Amazing account of the life of one of history's giants. ( )

660. Hannibal: One Man Against Rome, by Harold Lamb (read 23 June 1961) This is a "popular" biography which I found quite worth reading ( )

Hannibal Barca, commander of armies of Carthage, man who almost brought Rome to its knees. Man of whom we know nothing except what was written by his bitter enemies, Romans, centuries after Carthage was razed.[return]Harold Lamb s takes us on the journey through northern Africa, Spain, through wilderness of Alps and finally all the way from the northern plains of Italy to the old Greek cities in the south of Italy (to Capua and even further south to Syracuse).[return][return]It is time of great change old Greek city-states are losing their spheres of influence while Rome [bent on conquest and domination of all surrounding territories] rises in power and starts offering unacceptable terms to surrounding states [and thus tries to provoke conflict] and forcing them to withdraw, knowing that old states are more bent on negotiations than on war [while Rome is ready to wage war on anybody who defies it (at the time this means almost everybody)].[return]One side bent on conquest and the other seeking a way to preserve its way of life.[return]Hannibal starts his invasion of Italian peninsula knowing that only in that way he will be able to ease the Roman pressure on Carthage. He will win many battles and soon Romans will fear his very name. But, as it is almost always the case, internal quarrelling and Roman perseverance (coupled with Rome s almost limitless human and material resources) will bring end not only to Hannibal s dream of free Carthage but to any independent city-state in Europe, Asia and Africa, they will soon all become Rome s client s .[return][return]Lamb s prose is quick paced and reads more like a novel than historical research (which is a great plus in my opinion because many historians try to get as many details as possible which may drive the reader in totally opposite direction and cause him/her to loose itself entirely (Keegan and Goldsworthy are modern writers that have this same quality as Lamb)). I got hooked from the first page so much in fact that I am looking forward to reading other historical works of Harold Lamb.[return]Highly recommended. ( )

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. ( )

Hannibal Barca, commander of armies of Carthage, man who almost brought Rome to its knees. Man of whom we know nothing except what was written by his bitter enemies, Romans, centuries after Carthage was razed.
Harold Lamb’s takes us on the journey through northern Africa, Spain, through wilderness of Alps and finally all the way from the northern plains of Italy to the old Greek cities in the south of Italy (to Capua and even further south to Syracuse).

It is time of great change – old Greek city-states are losing their spheres of influence while Rome [bent on conquest and domination of all surrounding territories] rises in power and starts offering unacceptable terms to surrounding states [and thus tries to provoke conflict] and forcing them to withdraw, knowing that old states are more bent on negotiations than on war [while Rome is ready to wage war on anybody who defies it (at the time this means almost everybody)].
One side bent on conquest and the other seeking a way to preserve its way of life.
Hannibal starts his invasion of Italian peninsula knowing that only in that way he will be able to ease the Roman pressure on Carthage. He will win many battles and soon Romans will fear his very name. But, as it is almost always the case, internal quarrelling and Roman perseverance (coupled with Rome’s almost limitless human and material resources) will bring end not only to Hannibal’s dream of free Carthage but to any independent city-state in Europe, Asia and Africa, they will soon all become Rome’s “client’s”.

Lamb’s prose is quick paced and reads more like a novel than historical research (which is a great plus in my opinion because many historians try to get as many details as possible which may drive the reader in totally opposite direction and cause him/her to loose itself entirely (Keegan and Goldsworthy are modern writers that have this same quality as Lamb)). I got hooked from the first page – so much in fact that I am looking forward to reading other historical works of Harold Lamb.
Highly recommended. ( )