Cannae: Hannibal's Greatest Victory

This is a colorful and succinct account of perhaps the greatest single military debacle prior to the First World War. There is enough context provided before and in summary, to place this 2nd Punic War battle of Cannae within the important development of Western Civilization.Far from dry, this fast reading battle history, provides ancient classical military color and detail among participants, Republican Rome, its "allies" as well as Carthage and its polyglot army.Adrian Goldsworthy acknowledges the primary sources and identifies the sometimes questionable objectivity of same. The author is honest in identifying the conjectural, sometimes posing as fact, yet inserts academic plausibility where needed.This battle history includes useful maps, footnotes and appendixes as well as useful glossary. Adrian Goldsworthy remains one of the foremost among a rich bevy of classical world military historians.. worthy of any shelf.

I am fast falling in love with all of his work, but this is one of my favourites because of the sheer wealth of information about so many details of the battle. If you loved “Ghosts of Cannae,” then this is a great companion to your collection. It sheds light into the tactics and mechanics of the battle that cost Rome so dearly, and dispells many Hollywood-inspired misconceptions about ancient warfare.

Goldsworthy provides a technical commentary on the Cannae battle. Patrick Hunt’s and Richard Gabriel’s accounts of Hannibal are suggested accompanying volumes. It does get meticulous, however, with good writing, Goldsworthy does not let things get bogged down.

Wonderful account of one of history’s most important battles. Highly recommended.

Awesome!!! The author has updated his research into the battle and the color maps of different positions during the beginning of the battle has really helped make this author the absolute expert on this era in world history. If you're even remotely interested in this period, you MUST have this book!!!

This is the battle. The big one. Rome versus Hannibal. Outnumbered and outmatched he still manages to not only win but inflict a crippling defeat, obliterating the Roman army. And with this book you can find out why. Well researched and well presented, this book will show you as clearly as possible how it happened. The book is filled with useful diagrams and maps to help show the position of the forces at every stage in the battle. This isn't a campaign book where most of the text is occupied with the events leading up to the battle, most of the lead up is rushed through pretty quick to get to the fighting.

I recently added this book to my Roman/Hannibal collection, I did find it informative and well written, although for my money and in my opinion the best two books on the subject in my collection to date are The Ghosts of Cannae by Robert L. O'Connell, and Hannibal: One Man against Rome by Harold Lamb.

Cannae: Hannibal's Greatest Victory (Phoenix Press)  isn't a full-blown history of Cannae and the Second Punic War. Rather, it is history done in a coffee-table book style. The book has dozens of pictures and great maps of the battlefield. The text is a bit dry, but very detailed. I wouldn't recommend this for newcomers to Roman history - Goldsworthy doesn't provide enough historical context for his readers (I might suggest Robert O'Connell's  The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic  for a more general history). Rather, this book is really for readers who want to get into the details of the battle and some nice photos to help bring the history alive.

I'm not sure how many of Goldsworthy's texts I own now, but it's at least 7 or 8. He's one of the preeminent Roman scholars about, and usefully, he's very good at writing about the Romans too. I've had this book for about 3 years, but only got around to reading it now, because it's now that I am writing about the battle of Cannae in my series of novels about the Second Punic War.The first 80 or so pages of the book fleshes out details of the history that led to this battle, and provides succinct accounts of the mid-Roman Republic, Carthage, and the armies of both civilisations. We're told about Hannibal and the Roman leaders he faced, the controversies surrounding the exact location of the battlefield, and then the juicy details of the battle. What I like about Goldsworthy is that where ever there is doubt about a detail or a moment in the battle, he says so, and then explains how and why he agrees or disagrees with it. Not all academics are this transparent, which leads to some readers making incorrect assumptions about what has been said.There are plenty of good maps and diagrams of the battle, and a decent bibliography as well. In my opinion, this is an indispensable text for those who are interested in one of the bloodiest one day battles of all time. It's also very useful to have if wandering about the site of Canne della Battaglia, in Puglia, Italy, because it makes the site come alive. Five solid stars out of five.Ben Kane, author of Hannibal: Enemy of Rome.

A most remarkable account of the Cannae Battle, but also about the facts that eventually led to it. You get a good overview of the First and Second Punic Wars and a masterly detailed description of the battle with many geographical, strategical and tactical considerations that slowly lead the writer to discover what might have happened more than 2.000 years ago in one of the most brutal and spectacular military conflicts human history has witnessed. At your disposal you will also find superb easy to follow colored maps showing how the battle developed. Roman and Carthaginian societies and especially their military machinery are also considered in this great book.Very professionally written but easy to read at the same time, it has been a delight from the first to the last page.

I have a friend who has a copy of this book, however it is a larger coffee table book with colour pictures etc. This is a small novella-style book, with black and white diagrams and pictures. The book itself was still very enjoyable and Adrian Goldsworthy's writing and critical knowledge of the subject is excellent as always.

Cannae by Adrian Goldsworthy is a fantastic analysis of Hannibal's famous victory over Rome. The build up, the battle itself and the aftermath are all examined. This is a great companion to Adrian Goldsworthy's book The Fall of Carthage.

Yes as not a new product it wasn't in that bad condition other than the corner of the front cover which was bent over all in all not bad.