Synopsis: "HANNIBAL: One Man Against Rome " is the breathtaking adventure of the great Carthaginian general who shook the foundations of Rome. Eluding several Roman legions sent out to intercept him in Spain and France, Hannibal astoundingly leads his small army of mercenaries over the Alps and thunders down into the Po Valley in 218 B.C. This violent and exciting narrative will thrill you with the accounts of heroism and brilliance displayed on both sides as the war rages mercilessly across the entire Western Mediterranean. Learn how the patience of Fabius Maximus and the genius of Lucius Cornelius Scipio finally turn the tide in this, the world’s first "global" conflict.
Hannibal Barca (ca. 248 B.C – ca. 183 B.C.) is widely considered the greatest military commander of all time. He grew to manhood in Spain under the careful tutelage of his aristocrat father, the Carthaginian, Hamilcar. Upon the death of his brother-in-law, Hasdrubal, in 231, he became commander of the forces there and, backed by the Carthaginian government, subdued Spain south of the Ebro. At the end of the Second Punic War and his defeat at Zama, Hannibal settled down in Carthage to restore its broken fortunes. He succeeded so well that he raised the ire of the Romans and was pursued relentlessly to the East. Rather than fall into Roman hands, he committed suicide at Libyssa on the shore of the Sea of Marmora.
It is so true that history is written by the winners. While I found this book to be well written and reasonably interesting, it wasn’t terribly engaging. Most of it was the story of troop movements, battle formations and tactics and not stories of the man himself. He remains to me almost as mysterious as he was before I read this, only knowing of him through the eyes of Roman accounts and personalities. Carthage must be destroyed, indeed. What’s left of source material about Hannibal is twisted by Roman propaganda of the time and historical axe-grinding (Livy is a perfect example of this) and so makes for a vague biography of a man who must have been quite feared if his name ended up so blackened by his enemies. Still, his name lives on and is more famous even than his enemy’s, the victor Publius Scipio Africanus so I guess the winners can’t have everything.
There’s nothing of Hannibal’s childhood or education, political struggles in coming to power or his domestic life and children; the things we need to fully engage with him as a person, not just a persona. Even his military tactics and planning were shrouded in mystery, told through the fact of their occurrence more than why Hannibal did what he did. I’d love to be able to read about conversations and meetings he had with his subordinates. I’d love to know why he seemed so indecisive after winning key battles. For example after Cannae, why didn’t he march on Rome itself? The Roman army was basically wiped out and nothing stood in his way, but he held back and instead marched through Italia confiscating crops. I would like to have known what it was like to be persuaded by his charisma as his whole army must have been or else they would have mutinied on more than one occasion during their long and arduous campaigns.
What information there was to be had Lamb worked into an interesting and well crafted storyline. Of course much of the story is about battles and who won what and when. Not only when Hannibal was in command of troops, but his father Hamilcar and others like Hasdrubal. At the time Lamb wrote the book he says that military historians still had not found out which route exactly Hannibal took over the Alps in his famous march. Amazing. Is it weird that I felt more sympathy for the poor elephants than I did for the soldiers?
One complaint I have is for the audio publishing company – why didn’t you include maps??? It’s not so hard people. Luckily I have plenty of other physical books with maps so I could picture the movements, locations and distances. For those without maps in their homes, a quick trip to Hannibal’s Wikipedia page will definitely help.
1 comments:
It was possibly something as mundane as a lack of supplies and the fact he had 250 miles to cover. Much of Hannibal's early strategy appears to be simple survival, marching to new places to feed the army (soldiers, horses, pack animals, elephants, camp followers). Rome wasn't undefended either, about 40,000 troops were raised quickly, and the two weeks it would have taken Hannibal to march at a decent pace (and requiring a very large amount of pack animals for supplies) was impossible to do and gave the Romans time to shore up the walls of Rome.
I have a great JSTOR article called Hannibal's Mules which delves deeply into the logistics and limitations of Hannibal's army, particularly up to Cannae, and some digital books you can read deeper on the subject if you want me to email them you?
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