★★★★★ 4
Excellent Overview of Carthage
Format: Hardcover
293 pages of text/maps/b&w figures; 8 pages of color plates; 15 pages of end notes (mostly citations); 20 page Bibliography; 6 page Primary Bibliography; 2 page Acknowledgements; 8 area maps; 1 battle map [Cannae]. This is a well written history of Carthage. It provides a one source overview of the background and history of the city/empire. As a reasonably well read layperson, I am familiar at an overview level with the Punic Wars, Rome, Alexander, and the Alexandrine successor states and this book packaged Carthaginian information very well while adding interesting information that I hadn't come across before. I was somewhat disappointed (hence the 4 star rather than 5 star rating) that there was a very limited drill down to a lower level of detail, particularly from such a noted author. However, this is probably an unfair criticism given the limited amount of archeological information available and the millennia of effort that has been spent in pigeonholing Carthage according to the desired perceptions. I recommend the book highly as a well written overview of Carthage.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2026
