Richard Miles (1) (1969–)

Very decent book on Carthage – a state whose history we largely know in an amount that the victorious Romans considered enough for us to know. The author, Richard Miles, is an authoritative expert in the field of Ancient History, who looks at Carthage’s impressive history from various points of view, striving as much as possible to unrevel true, unblemished face of this Rome’s worthy adversary. Strongly recommend. It reads very ironically at times, and scary too. In particular, the moments about Rome’s attempts to disguise its purely aggressive politics with noble ideas and double standards. Story of the Third Punic War is a real tragedy…… (mais)

I find some nonfiction books difficult to break in to, but once I’m invested I’m usually hooked for the rest of the book. This history of Carthage presented almost the opposite problem for me. Opening the book with the final sack of the city by Roman forces is riveting history and also makes for a great hook in the introduction. I was enthralled from page one. After that however, the author lost me for a bit and didn’t really recapture my full attention until the Punic Wars (even the best non-fiction writers can only make ancient commerce and mercenary contracts just so interesting). That being said, the author does a difficult job (writing the history of ancient civilization based on archeology and almost exclusively hostile primary sources) well and history fans will find everything they’re looking for. I particularly enjoyed Miles’ willingness to tackle historical prejudices that have been passed along as fact; Hannibal crossing the Alps was not as crazy an idea as it may seem, the Romans and Carthaginians were not mortal enemies from their inception, etc.

One final, quibbling point: you could make a party game out of this book by having your guests take a drink every time the author mentions the Heracles/Hercules myths, everyone would be on the floor by the end of the second chapter, but you could do it. I don’t disagree with Richard Miles’ case that the Herculean legends were important in Greek colonization and in Carthage in particular, but the extent to which he revisits this topic over and over again felt…labored.
… (mais)

Dr. Miles has produced a very readable book. It has a relatively new approach to the relationship between Rome, Syracuse and Carthage, the triumvirate of the Central Meditterranean. He also follows the idea that the emphasis that the ancients placed on the provision of temples to their gods has a political slant, that does illuminate some of the mental space that ancient peoples employed to organize their views of the world. Post Rennaissance minds have not found it easy to accommodate this facet of ancient life. There was more parallel and complementary involvement that the simple analysis of Greece and Rome being the best polities expressed in the past allows for. Therefore the title involves a pun, for one of the things to be destroyed is the heavily Hellenistic view of the role of Carthage, and thus a new interpretation of the evolution of the central Medditterranean powers is called for. Bravo!… (mais)