My Top 3 Ancient History Book Suggestions for January 2016

Posted on by The Tactical Hermit

Being a History Geek and Amateur Historian I wanted to share with you guys a few Ancient History books you might like. Although Ancient History is not really something I read a lot, sometimes my Military History research takes me there.-SF

 

Ghost

The Ghost of Cannae: Hannibal and the Darkest Hour of the Roman Republic

NATIONAL BESTSELLER. For millennia, Carthage’s triumph over Rome at Cannae in 216 B.C. has inspired reverence and awe. No general since has matched Hannibal’s most unexpected, innovative, and brutal military victory. Now Robert L. O’Connell, one of the most admired names in military history, tells the whole story of Cannae for the first time, giving us a stirring account of this apocalyptic battle, its causes and consequences.

O’Connell brilliantly conveys how Rome amassed a giant army to punish Carthage’s masterful commander, how Hannibal outwitted enemies that outnumbered him, and how this disastrous pivot point in Rome’s history ultimately led to the republic’s resurgence and the creation of its empire. Piecing together decayed shreds of ancient reportage, the author paints powerful portraits of the leading players, from Hannibal—resolutely sane and uncannily strategic—to Scipio Africanus, the self-promoting Roman military tribune. Finally, O’Connell reveals how Cannae’s legend has inspired and haunted military leaders ever since, and the lessons it teaches for our own wars.

Empires
                                                               Empires of the Sea

In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire, dispatched an invasion fleet to the Christian island of Rhodes. This would prove to be the opening shot in an epic clash between rival empires and faiths for control of the Mediterranean and the center of the world. In Empires of the Sea, acclaimed historian Roger Crowley has written a thrilling account of this brutal decades-long battle between Christendom and Islam for the soul of Europe, a fast-paced tale of spiraling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar. Crowley conjures up a wild cast of pirates, crusaders, and religious warriors struggling for supremacy and survival in a tale of slavery and galley warfare, desperate bravery and utter brutality. Empires of the Sea is a story of extraordinary color and incident, and provides a crucial context for our own clash of civilization

persian

Persian Fire

In the fifth century B.C., a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, incomparably rich in ambition, gold, and men. The terrorist states were Athens and Sparta, eccentric cities in a poor and mountainous backwater: Greece. The story of how their citizens took on the Great King of Persia, and thereby saved not only themselves but Western civilization as well, is as heart-stopping and fateful as any episode in history. Tom Holland’s brilliant study of these critical Persian Wars skillfully examines a conflict of critical importance to both ancient and modern history.

All of the Book Descriptions come from Ancient-Origins

So go Pick Up a Book, Remember, Knowledge is Power!

134 thoughts on “My Top 3 Ancient History Book Suggestions for January 2016”

  2. So you are not only a warrior, but a warrior/poet? OK Let’s test your knowledge:

    1. With out Googling what Shakespeare play is that quote from?

    2. Christopher Walken played in the 1980 movie “Dogs of War”, what famous Spy author wrote the book the movie is based?

  3. I know the answer to question 1 — Julius Caesar!
    Another thing I pride myself on is honesty 😉
    I probably learned about the quote in HS but until I watched the movie “The Postman” with Kevin Costner that I took notice. There is a lot of Shakespeare in the movie.
    I am not familiar with Christopher Walken or the movie – please elaborate.

  4. Very Good 🙂

    I am a movie geek, so forgive me:

    The Chris Walken movie “Dogs of War” is one of the 3 Frederick Forsyth’s books that were made into decent movies, the other 2 being Day of the Jackal and the Odessa File, both of which I highly urge you to see. Although all these movies are dated..they have excellent plot lines and good actors. Odessa File has a very young Jon Voight and Day of the Jackal has a very young Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale. (Lonsdale is an excellent actor who always plays in really good spy or action movies…he was in one of De Niro’s lesser known movies, but one of my favorites, RONIN.)

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