdrubal Gisco and Syphax, who had rebuilt their forces after losing their camps to fire, were routed at the Great Plains in 203 BC; Syphax fled, was beaten again at Cirta and captured.

At Utica in 203 BC, Scipio's night attack set fire to Numidian barracks made of what?

Reeds were what the Numidians had built their winter huts from, Polybius says, so the fire raced through their camp; the Carthaginians who ran over to help were cut down, and their own timber huts burned next.

Archimedes was killed by a Roman soldier at the end of which siege?

Syracuse fell to Rome in 212 BC, and Archimedes was cut down by a soldier during the sack, though the Roman commander had wanted him spared; his machines, among them a claw that upended ships, had long kept the besiegers out.

Soon after the First Punic War, Rome bullied an exhausted Carthage into giving up which island?

Sardinia, with Corsica, was surrendered when Rome threatened a new war and demanded 1,200 more talents on top; Polybius judged this bullying the chief cause of the war Hannibal later fought.

Which band of Italian mercenaries seized Messana in the 280s BC, setting up the First Punic War?

The Mamertines, 'sons of Mars', were Campanian mercenaries who seized Messana after Agathocles's death; their appeal to Rome brought the legions into Sicily in 264 BC.

Which 241 BC naval battle, fought off islands west of Sicily, ended the First Punic War?

Aegates was won by a fleet Rome's richest citizens paid for with private loans after the treasury ran dry; it wrecked the convoy carrying supplies to Carthage's army in Sicily, which had to make peace.

Which Roman consul won the sea battle of Cape Ecnomus in 256 BC, invaded Africa and ended up Carthage's prisoner?

Marcus Atilius Regulus was beaten in 255 BC by an army retrained by the Spartan mercenary Xanthippus; the tale that he was paroled to Rome and went back to die is probably a later invention, absent from the earliest account.

By what other name is the Mercenary War known?

Polybius called it the Truceless War for its atrocities: unpaid mercenaries mutinied after the First Punic War, joined by rebel African towns, and both sides tortured and killed prisoners.

Which Carthaginian's periplus describes a voyage down the West African coast?

Hanno the Navigator's account, which survives in Greek, describes hairy 'wild people' his interpreters called Gorillai; in 1847 the word was borrowed to name the newly described ape.

Which victory of Scipio Africanus, won by striking with both wings of his army at once, ended Carthaginian rule in Spain?

At Ilipa in 206 BC, near modern Seville, Scipio surprised the enemy at dawn with his Spanish allies in the middle and his Romans on both wings; the wings won the battle before the middle ever engaged.

According to Polybius, how did Hannibal get his elephants across the Rhône?

On rafts covered with soil, so the animals would think they were still on dry land; a few panicked in midstream and plunged in, but they waded across with their trunks held above the water.

The city whose siege by Hannibal began the Second Punic War lies in which Spanish province?

Valencia is the province: the city stands a short way north of the provincial capital, and in 219 BC its people appealed to Rome, but no help came before it fell.

A modern legend with no ancient source claims the Romans did what to Carthage's ruins in 146 BC?

Sowed them with salt is the story, but no ancient writer tells it and historians treat it as a later invention; Rome in fact refounded Carthage a century on, and it grew into one of the empire's great cities.

Punic, the language of Carthage, was an offshoot of which language?

Phoenician settlers brought the speech that became Punic, and it long outlived Carthage itself: more than five centuries after the city fell, St Augustine wrote that people in his part of North Africa still spoke it.

Which Roman, only a military tribune in 149 BC, went on to command the army that destroyed Carthage?

Scipio Aemilianus distinguished himself in several bungled operations in 149 BC; public demand then had the age rules waived so he could be elected consul for 147, and he destroyed Carthage in 146.

Rome's envoy told Hannibal's Carthage he carried both peace and war in what?

His toga: he gathered a fold of it and told Carthage's senate to choose, and when they answered that he could give whichever he liked, he let it fall and said he gave them war. That war lasted 17 years.

Which Punic War saw the Romans storm, sack and completely demolish Carthage in 146 BC?

The Third Punic War (149-146 BC) ended when the Romans stormed Carthage after a three-year siege; the survivors were sold into slavery and the city was razed.

Which 1981 Thomas Harris novel first introduced Hannibal Lecter, in a small villain role?

Red Dragon (1981) introduced Dr Hannibal Lecter as an imprisoned psychiatrist whom FBI profiler Will Graham consults while hunting a serial killer.

Which actor played the young Lecter in the 2007 film Hannibal Rising?

Gaspard Ulliel played the teenage Lecter in Hannibal Rising (2007), his first major English-language film; the plot has him hunt down the wartime deserters who killed his sister.

The Silence of the Lambs swept the Oscars' 'Big Five': Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and which other award?

Adapted Screenplay went to Ted Tally, completing a sweep only two earlier films had managed; the film's other two nominations, for editing and sound, were the ones it lost.

