It is said that the historian tells you what happened, and the historical novelist tells you what it felt like. Kevin Hardy, in his book The Scipios in Spain seeks to do both!
Several times he asks the reader to imagine what it was like to be a velite or a hastatus in the midst of a battle.
Hardy writes from the point of view of a teacher who is passionate about his subject. He wants to enlighten his reader on the events leading to and occurring within the Second Punic War while making the subject compelling and entertaining. Personally, I applaud his efforts because I share the same passion and have found that the level of common knowledge about the events of the Second Punic War is abysmal. While Americans have some knowledge of the era of Julius Caesar and the early Principate, they have little or none concerning the Punic War era. When I would tell people I was writing a novel about the Second Punic War I would get a blank look. Then I would say, the war between Rome and Carthage, Hannibal versus Scipio. Then their eyes would light up and they would say “Hannibal! I’ve heard of him. Didn’t he cross the Alps with elephants?” And that would be all they knew about it. There was a major Hollywood movie about Hannibal made in 1961, and, I believe another one is in the works (with Denzel Washington as Hannibal) but there has never been a Hollywood production about Scipio, and he is one of the most significant and compelling figures in western history.
Much of the book goes into the origins of Rome and the history leading up to the Second Punic War. Hardy mentions a number of anecdotes including one of my favorites, where during the First Punic War the Consul Publius Claudius Pulcher is about to face a Carthaginian fleet in Battle. He takes the augury with sacred chickens. The chickens refuse to eat the grain set out for them which is a terrible portent. He gets angry and says “If the chickens won’t eat, maybe they’ll drink!” and throws them into the sea. He goes on to lose 90 of his 130 ships!
Hardy also tells you everything you ever wanted to know about Roman military history and the development of their army. Most of his material come from the Greek historian Polybius, some of it by way of the Roman Historian Livy.
In the final part of the book Hardy goes into detail about the Roman campaign in Spain under the elder Scipios, Publius and Gneius and, after their deaths at the Battles of the Baetis River, under the elder Publius’ son Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. This Scipio was pivotal to Rome winning the Second Punic War, and was, in my opinion, the best general the Romans ever produced. Without him the war would have likely ended in a stalemate and Rome would never have become the powerhouse it ultimately did.
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