Hannibal: Enemy of Rome

The author, during WW2, read an account of Hannibal, and became extremely excited by the story, pledging to one day return to Europe and retrace his steps. His excitement is contagious, and only the most cold-hearted of individuals might resist his imaginative recreation of the events that took place so long ago. This book, and the negative reviews about it, is emblematic with what is wrong with history education today. History is really about the story of humanity, and the amazing tales of drama and sacrifice that have played out over such a vast scope over so many years. The things Hannibal did were incredible - one stratagem after another! - each of which is a tale that could be told to a classroom of kids to get their imagination and passion for history fired up. It's amazing to me that we don't have more movies that actually cover these very interesting, very human, and often tragic or hilarious events (Hannibal escaped once from the Romans by tying torches to cows and sending them up into the mountains above the Roman camp). Instead, people criticize it because it is light on detail. While I disagree (Cottrell quotes details in it that you can't find in other sources, not even on the wikipedia page on Hannibal), I think Cottrell went right after the heart of the matter in history - what was the conflict? What motivated the people involved? Where is the story? As a journalist, he ends up doing a history book better than historians that end up focusing so much on the details that they miss the drama and sweep of the bigger story. Hannibal's story is amazing, and Cottrell does it the best justice of any book I've read on the subject.

Do you hate reading long, boring books for school? Well if you said yes, you're not alone. That is what I thought I was doing when I started Hannibal-The enemy of Rome. The journey of Hannibal through the Alps was very well depicted. This book showed that Hannibal was an extremely brilliant general and strategist. The most vibrant sceen in the book was when Hannibal made one of his most strategic moves of his military career. He was steaked out at a nearby Roman village. Fabius "the delayer" had his Roman army spying on Hannibal's movements. Hannibal left the village with his main army and left a troop behind to ambush the Romans. One night Hannibal's men sent cows with torches tied to them up a nearby mountain. Fabius ordered his men to trap Hannibal up on the mountain (cattle with torches tied on back). The Romans charged up the mountain after the cows. When they got up on the mountain, Hannibal's men ambushed the Romans. This military strategy led me to believe that Hannibal was the most brilliant general ever. I would recommend this book to any person looking to read a concise book about Hannibal. It is very well written and packed with information. It started very slow but ended up being a good book. It might be hard for some people to read because it has a bunch of difficult names and places to pronounce and remember. If you are looking for a good book to read, then Hannibal is an excellent choice.

Hannibal Enemy of Rome is a great book. I have never read a book so interesting, or so detailed. The author takes readers back through the battles and movements of one of the greatest generals of all time Hannibal, who led the Carthaginians. While reading the book, I felt like I was actually there. He made it all seem so real. This is something that only a very gifted writer can accomplish. While reading Hannibal Enemy of Rome, I never once felt bored. On each page, Leonard was introducing someone new, descibing a new place, or explaining some of the amazing military tactics used by Hannibal. In my opinion, the most interesting part of the book was definitely the battle of Canae. Here, Hannibal had 50,000 men and the Romans had 86,000 men. The description of the battle, and how Hannibal was able to overcome being outnumbered nearly 2-1 was excellent. Leonard made it so easy for me to picture the historic battle in my head. Not only did Leonard describe Hannibal's men and explain his tactics, but he also explained just about everything about the others involved. He included the strategies of all the different Roman generals, maps, some of Hannibal's love story at his winter headquarters, and gave background information on basically everyone mentioned in the book. Nothing was mentioned without great detail. Leonard Cottrell truly did an excellent job.

An incredibly well written book by an author who traveled and folled the paths of the great Hannibal who was only surpassed by one other general, the invincible and even greater Alexander! This book flows very well and engages the reader unlike so many other equally factual but "dry" accounts of history. What becomes very clear is the fact that Hannibal's success was based on his perfect reading of the the psyche of his enemy commanders. "Know thy enemy" must have been invented by Hannibal because he exploited that knowledge to the point where each pitched battle was tailormade for each confronting Roman general. But was goes around comes around - and as we know Hannibal was in the end defeated by a Roman general who was not only equally meticulous in preparing for his battles but spent his entire career studiying Hannibal's tactics which he then successfully employed in the final showdown with Rome's enemy #1. This man of course was Publius Cornelius Scipio, the son of the Roman general Scipio who led Hannibal's first encounter on Roman soil. Young Scipio fought in this battle some 15 years earlier. Wonderful reading and a very great effort by the author who succeeded splendidly in presenting one of the greatest generals in all time history.

I read this book a few years ago and what I liked about it most was the authors ability to catch the reader in the momentum of the events that are taking place. Only the heartless are not hoping even in the face of this tragedy that Hannibal will win through and not be defeated. Also because the author is not writing what is to be a scholarly work he speculates in a manner which is very enjoyable making the book more readable. If you have never read anything about Hannibal but have always been interested I highly recommend this book.