The Limits of Brilliance: The Role of Supply Problems in Hannibal’s Failed Italian Campaign
Hannibal’s undoing was the result of the deliberate Roman policy of harassment and deprivation, his inability to win a critical mass of political support from the Italian communities, and his failure to find a long-term solution to his considerable supply needs.
Gambling, Threats and Miscalculations: Discussing Rome’s Reaction to the Fall of Saguntum and the Beginning of the Second Punic War
The debate surrounding the causes of the Second Punic War is by no means a new one. Ancient and modern scholars alike have debated, examined and subsequently re-examined the data countless times.
Rare bronze rams from the First Punic War discovered
The ten rams (Latin rostra), each weighing around 125 kilogrammes and made of bronze, were mounted on the prow of the warships (ancient triremes or quinquiremes), and were used to ram the enemy ships.
The Greatest Generals of the Second Punic War
Hannibal Barcas and Scipio Africanus have been compared often by many authors, but only a few have studied both in depth and even fewer have actually compared them in a fair and equal manner.
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.
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
A comparative perspective on the determinants of the scale and productivity of maritime trade in the Roman Mediterranean
The scale and productivity of maritime trade is a function of environmental conditions, political processes and economic development that determine demand, and more specifically of trading costs.
A comparative perspective on the determinants of the scale and productivity of maritime trade in the Roman Mediterranean
I argue that imperial state formation was the single most important ultimate determinant of the scale, structure, and productivity of maritime commerce in the Roman period. Hegemony and subsequent direct rule created uniquely favorable conditions for maritime trade by cutting the costs of predation, transactions, and financing to levels that were lower than in any other period of pre-modern Mediterranean history.