Carthage's Other Wars: Carthaginian Warfare Outside the 'Punic Wars' Against Rome

by Dexter Hoyos

Carthage was the western Mediterranean’s first superpower, long before Rome, and her military history was powerful, eventful, and chequered even before her ‘Punic Wars’ against Rome. Although characterized in the surviving sources and modern studies as a predominantly mercantile state, Carthage fought many wars, both aggressive and defensive, before and in between the contests with the Roman parvenus. The Greek states of Sicily, above all Syracuse under its tyrants Dionysius the Great and then Agathocles, were her most resolute opponents, but in North Africa itself, in Sardinia, and later on in Spain she won—and sometimes lost—major wars. This is the first full-length study dedicated to these other wars which furthered Carthage’s interests for over half a millennium. The book is based firmly and analytically on the ancient sources, and among many insights is that Carthage, though usually considered a naval power, did more fighting on land than at sea and with more success.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Roman History, Ancient History

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 16, 2019

About the author

Dexter Hoyos is retired Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Sydney, Australia. His many books include, most recently, Hannibal: Rome's Greatest Enemy, The Carthaginians, A Companion to the Punic Wars, Livy: Rome's Italian Wars (with J. C. Yardley), and A Companion to Roman Imperialism.

Reviews

[Tzu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the author's careful study of Livy, Polybius, Justin and Dioderus' work. He made sharp comparisons between all accounts and gathered as much evidence as he could find, also archeological where possible - which is hard in this case.
Writing style was okay. I experienced some difficulty with syntax in the beginning, but got quickly used to it as well.

[Paulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the Carthaginians ever tired of crucifying their failed generals as a punishment, they could perhaps force them to read Carthage's Other Wars and take exhaustive notes collating every event in it with the corresponding entry in Diodorus Siculus, and then trying to find the corresponding individual (invariably named Hanno, Hamilcar, Hasdrubal, Hannibal, or Mago) in a poorly-formatted PDF of Klaus Geus' (German-language, which I do not speak) Prosopographie der literarisch bezeugten Karthager.
Hoyos is an excellent historian, with a keen eye for evaluating primary sources and cutting through multiple conflicting accounts to find the truth. The labor put into a work like this can only be dozens of times more arduous than my small task, which on its own would never be achievable without the lucid accounts of Carthage's history that he has put together over the last twenty years. Improvements could be made to the consistency of cited sources, as claims are often made without any specific source cited, which must then be drug up from Perseus or whatever Web 1.0 site hosts the lesser-known historians that occasionally fill in the gaps of Carthage's history.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent review of the ancient written history of Carthage prior to the Punic Wars with Rome. While lots is missing from this story, much can be inferred in a Hans Delbruck kind of way. The various battles and wars in Sicily take up the bulk of the book, and there is much there to savor.

The most interesting conclusion is that Carthage was not even close to being the naval power most think of. Instead, its history is largely land battles with pre-Hannibal generals being average at best. If you enjoy ancient history, this is a must-read work.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently started reading more books about Roman military history. I began to realize just how much my knowledge of Carthage was attached to Roman history, so when I saw this book, I put it near the top of my reading list.
This is a situation where I don’t know how to rate a book. It was very indepth about Carthage’s many wars in (and for) Sicily, but much less so about the Barcids’ conquests in Spain. This depth of information meant that the writing style was academic, which made it somewhat difficult to read for long periods of time. Through no fault of the author’s, Carthage’s history is full of repeated names, so it is sometimes difficult to follow when several generals have the same name (mostly without titles like “the Great” or suffixes to identify them).
All of this is why I find it difficult to rate. The book contained a lot of information about Carthage before its destruction - culture, military, politics, etc. - so I would rate it higher and recommend it for anyone who wants to understand the Mediterranean around the time of the early Roman Republic. But for the casual reader, I fear that this book would be “a slog” that could cause confusion as much as an increase in understanding.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of which were in Sicily, occasionally with Sicilian Greeks invading Africa.

Sources make it interesting of course. Sometimes we hit on issue that the only writer about this campaign says this -- which is impossible.

But a fair amount can be gleaned, even if we aren't quite sure what offices officials held or how many people were involved in what. (There's even one figure that archeologists think is an underestimate: how many Greeks came to settle in a region depopulated by war.)

Plus interesting tidbits, such as Alexander the Great's threats to Carthage after they took in some refugees from Tyre, a tyrant of Syracuse abdicating to make it a democracy again, which was disasterous because it had civil war, and all the cities it had dominated started having wars again, and more.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working with limited surviving archival information is a challenge. Yet this work succeeds in bringing light to Carthage's less famous non-Roman wars and in so doing shows the strengths and weaknesses both of its civilization and its strategic doctrine. Of course, with Syracuse and company turning Sicily into what in today's terminology we would consider a Forever War, its easy to see the dangers of over-investment in the wrong non-essential location, too.

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good introduction to the other wars that Carthage had encountered. How they handled those and the people and events surrounding it. Great for those who have an interest in Carthage or this time period.

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool.

[Gus Lackner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Precise survey of all known data.