Just because *he* can't think of a reason why Scipio should do XYZ doesn't mean it was a mistake. However, because this is a logical exercise, sometimes Gabriel makes judgments about the actions of Scipio or Hannibal which I don't think are well-founded. Just scattered accounts from the victors and almost nothing from the losers. His control of the information is fluid and concise and it admits what we so often do not admit in history.we do not really know much about what happened. telling the story of Sciopio.īecause of this, while things are chronological, Gabriel doesn't mind moving backward or forward while trying to guess what logically happened and why.Īn interesting exercise, by someone who obviously knows a lot about the subject. Definitely Gabriel expects that you know the story, probably you've read the account by Livy and perhaps even Polybius, because he spends more time analyzing what has been said, what we think we know, vs. I think there's a lot of interesting stuff here. The result is a rich, detailed, and contextual treatment of the life and career of Scipio Africanus, one of Rome’s greatest generals, if not the greatest of them all. His book offers a complete bibliography of all extant sources regarding Scipio’s life. Gabriel draws upon ancient texts, including those from Livy, Polybius, Diodorus, Silius Italicus, and others, as primary sources and examines all additional material available to the modern scholar in French, German, English, and Italian.

The Roman imperium was being born, and it was Scipio who had sired it. And yet, paradoxically, Scipio’s victories in Spain and Africa enabled Rome to consolidate its hold over Italy and become the dominant power in the western Mediterranean, virtually ensuring a later confrontation with the Greco-Macedonian kingdoms to the east as well as the empire’s expansion into North Africa and the Levant. Before Scipio, few Romans would have dreamed of empire, and Scipio himself would have regarded such an ambition as a danger to his beloved republic. Gabriel establishes Scipio’s rightful place in military history as the greater of the two generals. In this scholarly and heretofore unmatched military biography of the distinguished Roman soldier, Richard A. Today scholars celebrate the importance of Hannibal, even though Scipio defeated the legendary general in the Second Punic War and was the central military figure of his time. Scipio Africanus, surely the greatest general that Rome produced, suffered both these fates. The world often misunderstands its greatest men while neglecting others entirely.

Scipio Africanus by Richard A. Gabriel