Hannibal Barca is often described as the greatest military general in history, the enemy of Rome and the one that out thought what was the straongest army of their day.

Hannibal lived during a period of great tension in the Mediterranean Basin, when the Roman Republic established its supremacy over other great powers such as ancient Carthage and the Greek kingdoms of Macedonia, Syracuse, and the Seleucid Empire. One of his most famous achievements was at the outbreak of the Second Punic War, when he marched an army which included war elephants from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into Italy. In his first few years in Italy, he won three dramatic victories—the Trebia, Lake Trasimene, and Cannae, in which he distinguished himself for his ability to determine his and his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses, and to play the battle to his strengths and the enemy’s weaknesses—and won over many allies of Rome. Hannibal occupied much of Italy for 15 years but was unable to march on Rome. An enemy counter-invasion of North Africa forced him to return to Carthage, where he was decisively defeated by Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama. Scipio had studied Hannibal’s tactics and brilliantly devised some of his own, and finally defeated Rome’s nemesis at Zama, having previously driven Hannibal’s brother Hasdrubal out of the Iberian Peninsula.

src: Wikipedia

Hannibal is generally depicted as white but he was born in 247BC in Carthage, modern day Tunisia, yes he was African!

As commander-in-chief of the Carthaginian army he is well known for his strategy in the Punic war, where during the first major battle of the second Punic war in December of 218 BC.

Rome was defeated by Hannibal’s army, with over 10,000 casualties. Then when he came over the Alps with over 50,000 infantry, 9,000 cavalry, and 37 elephants to attack Rome on their turf!

Hannibal  was a Carthaginian person, they were Phoenicians, Semitic people.

This includes Arabs, ,Assyrians Hebrews and many North Africans. Whilst not “Ethiopian” as Romans would describe very dark skinned people he lived in an area of Africa where intermarriage and sharing of culture was normal. The argument over just how black he was is fierce in some circles but to me it’s clear, he was African, he very likely came from a mixed African background.

Further reading:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/hannibal/f/Was-Hannibal-Black.htm
http://www.ancienthistorylists.com/people/top-10-facts-hannibal-barca/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal