How Did Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Rise to Power

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was born in 236 B.C., the scion of a family that had been influential in Roman politics for over two hundred years. In 218 B.C. his father was elected to Consul. His uncle Gneius had been Consul two years before. That year, Hannibal invaded Italy. The elder Scipio had gone to […]

Was The Third Punic War and the Destruction of Carthage Justified?

I don’t feel that the genocide of Carthage was justified at the time. After the Battle of Zama at which Publius Cornelius Scipio defeated Hannibal, he imposed a treaty on Carthage which imposed a huge indemnity to be paid over a fifty-year period, and limited Carthage’s military activities to Africa and allowed them to make […]

The Punic Wars

There were three Punic wars fought between ancient Rome and Carthage. The first lasted from 263 to 241 B.C. The origins of the First Punic War are rather murky, and it would seem that the Romans and the Carthaginians blundered into it. The catalyst was the city of Messana which had been conquered by an […]

Why Did Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Refuse to be Buried in Rome?

“Ingrata Patria, ne osse quidem habebis”- Ungrateful fatherland, you won’t even have my bones. Scipio Africanus was by far the most effective Roman military figure of the Second Punic War. After his father and uncle were killed in the Battles of the Upper Baetis in 211 B.C., he somehow got himself elected to take their […]

Book Review, Outlander of Rome by Ken Farmer

I would hesitate to recommend this book to serious readers of historical fiction as some of the historical inaccuracies would make one grind one’s teeth, or perhaps explode into paroxysms of laughter. I think, however, that the author knows his history and that the inaccuracies are intentional. He’s putting the reader on, perhaps out of […]

Book Review: Africanus: El Hijo Del Consul

Africanus: Hijo del Consul (Africanus: Son of the Consul) is the first book of a trilogy by Santiago Posteguillo which may well be the most comprehensive account of the Second Punic War and it’s aftermath written in modern times. There is only one slight problema-the book is in Spanish and there is no English translation […]

Maximus, Warts and All

I have just published my new historical novella Maximus, Warts and All, on Kindle and Create Space. Maximus,Warts and All, is the story, told in the first person, of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator, the Roman general who confounded Hannibal’s ambitions during the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. For those who have read […]