Chris's Reviews > The Punic Wars

The great Carthaginian general, Hannibal, was an unsurpassed genius. That, above all, is made clear in this narrative history of the three Punic Wars. Hannibal laid trap after trap for the overly-aggressive Roman legionary commanders during the Second Punic Wars--and the Romans repeatedly fell for it. The Battle of Cannae, Rome's worst military defeat and one of the most pored-over battles in history (Napoleon, two thousand years later, had a great great many thoughts) comes to life in this book. After reading Adrian Goldsworthy's description of the battle, I like to imagine I'm nearly conversant enough to explain it to my fellow laymen.

In any case, Hannibal had his day, but the overwhelming might of Rome eventually wore his forces down. And, as the Second Punic War wore on, the Romans did what they did best: adapt. It's fascinating to watch the Roman army and civilian leadership grow over time, developing a coherent strategic and tactical response to the exigencies of war. Rome nearly lost, but persevered past a point where most other civilizations would have surrendered, finally achieving victory under the Roman general Scipio Africanus.

Bookending the more interesting Second war, the First Punic War was an accident of escalation, while the Third was almost an afterthought, and a brutal and unjustifiable one at that. "Cartago delenda est" indeed; Carthage's existence as a political entity was utterly destroyed. It's a noteworthy and telling historical coincidence that Rome defeated and demolished Carthage in the very same year, 146 BC, that Rome did likewise to the last holdout among the Greek cities states--Corinth. The Punic Wars, stretching over a century and a half, marked Rome's passage from a regional power in Italy to a true Mediterranean colossus. Even while it was still an oligarchic "republic," Rome had already become an "empire."

Finally, if I may be permitted one excessively normative observation. Admittedly, the the Romans would never, as a people, be mistaken for a group of flowering, gentle sweethearts. Yet, there was great value in their civilization and culture, particularly compared with some of the barbarism still so prevalent throughout much of the Mediterranean world at the time. One fact, which I hadn't known before reading this book, struck me in particular: the Carthaginians, a Phoenician people, practiced ritualized infanticide. Archaeologists have discovered far too many remains of babies and children in religious, ritualized settings for there to be any other explanation. State-sanctioned, ritualized killing of innocent children, for centuries. One overriding thought remained in the back of my mind while reading this book: "Thank god these people were defeated." The Romans, far from innocent in most respects, never engaged in such revolting practices.

Again, I admit I'm imposing a normative value judgment absurdly on a people gone for more than twenty-one centuries, but I can't help but shudder to think of the subsequent history of the world had Rome ultimately lost to Carthage in the great Punic Wars.