The range and extent of the Peloponnesian War of the fifth century BC has led to it being described as a 'world war' in miniature. Within a narrative framework, this work concentrates on the fighting itself, and examining the way in which both strategy and tactics developed as the conflict spread.

Series Information:
Warfare and History

This is a military history of the two Persian invasions of Greece, the first of which came to grief at Marathon, the second at Salamis and Plataia. The conflicts are largely examined in terms of the fifth century BC, avioding modern conceptions, and from the Persian as well as the Greek point of view. The author believes Herodotus should remain central to any attempt to explain the conflicts, and reassesses his skill and insight as a military historian.

The Hannibalic War was a turning point in the history of the Mediterranean world but, although its perennial fascination has led to the publication of an ever-increasing number of learned studies, there has been no scholarly account in English solely devoted to the war itself since Arnold's The Second Punic War published in 1886. The present work attempts to gather together fruit of research in many detailed fields, and in particular, by an analysis of the ancient sources, to ascertain what actually happened in those momentous eighteen years during which the struggle for the mastery of the Mediterranean was fought out in Italy, France, Spain, Greece and North Africa in a sense the first world war in history.

Hannibal is acknowledged as one of history's greatest generals, and his crossing of the Alps--complete with elephants--to make war against Rome on its home soil is legendary. But even Hannibal met his match in Scipio, and ultimately Carthage was defeated by the rising power of Rome. In Hannibal's War, J. F. Lazenby provides the first scholarly account in English since 1886 solely devoted to the Second Punic War, which some have called the first "world war" for mastery of the Mediterranean world. By closely examining the accounts of Livy and Polybius, supplemented with the fruits of modern research, Lazenby provides a detailed military history of the entire war as it was fought in Italy, Spain, Greece, and North Africa. This edition includes a new preface covering recent research on Hannibal's war against Rome.