Toga and Dagger: Espionage in Ancient Rome
Anient Rome is remembered as one of the greatest military powers in history, its fame derived from the fearsome reputation of the empire’s legionnaires. Lost in the telling, however, is the important role that espionage played in Rome’s ascent to empire.
Comparing Strategies of the Second Punic War: Rome
What were the strategic factors that allowed Rome to absorb repeated body blows and to endure an enemy army in its homeland for more than a decade without succumbing?
Carthage: The Lost Mediterranean Civilisation
Little remains of the great North African empire that was Rome’s most formidable enemy, because, as Richard Miles explains, only its complete annihilation could satisfy its younger rival.
The influence of Hannibal of Carthage on the art of war and how his legacy has been interpreted
Perhaps no other commander in the history of warfare has exerted such a long-term influence on the minds and actions of warriors and scholars of the military arts. It is almost impossible to read military history and not come across some reference to Hannibal and his exploits.
Rome's declaration of war on Carthage in 218 B.C.
The Roman declaration of war in 218 is usually placed in late March or April (i.e. at the earliest date after the entry of the new consuls into office and the beginning of the campaigning season) because, on Polybius’ view, Rome was committed to war on behalf of Saguntum.
Sweating Truth in Ancient Carthage
Review of Richard Miles, Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization (2010) and a new appreciation of Gustave Flaubert’s novel Salammbô (1862)
The Second Punic War: The tactical successes and strategic failures of Hannibal Barca
The Second Punic War began in 218 B.C under the auspices of the talented young general Hannibal, whose deeds have gone down in history marking him as one of the greatest leaders of the ancient world.
Hannibal's strategies during the second Carthaginian War with Rome and his ultimate goal of Roman subjugation
After the Battle of Cannae, Hannibal retired to the confines of his camp to celebrate the greatest defeat the Romans had ever suffered, and as the future would hold, anyone would suffer
Hannibal the cannibal? Polybius on Barcid atrocities
Polybius includes the story of the cannibalistic plan in his excursus (aristeia) on Hannibal to illustrate the cruel nature of one of the Carthaginian general’s companions, a certain Hannibal Monomachos.
Carthage did not sacrifice children, study finds
An examination of the remains of Carthaginian children revealed that most infants perished prenatally or very shortly after birth and were unlikely to have lived long enough to be sacrificed