Hannibal cover art

Hannibal

A History of the Art of War among the Carthaginians and Romans Down to the Battle of Pydna, 168 BC, with a Detailed Account of the Second Punic War

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Hannibal

By: Theodore Ayrault Dodge
Narrated by: Bill Wallace
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About this listen

Hannibal is often considered the finest general the world has ever known. Setting out from Carthaginian-dominated Spain with a small army of select troops, he fought his way over the Pyrenees and crossed the Alps with elephants and a full baggage train. Descending into Italy, he destroyed the main Roman army at Lake Trasimeno and came close to conquering Rome itself. At Cannae, Hannibal’s brilliant cavalry tactics enabled him to destroy a reassembled Roman army, and his subsequent defeats over a 15-year stay in Italy were due more to lack of sufficient support from home than to any failings of generalship.

Theodore Ayrault Dodge’s classic history, first published in 1891, is equally perceptive of Hannibal’s military prowess and his visionary character. Dodge followed Hannibal’s route from Carthage to Italy, paying particular attention to the famous crossing of the Alps, exploring every pass in order to determine Hannibal’s route. In this book, he wrote an entire history of the art of war among these two mighty armies. Hannibal remains unequaled as the most comprehensive and readable study of history’s greatest general.

Public Domain (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Ancient Military Rome Italy War Alps

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Critic reviews

“[This book] has never been bettered.” (Michael Grant, author of History of Rome)
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Most relevant  
fantastic work and well narrated, this is highly recommended as a balanced approach to the life and battles of Hannibalance

excellent

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Excellent work on most accounts. though the author may be subject to idolising Hannibal in some cases. He forgoes to mention the times the Carthiginian was in luck, and when his coubterpart the romans experience such luck, it's compketely irrelevant.

his quotes in french are a pain in the behind, and frankly come over as pretentious. Other than that, very good indeed.

Detailed

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More of an epic poem or drama in style, delightful language, cheerfully biased but with articulated justifications, decent and interesting analysis of the times, geography, events, personalities and dynamics.

Honest Hero worship of a Great Man of history.

A worthy listen.

A splendid addition the the historiography of the period

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A good account of the 2nd Punic War but could have had more on Hannibal’s most famous victory, Cannae. As to the narration, maybe I’m just being pedantic but there were a LOT of mispronunciations which really grated on me and some pointless French passages by Napoleon which were quite long and without translation. Overall a good listen but not without its issues. I found Adrian Goldsworthy’s work on Hannibal much more accessible, with greater detail but unfortunately his work isn’t available on Audible (yet?)

Good but a few issues.

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I was amazed to find out when this book was first published; it certainly stands the test of time. An excellent retelling of a fascinating time in history.

Excellent retelling of history

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This book does not give any time to half truths and it makes it all the more interesting for it, anything that has been a point of contention between other scholars is clearly mentioned and is taken into account.

Everything you would want to know with no extra colour

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Many of the author's assumptions have since been looked at more cynically. For example, the author states that it was an honour for Italian Socii to serve in the Roman military, and that the Romans' prohibition of service to those who defected to Hannibal, was a shameful punishment. Would it not be more realistic to say that they were prohibited from service, not as punishment, but because their loyalty and morale were questionable? How could it have been an honour to be conquered and conscripted into the service of a foreign nation? The Socii were not enfranchised until after the Social War, but it seems the author has brought forward in time the later Italo-Roman identity, to serve the myth of Rome as one which coincides with the ideal of Northern-centric American Federalism.

The myth of Roman virtue.

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