Scipio Africanus: Rome's Greatest General

The man -- The strategic setting -- The armies -- Scipio's Spanish campaign -- The strategist -- The African campaign -- Scipio and Hannibal -- Triumph and fall -- Scipio's place in military history;Review: "The world often misunderstands its greatest men while neglecting others entirely. Scipio Africanus, surely the greatest general that Rome produced, suffered both these fates. He should be heralded and celebrated today; but he is not. So who is Scipio Africanus?" "He is the man who defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama and won the Second Punic War. He is the man who revolutionized Roman military tactics. He is the man who set Rome on her imperial course and extended Roman power into Spain, Africa, and Asia. And he is the man who, upon returning victorious to Rome - one of few generals who never tasted defeat - turned away from the temptation of personal ambition and retired from public life, preserving the institutions of Roman republicanism." "Yet today he is virtually unknown, overshadowed ironically by Hannibal, a man he defeated. Richard A. Gabriel brings Scipio Africanus front and center with this scholarly and heretofore unmatched military biography of the distinguished Roman soldier. Gabriel draws on ancient texts, including those from Livy, Polybius, Diodorus. Silius Italicus, and others, as primary sources and examines a plethora of additional material available to the modern scholar in French, German, English, and Italian. His book offers a comprehensive bibliography of extant sources regarding Scipio's life."--Jacket