Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Carthage:
For the Rome haters.
Quick synopsis:
The story of ancient Carthage.
Fact for Non-History People:
Carthage had 37 km of massive defensive walls.
Fact for History Nerds:
Carthage created an artificial harbor which could hold 220 warships.
My Take on Carthage:
I am notorious (if anyone cared that is) for liking ancient history the least of all time periods. I find the inability to tell cohesive stories for many ancient people to be a big drawback to my feeble brain. Then, there is a book like Carthage by Eve MacDonald, and I finally get it. For this particular book, at least.
MacDonald tells the story of the world power that Rome tried to erase from history. The major points are here like the Punic Wars and the scourge of Rome, Hannibal. Incidentally, these are the strongest points of the book. MacDonald weaves in archaeology, but I personally loved her willingness to say numerous times, “We really don’t know what happened,” and especially, “this was definitely exaggerated because that’s what they did back then.” MacDonald’s writing style is familiar while being erudite (yes, I did have to google to double check that was the word I was going for as clearly I am not erudite myself) – (ironic self-burn!).
As I am a curmudgeon, I did have a little trouble with the early chapters. The opening salvo about Dido is quite good, but slows down a bit for me before picking up before the Punic Wars. That said, this is not my era. If you are an ancient history nerd, then I am almost positive this is a 5 star book. If you are like me, this is still well worth your time. You may even change your mind about ancient history books.
(This book was provided as an advance reader copy by NetGalley and W.W. Norton.)
Verdict:
Perfect for an ancient history nerd. Buy it here!
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