NATIONAL BESTSELLER For millennia, Carthage’s triumph over Rome at Cannae in 216 B.C. has inspired reverence and awe. No general since has matched Hannibal’s most unexpected, innovative, and brutal military victory. Now Robert L. O’Connell, one of the most admired names in military history, tells the whole story of Cannae for the first time, giving us a stirring account of this apocalyptic battle, its causes and consequences. O’Connell brilliantly conveys how Rome amassed a giant army to punish Carthage’s masterful commander, how Hannibal outwitted enemies that outnumbered him, and how this disastrous pivot point in Rome’s history ultimately led to the republic’s resurgence and the creation of its empire. Piecing together decayed shreds of ancient reportage, the author paints powerful portraits of the leading players, from Hannibal—resolutely sane and uncannily strategic—to Scipio Africanus, the self-promoting Roman military tribune. Finally, O’Connell reveals how Cannae’s legend has inspired and haunted military leaders ever since, and the lessons it teaches for our own wars.
Ever since, military commanders confronting a superior force have attempted, and usually failed, to reproduce Hannibal's tactics and their overwhelming success.In Cannae, the celebrated historian Adrian Goldsworthy offers a concise and ...
Sparta, Macedonia, and Rome--how did these nations come to dominate the ancient world? Lendon shows readers that the most successful armies were those that made the most effective use of cultural tradition.
On a hot and dusty summer's day in 216 BC, the forces of the Carthaginian general Hannibal faced the Roman army in a dramatic encounter at Cannae.
This edition includes a new preface covering recent research on Hannibal's war against Rome.
This edition is enhanced by addenda updating individual chapters in light of recent scholarship, a new chapter on aspects of material culture, an updated bibliography, and a new introduction.
Analyzes the leadership and strategies of three forefront military leaders from the ancient world, offers insight into the purposes behind their conflicts, and shows what today's leaders can glean from their successes and failures.
The biographies collected in this volume bring together Plutarch's Lives of those great men who established the city of Rome and consolidated its supremacy, and his Comparisons with their notable Greek counterparts.
O'Connell explores the histories of the civilizations of ancient Sumeria, Egypt, Assyria, China, and the New World, showing how war came to each and how it adapted to varying circumstances.
A brilliant young Carthaginian general's vengeance-based assault on the Roman victors of the First Punic War enmeshes a distinguished soldier's son and a Roman equestrian's son in a fateful adventure marked by slavery and friendship. 30,000 ...
Here Kelly is using a well-known theory referred to by many anthropologists as CSR theory. Deaths are likely to lead to a desire to kill the killer—revenge. When the desire for revenge can be satisfied by killing any member of the ...