Etymology is a term applied to that part of grammar which treats of the various inflections and modifications of words and shows how they are formed from simple roots.
The term, etymology is also applied to that branch of philology which traces the history of words from their origin to their latest form and meaning. Etymology in this latter sense, or the investigation of the origin and growth of words, is amongst the oldest of studies. Plato and other Greek philosophers, the Alexandrian grammarians, the scholiasts, the Roman Varro, and others wrote much on this subject. But their work is made up of conjectures at best ingenious rather than sound, and very often wild and fantastic. It was not until modern times, and particularly since the study of Sanskrit, that etymology has been scientifically studied. Languages then began to be properly classed in groups and families, and words were studied by a comparison of their growth and relationship in different languages. It was recognized that the development of language is not an arbitrary or accidental matter, but proceeds according to general laws. The result was a great advance in etymological knowledge and the formation of a new science of philology. Research Etymology
Hannibal or Annibal was a Carthaginian leader. He was born in 247 BC and died in 183 BC after taking poison to avoid capture by the Romans. He was the son of Hamilcar Barca, also a general and leader of the popular party amongst the Carthaginians. He was just nine years old when his father made him swear at the altar eternal hatred to the Romans. He grew up in hia father's camp in Spain, but returned to Carthage when his father fell in battle, in 229 BC.
At the age of twenty-two he returned to the army in Spain, then commanded by his brother-in-law Hasdrubal, and three years after, on the murder of Hasdrubal, received the chief command by acclamation. Hannibal now prepared to carry out his great designs against Rome.
His siege and capture of Saguntum, a city in alliance with Rome, led to a declaration of war from the Romans, who made preparations to carry on the war in Spain. But Hannibal, judging that Rome could be overthrown only in Italy, undertook his great march on Rome across the Pyrenees, the Rhone, and the Alps. He set out with 90,000 foot-soldiers, 40 elephants, and 12,000 horsemen. When he readied the northern foot of the Alps he still had 50,000 foot-soldiers, 9000 horse, and 37 elephants. When he arrived at the southern foot, after 15 days of incredible toils, his force had diminished to 20,000 foot-soldiers and 6000 horse. The point at which he crossed is generally believed to have been the Little St Bernard.
On the banks of the Ticino he first encountered a Roman army under Publius Scipio, and defeated it mainly by the superiority of his Numidian cavalry, 218 BC. Shortly after another Roman army, under Sempronius, was totally routed on the Trebia. After wintering in Cisalpine Gaul, Hannibal opened next year's campaign in 217 by defeating the Roman general Flaminius, whom he enticed into an ambush at Lake Thrasymenus. In this battle half the Roman army died, and the rest were taken prisoner.
Hannibal now marched into Apulia, spreading terror wherever he approached. Rome, in consternation, proclaimed Fabius Maximus dictator, who sagaciously resolved to hazard no more open battles, but exhaust the strength of the Carthaginians by delay. But for some time the wisdom of this policy was not understood by his countrymen, who, dissatisfied with his inactivity, appointed Minutius Felix his colleague. The result was that the latter was drawn into a battle by Hannibal, and would have died but for the aid of Fabius. After this the Roman generals avoided engagements, and Hannibal at this critical period saw his army wasting away in inactivity.
Next year, 216, however, the rashness of the new consul Terentius Varro gave Hannibal the last of his great victories. The battle was fought at Cannae, the Romans under Aemilius Paulus and Terentius Varro numbering more than 80,000 men, the Carthaginians about 50,000, and ended in a total defeat of the Romans, 40,000 or 50,000 of whom were killed and the rest scattered. Instead of marching on Rome, Hannibal now sought quarters in Capua, where luxurious living undermined the discipline and health of his troops.
The campaigns of 215, 214, and 213 were comparatively unimportant. While Hannibal was seizingTarentum in 212, Capua was invested by two Roman armies. To relieve Capua Hannibal marched on Rome, and actually appeared before its gates in 211, but the diversion remained fruitless, and Capua fell. In 207 a reinforcement tardily sent by the Carthaginians to Hannibal, under command of his brother Hasdrubal, was intercepted by the Romans and destroyed at the Metaurus. Hannibal now retired to Bruttium (the toe of Italy), where he still maintained the contest against overwhelming odds, until, in 203, he was recalled to defend his country, invaded by Scipio.
In Africa he was defeated by the Romans at Zama in 202 BC and the second Punic war ended, after a bloody contest of eighteen years, in Carthage having to accept the most humiliating conditions of peace. Hannibal now devoted himself as civil magistrate to restoring the resources of Carthage, and was working at reforms of administration and finance when the jealous Romans sent ambassadors to demand his surrender. He fled to the court of Antiochus of Syria, and offered his services for the war then commencing against the Romans. They were accepted, but Hannibal's advice for the conduct of the war was not followed, and he himself as commander of the Syrian fleet failed in an expedition against the Rhodians. In 190 BC Antiochus was forced to conclude a disgraceful peace with the Romans, one of the terms of which was that Hannibal should be delivered up. Hannibal, again obliged to flee, took refuge with Prusias, king of Bithynia, and is said to have gained several victories for Prusias against Eumenes, king of Pergamus, an ally of the Romans. But the Roman senate once more sent to demand the surrender of their inveterate enemy, and Hannibal, finding that Prusias could not protect him, took poison rather than fall into the hands of the Romans. Research Hannibal
Marcus Terentius Varro was a Roman scholar and miscellaneous writer. He was born in 116 BC at Reate, in the Sabine country and died in 28 BC. He studied at Athens, and distinguished himself at sea in Pompey'a war against the pirates. Having followed Pompey in the civil war, he was pardoned after the battle of Pharsalus, and spent the rest of his long life in study. The most learned and voluminous of Roman authors, he wrote a great work on the political and religious antiquities of Rome, writings on the liberal arts, philosophy, geography, and law, as well as the Saturae Menippeae, a medley of prose and verse. Apart from fragments, valuable for the information they give on Roman institutions, his only extant-works are the philological treatise, De Lingua Latina, and the treatise on agriculture, De ReRustica, Research Marcus Varro
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