=Annāles=, a chronological history which gives an account of all the important events of every year in a state, without entering into the causes which produced them. The annals of Tacitus may be considered in this light. In the first ages of Rome, the writing of the annals was one of the duties and privileges of the high priest; whence they have been called Annales Maximi, from the priest _Pontifex Maximus_, who consecrated them, and gave them as truly genuine and authentic. =Annālis lex=, settled the age at which, among the Romans, a citizen could be admitted to exercise the offices of the state. This law originated in Athens, and was introduced in Rome. No man could be a knight before 18 years of age, nor be invested with the consular power before he had arrived to his 25th year. =Anniānus=, a poet in the age of Trajan. =Annĭbal=, a celebrated Carthaginian general, son of Amilcar. He was educated in his father’s camp, and inured from his early years to the labours of the field. He passed into Spain when nine years old, and, at the request of his father, took a solemn oath that he never would be at peace with the Romans. After his father’s death, he was appointed over the cavalry in Spain; and some time after, upon the death of Asdrubal, he was invested with the command of all the armies of Carthage, though not yet in the 25th year of his age. In three years of continual success, he subdued all the nations of Spain which opposed the Carthaginian power, and took Saguntum after a siege of eight months. This city was in alliance with the Romans, and its fall was the cause of the second Punic war, which Annibal prepared to support with all the courage and prudence of a consummate general. He levied three large armies, one of which he sent to Africa; he left another in Spain, and marched at the head of the third towards Italy. This army some have calculated at 20,000 foot and 6000 horse; others say that it consisted of 100,000 foot and 20,000 horse. _Livy_, bk. 21, ch. 38. He came to the Alps, which were deemed almost inaccessible, and had never been passed over before him but by Hercules, and after much trouble he gained the top in nine days. He conquered the uncivilized inhabitants that opposed his passage, and, after the amazing loss of 30,000 men, made his way so easy, by softening the rocks with fire and vinegar, that even his armed elephants descended the mountains without danger or difficulty, where a man, disencumbered of his arms, could not walk before in safety. He was opposed by the Romans as soon as he entered Italy; and after he had defeated Publius Cornelius Scipio and Sempronius, near the Rhone, the Po, and the Trebia, he crossed the Apennines and invaded Etruria. He defeated the army of the consul Flaminius near the lake Thrasymenus, and soon after met the two consuls Culleo Terentius and Lucius Æmilius at Cannæ. His army consisted of 40,000