The Punic Wars

During our history lesson, Rome and Carthage are fighting over trade routes. This went on for 60 years. Ancient civilizations sure did know how to drag out a conflict, didn't they?

Hannibal (not Lector) was a brilliant general for Carthage and took elephants over the Alps to invade Italy. They even ferried the elephants across the Rhone river! A huge number of elephants died but the impact of the surviving elephants during battle is legendary. It is even believed that he painted the elephants red, yellow and white to make them scarier as they charged the Romans who'd never seen an elephant. Can't you just imagine the panic in both the soldiers and the horses as they spy such a huge creature?

To have some fun with this history lesson we made elephant ears! YUMMY!

Hannibal's Elephant Ears
1 pkg. flour tortillas
cinnamon/ sugar

Heat oil in a large skillet. Place one tortilla next to your face and impersonate an elephant's roar while watching the disbelief in your children's eyes. Place tortilla in hot skillet. Let tortilla brown and puff up then flip to brown second side. Listen to your children discuss what animals they'd rather ride into a battle. GooseyGirl picks snow leopards because they can leap up to 40 feet, BirdMan picks peregrine falcon because they can go 155 miles per hour in a dive. RocketMan picks a Cheetah because they are the fastest land animal. Place hot tortilla into cinnamon/sugar mixture and shake to evenly distribute. Eat while stomping like an elephant!