Carthage: A History

Released - I think - mostly during the 50's and 60's was a series of books, each one of which covered a single people. Others books in the series covered Vikings, Hittites, Anglo Saxons, Phoenician and this book here takes care of Carthage. As a series they must have been highly attractive upon their release given that each book deals with it's subject in a succinct manner and with ease of reading in mind. Further, they don't overly burder the reader with relentless discussion of 'mabye this, maybe that'. Now sure, that means they may not have kept the serious scholar happy but having read both volumes of Robert Graves Greek Myths I can put my hand on my heart and say tha sometimes I like a bit of clarity and simplicity in my reading experience! As the other books, this one is hardly a brick, the point of the series being very much based on giving the layman a basic understanding of what was jolly well going on and presenting it in a flowing style. The book discusses the early days of Carthage and discussions on religion, including sacrifices both animal and human as well as looking at the reasons for the cities success as a trading power. Of course things then inevitably and justifiably turn to the conflict with Rome. This is where the brisk style truly comes to fruition and the fact that you already know the result is almost forgotten. Now I must in all fairness point out that this work is based very much on information known up to the early 1960s and therefore the true value of later archeological techniques has not been brought to bear on the subject matter. In all seriousness I truly enjoyed this book but I would not base my sole exploration of Carthage and it's place in history on this smallish work alone. But for what it is, this is truly a five star little gem of a book as long as you remember to look further afield for more recent and perhaps more definitive academic works on Carthage.