Hannibal: A History of the Art of War Among the Carthaginians and Romans Down to the Battle of Pydna, 168 B.C., with a Detailed

I am a high school student that has taken an interest into history and I had heard great things about this book so I decided to pick it up. When I started to read it I was amazed. This book has a detailed account of the Second Punic War to the most smallest detail. It starts with just a quick overview of the Roman, Carthaginian armies in how the camps, armor, troops were like. It tells about the first Punic War and then Hamilcar Barca's expedition to Spain to raise an army against Rome and taking his son Hannibal with him. The entire book is just a great read because of the details that are given and Dodge does not leave anything out. If you want to get a book on Hannibal that gives a great account of his campaign then this is for you and you will also get more because of the explaination of the developing Roman tactics because of Hannibal. All in all this is one of my favorite books.

Hannibal, by Theodore Ayrault Dodge is an excellent book if one wants to read about ancient warfare. Dodge focuses his attention mostly on the Second Punic War (219-202 B.C.) but he also gives a broad overview of the early war of both Carthage and Rome. Dodge goes in depth into how each city formed its armies, and what the tactics were right up to the Second Punic War. As a former soldier who fought in the American Civil War Dodge brings a soldiers eye for terrain, and he had the added benefit of actually going to the sites of Hannibal's famous battles. The biggest plus for Hannibal; besides the author actually visiting the battle fields; is that Dodge is an excellent writter. The narrative woven is a wonderful tale of a man on a quest to save his beloved Carthage from Rome. At the same time Dodge presents the Roman perspective of Hannibals march which adds balance to the book. Probably, the biggest plus of the book is that before each chapter there is a paragraph that explains what the chapter is about. Such a style is great for the beginning reader who may want to skip certain sections, as well as, the experienced historian who can use the summaries as a quick reference point. Finally, in Hannibal Dodge does not end with the death of Hannibal; instead he goes on to discuss events after Hannibals death, and he discusses the attributes of both Hannibal and Scipio Africanus. The book ends with the "classic" battles of legion verses phalanx thereby coming full cirlce in his tale of Carthage and Rome, and the struggle of the old Greek ways against the emergence of the Roman warmachine.If one is looking for a good history book that weaves an interesting tale as well as explain the tactics and weapons then Hannibal is a great book to pick up and read.

Theodore Ayrault Dodge was an officer in the Union army during the civil war. He saw action at Gettysburg, among other places. As a soldier, Dodge gives a unique, in-the-trenches perspective to military history that can be lost amongst history professors who sometimes tend to view their discipline from the ivory towers of academia. Although this is the only book I have read on the life of Hannibal, I cannot fathom anyone writing a more thorough biography of this singularly extraordinary individual. Dodge does a great job of providing background information such as the critical error of the Greek general Pyrrhus (why Hannibal refrained from attempting to siege Rome after Cannae), as well as a first hand account of the most likely route that Hannibal chose to march his army thru the Alps (Dodge personally visited & inspected the various passages himself). He also furnishes us with detailed information on Hannibal's brother, Hasdrubal & his ultimate defeat by Nero. At heart, however, this book is about the Second Punic War (also known as the war against Hannibal). Dodge gives us an exhilerating picture of how this man led a basically rag-tag army of mercenaries against the greatest fighting machine the world had ever known.....and somehow managed to win, anyway. From his infamous triumph over Varro at Cannae to his eventual defeat at Zama in 202 BC, Dodge chronicles the successes and tribulations of this important historical figure. It is no wonder that Virgil intentionally wrote allusions to him in The AEneid. For those who enjoy this book, I would HIGHLY recommend the biography that B.H. Liddell Hart wrote on the life of Scipio Africanus for a glimpse of the "other side" of this struggle.

Dodge's book was written over a hundred years ago. The author has traveled around the battlefields of the second Punic War and tried to work out from the existing historical sources what really happened. Dodge was an army officer who served in the American Civil War. As such he knows the difficulty of moving large bodies of men, of supplying them with food, the difficulties of feeding horses and keeping them in good condition. The book establishes the greatness of Hannibal. Very little is left to tell us much of what Carthaginian civilization was like. Coins and sculpture suggest that the Greeks heavily influenced it. We know that Carthage was an oligarchy and that it was a city that traded extensively.It seems that it was probably a city that depended on slavery to produce its agricultural produce. This led to Rome having a pronounced advantage in the conflicts between the two cities. Rome had a sizeable peasant class who were integrated into its civil life. The Roman peasant class formed the basis of its armies. Rome as well had built up a coalition of allied cities some of which shared the benefits of citizenship. This meant that in any conflict Rome was able to put in the field 750,000 soldiers. In addition it had considerable economic power. Thus in the first Punic war Rome was able to build a number of fleets to challenge the Carthaginians at sea. The Carthaginians did not have a large class of landed peasants who could be mobilized and they depended on mercenary armies. The history of Carthage prior to their first war with Rome was not a history of military brilliance. Carthage had considerable problems in maintaining their control over about a third of Sicily fighting a large number of wars with the Greek city of Syracuse. Rome in addition to being able to raise large numbers of men had developed a superior military unit. The predominant military unit prior to the rise of Rome was an infantry formation called he phalanx. This was a Greek invention. Heavily armored men would stand shoulder to shoulder and advance in a mass. The phalanx was effective in crushing the more lightly armed Persian troops during the time of Alexander. The Romans developed he legion. Its troops were armed with a short stabbing sword rather than a spear. Each soldier stood further apart than the phalanx. The formation was more flexible and the more spread out nature of the Roman formation allowed them to outflank the more compact Greek formations.The twin advantages of a large population meant that Rome would over the next 400 years win wars even when poor generals led it. It had a military organization that was would work even with generals of limited talents and if something went wrong the Roman state could put army after army into the field. The decline of the Roman empire occurred when the military organization of the state changed and peasant levies gave rise to mercenary armies. It would seem that Hannibal's father Hamil

I don't want to repeat the comments below - I'll just say its one of the better history books I've read in the last few years.