Hannibal the Rhodian

Hannibal the Rhodian was a prominent Carthaginian. During the First Punic War, when the Romans were besieging Lilybaeum, he was able to use the superior speed of his specially built ship and to avoid the Roman fleet and gain valuable intelligence that he reported to the Carthaginian commander, Ad Herbal, and to the Carthaginian Senate. The Romans finally caught and defeated him making use of a captured Carthaginian quadrireme. The Romans used his ship to thwart subsequent Carthaginian blockade runners, and modeled their subsequent naval vessels on it.

References

• The Rise of the Roman Empire (1.46, 1.59), by Polybius