HANNIBAL by BradFord, Ernle

New York, 1991, Dorset, reprint of 1981 edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, FINE/FINE CONDITION, 223 pages, maps, bibliog, index---------------------------------------------------- From Hannibal: "Hannibal had long known what his fate would be if the Romans ever laid hands upon him. He had taken an army right through Spain and into what is now France, crossed the Rhine, traversed the Alps at a time of year when no one believed it possible, and invaded Italy. For fifteen years he had used Italy as his battlefield and his home, destroying Roman armies with almost contemptuous ease. Hearing now from his servants that his house was surrounded by soldiers, he is said to have remarked "it is now time to end the anxiety of the Romans. Clearly they are no longer able to wait for the death of an old man who has caused them so much concern!"Even to this day Hannibal stands as one of the greatest generals in the history of warfare. For centuries after his death Roman mothers would frighten their children into behaving by telling them: "Hannibal is at the gates!" His battlefield tactics are studied in military academies all over the world. Ernie Bradford, author of The Great Betrayal, Drake, The Wind Commands Me and many other works of history has here given us the biography of Hannibal the soldier, general, statesman and private individual. Hannibal explores the strategies of his greatest battles (at Cannae his army killed 45,000 Romans in a single afternoon and very nearly brought the Roman Empire to its knees) but at the same time reveals how his personal charisma and leadership ability enabled him to assemble and direct a polyglot, multiracial army and then hold it together for fifteen years in enemy territory. And finally, Hannibal shows how the great general's presence is still felt in every land that touches the Mediterranean Sea.