The Fall of Carthage

The Punic Wars 265-146BC

By: Adrian Goldsworthy

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

The struggle between Rome and Carthage in the Punic Wars was arguably the greatest and most desperate conflict of antiquity. The forces involved and the casualties suffered by both sides were far greater than in any wars fought before the modern era, while the eventual outcome had far-reaching consequences for the history of the Western World, namely the ascendancy of Rome.

An epic of war and battle, this is also the story of famous generals and leaders: Hannibal, Fabius Maximus, Scipio Africanus, and his grandson Scipio Aemilianus, who would finally bring down the walls of Carthage.

©2000 Adrian Goldsworthy (P)2018 Tantor

Goldsworthy Does it Again

Adrian Goldsworthy continues to impress readers with amazing insight, great writing and a tremendous story. The Punic Wars were perhaps once of the more interesting times in Roman history, and really the only time that Rome was ever truly threatened by an external enemy. Goldsworthy pulls you into the story, drawing upon what information remains from accounts of the time, and writes yet another amazing novel. In addition, the reading by Derek Perkins is another reason why I purchased this book. His ability to say some of the ancient Latin texts is simply amazing, and he reads in such a way that draws your attention to the story. Recommend this to anyone who enjoys learning about Ancient Rome or enjoys listening to Derek Perkins.

Excellent narration!

I love learning about the first Punic war, and I got so much from this book. The author even occasionally critiques the historians and offers views from their contemporaries of the time. Loved it, and will read it again.

Goldsworthy does a good job here.

I am only a history enthusiast, but I really enjoyed this book. It reads in between a general overview and an academic text. I wish more history books were like this one.

Great contextualization of the Punic Wars

An excellent description of the Punic wars as they were understood in their day.

Goldsworthy nails it

The writer is so good, that the weak point becomes the narrator, but there’s nothing wrong with him, just a little dry.

Great story and excellent narration

I really enjoyed this title. I plan on reading it in print to fully grasp the subtleties and reinforce the themes of this epic conflict. The book was really well organized and the narration was excellent

A nice general summary of the three Punic Wars

A straightforward (and sometimes dry) overview of the wars between Rome and Carthage. This book does not go into as much detail as others (especially dealing with the second war), but provides a continuous narrative across the entire conflict.
I would recommend this a good starting point for anybody interested in the Punch Wars and the fall of Carthage.

Awesome

This was an awesome book! it definitely kept you interested all the way to the end.

Stunning, seldom told epic of empires fighting to the death

Having had four years of Latin in high school, (Latin is a language, dead as it can be. First it killed the Romans and now it’s killing me!) and having read Julius Caesar’s Gaelic campaigns (Gallia est omnis divisa in parties tres) I have been an admirer of all things Roman for many years. In more recent years I have become fascinated by the incredible feats of the Carthagenian general Hannibal Barka. I determined that I needed to bring these two great interests together by reading about the three Punic Wars: a study of the military genius of Hannibal; the development of Rome into a superpower, partly because of lessons learned at the Hannibal’s hands; the role of the incredible oared warships both forces employed; and the absolute destruction of Carthage - the only enemy to really haunt Rome to that time. (Carthago Delenda est!) This amazing book is what I have been seeking. Although laden with names and places which tended to slow my aging brain down, the story ran chronologically like the adventure it was. The author takes no sides, labels no heroes and second-guesses no decisions. He just tells the stories from both sides, jumping from the political decisions made in the senates and their ramifications in the fields. You are in the throes of incredible carnage one minute as warriors are slashing and thrusting at ghostly figures in dense fog, to a devastating overview a few hours later of 50,000 bodies piled in a narrow tract awash with blood. It is a book I will not soon forget. The adventure, the bravery, and yet the foolishness and the wastefulness. I had to remind myself sometimes that this was history. This incredible story, more than 2,000 years old, actually happened and it had a strong influence on our world today. It is a tale well worth the retelling.

A turning point in western history

The struggle between Rome and Carthage is glossed over in most popular history except for the intriguing tale of Hannibal’s army crossing the Alps with war elephants. That gets every kid’s attention and I wonder if it isn’t the inspiration for the battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings. But, these wars lasted for more than a century and the total casualties were far greater than any modern wars. And then there is the biggest thing. In the beginning, Carthage was dominant. It was a naval power and ruled all of the coast of North Africa, the islands of Sicily and Corsica and most of Sardinia and various other islands west of Italy,  and much of modern Spain when Rome didn’t even control all of the Italian peninsula. Without the defeat of Carthage, Rome could not have become the ascendant power that it became, Europe and Britain would not have had the influence of Roman culture, government, and Latin, and there would have been no Pax Romana in the east. Possibly America’s democratic experiment, modeled as it was on the Roman Senate and Legislative Assembly making laws and Magistrates acting as executives with a military that was separate and non-political, may not have come into being. It’s impossible to know what influence that Carthage would have had in Rome’s absence. 

Goldsworthy covers all three Punic wars in detail and notes how the cultural differences between Rome and Carthage greatly affected the outcome of the wars. Rome fought to utterly defeat the enemy while Carthage tended to fight to remove an imminent threat. Rome pursued victory while Carthage pursued peace. However, the Roman armies tended to also be more homogeneous and with less turnover, allowing them to work together better as a unit and build on past experience. He also makes note that all of our sources are very limited and are all from the Roman perspective and those are limited to only two, the most reliable of which is only fragmentary. Carthage’s complete destruction in the final war meant that there are no accounts from their perspective and thus Goldsworthy takes pains to judge carefully from the accounts written by the victors.  

For those who like history, who want to understand more about Roman history, who also are interested in the period as the Roman Republic was beginning to deteriorate, this is a very good book.