Jonathan Demme won which prize at the Berlin Film Festival for The Silence of the Lambs?

Silver Bear for Best Director was Demme's prize at the 1991 Berlinale, a year before the film swept the Oscars; his previous feature had been the mob comedy Married to the Mob.

In Harris's 1981 novel, the killer hunted by Will Graham is first nicknamed what?

The press dub Francis Dolarhyde 'the Tooth Fairy' for the bite marks on his victims, a name he loathes; Tom Noonan played him in Manhunter.

Who developed the NBC series Hannibal, which premiered in April 2013?

Bryan Fuller developed Hannibal for NBC around Will Graham and Lecter; the rights to The Silence of the Lambs sat with another studio, so Clarice Starling never appeared in the series.

In the 2001 film Hannibal, who replaced Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling?

Julianne Moore took the part after Jodie Foster declined to return; Cate Blanchett, Gillian Anderson and Helen Hunt were all considered before Moore, who had acted opposite Anthony Hopkins in Surviving Picasso, was chosen.

Which producer reportedly pressured Thomas Harris into writing Hannibal Rising?

Dino De Laurentiis, who held the film rights, told Harris he would make a Lecter origin film with or without him, prompting the 2006 novel Hannibal Rising.

Thomas Harris worked for which news agency in New York from 1968 to 1974?

Associated Press hired Harris in New York in 1968 as a crime reporter and editor; what he learned there about homicide investigations fed the police detail of his thrillers, and he left in 1974 to write Black Sunday.

Which author spent his boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri?

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, from 1839; the Mississippi town became St Petersburg in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Hannibal Hamlin served as vice president under which president?

Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was Abraham Lincoln's first vice president, 1861 to 1865, the first Republican to hold the office; Andrew Johnson replaced him on the 1864 ticket.

Comedian Hannibal Buress's October 2014 routine drew attention to allegations against whom?

Hannibal Buress's October 2014 stand-up set in Philadelphia, calling out Bill Cosby over rape allegations, went viral and revived public scrutiny of the accusations.

Which actor played Colonel John 'Hannibal' Smith in the original A-Team series?

George Peppard had been cast as Blake Carrington in Dynasty but was replaced before the series aired, which left him free to lead The A-Team from 1983.

Hannibal Goodwin's 1887 patent for flexible photographic film led to a long court fight with which company?

Eastman Kodak was already selling roll film when Goodwin, a Newark priest, finally received his patent in 1898, eleven years after filing; the firm that bought his rights sued, and Kodak paid $5 million in 1914.

Who directed Manhunter (1986), which brought Hannibal Lecter to the screen for the first time?

Michael Mann wrote and directed Manhunter, which took under $9 million in US cinemas in 1986; the character's Oscar-winning fame came five years later, in another director's film.

In Thomas Harris's 1999 novel Hannibal, Lecter is living under a false name in which Italian city?

Florence is where he poses as Dr Fell, a scholarly curator, until a disgraced local detective recognises him and tries to sell him to a vengeful former victim for the bounty.

Which actor first played Hannibal Lecter on screen, in Manhunter (1986)?

Brian Cox played him in a small role, with the name spelled 'Lecktor' in the film; Anthony Hopkins took over the part five years later and won the Best Actor Oscar for it.

In 2003, which body named Hopkins's Lecter the greatest screen villain in US cinema history?

The AFI ranked Lecter first among its 50 greatest screen villains in 2003, ahead of Norman Bates and Darth Vader, though the killer hunted in the film is another man, whom Lecter helps Clarice Starling find.

Thomas Harris met the prison doctor who inspired Lecter while reporting in which country?

Mexico's Monterrey prison is where Harris, reporting for Argosy in the 1960s, met a courtly 'Dr Salazar'; a guard then told him the doctor was himself an inmate, a convicted murderer.

In the novels, Hannibal Lecter was born into the nobility of which country?

Lithuania is home to Lecter Castle in Hannibal Rising; orphaned in 1944 when the war reaches the family's hunting lodge, the boy ends up a ward of the Soviet orphanage set up in his own castle.

The Silence of the Lambs opened in American cinemas on which holiday in 1991?

Valentine's Day 1991 brought its struggling studio, Orion, a badly needed hit, but not enough of one: Orion filed for bankruptcy that December, months before the film swept the Oscars.

Who directed the 2001 sequel Hannibal, from a script by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian?

Ridley Scott directed Hannibal (2001) after Jonathan Demme declined to return, reportedly finding the novel too gory; the sequel still grossed about $350 million on an $87 million budget.

Why did NBC cancel the Hannibal TV series in June 2015?

Low viewership led NBC to drop the show weeks into its third season; its makers then offered a fourth season to Amazon and Netflix, and both passed.

Which actor played FBI boss Jack Crawford in NBC's Hannibal?

Laurence Fishburne's Crawford opens season two in a brutal kitchen fight with Lecter, a flash-forward the story then takes twelve weeks to reach; the other three actors played Crawford in the films.