Robin E. Levin

This is book is not like the tales of Mccullough or Scarrow. It is of a different time and style then either of those. It is told first person from four perspectives and as such it takes some time to adjust to the difference inherent in Ms. Levin's style than tales of warrior heroism one might think is invoked from the title and subject matter.

For it is a tale of the 2nd Punic War and then the 3rd, but seen through the eyes of people who you might expect a different tale from. That it is delivered in hands that are shown to have care and affection with the material means that the tale will educated and lift you up in a time where desolation was to be had by all.

Using the writings of Polybius and others, Ms. Levin reminds us that war at this period was brutal and had brutal side effects. There was no Geneva Convention. Slavery was certainly apart of what one saw and expected in this age. And here Ms. Levin is able to point out the issues that such a practice brings to the world.

We meet characters along the way that help tell us the story, and with the exact wording of what occurred at various times, our historical knowledge is elevated beyond what most novels on the subject would give.

We see the large world of Rome as it changes from a small city-state with allies, to the empire that it rose to become. Conquering its enemies, and sometimes its friends. Treating the vanquished by showing that assimilation of a culture is a means to takeover a kingdom.

With four sets of eyeballs, our narrators, we see several different events come to life across a stage of over 80 years of history during very turbulent times. Ms. Levin has given a gift that is worth the time and effort to read this tome and find out about it with all the bother of one single hero who is unaffected by the changes that do take place. Here we find men with cares and woes that are completely affected and we are made to learn what such would be like if we were caught up in that war-torn world that led us on the path to our own now. This one is for all lovers of history.… (més)