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Aha! I did not realize that when Hannibal has Rome under siege, he can take the bulk of the army and perform another task and then return to the siege that turn. At least I just tried this and it worked.

Yes, this is allowed. The manual is somewhat incorrect in saying

If at any time the besieging army moves away, or there is no general in command of the
besieging army, the siege is broken. Any new siege would have to start over at the beginning.

This was the original idea, but the game didn't develop quite that way. The siege is broken immediately if the besieging army entirely moves away. The check for a leader actually is done when the siege "rolls over" at the beginning of the besieging player's Campaign Phase. Similarly, if a besieging leader has no field units when this check is done, the siege is lifted.

EDIT: I was having a bad day, apparently, when I wrote that. It's not correct. Read my new post in this thread.

Thanks.

The manual is correct in saying

If at any time the besieging army moves away, or there is no general in command of the
besieging army, the siege is broken. Any new siege would have to start over at the beginning.

Note that if you split up a besieging army and there is still another general "maintaining" the siege, then the siege won't be broken. If you did not leave behind another general when you took Hannibal away from the siege, then you have found a loophole and that is a bug.

But if you do have that second leader then you have the flexibility that you mentioned. And let me say here that other leaders may join a siege by merging their army into the besieging army. Of course, this follows the usual rule about joining armies in the field: all units in both armies must be eligible to be moved by the currently active leader.

Please also note that a general can command a siege with no field units until the siege "rolls over" at the beginning of the player's next command phase. This can happen by the play of an option card, or by deliberately splitting all field units from the besieging army. Usually you won't want to do that, as it will probably be a stupid move. But if it does happen, the siege is not automatically broken until the beginning of the next campaign phase.

Phew! I hope that this is clear.