[RedStateRocker]

Thanks! Most interesting.

[blueunicorn6]

“He has this bulge at the first part of the battle.

That’s why they called it The Pubic Wars.

[Tax-chick]

Accounting comes first, thousands of years of people scratching in ledgers.

"The earliest written records" have been pushed back in time since I was a college student in the 80s ... but they're still public-works accounting records.

Narrative can be "live" in a highly successful society, but inventory has to be concrete.

[sphinx]

The Roman army of the Second Punic War was still a citizen militia. Hannibal's troops were largely mercenaries, and therefore professional. Edge to Hannibal. The Roman army would become professionalized over the next century, but it's important not to project the legions of the late Republic and the heyday of the Empire back into the earlier period.

The real Roman genius lay in their ability to transform defeated neighbors into allies and eventually citizens. And of course, the Romans simply refused to accept defeat. No matter how many of them you killed, they just organized new legions and came at you again.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Any fool can win a battle (especially in ancient times) with more money (just like Hannibal).

Once he was cut off by his own gov’t that spelled the end for him.

Cortez conquered an entire empire with less than 400 soldiers. Not politically correct to talk about an Indian killer though these days.

[LadyDoc]

he was a great general, but forgot about logistics.

So Scipio Africanus thougth outside the box, and cut off his supplies by invading Spain.

So Scipio Africanus is actually the better general.