The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic
Written by Robert L. O'Connell
Narrated by Alan Sklar
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Robert L. O'Connell
Robert L. O'Connell received a PhD in history at the University of Virginia and spent three decades as a senior analyst at the National Ground Intelligence Center, followed by fourteen years as a visiting professor at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is the author of numerous books, two of which, The Ghosts of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic and Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman, were national bestsellers, the latter winning the 2015 William H. Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography. He lives with his wife, Benjie, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Related to The Ghosts of Cannae
Related audiobooks
The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146BC Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hannibal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the Genius of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pax Romana: War, Peace, and Conquest in the Roman World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gladius: The World of the Roman Soldier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWar with Hannibal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tacitus' Histories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Empire: Attila the Hun & the Fall of Rome Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHannibal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sulla: The Controversial Life and Legacy of the Roman Dictator Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Napoleonic Wars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scipio Africanus: The Life and Legacy of the Roman General Who Defeated Hannibal during the Second Punic War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emperor Charlemagne Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803-1815 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamilcar Barca: The Life and Legacy of the Legendary Carthaginian General Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Napoleon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Students' Roman Empire part 1, A History of the Roman Empire from Its Foundation to the Death of Marcus Aurelius (27 B.C.-180 A.D.) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fall of Rome: The History and Legacy of the Western Roman Empire’s Collapse in the 5th Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alaric the Goth: An Outsider's History of the Fall of Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Julius Caesar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trojan War: A New History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scipio Africanus: Greater Than Napoleon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
European History For You
The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Teutonic Knights: A Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whose Middle Ages?: Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Ghosts of Cannae
15 ratings9 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5bookshelves: history, ancient-history, roman-civilisation, winter-20132014, under-1000-ratings, tbr-busting-2014, war, tunisia, published-2010, newtome-author, italy, fraudioRead from October 20, 2013 to January 19, 2014Blurberoonies: Other battles are perhaps just as famous as Thermopylae, Waterloo, Gettysburg, but the aura of Cannae, where Hannibal obliterated the largest army the Roman Republic had ever put into the field, is unmatched. The battle is unparalleled for its carnage, with more men from a single army killed on that one day, Aug. 2, 216 B.C., than on any other day on any other European battlefield: something like 50,000 Romans died, two and a half times the number of British soldiers who fell on the first day of the Somme.Pure Military History, so this is a tacticians wet dream. The strategies on display at Cannae have been emulated down the ages.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I loved all the jabs the author took on the usefulness of elephants in battle.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outstanding military history—the geopolitical context and strategy and the actual experience of march and battle. Theme: An unsupported, family army that won most of the battles, except for the last one, versus a citizen army, that won the war.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Threading a careful line between academic battles the author gives a modern take on the Battle of Cannae. The initial chapters detailing the Roman and Carthaginian republics can be a bit of a slog but are essential to understanding what follows. Once into Hannibal’s campaign as the story progresses more rapidly, with clarity and dry humour, it is a pleasure to read. Whilst mentioning the controversies regarding the route through the Alps, the battle itself and its aftermath, the author consciously or not has appeared to follow the principle of "inherent military probability" propounded by Alfred H Burne. All in all a very approachable and enjoyable study of an ancient battle that rightly or wrongly has obsessed military minds for centuries.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's too long
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghosts of Cannae details Rome and Hannibal's battle of Cannae, August 2nd, 216 BCE, and the rest of the Second Punic War. This war was brought upon by Hannibal Barca's child-hood desire to watch Rome burn, passed down from his father's personal vendetta. Many are familiar with Hannibal - the Anti-Roman - and his exploits during the Second Punic War - specifically (and most amazingly) marching an army, with elephants, over the Alps to attack Rome. So strong was his strategy and army, even though numerically out-classed, that he spent nearly 16 years on Italian soil without any major defeat. The Second Punic War can be considered "the first world war", in that it had players from Africa, Spain, Italy, Asia Minor and practically any place around the Mediterranean. Most intriguing, the only losses to Rome were on Italian soil; throughout the Roman army's time in Spain, Sicily, Sardinia and Africa, they had no problem fighting the Carthaginians. The reason is simple: Hannibal. Robert O'Connell's book is laid out very simply, with the first few chapters dedicated to leading up to and explaining the major players of the war - Rome and Hannibal/Carthage. The remainder of the book details the Battle of Cannae and its repercussions, how the war dwindled down and ended, and how Hannibal's actions lead to the eventual downfall of the Roman Republic. O'Connell bases the title and ending of the book on the "legiones Cannenses" - the unfairly exiled "Ghosts of Cannae", and how they were able to redeem themselves. The final parts of the book include O'Connell's thoughts on modern scholars' views of the war, as well as the military significance of the battle. Interestingly, the Battle of Cannae has almost been non-existent throughout history until the early 20th century. O'Connell offers great insight into and a very readable account of the Second Punic War. His writing his fluid and moves very quickly. Rather than a reference book for the War, The Ghosts of Cannae offers the reader a fast-paced general overview of the Second Punic War, with the emphasis on the Battle of Cannae. O'Connell also makes a point to analyze and explain how some of the sources must be read against the grain - specifically Livy. This offers the budding, new or part-time historian a glimpse into how and why historians critically analyze documents. For those that have read histories of the period from Goldsworthy, Daly, Lancel, or Lazenby, much of the information seems to be re-hashed and re-compiled, and may seem repetitive. For those who have not read the previous scholars, this is a very interesting read about some of the most interesting characters in Roman history.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book tells the story of Hannibal's life and of the second Punic War. It is sprightily written and the research evideneced is impressive. Cannae was fought 2 Aug 216 B.C. The events leading up to it are given in detail and I thought some of the account was dry, except for the crossing of the Alps. The time after Cannae is somewhat doleful for a guy like me who as a youth always was "for" Hannibal, I suppose because his side was the "underdog" and Hannibal is an impressive character.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An entertaining popular study of the wars between Carthage and Rome, with particular emphasis on the impact of the great Carthaginian leader Hannibal. While I detect no real problems with the book, the fact is that O'Connell leans heavily on the work of Adrian Goldsworthy and J.F. Lazenby, so if you have already read their studies of the Punic Wars you'll probably find O'Connell a bit redundant.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As an avid fan of Republican Roman history, I've read various accounts of Hannibal and the 2nd Punic War (including its most famous battle, Cannae). As such, I was hesitant to embark on another book on the subject. Fortunately, I did so.Despite its title, the book covers far more ground than simply the "ghosts" of the famous battle, i.e., the surviving Roman legionnaires. With great style and clarity, the author describes both the pertinent history of both Rome and Carthage, as well as the major developments, personalities and battles throughout the 17 year campaign and beyond.If there is one book you want to read on this period, The Ghosts of Cannae is it. Highly recommended.