Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization
By Richard Miles
Viking, 2011
ISBN: 978-0670022663
Publisher’s Synopsis: The devastating struggle to the death between the Carthaginians and the Romans was one of the defining dramas of the Ancient World. In an epic series of land and sea battles both sides came close to victory before the Carthaginians finally buckled and their capital city, history and culture were almost utterly erased. The last great threat to Roman supremacy across the entire Mediterranean had gone, fulfilling Cato the Elder’s insistent demand that ‘Carthage must be destroyed’.
Carthage Must Be Destroyed brilliantly brings to life this lost empire – from its origins among the Phoenician settlements of Lebanon to its apotheosis as the greatest sea-power in the Mediterranean, with interests stretching from the Middle East to southern Spain. Roman ferocity tried to remove Carthage from history, but it is possible nonetheless to create an extraordinary narrative of a civilization which left an indelible, if often hidden legacy for those that followed. At the heart of all attempts to understand Carthage must lie the extraordinary figure of Hannibal – the scourge of Rome and one of the greatest, most charismatic and innovative of all military leaders, but a man also who ultimately led his people to catastrophe.
Drawing on a wealth of new archaeological research, Richard Miles makes Carthage vivid as it has never been before.
Reviews
From The Economist: “Mr Miles has skilfully fused the works of ancient historians such as Polybius and Livy, a wide range of modern studies and recent archaeological research to create a convincing and enthralling narrative.”
From The Guardian: “… drawing on archaeological and written sources, Miles helps to fill in the blanks with this thoughtful and meticulous book. Carthage was rather more sophisticated than history gave it credit for, and its people were certainly no more war-mongering than their regional neighbours.”
From Friends of Classics Reviews: “Richard Miles, fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, tells this story with tremendous élan, combining the best of modern scholarship with narrative pace and energy. It is a superb achievement, a model for all such endeavours. He is even better on the little-known background to this tale.”
From New at LacusCurtius and Livius: “Although Carthage Must Be Destroyed contains a fascinating story, the reader is in the end left unsatisfied.”
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