Hannibal

History has it that when Hannibal was a young boy, his father, ruler of Carthage, held his son over a fire and made him swear eternal enmity toward Rome. It was not necessary: The fire already burned in Hannibal's breast. In time, that flame would destroy the flower of the Roman legions. In an almost unbelievable feat of courage and endurance, Hannibal led his army over the Pyrenees and Alps to challenge Rome's hegemony. And he succeeded against astonishing odds. They clashed at last. In the Battle of Cannae, Hannibal's foot soldiers, cavalry, and war elephants enveloped and massacred an army twice the size of his own contingent. In one of the bloodiest battles ever fought in all history, between fifty thousand and seventy thousand of Rome's troops were massacred or captured. Ernle Bradford was born in 1922 and died in 1986. He was a noted British historian specializing in the Mediterranean world and naval topics. Bradford was an enthusiastic sailor himself and spent almost thirty years sailing the Mediterranean, where many of his books are set. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, finishing as the first lieutenant of a destroyer. Bradford lived in Malta for a number of years. He did occasional broadcast work for the BBC, was a magazine editor, and wrote many books, including Hannibal, Paul the Traveller, Julius Caesar: The Pursuit of Power, Christopher Columbus, and The Mighty Hood.