Hannibal

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Read
Review: Hannibal by Ernle Bradford is a fine and enjoyable read about the history of the Second Punic War, with a principal focus on Hannibal's invasion of Italy and the subsequent 17 year occupation. It is obvious that the author is an admirer of Hannibal, and a grudging admirer of Rome. In some ways Hannibal is treated as a almost mythic character who not only was a military genius but attempted to fight a noble war. The Romans, on the other hand, are portrayed as devious, untrustworthy with their only saving graces being their perseverance and ability to eventually adapt to the superior abilities of Hannibal.

The book greatest failures lie in the descriptions of the major battles, especially Cannae. One of the greatest military feats of history is dealt with in a few pages. While Bradford does describe the basics of the battle, he does so in a very perfunctory manner. The same is true for the other major engagements. Further, the almost total lack of maps makes the battles and the troop movements difficult to follow.

The strength of the book is in the description of how the Romans eventually prevailed and Hannibal's miscalculations of the Roman persistence. After the destruction of up to 70,000 troops at Cannae, and numerous legions prior to the battle, most empires would have crumbled. Rome did not. The reasons for Rome's survival is the best reason to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Broad Coverage
Review: Informative without being too technical in a military sense. Major battles were covered, but not in minute detail; which I often find boring. Overall strategies are covered without the step by step walkthrough of each battle.
Not really knowing a lot of specifics about Hannibal, I thought this was a very good book to start off with. I had read Bradford's work on Thermopylae and liked that. Hannibal is similar in style. It is obvious that Bradford admires Hannibal, but he balances that out with an almost equal admiration of the Roman's ability to withstand and ultimately defeat him. I came away a little surprised with a sense that Hannibal had a great sense of humor and that he realized his attempt to break Rome was in vain fairly early in the effort. It is probably that, in the end, which I like about Bradford's style - particularly in this book; I have much more of a sense of who Hannibal was than just reading a history of Hannibal.

Rating:
Summary: Should have been known as Hannibal the Great!
Review: Nice book. Well written, based on good sources, and about one of the most exciting historical figures of all times. Even long after his death, one cannot underestimate Hannibal. Hannibal should have been one of the characters in the 1988 film "Bill and Teds Excellent Adventures."

Rating:
Summary: I would like to have met Hannibal
Review: This biography made me wish to meet the famous Hannibal. The research is well done and now I have a good understanding of the role Hannibal played in this period of history. The only reason I gave this book a 4 is because it was a little on the dry side. That may be due to the reader's voice as I listened to the cassette, or because there just wasn't enough "heart and soul" in the telling of the history. That is, I learned tons about Hannibal's military movements, strategies, battles, etc., but a very minute amount about his character and feelings. This is probably not the author's fault, however, because he refers to the ancient sources as not passing down much about Hannibal's character for us to draw from.

It wasn't until the last chapter or two that I felt I was starting to get to know Hannibal as a man, with references about his wit, humor, and his sly ability to sneak away unnoticed as he was hounded by the Romans. At the end, we are treated to a few of his quotes which give us a little glimpse into his personality. At that point I began wishing I knew more about him, felt a certain empathy with him, and wondered if by the end of his life, he felt he had thrown it away in a useless cause. The author reflects on this a bit, and concludes that even if Hannibal and Carthage had won this war against the Romans, it really wouldn't have changed history that much, rather it would only have slowed the Romans down for a little while. I agreed with that conclusion, and not only felt sorry for Hannibal, but sorry for the human mind that causes us to slaughter one another for .... what?

In spite of the occasional dryness of the telling, I was fascinated by the information presented about Hannibal's career and the political and military setting of the nations involved. I appreciate having this knowledge.

Rating:
Summary: Engaging and Well Paced Biography
Review: This is a standard biography of the Cartaginian military leader Hannibal, which is now (summer 2000)out of print, I believe. The writing is fine, and the story line (if one can use that term for a non-fiction book) is interesting: despite an (apparently) unending series of tactical and operational successes, Hannibal loses the war against Rome, due primarily to strategic considerations outside of his control (i.e., Carthage should never have taken on this war unless they had changed their approach substantially). There are lessons here for modern man (sometimes, despite having the smartest generals, the best trained and most experienced troops, cutting-edge military technology, the wealthiest society in the known world supporting you, and pretty good luck (to boot), it's just not enough) -- well, I could go on here for a long time, but will refrain from doing so.

Although perfectly enjoyable, the book suffers from 2 major shortcomings; one unavoidable, but the second easily addressed, but evidently addressing it wasn't worth the time and effort of the author and/or publisher:

1. The sources on Hannibal's life are Roman (only). There simply are no other sources of information. The author recognizes this explicitly, and tries to balance the Roman accounts with "common sense" interpretations and a modern understanding of the situation.

2. The absence of sufficient maps: This is just inexcusable (unfortunately, it is very common in modern books of this sort). Repeatedly throughout the book, the author uses phrases such as "Hannibal marched to (this town), then to (that town), while the Romans marched to (someplace else)". These towns generally don't appear in modern atlases, and there is no further description in the book (is it on the coast? in the mountains? north? south" east? west?). Without any additional guidance, this is simply useless information. One is tempted to believe that the author has read this information in source materials, but never bothered to discover what it actually meant (could this be true? Nah). It's more likely that the publisher was unwilling to spring for a couple of pennies per book to provide the maps (or that the author couldn't be bothered to spend the couple of weeks necessary to get them included). In any case, it's a shame, and detracts from an otherwise excellent book.