Hannibal Barca and the Second Punic War

Hannibal Barca and the Second Punic War reexamines the Second Punic War from the ground up. Instead of retelling set-piece battles, it reconstructs campaigns with numbers orders of battle, losses, and force generation and tests every claim against the primary sources. The result is a clear, evidence-led narrative from Iberia to Italy, Africa, and even Hannibal's post-war campaigning in the eastern Mediterranean.

Two convictions drive the work. First, that Rome's greatest military crisis can only be understood by quantifying the war: how many soldiers fought, where they were lost, and how fast either side could replace them. Second, that our main witness, Polybius brilliant but partisan toward the Scipios - must be read critically, not followed slavishly.

Together, these principles redefine Hannibal not as a tactician without a plan after Cannae, but as a commander who adapted his strategy under relentless numerical pressure.

New analyses shed light on the diffusion of the Macedonian phalanx and the emergence of the cohort legion; the use of reserves; the Battle of Tunis; Hannibal's actual Alpine attrition; new perspectives on Trebia and Cannae, Hannibal's post-Cannae strategy, Scipio Africanus' conquest of Iberia, Rome's two battles against the llergetes; and the Zama campaign from initial preparations to the final clash. Readers receive a testable framework - what probably happened, why, and how the commanders thought - rather than a narrative of inevitability. Hannibal Barca and the Second Punic War is a must-read for historians, serious enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to weigh the evidence themselves.