Good Hannibal biographies

[MarxSchmarx]

I'm looking for some good biographies on the Carthaginian general Hannibal - preferably something quite readable and entertaining. Also if there is anything from a leftist historian that looks at the Punic Wars from a class struggle perspective that would be sweeter still, but I'll settle for a very well written conventional biography :D

Any suggestions??

[Pavlov's House Party]

Though not necessarily a biography of Hannibal, Livy's "The War with Hannibal" is all about the Second Punic War and iirc, has a short bit on his upbringing and such.

It's also a lot more fun to read than more modern (and historically correct) books on the Punic Wars :P

[MarxSchmarx]

I could give it a try. I'm in general really weary of classical authors because in my experience they were writing for a very different audience and so emphasize different details and have a narrative style that you have to be deeply steeped in to read like you would modern popular history books. I appreciate their scholarly value tho.

[communard71]

Actually its a great read, even for ancient authors. Still, theres a million little inacuracies, mostly concerning the numerous speeches made to the troops before battles etc. As to a Marxist historian who deals with ancient history, I would love to find one myself. I can only find leftist authors who deal with relatively modern history such as Chris Harman, Madison Smart Bell, Robin Blackburn and Mark Steel. This is of course, far from an exhaustive list. If you find an author who does deal with pre-16th century history, I'd love to know.:)

[Foxy]

Amazon has lots of interesting books on Hannibal Barca. You can read excerpts from them on line. Not much class struggle in this topic however. For class struggle try books about Spartacus. There are several good ones out.

[Os Cangaceiros]

If you're interested in Hannibal's military career, I'd recommend Theodore Dodge's The Great Captains (the other "great captains" being Alexander the Great, Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick the Great and Napoleon). The account of the Battle of Cannae is pretty incredible.

But that's not what you're looking for at all probably, lol.

[manic expression]

Get Theodore Aryault Dodge's book on Hannibal...it's unparalleled in terms of a military history (as Explosive Situation noted) and explores the life of the man as well. If you ask me, after reading Dodge's study you'll know everything you need to know about the subject.

The thing is we don't know all that much about Hannibal's life, we have virtually no written records or accounts from Carthaginian sources. Livy was a Roman writer who, although he was a pretty good historian, did let the politics of the day influence his view of things. Plus, Livy gets 99% of his actual history from Polybius, so you might as well read Polybius IMO (I have no idea how accessible his writings are, though).

A new book on the Second Punic War just came out, and it focuses mostly on Cannae and the main players, it's by Robert O'Connell if you want to check it out. But just so you know, I think O'Connell gets the significance of Cannae completely wrong (I heard his views on it in an interview). Hannibal defeated the Roman army but he had no means with which to besiege Rome effectively. Dodge makes a very persuasive case that Hannibal's refusal to march on Rome after Cannae stands as a sign of his genius...a Carthaginian siege on Rome would have been a veritable death trap for Hannibal's entire army.

[Reznov]

...

[Reznov]

Also if there is anything from a leftist historian that looks at the Punic Wars from a class struggle perspective



It is a little known fact that Hannibal was a homosexual who collected the rings to try to fit on his penis. He also fought for global revolution of the working class. He was a Marxist-Stalinist. He also liked Green Eggs and Ham.

Your welcome.