Explanation: In the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian (“Punic”) military genius Hannibal Barca performed the seemingly-impossible task of dragging a force of war elephants over the Alps - a great surprise to the Romans, who considered that even a conventional army would barely survive such a trip! This allowed him to strike directly at the Italian heartlands of the Roman Republic, where he would remain, terrorizing the Romans until his recall to defend Carthage over 15 years later.