Having taken the long road through my last textual encounter, the scenic route one might call it, the speed with which I devoured my current endeavor, The Ghosts of Cannae by Robert L. O’Connell, is quite surprising; to myself if not to others. A scant five days of reading – which would perhaps be better measured in hours for I spent perhaps no more than ten at it’s mercy.
The Ghost’s of Cannae is, without question or reservation, one of the best books on military history that I have had the pleasure to read. This may be, in part, to having recently read B.H. Liddell-Hart’s work on Scipio Africanus which covered much of the same ground (both in the battles and the general philosophy.) But, whereas BHLH was perhaps more the military scholar O’Connell’s writing was eminently more readable and accessible to the layman.
BHLH, in his book on Scipio, made it clear that the type of general that Scipio had become paved the way for Julius Caesar and the eventual downfall of the Roman republic. O’Connell takes a similar view in his work but goes a step further and places the blame squarely on the shoulders of Hannibal illustrating how the Carthaginian general’s ability to outwit his opponents and avoid defeat necessitated the creation of a Roman general to equal him – a professional soldier. Further, O’Connell illustrates how the senate’s refusal to care for the vanquished soldiers of Cannae (and other battles as well) led to the eventual reliance of soldiers on their commander rather than the state when it came time to put down the sword. This made soldiers loyal not to Rome, but to their generals and paved the way for the destruction of the republic:
(concerning the survivors of Cannae, the Cannenses) “No longer needed, the Canenses would now get what they deserved, at least in the eyes of the senate. Taxes had been doubled so that all soldiers could be paid in cash immediately, except for those who’d fought at Cannae. They got nothing. But this was secondary compared to being shipped to Sicily. Here they would stay until 204, removed from their families and their livelihood, effectively banished. It was a terrible punishment, inflicted upon them because they were seen as having broken an oath never before required, which had made them, technically at least, deserters. Rome had lost a great battle and needed a scapegoat. Rather than blame the strategists and commanders who had planned it, the powers that be turned on the survivors. The logic, the same as for decimation (“pour encourager les autres”), might have made sense at the time. But these ghosts of Cannae would live to haunt the republic. For one day, legionaries would look to their generals and not Rome for a future, and that perspective would spell civil war and absolute rule. This more than anything else was the battle’s legacy.”
The battle at Zuma, in which Scipio defeated Hannibal, was quite the encounter and although BHLH described the battle in his work on Scipio O’Connell, in my opinion, handles the reality of the situation more completely. As the battle began the Roman and Carthaginian lines drew up opposite each other. On the wings of each army the cavalry (and Hannibal’s elephants) had there own engagement and were removed, for a time, from the battle leaving nothing but foot soldiers facing each other; the Carthaginians and these ghosts of Cannae:
“If fate were a dramatist, there could not have been a better place for an intermission. The issue had been reduced to a fight of soldiers, not generals. The supreme rematch was at hand; after fourteen long years, the ghosts of Cannae would meet their vanquishers again in mortal combat. When they were ready, the Romans marched directly at the Carthaginians and the fight began. As far as we know there were no military sleights of hand, no feints, no hidden reserves, no centers extended or withheld. It was to be a straight-up clash between two supremely experienced hosts of murderously inclined experts with sharp instruments. Polybius (15.14.6) reports, “As they were nearly equal in numbers as well as in spirit and bravery, and were equally well armed, the contest was for long doubtful, the men falling where they stood out of determination.”
Scipio’s cavalry returned from chasing the Carthaginian cavalry and, in so doing, turned the tide in favor of Scipio and Rome. Of course you’ll have to read the book to find out the outcome of the generals but I assure you, it is worth the read.
I am, as I said previously, also reading the Koran. Mainly a few pages here and there each day. Definitely an interesting read as some of the stories are variations of Jewish and Christian tales from the Bible (the Christian Old Testament being the Jewish Tanakh), with which I am more intimately familiar.
For my next book I have chosen Finance: The Basics, by Erik Banks. Obviously this is another non-fiction book and I am, a bit, feeling the need to switch back over to fiction. That said, I’ve been rather enjoying the non-fiction works and am (perhaps sadistically) looking forward to more of them.
And that is all, until next we meet here…
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