Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The son of the great Carthaginian general, Hamilcar Barca, Hannibal was a superlative military leader. He led the Carthaginian attack on Saguntum in Spain, which precipitated the First Punic War." [DK Timelines, p. 65] Hannibal began the attack with more than 100,000 men and thirty-seven war elephants. Only around 1/4 of the men and a handful of elephants made it to Italy. [Furtado: 1001 Days]