How did Hannibal and his elephant riders cope with the Alps?

Question

Is there a good source for this information that someone can point me to so I can be as accurate as possible for a painting?

Answer 1

As far as accurate sources for Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, you're going to find a lot of conflicting information out there. Being a history major, who has done work on Hannibal and his Italian campaign, here's what I would suggest:
The two primary sources which offer the best information on the Punic Wars (Hannibal's crossing of the Alps was in the 2nd Punic War) are by authors Polybius and Livy. They were Roman historians during or shortly after the Wars.
A good secondary source to check out would be "The Punic Wars" by Adrian Goldsworthy. He's one of the best modern historians regarding the subject.
If you're not really wanting to go into that much research, it is known that a lot of Hannibal's elephants did die in the Alps (a lot of his men did, too!). Of course, this would be due to the extreme temperatures and the fact that elephants are not exactly the best animals when it comes to walking on snow.
Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Just paint the elephants freezing to death in the cold Alps. They didn't cope well with the Alps at all. Only 2 elephants survived the trip to attack Italy.

Answer 3

There have been suggestions that at the time the climate was warmer than it is now and the Alps were not, in fact, snow covered and Hannibal didn't, therefore, have to cope with blizzards etc., as shown on many later depications.

Answer 4

he lost more than half of his invading force in the alps including most of his elephants but he still manged never to lose a Major battle while in Italy but was never able to to take Rome because of his loses

Answer 5

Um....some research in the bibliographies of an encyclopedia on the Punic wars, Hannibal, and that period in time will help direct you to a book on the topic.