Richard Gabriel is a military historian and his strength lies in his thorough understanding of military history, strategy, tactics and logistics. In Scipio Africanus Gabriel thoroughly analyses Scipio’s military campaigns in Spain and Africa and gets into details that will fascinate students of military history. For example he shows that, based on logistics it would […]
Book Review: Total War. Destroy Carthage by David Gibbons
October 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I knew I was in trouble when I read the dramatis personae of this book and found that Scipio Aemilianus was married to a fictional person named Claudia Pulchra (or Pulchradina, as the author puts it.) It is well known that Scipio Aemilianus was married to Sempronia Graccha, the daughter of Cornelia the Mother of […]
Whatever Happened to Hannibal’s Elephants?
October 2, 2013 By 5 Comments
In ancient times there was widespread use of elephants in warfare. The first use of elephants in military campaigns probably occurred in India sometime during the first millennium B.C. The practice eventually spread eastward to Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, and westward to Greece and North Africa. In 326 B.C. Alexander the Great invaded India, […]
Book Review: Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
July 23, 2013 By 1 Comment
Reza Aslan is from a moderate Islamic family who fled Iran after the overthrow of the Shaw. He converted to Christianity at the age of fifteen. Is he still a Christian? He says “The bedrock of evangelical Christianity, at least as it was taught to me, is the unconditional belief that every word of the […]
Book Review: Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray
July 16, 2013 By 2 Comments
Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray is an intriguing look at one of history’s most enigmatic characters, Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra VII Philopator of Egypt and Marc Anthony. Cleopatra Selene may have been the only one of Cleopatra’s four children to survive into adulthood. Born along with a twin brother, Alexander Helios […]
Book Review: Hannibal: A History of the Art of War by Theodore Ayrault Dodge
July 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Theodore Ayrault Dodge was a military historian who was born in 1842 and died in 1909. He fought as a Union officer in the American Civil War and wrote a number of biographies of history’s most famous generals, including Alexander the Great, Hannibal Barca, Julius Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. In […]
What Shakespeare Owes to Plautus
June 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Last Friday I was walking through New York’s Central Park on my way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I passed the Delacorte Theater. There was a long line of people there and I inquired as to why they were standing there. They told me that the theater was giving out free tickets to […]
Quotes of the day: On War.
May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment
“In nothing less than war do events correspond to men’s calculation. Everything is at your disposal when adjusting a peace, but in battle you must be content with the fortune the gods shall impose upon you.”-Livy, attributed to Hannibal “An unjust peace is better than a just war.”-Cicero “In peace sons bury their fathers. In […]
Quotes of the Day
May 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
“Others may fashion more smoothly images of bronze (I for one believe it), evoke living faces from marble, plead causes better, trace with a wand the wanderings of the heavens and foretell the rising of stars. But you, Roman, remember to rule the peoples with power (these will be your arts); impose the habit of […]
Book Review: Caesar’s Ambassador by Alex Johnston
I loved this book. Historical fiction as comedy. A belly laugh on every page. Caesar’s Ambassador is narrated by Marcus Mettius, who serves as ambassador along with Gaius Valerius Troucillus to the German chieftain Ariovistus. “I don’t know why you’re so worried, Marcus. Everybody knows that harassing ambassadors is against the rules. Anyway we treated […]