Hannibal Barca, great Carthaginian military commander came to Nicomedia in his final years and committed suicide in 182 BC in nearby Libyssa1(Diliskelesi, Gebze) after he was betrayed to the Romans2. Hannibal's burial-place at Libyssa was still visible in the time of Pliny, A.D. 23-793.
Sources:
- Cornelius Nepos : Life of Hannibal in: Great Generals of Foreign Nations.12-13 (Translated by J.C. Rolfe, 1929).- http://www.attalus.org/translate/nepos23.html
- Appian, The Foreign Wars. CHAPTER II, Horace White eds. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. New York 1899 - http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0230:text=Syr.:chapter=2&highlight=libyssan
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History, V. CHAP. 43.BITHYNIA (John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855)
References
- ↑There was a story that an oracle had once said: “"Libyssan earth shall cover Hannibal's remains."
- ↑When the envoys of the Romans had come to the place and surrounded his house with a great body of troops, a slave looking out from one of the doors reported that an unusual number of armed men were in sight. Hannibal ordered him to go about to all the doors of the building and hasten to inform him whether he was beset in the same way on every side. 5 The slave having quickly reported the facts and told him that all the exits were guarded, Hannibal knew that it was no accident; that it was he whom they were after and he must no longer think of preserving his life. But not wishing to lose it at another's will, and remembering his past deeds of valour, he took the poison which he always carried about his person.
- ↑ the town of Libyssa formerly stood at the spot where we now see nothing but the tomb of Hannibal