Hannibal

The great Carthaginian hated ancient Rome. Having brought elephants over the Alps, broken the fabled legions, and reached the gates of Rome, Hannibal Barca vies with Robert E. Lee for the title of the most brilliant general ever to lose a war. "There is so much blood. Blood and hate," Hannibal writes in this, his novel. And this was gore before there were special effects. Right away somebody has his nose cut off. Leckie has reached back over 2,000 years and brought the brutality of those times vividly to life. Matthews has a fine, erudite voice and reads with force and feeling. B.H.C. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine


Toward the end of the third century B.C. a young North African general embarked on a bold challenge to the emerging Roman Empire. His name was Hannibal. Although he failed, the calamitous echoes of that war reverberate to our day. Bradford captures the seventeen-year drama of the Second Punic War, the Hannibalic War, Hannibal's military genius and political failure. Jones's reading is slow, thoughtfully paced, and expressive, mixing qualities of an actor with those of a fine lecturer. Because military campaigns don't easily lend themselves to listening, however, study some early maps first. P.E.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine