John Prevas, Hannibal Crosses the Alps: the Invasion of Italy and the Punic Wars, Da Capo Press, Incorporated, 2001 talks about when Hannibal had absconded his Spanish headquarters one spring day in 218 B.C. with his hundred thousand-man armed force, administrators, and elephants, Hannibal was initiating not just the main attacking of the Second Punic War but also one of the grand military journeys in antediluvian history. His masterful spread through rough terrain and fierce Celtic tribes certified his worth as a leader, but it was his remarkable passage through the Alps—still regarded as treacherous even by the today’s climbers—that made him viewed as a legend to date.
John Prevas combines accurate research of ancient sources with his own expedition through the freezing peaks to give to life this awesome long walk, evaluating the centuries-ancient question of Hannibal's precise route and shedding brand new light on the traditions of Rome and Carthage along the journey. Here is the best kind of history that appeals to booklovers of Steven Press field’s Gates of Fire: animate with impressive strategy, the conflicts among empires, tremendous courage, and the gigantic figure of Hannibal Barca.
Just to shed more light to the story, Punic Wars were battled between Rome and Carthage over domination over the Western Mediterranean. Around 264 to241 BC, the first Punic War was battled over control of Sicily and came into an end with Roman victory and the downfall of Carthaginian naval power. The Second Punic War was battled over contradictory spheres of Roman and Carthaginian influence in Spain.
Rome affirmed war on Carthage in 218 BC, and Hannibal got started soon after to attack Italy.
Hannibal was aware that Carthaginian naval power was frail, and that Rome had to be struck as the crow in order to assure decisive victory. Given that, he had no way of battling on the sea, he had to assail overland. Hannibal began his trek with 100,000 men including siege engines, cavalry and, above all 36 war elephants. By the time he arrived at the Pyrenees, the force’s number was about 80,000. In the Pyrenees he overcame the local tribes with substantial losses.
In Italy, Hannibal joined up with anti-Roman cronies in the areas. By the time the army traversed the Po River, the force only had 6,000 men. It was this number who would join with the anti-Roman allies in northern Italy to begin the battle on the Romans.
Hannibal’s passage of the Alps is considered a masterpiece of military approach, but in the crossing they suffered losses of men, plus his war elephants and his siege engines. Devoid of siege engines, Hannibal would not be able to breach the Roman’s defense and trigger surrender. Though he destroyed the Italian countryside for some years and won some vital wars, he was finally defeated by the tricks of Quintus Fabius Maximus, who discovered he could defeat Hannibal by striking his men. He began making Hannibal to fight undersized, costly wars instead of direct battles. These “Fabian” skills are still used today; we identify them as wars of abrasion. The clashes caused Hannibal’s manpower to decrease and finally caused his surrender as he still could not get reinforcements from Carthage.
John Prevas has carried out a good research in this book and should be applauded for giving so much proof to his theory on the trail Hannibal took over the Alps. Nevertheless, he constantly replicates himself many times in the book and this made it so tough to get through. In general, a very persuasive theory of Hannibal’s taking over the Alps. Until a body remains or some other hard physical proof is found that proves without any reasonable doubt where Hannibal really crossed the Alps, I will stick to Mr. John Prevas and his theory.
My reaction on this book is; I think if given a chance to describe the book I would say it is good. It is clear that the author did some rigorous research just to write this study on Hannibal and for this motive I give him four stars. Even though he exhausted too much time on attempting to find the precise path through the Alps, I personally loved it. Given that, I have watched and learned about the geography of the place in various films and documentaries, I have a feeling that it will be of interest to a large number of people. On the other hand, the explanation of the wars in the valleys of the Alps is very exact and an evidence of the writer's serious work. I in Person would prefer the book to be somewhat longer in order to be more exact on the politics but it is alright, I respect the choice of the author. In any case I recommend the book to everyone and especially to those who are in the military school, appreciate history, and to those who are big time fans of history.
Work cited
John Prevas, Hannibal Crosses the Alps: the Invasion of Italy and the Punic Wars, Da Capo Press, Incorporated, 2001.print.
