Theodore Ayrault Dodge joined the Infantry as an enlisted soldier in the New York all Volunteer infantry Regiment during the Civil War. He rose to the rank of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel and lost his leg at the Battle of Gettysburg. He had received his military education in Berlin and the University College London and the University of Heidelberg. If you’re a Heinlein “Glory Road” fan, he’s a Heidelberg man. His military carrier did not end with the loss of his leg. He served at the War Department from 1864 and received a commission in the US Army in 1866 retiring as a Major in 1870. He wrote a twelve volume work called “A History of the Art Of War” that discussed generals from Alexander to Napoleon. He wrote a sympathetic opinion of Robert E. Lee and his journals written when he was part of the Army of the Potomac and Gettysburg have been cited by noted historians of his age and ages past. The second of his twelve volume observation of the Art of War discussed Hannibal and, this is that volume.
Dodge is a slave to minutia and detail. He tends to run through the supply train then go back over the roles of each different unit and major player, regardless of how much the overlapped. It is easy to get caught up in the attention to detail here, and I nearly did. Then, strangely, Hannibal began to take shape as a person, a very remarkable person. A boy wizard general like Alexander before him, once given the go-ahead to harass and invade the Roman Empire crossed the Alps and did not return again until many years later. He fought the Romans and their Allies, the Lombards, Gauls and other Germanic tribesmen with his own, very diverse multi-national force from North Africa.
Despite his obsession with minute details, Dodge manages sort through differing reports from the two leading Roman Historians who wrote about Hannibal settling disputed evidence with a very practical warrior’s sense of what’s likely, and unleashed the Romantic Noble Warrior in his heart. One might argue that he blended a romanticized version of Robert E. Lee into his vision of Hannibal and not be far from the truth. One might say that he made up a lot of facts because there is scarce evidence to support any version of Hannibal’s conquests. Well you could say that, but it’s not exactly true.
And of course, all of those arguments, while even possibly valid, will miss the true value of a book like this.
The beauty of Dodge’s work is that it gives those people who write fiction stories, be they fantasy, Science Fiction or historical fiction, a frame that they can use to help imagine a great hero in an impossible situation defying the odds, not for a month or a year, but for more than a decade. Hannibal was the Resistance fighting the Empire in Star Wars. He was “Black Jack Geary” from Jack Campbell’s wonderful “Lost Fleet Series” hopelessly lost behind enemy lines, with no hope of relief battling his way back to safe space. He’s Adamma from Battlestar Galactica 2005, the television series starring Edward James Olmos leading his rag-tag fugitive fleet, seeking a safe haven from the hoards of Cylons chasing them. He’s “Hile Troy” from Stephen R. Donaldson’s “Wounded land” series battling the forces of the Despiser (and one of the few heroes we could like from that series). In Dodge’s Hannibal I can see Robert E. Lee, faced with a choice between duty and the land that he was born and raised in fighting the overpowering union army as much as Sherman disappearing in South Carolina only to reappear in Vicksburg with Ulysses Grant. I can even see Thorgrim the king leading his riders to rescue Minas Tirith at least for one battle’s worth looking like Hannibal, invincible against all Sauron’s might.
And here, is one hero, cut much like those I’ve loved in books, except this one is real taking on the enormous might of the Roman Empire. The best strategy the Roman’s ever came up with was, “if it’s Hannibal, do not engage, don’t’ fight and we can’t get beat,” at least until Scipio Africanus figured out that, with Hannibal in Italy, then there was nobody guarding Carthage. Her is our charismatic leader who holds the alliance together like Captain Ready in the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. Hannibal. Who else is there?
So, one can read this and yawn at the numbers and details of the soldiers. If you don’t like to read about military maneuvers in battles or how Hannibal’s Phalanx would have fared against a properly organized and trained Greek Phalanx, then remember. There is so much more in this book. So much to draw from as inspiration if you’re a writer who dares to write a hero through impossible odds and needs a realistic example of how it all comes together.
And the best tidbit of information, the one thing that I didn’t already know about Hannibal is that he lived as a mercenary general fighting with Judea and other nations in the middle east long after his foray into Italy and died an old man after a long and fruitful life.
It’s worth reading at least once.
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Hannibal: A History of the Art of War among the Carthaginians and Romans Down to the Battle of Pydna, 168 BC, with a Detailed Account of the Second Punic War
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Terrible OCR to Kindle edition
I hate to give this book a single star because the research and presentation was well done. However the Kindle edition is an OCR effort that no one bothered to edit. (See sample in photo.) Rome frequently appears as Pome or Borne. Hut or bnt are often seen for but. Even Scipio gets seen as Soipio or Seipio. There were a couple I never did figure out.If you want to read this book (and I recommend it) spend the extra money to buy a hard copy.
Top reviews from other countries
- Mr Thomas McDonnellReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 14, 2015
Well written and researched
